What Is UX Research?

Glennette Clark is a UX researcher and an entrepreneur. We talk about UX research, research teams, and UX Camp DC.

Listen to learn about:

>> UX research — What is it?>> The U.S. Digital Service>> Onboarding new team members>> Trauma-informed research and design>> UXCamp DC and the unconference format

Our Guest

Glennette Clark is a design researcher at United States Digital Service. She brings human-centered design practices to federal agencies including U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services and Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. She's an adjunct professor at MICA in the Design Leadership program.

She founded UXCamps DC & NYC and joined the DC Innovation & Technology Inclusion Council in 2010.

Glennette has a Strategic Design MBA from Philadelphia University and BA in journalism from Howard University. She lives in DC with her husband, two children and a dog.

Show Highlights

[01:05] Glennette's journey into UX began with a degree in journalism, where she learned the interviewing skills that would serve her later in her research work.[03:01] The difference between moderated and unmoderated interviews.[04:37] What is UX research?[05:08] The importance of interviews in UX research.[06:48] How Glennette uses interviews to help people understand UX research and how to use it.[08:18] The different ways Glennette presents research results depending on the audience.[11:22] Glennette shares one of her favorite research stories.[13:22] Why interviewing people with lived experience is so important when researching.[15:18] Glennette's work with the United States Digital Service.[17:01] Advice for those about to embark on their own problem space research.[17:33] The benefit of "How might we" questions.[19:57] Why the language you use in framing your research matters.[21:37] Trauma-informed design and how it fits into human-centered design.[23:04] Glennette talks about a community design project she worked on.[24:06] Ways to reduce the chance of doing harm when conducting interviews.[26:35] The importance of team health, and what it means to have a healthy team.[29:05] How to help a new person get up and running with a team.[32:09] UXCamp DC's beginning, and where it is now, twenty years later.[34:17] How the "unconference" format works.[35:29] Past presentation topics.[36:22] Glennette's desire to combine community-based design and service design to help community organizations achieve their missions.[39:17] Books and resources Glennette recommends.[42:16] Tools Glennette likes to use in her work.

Links

Glennette on Twitter Glennette on LinkedIn Glennette on MICA Designing with Empathy U.S. Digital Service UXCamp DC Book Recommendation: Mismatch: How Inclusion Shapes Design, by Kat HolmesBook Recommendation: Thinking in Systems: A Primer, by Donella H. MeadowsBook Recommendation: 100 Things Every Designer Needs to Know About People, and 100 More Things Every Designer Needs to Know About People, by Susan WeinschenkBook Recommendation: 101 Things I Learned in Architecture School, by Matthew FrederickBook Recommendation: Meeting Design: For Managers, Makers, and Everyone, by Kevin M. Hoffman The Values Deck | A Card Sorting Game to Explore Your Personal Values Creative Whack Pack Innovative Whack Pack IDEO Method Cards

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