The Benefits of a Lab.

But dedicated testing spaces or labs do have a big benefit. You can bring in stakeholders. When well managed, your stakeholders can observe actively on worksheets, post-its or whiteboards.

And, after each session or study, you can collaborate on what you saw and what it means. This collaborative approach exposes stakeholders to their users.

Moving your observers to remote.

When moving to remote testing, there could be a temptation for observers to multi-task. They can do this in an observation room, if ill-managed so you’ve got to think of some new ways to keep them engaged and actively observing.

Here are a few more tips to help you get the most out of remote testing.

1. Picking the right tool

The best place to start is with your participant. Ask them if they’re okay to use your preferred screen-sharing tool. They may have a lower spec device which doesn’t support what you’d like to use, or, they may not be permitted to download it in an enterprise context.

So, in addition to your preferred tool, you and your observers will need to be flexible enough to have a collection of tools at the ready. These might include Google Hangouts, Goto Meeting, Skype, WebEx and so on.

2. Preparing your participants in advance

Normally, you’d run through a preamble in-person, but for remote you’ll want to send them some details in advance. Here’s a sample email.

Thank you for agreeing to take part in evaluating our website/app. We’ll be asking you to use the website/app and to tell us what you think about it.

You’re booked in for Monday, 6th April between 3pm and 4pm.

The link for the call is: __________

But before that, please make sure you can use ____________ , that it’s installed and ready to go.

This is important as it will allow me and some colleagues to see and record your screen for the duration of the test.

One tip, for the duration of our session, open the link of the website we’re testing in a new window with no other tabs visible and turn off all notifications. We don’t want to record anything that you wouldn’t want us to see.

I’ll give you a call a day before to make sure you have everything you need set-up and we’ll do a very quick trial run.

As long as you consent, I’ll be recording the session. I’ve attached a consent form for you to agree to, and you’ll be asked to verbally consent to video recording at the beginning of our testing session.

3. Be more flexible with testing times

Given the nature of everyone being at home, you’ll want to allow for extended hours when your participants will be available. They may be juggling family life more than usual, so the more flexible you are, the more likely they will be to participate.

4. Crowd control & observer etiquette

While in a dedicated observation room, there’s little risk observers will be heard if they’re on the phone or furiously tapping on their laptops, but just like in the lab, you need to do some crowd control and remind them of a few things.

• We’re working together. We need your input and, therefore, your full, undivided, attention. No phone calls, or checking in on email or other work.
• Please don’t keep your notes to yourself, use the tool we’ve provided to share your observations.
• You’ll be observing here, not talking, so mute your audio and turn off video.

As the moderator, you should be running the show, so observers should Slack or IM you with any questions they want to ask. Avoid the tool that you use for the call, as there’s a good chance at least one observer will send the message to everyone, including the participant which could be distracting.

5. Use a tool to collaborate on observation notes

Physical whiteboards are broke, but tools like Invision Freehand or Miro are woke. We’ve used Invision’s Freehand to annotate the screenshots of each screen with notes during the test. With this, you can give observer a tool to help make them better, active observers.

Just make sure you send it to them in advance and clearly explain how you want them to use it. A group call in advance is the most efficient way to do this.

If you don’t have access to a good online whiteboarding/collaboration tool, an Excel or Google spreadsheet will suffice. Tomer Sharon wrote a good article about how to put one together which merges the worksheet concept above with collaboration.

6. De-brief

As you would in the lab, lead a debrief after each test session so that the top issues or insights surface to the top. And, after your sessions have finished for the day, go over the virtual whiteboard or spreadsheet and analyse the themes that have emerged.

1. Run the test with clients or colleagues attending as passive observers.
2. Detailed notes taken by skilled observer while facilitator runs the test
3. When testing is finished, detailed analysis over a number of days and a report is created
4. Report presented to client a week or more later along with video clips, heat-maps.

The problems with this approach is that it can feel too drawn out, clients are so detached from the reported problems that they don’t feel they own them.

