NVivo shows its power in providing defensible findings, in the field of User Experience research.
Background
Zoe Rosen is an anthropologist working in the field of UX (User Experience) Research, where the researcher applies various techniques in order to give context and discover insights. These findings are then used to inform the design process for a product or process. This type of research is needed to discover new information about users, learn the facts, and find any current issues. UX research also helps to understand the users themselves, their needs and is used to identify the requirements of the product.
UX research is incredibly important for anyone designing anything between a product, an interface, content, or a physical interactive service. UX Research provides organizations with insights that empower them to invest capital wisely, by creating something their customers will want, based on tested and researched ideas – not just assumptions.
Zoe works as a UX Researcher contracting to different companies, generally as a part of the strategy and service design teams, and tends to work in one industry on an overarching research piece from 3 to 12 months at a time. She has uncovered important insights for companies across the banking, insurance, telecommunications and medical devices industries, to name a few.
“Because I move between organizations, and industries quite frequently, often I’m not an expert about the specific industry I’m working in. Consequently, I don’t always know what themes I should be looking for, and NVivo is extremely helpful in allowing me to identify those” said Zoe.
Working with NVivo
Being project based work, Zoe often has a limited time in which to complete her research, but also needs to complete it with a high level of depth and rigor, which is where NVivo has been really helpful. “Without NVivo there are so many times where I just would have had too much data and nothing to help me deal with it!” she said.
Zoe’s work has allowed her to uncover unexpected customer insights, that have inspired overall strategy change within the organizations she’s working with. “While working on an insurance project, the company held the misconception that none of their customers read the ‘Product Disclosure Statement’, it was part of their internal story. My work was able to show that not only did more than half of them read it, but they spent time highlighting it, and made notes on it and shared those details” said Zoe.
Using NVivo to analyze and store her data, allows her to easily call on and defend her research when her findings are challenged by her clients. “Often I am reporting findings to staff quite high up the chain of command and it’s great to actually be able to change their perception of the front line of their business. They might have worked in that position ten years ago, but a lot has changed since then, and I have the data to back it up” said Zoe.
Presenting results to clients
NVivo’s visualizations have been key in the way that Zoe’s results are received by her clients. “They’re often quite blown away when the results are presented with NVivo. I can see the change in the business. It changes the way they see things, it changes how they talk, they start changing their goals” she said. Zoe’s work allows her be the voice of the customer, who might otherwise not be being heard or understood by the organization.
Zoe’s reporting stacks up against larger research and design organizations. In one instance, she met with a company who were also consulting at a firm she was contracted at.
Impressed by her reporting and visualizations, they enquired further about her research. Zoe recounts being surprised they weren’t using the same tools as her; “I dug a little deeper and asked them what they used, and how they came to their conclusions in their research work. They told me ‘We don’t do anything like this, we go a little bit more on our intuition’ which really disappointed me, because they’re probably charging a lot more than me, and that’s not research. Intuition is not satisfying, you need data!”
Frequently at a projects conclusion, Zoe will present the results that she has worked through on NVivo, and find the heads of departments are moved to realign their goals. They realize through the uncovered latent opportunities that they could be the first in the industry to fulfil a customer need, and they need to act on it first. “They need to be prepared to take a leap forward. They become of the mind that if they can move on it quickly, they can really be ahead of the game” said Zoe.
There's a lot of power in truth, and at the end of the day, it's what has given the organizations that invest in a UX researcher like Zoe a commercial advantage.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
QSR International with Zoe Rosen
Zoe Rosen is a User Experience researcher, with a background in cultural and behavioral anthropology studies. It’s a discipline that she lives and breathes, and loves the research, the ethnographic style, the broadness, the way anthropology is completely dedicated to how people behave and interact with everything around them. Zoe has a wide experience in many industries from banking and insurance, to healthcare. Every day, QSR International helps 1.5 million researchers, marketers and others to utilize Qualitative Data Analysis (QDA) to uncover deeper insights contained within the “human data” collected via social media, consumer and community feedback and other means. We give people the power to make better decisions by uncovering more insights to advance their area of exploration.