Workshop: Kelly Goto - Design research October 6, 2009

Knowing your customer, understanding their needs and how they interact with your web site and company is important. We all know that. However budgets, expertise and time are not always on your side. Applying research to your process is like working out. Always important, nice to do when you have time but often slips off the radar. In this full-day workshop, design ethnographer Kelly Goto takes you into the real world of design research. Kelly will take you at a rapid yet accessible pace through in-depth case studies, lectures and hands-on assignments showing you new methods of understanding your audience’s behavior, not just following stats.

Create your own research toolkit and test plan, learn the pros and cons of remote testing, understand when to use smaller sample sizes for usability testing and in-depth interviews and how often to iterate during your development process. Preview various tools that allow for faster iteration at a lower cost and learn the best ways of integrating fast-turn research into a modified agile process. Whether you are a designer, coder, manager or research specialist, this workshop will supply you with tools, tips and techniques you can immediately apply.

Who is this workshop for?
Anyone working on or managing a web design or web application project. Includes designers, coders, team leads, project managers, research specialists and more. Especially recommended for multi-disciplinary application or web teams looking to incorporate more front-end research and user experience into the mix.

What will be covered?
In this session, you will learn

* how to create a realistic, iterative research plan
* what methods to incorporate into your customized toolkit
* cost-effective remote and in-person usability testing
* best methods for rapid prototyping & testing
* segmenting audience by behavior, not demographics
* combining ‘qual’ and ‘quan’ for best results

About Kelly Goto
As an evangelist for “design ethnography”, Kelly Goto is dedicated to understanding how real people integrate products and services into their daily lives. Goto is a sought-after international keynote lecturer and author on the topics of web and mobile strategies, usability, and design ethnography. Her book, Web Redesign 2.0: Workflow that Works has been translated into 14 languages and is an established standard for workflow methodologies and user-centered design principles worldwide.

Kelly is principal of gotomedia, a global leader in research-driven, people-friendly interface design for web, mobile and product solutions for clients including Seiko Epson Japan, Adobe, VeriSign, Nokia, WebEx and CNET. For the past 20 years, she has worked in the digital media industry launching brands and initiatives for Toyota, Paramount, Infiniti, Sony Pictures, Warner Bros. Online, and Wells Fargo Online. Kelly’s focus on cross cultural studies, mobile devices and interfaces have cumulated in the formation of a global research network with partnerships based on Finland, Spain, New Zealand and China.

Kelly is a former President of the AIGA Center for Brand and is a member of San Francisco’s Bay CHI Usability Organization. She is also the editor of gotomobile.com, a highly regarded online publication focusing on mobile user experience. When not tethered to her laptop, Kelly enjoys spending time with husband Skip and new daughter Kirin, working virtually and living free.

Official Website: http://south09.webdirections.org/workshops