This means it can be a struggle to justify changes to programme owners or developers and, because they weren’t involved and didn’t read the report, you find it hard to get your team aligned and agreed on the problems to solve and how to best solve them.

So, this creates a gap between insight and action.

A better approach to user testing

At Each&Other we’ve developed a method of user testing that helps close this gap by:

• Creating a shared understanding of user needs among your whole team
• Gives ownership of the solution to the whole team
• Gets fast, actionable insights

Better together: the invite list

We invite in eight to ten clients with the following roles:

• Product managers
• Developers
• Designers, QA
• Subject Matter Experts
• Directors, manager from other departments

Working it out together

We operate with a simple framework where we analyse and synthesise the data together.

1. See & hear
2. Think
3. Do

1. See & Hear: Observations

Before starting our tests, we print out the screens from the site or application and put them up on the wall (as they appear as part of a flow).

After every test session we get into a group for a 10–15 minute de-brief and write our observations on post-its and place them on the printed screens. Very quickly, we get to see where most of the action happens. We avoid inferring or concluding anything on the basis of one test. We stick to what we saw and what what we heard — just the facts. Then it’s onto the next test.

2. Think: Analysis & Synthesis

After we’ve finished testing for the day, we do a daily round-up moving from what we saw and heard, to what it might mean and what we must do.

We start with a simple “dot exercise”, where everyone gets to vote on what they think are the most important issues. Finally, we open it up for discussion. Hat tip: the K-J Technique.

3. Do: A design workshop

Finally, we work together to identify the right problems and generate some initial sketches of how we might best solve them.

The secret sauce: Meaningful roles

Team members are not here to passively observe. Instead, we assign them meaningful roles during the day’s testing. They’ll facilitate a test, lead a post-test de-brief or prioritise the issues in our daily round-up.

Benefits of this approach

• Shared understanding: recognition of the users’ context and the obstacles they face with the current design
• Owning the problem. Clients who have been through this process feel they have a far greater understanding and ownership of the problems in their product.
• Better insights, faster. Many teams are working with Lean or Agile where design can often be squeezed. This approach gets better insights faster and gets everyone bought into the problems that need solving.

Finally, it’s important to note that this isn’t the only way we run user testing. There’s still a place for a more formal and measured approach, particularly around strategic and formative testing.

This post first appeared on the Each & Other website

Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeoning of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds, and shall find me, unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies,
Or being hated, don’t give way to hating,
And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dream — and not make dreams your master;
If you can think — and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build ’em up with worn-out tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: “Hold on!”

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with Kings — nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
And — which is more — you’ll be a Man, my son.

You are not your age,
Nor the size of the clothes you wear,
You are not a weight,
Or the color of your hair.
You are not your name,
Or the dimples in your cheeks,
You are all the books you read,
And all the words you speak,
You are your croaky morning voice,
And the smiles you try to hide,
You are the sweetness in your laughter,
And every tear you’ve cried,
You’re the songs you sing so loudly when you know you’re all alone,
You’re the places you’ve been too,
And the one that you call home,
You’re the things that you believe in,
And the people that you love,
You’re the photos in your bedroom,
And the future you dream of,
You’re made of so much beauty,
But it seems you forgot,
When you decided that you were defined,
By all the things you’re not.

July 25th, 1951 — September 1st, 2016

by David Gibson

In one of the sympathy cards we received in these days I saw a quotation that I thought was particularly meaningful. It read:

Each life touches this world in a way no others can
Leaving not only wonderful memories but lasting imprints in our hearts.

As Johnny’s older brother I feel privileged to say a few words on behalf of the family.

Mary Oliver in a poem asked:

“Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?”

Johnny could answer that easily for he treasured his wild and precious life. Indeed often when asked how he was, he would often reply,

‘A shade above excellent!’.

Johnny viewed life with energy, enthusiasm and and a generous spirit and has left lasting memories in our hearts. He touched the world in a way not many others could have.

Growing up with Johnny was filled with the sound of music as he prepared for various Feis competitions. He worshipped his music teacher Rhona Marshall.

