The research methodologies discussed in previous posts provide an excellent basis to start from, but the web is changing rapidly. Rich Internet Applications (Flash, Silverlight, Ajax, etc), new interaction methods (e.g., multi-touch, gesture recognition, etc) will flood the web are already here. Can we apply what we know in terms of user- research in these new environments? Consider as an example a corporate web site, a mobile artificial intelligent assistant, and an RIA application. Conducting a usability study in the first scenario, is perhaps straightforward. However what techniques and measures are the most relevant to the second and third scenarios? What can we apply in order to ensure that we can indeed gather rich user insights? What are the most relevant tools to deploy? - Siri is a mobile application, while the rest are desktop applications. Unfortunately I don’t have the answers, as I have never attempted a similar study before. I can only imagine that existing techniques would have to be tailored to the unique and complex range of variables. Therefore, research adaptation is far more important that the domain itself.
Present:
Future (Aurora) ??:
I like thinking about the future, a lot! Aurora from Mozila labs, is a project that aims to redesign the way we browse the web. Currently, It is merely a concept, but it gives a pretty good idea of how the future will be like. There is an excellent critique of the Aurora project here. If the future will be similar to Aurora (i.e., reinventing the user interface), what does this mean for user-research? We need to fundamentally re-think the way that we conduct user research. New techniques will have to be invented and existing ones revisited. Innovation and creativity, will distinguish the companies that survive from the ones that will go out of business.
Aurora (Part 1) from Adaptive Path on Vimeo.
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