Why I Wrote This

This post is intentionally simplified.
My goal is to explain technical concepts in plain English with less jargon. The way I would explain it to a friend, or someone who’s tech-savvy but not focused on technical details.

If you’re new to MCPs, LLM agents, AI tools, or just trying to figure out what’s going on beneath the hood, this is for you.
If you’re more technical, this might feel overly simplified, but I bet it helps you troubleshoot or explain to others.

What Is MCP?

Think of MCP like the USB-C port of AI.
Just as USB-C lets you connect your laptop to chargers, monitors, or hard drives, MCP allows AI tools (clients) to connect to different sources of context (like prompts, tools, and data) in a standard way.

Again, you can think of it like an extension cable.

MCP is like a multi-port power strip (an extension cable).
Plug in ChatGPT, Claude, Cursor, or other AI tools as they all talk to the same system, share resources, and work together using a shared set of rules.

The MCP protocol uses JSON-RPC 2.0 messages to establish communication between hosts, clients and servers.

Anthropic gives a very detailed specification of the MCP protocol in this documentation.

Key Concepts to Understand

Before diving deeper, here are some basic concepts explained simply for those who do not speak “infra language” fluently yet.

Client → the tool or app making a request.
e.g., your browser, your terminal, your IDE.

Server → the system responding to the request.
Think: a warehouse that sends out the goods when a request/order comes in.

Protocol → a set of rules for communication. I love this from the BBC Bitesize - any form of communication requires rules. A protocol is a set of rules that governs the transmission of data.
Think: a classroom rule or road signs — everything works smoother when all tools follow the same playbook.

Host → the environment running the clients or managing communication.
This could be your local machine, an app, or a platform.

Local vs Remote
Local = run on your computer.
Remote = run somewhere else over a network (like the cloud).

Architecture → the structure or blueprint of how systems are built and talk to each other.

What Does MCP Actually Do?

MCP enables apps to send contextual information to LLMs in a structured and predictable way. It could be:

• Predefined prompts (e.g., “Summarise today’s meeting”)
• Resources like saved documents or files.
• Tools that let the model trigger real actions (e.g., call an API, search a DB)

MCP uses JSON-RPC 2.0 to structure the messages between clients, hosts, and servers

MCP Architecture: Client → Host → Server

MCP follows a client-host-server architecture:

• Client: Sends requests
• Host: Manages multiple clients
• Server: Responds to the client with data, tools, or actions

Each client is isolated but talks to its own server, and the host coordinates this interaction.

How It All Works

An MCP Server provides access to one or more of the following:

• Prompts: Pre-written instructions/templates
• Resources: Structured context, like user data or files
• Tools: Functions or API calls the LLM can use to do things

This is what allows AI applications to feel more “intelligent” because they’re drawing from meaningful pre-connected sources.

Security Isn’t Optional & MCP Servers Are Vulnerable

Most people do not remember security and I think it is where things get serious, especially if you’re building or connecting to MCP servers.

Security must not be an afterthought. Right now, most people are excited to plug in tools without thinking about the risks.

Common MCP server risks:

• Tool Poisoning → Invisible context injections that manipulate the model.
• Tool Shadowing → A malicious server impersonates a legitimate one.
• Rug Pull Attacks → A trusted tool silently changes and hijacks access after approval.

These aren’t just theoretical; they’re already being discussed in the industry.

What To Do?

• Follow the OWASP Top 10 for LLMs
• Be cautious with third-party MCP servers
• Use isolation, authentication, and access control where possible

Do You Need to Build an MCP Server?

Not necessarily. There are plenty of existing MCP servers out there already, like GitHub, Figma, Zapier, etc.

If you need one customised for your personal use case or a particular niche, it makes a lot of sense to build one. If you’re using one of the many existing servers, learn and understand how clients connect to them and, importantly, test responsibly in a sandbox environment.

If you’re curious to build your MCP server, Anthropic’s documentation is a great starting point.

Final Thoughts

MCPs are shaping the future of how AI apps interact with external tools. It’s like the plumbing that makes multi-tool AI possible.

But like all systems, it is not magic.

If you’re working at the intersection of AI, Infra, and DevSecOps, this is your moment to step in early, build responsibly, and ask better questions than just “does it work?”

I’d love to hear what you’re building or curious about.
Are you thinking about building an agent? Using MCP servers? Concerned about security?
Let’s talk in the comments.