Although Johnny had been born in Dublin, Cork had become his adopted home, a home he loved and cherished and a place where he wished to be buried.

As I visited his house yesterday I found myself reflecting on the contents of his house and how each item spoke to me of his life.

There, in the living room was his piano, at which he had sat for many years practising and teaching. Music was his life, and for so many years he taught at the Cork School of Music enjoying the challenge of passing on musical skills and interacting with his colleagues. He had fond memories of many fellow teachers about whom he often spoke with affection and many of whom he continued to meet in his retirement.

On the piano were some of his compositions, for Johnny loved creating new pieces or music for many varied occasions.

He achieved much professional success and awards throughout Europe. The Contemporary Music Centre attests to the prolific output he achieved over the years and Johnny was looking forward to an imminent visit to Dublin where one of his compositions was to be played.

The walls of Johnny’s house are covered with art, for Johnny was a man of culture and developed a passion for art from an early age. He would visit public and private art galleries in Ireland and as far away as the Hermitage in St. Petersburg. This interest in art nourished his creative spirit.

All sorts of books could be found In every nook and corner of the house and it was noticeable that many of them were of a spiritual nature, for Johnny was a most religious man.

He was an Oblate of the Benedictine Order and frequently would visit Glenstal with his friend Aidan. He loved to read at Mass which he attended almost on a daily basis. He was also an admirer of the work of Jean Vanier and forged strong ties with the L’Arche community over the last thirty years or more. He was acutely aware of his own fragility and therefore resonated with the more vulnerable in our society. The L’Arche community was a real family to him.

Travel books also found a place in his library and Johnny loved visiting many countries in Europe, Asia and the States. The world was his home and he was at home in the world.

The kitchen attested to his love of food. Many a restaurant in Cork city knew Johnny as a frequent client. The English market was a favourite haunt of his. When, however, the Parkinson’s disease developed rapidly he really missed the opportunity to be able to enjoy meals out.

In the kitchen his medication which attested to his valiant struggle with health issues for over thirty years of his life. He never, however, let his illness prevent him from living life to the full, and his courage a good humour transformed what could have been an obstacle into an opportunity to empathize with those who suffer.

Photographs abounded in Johnny’s house and many indicated his love for his family and loyal friends whom he held so dear to his heart. His faithful marking of birthdays was something he always honoured, and his delight at his recent visit to Peter, Clarissa and Oscar had warmed his heart and filled him with happiness.

He was in constant contact with his sister Darina who always welcomed him with love to her home. And her very frequent chats over the phone something that gave him support and encouragement.

He was very proud of his brothers Michael and Richard whom he would visit when he could. I would often chat with him during the week to share our stories and the ups and downs of life.

Johnny was also very fond of the Christian Brothers and would frequently visit Denis and Martin in 42 Glasnevin Avenue. He was also a regular visit to the Brothers in Rome. And the Brothers welcomed him with generosity and affection.

So, Johnny’s precious life has come to a close and he leaves behind many memories and many friends who will feel the loss of his gentle presence. I think Johnny would like to share with all gathered here the sentiments expressed by Kahil Gibran.

Dry your tears, my friends, and raise your heads as the flowers
Raise their crowns to greet the dawn.
Look at the bride of Death standing like a column of light
Between my bed and the infinite;
Hold your breath and listen with me to the beckoning rustle of
Her white wings.
Come close and bid me farewell; touch my eyes with smiling lips.
Let the children grasp my hands with soft and rosy fingers;
Let the ages place their veined hands upon my head and bless me;
Let the people come close and see the shadow of God in my eyes,
And hear the echo of His will racing with my breath. Amen

John Gibson’s obituary was published in The Irish Times on Saturday, 10th September 2016. You can read it here.

“The lack of historic interest in many contemporary designers is a weakness”.

These (harsh, but all too true) words were spoken by one of the most prolific designers alive today — Dieter Rams. I’ve started a restoration project on one of his radiograms, the Braun SK 61 so I thought it a worthwhile to dig deeper on the design philosophies of Rams.

