user experience research!is there an academic – practitioner divide?

Michael Carvin Chair, PhillyCHI

Michael Zarro"PhD Student, Drexel University

no *

* it depends

agenda •  research •  artificial world •  perception •  the reality

research is…

basic

“widen the understanding of the phenomena of a scientific field”

applied

“directed toward some individual or group or societal need or use”

http://www.flickr.com/photos/undertow851/5804642145 http://www.flickr.com/photos/saturdave/504020933

- Donald E. Stokes, 1997

linear view

basic applied development production

academic? practitioner?

Photo credit: flickr user u2005.com

I used to write, I used to write letters I used to sign my name!

- The Arcade Fire

If I could have it back All the time that we wasted I'd only waste it again

sciences of the artificial - Herb Simon

applied is the new basic

“reverse flow, from technology to science” “more and more science has become technology derived”

- Donald E. Stokes, 1997

research technology

heard of the google?

The anatomy of a large-scale hypertextual Web search engine

Citation map from ISI Web of Science

we share…

a desire to affect change - requires trust & expertise

you are here

Academics Practitioners

the perception problem

•  not easy to find

•  it’s not sexy

•  it’s dense

•  it might not even be what I’m looking for

not hard to see why

the reality

•  academic research really is fairly easy to find

•  it isn’t as dense as you’d think

•  it might not speak directly to your project, but it might be close enough

•  no, it really isn’t sexy.

existing secondary research sources

•  Pew Internet/American Life

•  Government Agencies and services like Data.gov

•  Non-Government Organizations like SCORE

•  Related charitable Foundations and Non-profits

•  World Bank

•  US Census

•  Bureau of Labor Statistics

•  Center for Disease Control

•  Google News and other news services like the AP and Thomson Reuters

•  Usability and UX-related publications

•  Consultancies like Forrester, McKinsey and Gartner

•  Client-funded market research and analytics

•  Research Journals?

three things i’ve gotten out of this

•  explore the problem space

•  inform design decisions

•  support the client

explore the problem space what are people doing better at different times of the day?

thanks lynne!

inform the design how does “advanced search” really

advance the user’s progress?

how secure are “security” questions? support the client

from http://antivirus.iyogi.com/

i need a volunteer from the audience…

what’s your design challenge? (this could go well. or not.)

go forth!

•  check out ASIST, JSTOR, Emerald and others

• ACM Digital Library: portal.acm.org

• Google Scholar: scholar.google.com

•  Individual Researcher’s homepage" -www.ischool.drexel.edu/faculty/mkhoo/cv.html" -www.thomasheverin.com

• WorldCat: www.worldcat.org

•  Inter-library loan (Access PA): "www.accesspa.state.pa.us

• Alumni services "www.library.drexel.edu/services/alumni

Michael Zarro Drexel University mzarro@gmail.com mikezarro.com @mzarro

Pasteur’s Quadrant (1997) Donald E. Stokes The Sciences of the Artificial, 3rd edition (1996) Herbert A. Simon

Michael Carvin Chair, PhillyCHI michael.carvin@gmail.com mcarv.in @mcarvin