Reading Recommendation & References

The “S” in MCP Stands for Security

MCP for DevOps: AI Integration & Automation Guide

MCP Servers: The New Security Nightmare

MCP Security Notification: Tool Poisoning Attacks

Model Context Protocol has prompt injection security problems

Model Context Protocol (MCP): What It Is, Why It Matters, and What You Should Know was originally published in PraizUX Engineering on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

NB: It can be misleading if you follow the steps from the PyCharm setup page. When I followed that I had this issue where the terminal is blank on Pycharm. It is a problem on Pycharm and Intellij if you use RaspberryPi (I’ve raised tickets with Jetbrains on this and seen others raised in the community). I used this link from my JetBrains account and got the actual download file for my ARM64 architecture. It is straightforward and saves you time.
NB: There is a troubleshooting tip at the end of the article.

Download and Install PyCharm

Download PyCharm from the JetBrains page based on your computer architecture. I use ARM64.

Download PyCharm 2024.1.4

Install Using .tar.gz File

To install and run PyCharm Professional from a .tar.gz file in your Downloads folder, follow these steps:

Step 1: Extract the .tar.gz File

1. Open a terminal.
2. Navigate to your Downloads folder:

cd ~/Downloads

3. Extract the .tar.gz file, this will create a directory named pycharm-2024.1.4.

tar -xzf pycharm-professional-2024.1.4-aarch64.tar.gz

Step 2: Move the Extracted Files to /opt

1. Move the extracted folder to /opt:

sudo mv pycharm-2024.1.4 /opt/

2. Navigate to the bin directory of the extracted PyCharm folder:

cd /opt/pycharm-2024.1.4/bin

Step 3: Run PyCharm

1. To run PyCharm, use:

./pycharm.sh

With the above steps you’ve completed the installation of PyCharm on your Ubuntu system. The next steps will help create a desktop entry so you can launch the app from your desktop without using the terminal.

Create a Desktop Entry

To make PyCharm easier to launch, create a desktop entry.

Step 1: Create the Desktop Entry

1. Open a terminal and create a new desktop entry file:

sudo nano /usr/share/applications/pycharm.desktop

2. Add the following content to the file:

[Desktop Entry]
Version=1.0
Type=Application
Name=PyCharm
Icon=/opt/pycharm-2024.1.4/bin/pycharm.png
Exec="/opt/pycharm-2024.1.4/bin/pycharm.sh" %f
Comment=Python IDE for Professional Developers
Categories=Development;IDE;
Terminal=false
StartupNotify=true

3. Save the file and exit :

• Press Ctrl+O to save the file.
• Press Enter to confirm.
• Press Ctrl+X to exit nano.

Step 2: Set Permissions

1. Make the desktop entry executable:

sudo chmod +x /usr/share/applications/pycharm.desktop

Running PyCharm from the Applications Menu

After creating the desktop entry, you should be able to find and launch PyCharm from your applications menu:

1. Open the applications menu, you should see the pyCharm app there.
2. You can search for “PyCharm”.
3. Click the PyCharm icon to launch.

Uninstalling PyCharm

You may need to uninstall pycharm or a previous version, follow the steps below to uninstall he application.

Uninstall PyCharm Installed from .tar.gz File

1. Open a terminal: Press Ctrl+Alt+T to open a terminal.

2. Remove the PyCharm directory:

sudo rm -rf /opt/pycharm-2024.1.4

Remove the Desktop Entry

If you created a desktop entry, remove it using this command:

sudo rm /usr/share/applications/pycharm.desktop

Remove Configuration and Cache Files (Optional)

1. Remove the configuration files:

rm -rf ~/.PyCharm*
rm -rf ~/.config/JetBrains

2. Remove cache files:

rm -rf ~/.cache/JetBrains

By following these steps, you can completely uninstall PyCharm from your system if it was installed manually from a .tar.gz file.

Troubleshooting

PyCharm requires Java 17 to run successfully. You may run into an error indicating that the Java version is incorrect or not using the supported format. Follow the steps below to resolve any issues related with Java.

Step 1: Check Java Version

First step should be checking your java version. You may have the wrong version installed or nothing installed. In my case, I had previously installed Java 11, so I had to install 17.

java -version

Step 2: Install Java 17 (Optional)

If the outcome of step 1 isn’t java 17, then you need to install it using the command below:

sudo apt update
sudo apt install openjdk-17-jdk

You may have Java 17 but it is not set in the environment variable. Follow these steps to set the environment variable.