Interestingly, this “historical interest” is the same sentiment shared by Bill Buxton, who quotes Ralph Kaplan

“Santayana taught us that those who do not know history are condemned to repeat it. That surely is true in design as in anything else, but in design there is a corollary: those who do know history are privileged to repeat it at a profit”.
Ralph Caplan (1982), By Design, pp. 88–89)

And of course, in Piers’s recent post on Henry Dreyfus,

“to look ahead one must learn to look back”.

Dieter Rams started his design career with Braun in 1955 where he worked for 40 years, designing over 500 products and collaborating on many more. His work, and his philosophy, would come to inspire the best of modern designers,

“His products seem inevitable, challenging you to question whether there could possibly be a rationale alternative. It is this clarity and purity that leads to the sense of inevitability that characterises his work. No part appeared to be either hidden or celebrated, just perfectly considered and completely appropriate in the hierarchy of the product’s details and features. At a glance, you knew exactly what it was and exactly how to use it”.

— Johnny Ive

So, if we are to repeat history at a profit, what can we learn from Rams?

10 enduring principles for good design

Many designers, if not familiar with his work, may at least be familiar with his Ten Principles for Good Design which have been doing the rounds lately, and which, like his furniture and shelving designs have endured for decades.

On collaboration

“The decisive factor in this kind of co-operation is always human consensus. This can only be arrived at if you understand the others’ work completely”.

While much focus around Dieter Rams was on his genius and design philosophy, he was at pains to point out that design was very much a collaborative effort.

By far one of the most important aspects of this was in building bridges between the design and technical departments.

Every detail necessary and measured

“Instead there is order and clarification. We measure every detail against the question of whether it serves function and facilitates handling”.

Under Rams’s direction, Braun products (before being acquired by Gillette) were economical with form and colour, avoided unnecessary complexity and were without ornament. This echoed Erwin Braun’s philosophy that their electrical appliances should act as “humble servants, to be seen and heard as little as possible”.

Less, but better, for longer

“By omitting the unneccessary the essential factors come to the fore: the products become quiet, pleasing, comprehensible and long-lasting”

Less for the user means more work and expense for the designer. The flip side is that this focus creates longer lasting products and services.

The “functionalist” approach means focusing on the essentials. And it could only last longer and endure the fickle nature of fashion because of that singular focus on simplicity and restraint.

Nowhere is this better demonstrated than in the Rams-designed modular furniture designed in the 1960's and still being made and sold by Vitsœ in London.

On product design

“One must know the limitations of the technology and the production. One has to understand the the market…one needs to be able to move within a strictly defined framework — the framework of what is feasible”

The useability of a product is a direct result of the designer’s ability to anticipate the needs of the user.

Again, this approach is reflected in many other’s work — the desirability, feasibilty and viability in Ideo’s “three forces of innovation”.

On user-research

“Indifference towards people and the reality in which they live is actually the one and only cardinal sin in design. Function-orientated design is the fruit of intense, comprehensive, patient and contemplative reflection on reality, on life, on the needs, desires, and feelings of people”

On design-led companies

Rams has some wisdom for the many companies that are struggling to bring design in-house, or those who talk of adding “just sprinkle of UX” to their products or services — good design doesn’t follow, it leads:

The decision to try to generate good design must be a company-wide decision. It cannot be a design department that imposes it and who are ultimately responsible. It has to be an integral part of the the fundamental objectives of the comapny and finally it must be underpinned by a specific organisation an decision-making structure.

Quotes and passages taken from Sophie Lovell’s “Dieter Rams: As Little Design as Possible”, published by Phaidon.

This post first appeared on the Each&Other blog.

Tom Veale, born 6th April, 1936, died 1st January, 2015.

Thank you Father Jones and Father Duddy.

Before I start, I’d like to thank you all for being here on behalf of my Mum, my brothers, Mick and Fran and Tom’s sisters, Vivien and Gay and his brother, Michael.

I know each of you had your own relationship with Tom, so I’m really honoured to be the one to speak today.

