Thinking
Read about my experiences and opinions about research
The importance of the research brief
One worrying trend I have noticed in research over the past few years is the lack of a research brief. This important element of the research...
What makes a great discovery?
'Discovery', 'Understand', 'Explore' – the different organisations I work with refer to this stage of research using different terms, but it’s the...
Diary studies using WhatsApp
I’ve recently used WhatsApp to capture user behaviour that led to some unexpected outcomes for the client and the research participants… When you...
The many forms of user testing
‘User testing’ can apply to a product at any point in its lifecycle and can be tackled in a number of ways. When I am asked to run user testing, I...
Research without users: The Cognitive Walkthrough
As an experienced UX researcher, send me a user research brief and I will quickly determine the right research methodology to use. Usually this will...
‘Together’ can deliver a powerful focus group experience
Microsoft Teams has quietly gained a foothold in businesses as a reliable tool for video calling with colleagues, but it has amazing potential for...
When can face to face user testing recommence in the UK?
Many research agencies and practitioners are heavily reliant on remote forms of user testing whilst the UK is in lockdown. There are advantages and...
How research is affected by a Covid 19 mindset
The worldwide pandemic we find ourselves in doesn’t mean research needs to stop; it needs to adjust to reach people remotely. But even so, when...
When to use group user testing
The idea of ‘group’ user testing goes against everything that user testing is designed to do, but research techniques should be adapted to the needs...
Jobs To Be Done
Jobs to be Done has been growing in appeal in recent times. It is a functional and rigorous approach to generating innovation opportunities that...
Ethnographic data collection in the digital era
A great deal of human interactions with brands now take place digitally - so how can organisations stay up to date with thier customers lifestyles?...
Incorporating research into Agile product development
The UX research discipline has been running in parallel with the qualitative and quantitative industry for many years, but it has done so in a...
‘Wearables gain ground with UK consumers’
Our work on tracking the Wearables' category has recently been featured by the World Advertising Research Center on their blog and in depth in the...
Key trends in consumer adoption of Wearable Technology
The latest wave of results from our Wearable Technology Tracker reveal some surprising trends. Here are the headline findings from the November '15...
Why mobile first is an important strategy for every B2C brand
Mobile first means creating a digital strategy that assumes consumers will be primarily using a smartphone to interact with brands. The concept has...
Segmenting the Wearables market
In this post, Neil discusses our approach to segmentation and how we have applied it to our proprietary research looking at the Wearable Technolgy...