1. Open your .bashrc file:

nano ~/.bashrc

2. Add the following lines at the end if your do not have the environment variable set:

export JAVA_HOME=/usr/lib/jvm/java-17-openjdk-arm64
export PATH=$PATH:$JAVA_HOME/bin

Save and exit the file, using the basic nano commands shared earlier (Ctrl+0, Enter, Ctrl+X).

3. Apply the changes:

source ~/.bashrc

4. Confirm JAVA_HOME:

echo $JAVA_HOME

The output should be:

/usr/lib/jvm/java-17-openjdk-arm64

Specify JDK in PyCharm Configuration

You may have everything above in place but missing the JDK in the config. Follow the steps below to specify the JDK in your PyCharm configuration.

1. Navigate to the PyCharm bin directory:

cd /opt/pycharm-2024.1.4/bin

2. Edit the pycharm.sh script:

sudo nano pycharm.sh

3. Add the following line at the top to specify the Java home directory:

export JDK_HOME=/usr/lib/jvm/java-17-openjdk-arm64

4. Run PyCharm again:

./pycharm.sh

If you found this useful, join me on Substack to get all the latest updates and progress from my projects in network engineering, DevOps, and cloud engineering.

Setting Up PyCharm on Linux ARM64 Architecture (Raspberry Pi 5) was originally published in PraizUX Engineering on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Recently on my podcast; The 10 Minutes of UX, I talked about different design communities and shared the link to join them.

In this short article, I will be sharing the same information with you.

Design

1. Designer Hangout — Join the Slack group here
2. Designers Group for Good — Join the Slack group here; Follow on twitter @DesignGigs4Good

3. Muslims who design — Join the Slack group here

4. Figma Africa — Join the Slack group here

5. Adobe XD — Join the Slack group here

Facebook Groups

1. Designers Guild — Join the Facebook group here
2. UX Portfolio Tribe by Sarah Doody — Join the Facebook group here
3. Give Good UX Company of Friends — Join the Facebook group here
4. User Research Collective — Join the Facebook group here

UX Research & Writing

1. Mixed Methods — Join the Slack group here
2. Research Ops — Join the Slack group here
3. Content +UX — Join the Slack group here
4. Fearless UX Community — Join the Slack group here
5. UX Research & Strategy — Join the Slack group here
6. UX Research Academy by Nikki Anderson — Join the Slack group here
7. Ethnography Group — Fill this form to join the slack group

Please do share other design communities you belong to in the comment box, I will regularly update this article.

Quick tip for solo UX researchers.

Little story!

I have not had any reason to create a Research Participation Agreement (RPA) before. I have always had it prepared and I simply distribute it to my research participants.

Currently, I am working on a project and I had to provide a Research Participation Agreement for the research participants. Since I have never created one before, I had to search for a template and could not find a simple one to use, so I decided to INVENT one.

What is the Research Participation Agreement?

Some persons may call this a consent form, and this is correct. A Research Participation Agreement (RPA) is a document stating details of your research project, information to be collected, rights as a research participant, compensation, etc.

It is distributed to research participants, who in turn, read through and agree/disagree to be a part of your research project.

How to create a simple Research Participation Agreement (RPA)

1. Title/Heading

I think every document has a title.

So you want to create a title or heading for the document so anyone reading can understand what the document is about.

Example:

PRAIZUX RESEARCH PARTICIPATION AGREEMENT

2. Introduction

This is usually just a small paragraph with details about your company or project and the participant.

Example:

This Research Participation Agreement (“Agreement”) is between {COMPANY NAME}(“Company name”, “us”, “our”) and the undersigned person or entity (“Participant”, “you”, “your”).

We are carrying out a qualitative research on our website in order to gain insights into how users engage with our website and us as an organisation.

This research will be conducted by our UX Research resource {user researcher name}.

In consideration of your agreeing to participate in the Research, {COMPANY NAME} and you agree as follows:

3. Breakdown of the agreement

Here, you want to provide short paragraphs with headings on the breakdown of the agreement.

Your breakdown should cover details about;

Information collected during the research — Here you’re explaining what type of information will be collected during the research. Information includes audio, video recordings, notes taking, and every other form you’ve gotten information from the participants.