Tom was the eldest of four children, born in April, 1936.

One of his earliest memories that he told me about was how, during the second world war, he heard the German Luftwaffe overhead and ran out to take one of them down by throwing stones at them.

International relations with Germany were to improve dramatically a little later in his life.

Tom started school in Loreto Beaufort in Rathfarnham and as a six year old he was chosen to play a character part in a school play. When his time came to appear, he walked on to the middle of the stage and stared mesmerised at the overhanging coloured flashing spotlights, completely oblivious to his role.

A nun’s arm quickly pulled him backstage. That was the end of his acting career. He was very proud that his four young grandchildren have already had a little success on stage.

Tom then attended Xavier’s School in Donnybrook. While excelling at various subjects, he played scrum-half and was pretty good, by all accounts.

He told me once that during a game he somehow managed to evade all of the opposition, but somehow met with a wall and knocked himself out. That was the end of his short rugby career.

Leaving acting and rugby behind him, one lifelong interest he started as a child, was photography.

His father, Laurence, was presented with a camera, which Tom had his eye on. He was told that if he really wanted it he would have to save up and buy it.

So, Tom started a shop and called it “Tom’s Shop”.

In the shed in the garden, he sold sweets for 5 a penny to all the neighbouring children.

When he had saved enough to pay for the camera, he closed up the shop much to the disappointment of all the local kids.

This interest in photography has passed on to his son Francis, now a professional photographer, and winner of many awards.

He finished school at sixteen and spent some time at school in Germany and spoke fluent German. This he revealed to us only after we heard him speak German on the phone to his friend, David Das from India.

He followed in his father’s footsteps and studied engineering at UCD followed by a Degree in Commerce by night.

Tom was a wise mentor to his younger siblings and later to us.

One bit of wisdom he imparted to his sister Gay when she embarked on her university studies in French, Italian and German was asking “What was the point of learning a language, if you have nothing to talk about?”

She promptly did a lateral arabesque and studied economics, ever grateful to him for his wise counsel which had her in a pole position when Ireland joined the EEC in 1973.

He imparted the same knowledge to me, verbatim.

However, he still sought to teach the three of us German, somewhat passively, by playing Linguaphone while driving us to Belvedere, about a mile away. If only school had been just that little bit further away, his plan may just have worked.

Unbeknown to us until this week, there was also a touch of Fred Astaire (or Strictly Come Dancing for the younger people in the audience) about Dad. He had great skills as a ballroom dancer and was awarded both bronze and silver medals for his dancing.

Unfortunately, that’s one thing he didn’t pass on to the six left feet of his three sons.

Following college, he worked for several years with an Engineering company in Cologne where he was also able to pursue his interest in music, studying clarinet at the Musikhochschüle.

Music was another part of his life that he revealed to us when he often took out his clarinet and played some Benny Goodman or Louis Armstrong which we really enjoyed and pestered him to play more of.

When he came back from Cologne, he eventually found himself in Cork. Working for CIE in Capwell Bus Station, he helped make it ship-shape while playing and teaching clarinet in the Cork School of Music.

It was here he met Mum and the rest, they say is history.

But not quite…speaking of history, outside of family and his four grandchildren, the legacy he leaves is his genealogical research.

Every branch of the family tree — Veales, Corrs , Kennedys, Walls upwards, downwards, sideways was examined through relentless research.

He helped many Veales and Vails, from the US, New Zealand and Australia, find their roots…and their relatives while surreptitiously ensuring we had places to stay when we visited Tucson in Arizona, Christchurch in New Zealand or the Gold Coast in Australia.

It wasn’t just the ‘Veale’ name he researched but also the genealogy of south east Ireland.

His research on family names is contained, in 18 large volumes in the National Library of Ireland and is widely acknowledged as an invaluable resource for genealogists worldwide.

Through his research, he was to discover not just family, but lifelong friends like Frank McCabe.

Tom carried out this research in his own quiet way, for neither financial gain nor glory, but out of the interest he had in the country’s heritage and a sense of duty to make life easier for the people who followed in his footsteps to retrace their own roots.

He faced his last, difficult years with dignity but also with the unwavering strength and support of Darina, our Mum.

He met with Triumph and Disaster and treated those two impostors just the same; His parting words being, “Don’t make a scene”.

Tom died in the early morning on New Year’s Day and I know he will be greatly missed by everyone who knew and loved him.

Whatever about the EU, most people seem to love Google — or, at least, they use it an awful lot.

But in 2015 things may begin to change — partially for a business reason, partially for a technical reason, but mostly because of a quirk of human psychology.

Getting down to business

For most users Google is their route into the web, whether they use Chrome, Firefox, or Internet Explorer, if they want to find it, they Google it. That “to google” is a verb reflects how engrained in the fabric of our web use the search giant has become. Google’s popularity is clearly fuelled by the quality of the results it provides, and the various business deals it’s signed with other companies over the years.

Because of these, Google has a 67% Desktop Search market share in the US, and a whopping 90% share in the EU.

At the moment, when you open Firefox, Google will be probably be preselected as your search engine. And the same if you’re using an iPhone or an Android.

But from last month, this started to change.

The 10 year old deal between Google and Firefox has ended. According to this deal, Firefox’s makers set Google as their default search engine, and in return Google would help fund Firefox’s non-profit parent company, Mozilla. With this contract now over, Yahoo! has stepped into Google’s shoes. From now on (in the US at least), when people search on Firefox using the browser’s address/search bar Yahoo! results will be shown.

As it did with Google, Firefox will provide Yahoo! with 100 billion searches a year — so this is a really big deal — one that could blow the search engine market right open.

Over on mobile, Google’s partnership to provide default search services to iPhone and Mac users will end in 2015. On mobile, Google exhibits greater domination, with approx. 85% of searches. But, Apple plans on dropping Google as a pre-installed iPhone and Mac service, in favour of Microsoft’s Bing.

And Apple’s done this before, in November 2012, at the end of a similar contract, Apple dropped Google Maps as a pre-installed iOS app in favour of their own service (which people would have actually used if it worked properly). As a result, Google Maps is “only” installed on 100 million out of 400 million iPhones, despite being the superior application.

Why? Because of that quirk in human behaviour, the default effect. With the default effect, when a person is presented with a number of different choices to which they’re either ambivalent, or where the choices seem too complicated, they will likely remain with the default option.

This is why so few people change banks — it’s easier to remain with the back your parents set you up with than it is to change. This is also why organ donor rates soar in countries that require citizens to opt out, rather than in.

These are classic examples of Nudge Theory and Behavioural Economics at work.

And the human behaviour that guides these big decisions is the same that guides our actions when it comes to smaller decisions, such as which search engine to use.

People rarely change the default. It involves too much cognitive work — they have to figure out whether making the change is worth the cost in time and effort in evaluating the alternatives, and once they do that they have to figure out how to make the change.

The search results don’t have to be as good as Google (they probably won’t be).

As long as they’re just good enough, Firefox and iPhone users will have little reason to change. And if consumers don’t change their new default, digital marketers will need to reassess how, and where, they invest their advertising budgets across Yahoo! and Bing’s Adwords equivalents.

iOS 8 was on only 47% of iOS devices in the first 20 days, far less than the move from iOS 6 to 7 (70% in the same period).

Here’s my take on why

1. Not as big a jump as the upgrade from iOS 6 to iOS7, making it less desirable an upgrade than last time out.

Not enough space, even if the desire was there. This lack of space created “shit work” for iPhone owners — older phones, with little space to start off with are going to be full of photos, videos, music, apps which leaves very little space for a monster 4GB upgrade over Wifi or over the air (OTA).

So that means users get the shit work of deleting, moving or backing up stuff to make room for a new OS version.

The alternative, of course, was to connect to iTunes, something that has become a rarer and rarer occurrence as smartphones no longer need to be tethered to a PC/laptop mothership. They’re standalone, smaller computers. It’s just that Apple didn’t give them enough storage.