Information Usage — What do you intend to do with the information? How are you storing the information? Will share information gotten with 3rd parties, is the information gotten to be used for public purposes?

You really want to be clear on what exactly and how exactly you will manage the information gotten from the participants.

Ownership of the information — This is closely related to the point above. You want users to understand if they have any form of ownership or rights with the information you’ve gotten from them. Who owns this information gotten. Can they request for their information to be deleted? This should be done in line with your information security policy as a company and as a freelancer you want to be sure you follow the data protection policy for your country.

Voluntary participation — Explain to participants about their rights to participants. Expressly tell them this is voluntary and they have every right to withdraw their participation at any time.

Incentives — If you’re providing incentives to participants, state this here and the kind of incentives they will be receiving.

4. Closing Paragraph

In this paragraph, you clearly state the terms on which they are providing their information and agreeing to sign the document.

By signing this Agreement and participating in Research, you agree to (i) comply with the terms of this Agreement; (ii) provide true, correct, and complete information about yourself; and (iii) ensure that you engage with the Research in an honest, transparent, and good-faith manner.

5. Agreement and Signature

This is the end of the long document. Provide participants a place to provide their name, date, email, and signature.

I usually keep it simple and end the document this way;

ACCEPTED & AGREED;

I have read and understood this Agreement. I agree to participate in the Research in accordance with this Agreement.

PARTICIPANT’S NAME

EMAIL

SIGNATURE

DATE

This is the simplest and shortest way I created a Research Participant Agreement (RPA) when I had none.

NB: Please note, if you work with an organization, or as a consultant, you should work with your legal team or lawyer to validate what you have written in your document and provide corrections where there are clauses. As a freelancer, you should also work with a lawyer to validate your RPA, to provide corrections if there are any clauses.

In general, it is always good to have a second eye look at documents like this, before you send them out.

I hope this helps you with your next project.

You can get the exact template I use here:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1FwXTx02KLU-msfVPFg6VFDIZog0kdSzTpCPcaGrLaaY/edit

User research participation agreement — a template was originally published in UX Collective on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

A research database is a resource where you have access to representative users who are always ready to test your product.

This is what happens when you do not have a research team or a solo designer. The same even applies to researchers (solo or a team).

You suddenly want to test with users or quickly validate something and you start thinking who do I talk to?

You’re lucky, you reach out to a few connections and they fit your user persona, so you quickly test with them again.

The same thing happens again, a quick validation, and you’re stranded again.

Since there’s no research database it becomes a cycle. The downside to this is, you may get lucky testing with a few connections, make quick iterations, but then when the real users of the product, start using it, you start getting complains of some real usability issues.

Solution! Build a research database.

Simple!

This is my advice, build a database for each product. If your products are similar, you can use a single database.

For me, I work with a large company with over 80+ products (B2B, B2C, P2A). So, it makes absolute sense to create a database for each product.

The first point of call

This is tricky.

1. If you’re building a new product with no single users, then you have to build a research database from scratch.

My quick rescue is social media. Recruit users from social media, particularly if you know your users will be on social media.

NB: You can't have successful recruitment for agency banking on social media because the major users of agency banking are not social media users.

Create a screener form

Make use of google forms, Typeform, survey monkey, and all other survey tools.

Give a brief introduction (talk about your product/idea). You want people to understand what information they are giving out and why.

Don't ask for heaven and earth

No one loves filling forms or surveys. Keep it KISS (Keep It Short & Simple).

1. All you need is a name or what they chose you to call them
2. Means of communication (email, phone number, social media addresses).
   NB: Nigerians are not great with emails, from my experience. A phone number or social media address will be more effective.

That’s all! Trust me!

Get people to fill this form, then you can now screen further. You’ve successfully gotten into an entanglement with these guys.

If you start with the plenty 1001 questions about your product/design/idea, trust me, people would get tired filling the form and drop off and you don't want that!

A quick story

Recently, I saw someone put out a screener form. They were trying to build a research database for their project. I always love being a research participant, so I quickly jumped on the form.

First red flag.

I was seeing more than 1 page. Whoah! Ok!

I always love seeing the entire content of a form before filling it, just to know if this is a time-waster or a good one!

So I go ahead to input fghjkhsdmwk (typed in some rubbish) so I can proceed to see the other questions.

When I went further, I was seeing a request for my age, where I live, where I work, what gender I identify with, how much I earn, how much I spend, my Whatsapp number!

What! WT*!

Really?

All that information and I don’t even know you.

That was the end!

Let’s end this short but long article…lol!

The second point of call

If you’re in this bucket, I expect you already have a product in use. I mean, you’ve people making use of your product, you have their email addresses or phone number or something to identify them.

Now, send a call out to them.

Repeat the same process of the screener form.

If your product has a social media presence, go out there and ask people to participate.

It is time for Entanglement!

Building a research database was originally published in UX Collective on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Deadline — April 2020 & June 2020

SheBegan is now currently receiving applications from women from all nationalities except Iran for its 2020–2021 International scholarship award. The application started earlier October 2019 for submission of applications for the SheBegan International Scholarship and is set to closes on June 30, 2020. The International Scholarship for Women (ISW) Programme will undergo sponsorship for women to study a full-time graduate, undergraduate, or postdoctoral programs in the U.S.A.

First preference will be given to the women that prove prior dedication to the charitable or volunteering work for empowering women in their specific fields and also to the women through professional, community, or civic work.

Scholarship Benefits

• Health insurance in sponsorship with Sunlife insurance company
• Expense on Return flight: US$1600 (Once per anum)
• Undergraduate degree sponsorship: US$18,000
• Master’s/first professional degree sponsorship: US$28,000
• Doctoral degree sponsorship: US$26,000
• Postdoctoral degree sponsorship: US$32,000
• Books & Literature expense: US$1000 per year
• Monthly stipend of US$1200 for an undergraduate student, US$1600 for Master student, US$1800 for Doctoral Student and flexible package for post-doctorate student

Scholarship Eligibility

• Applicants who are unsuccessful could reapply.

ISW Scholarship Applicants should meet the following norms to become entitled to the International Fellowship:

• Except for Iran ISW sponsorship is available for women from any other country.
• Age requirement for degree programs depends on the University requisites.
• Hold an educational grade (received abroad or in the U.S.) equivalent to a bachelor’s degree in the U.S. for enrollment application on master’s program, hold a degree equivalent to a master degree in the U.S. to apply for a doctoral grade program, or hold a valid doctoral degree to apply for a post-doctorate position.
• Committed to dedicate herself to the intended educational plan, if selected. A commitment letter needs to be signed by the candidate upon receiving the ISW Scholarship.
• Plan to go back to her home nation to take up a professional occupation.
• Be competent in English. Unless the candidate can confirm that her resident lingo is English (statement required in writing), that she obtained her undergraduate degree or secondary diploma that was taught in English language (transcript needed), or that she needs to submit a letter that provides evidence of her work as a full-time researcher enrolled in English taught program (transcript needed — English Proficiency Certificate needed), IELTS, or English language proficiency evidence is mandatory.
• By April 15, 2020, the candidate must have received a conditional admission letter from a U.S. University.
• Master’s professional-grade fellowships are meant for professional or master’s degree-level curriculums, for example, MS, L.L.M., J.D., Arch. Or M.F.A., or medical degrees, for instance, D.D.S., M.D., etc.
• Doctoral fellowships are meant for Ph.D. degrees, for instance, Ed.D or Ph.D.
• Postdoctoral candidates should present evidence of their doctorate degrees; holding a doctorate graded as a research degree (for example, M, D.B.A. Ed.D., Ph.D.,) or by April 15. 2020 an M.F.A.; & specify University and laboratory names where the candidate will carry out their research study.
• Candidates should be enrolled in a full-time degree program. ISW does not offer sponsorship for a part-time course or research or study.
• ISW does not provide sponsorship for distance-learning programs, language courses, exchange program courses and short duration courses.

Scholarship Timeline

Eligible women interested to get funding for education in the U.S. have two chances in 2020 to submit the application. The deadline for the selection of the first batch is April 20, 2020, and the deadline for the second batch is June 30, 2020. All the applications will be screened first to sort eligible and deserving candidates on top of the list and then those candidates may receive web-based interview call letters for the evaluation of final selection.

Women from all countries except Iran are eligible to apply for both sessions in 2020.

Interested? Apply here

Deadline: 15 January 2020
Open to: women with, at minimum, two years of full-time professional experience in the STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) fields
Benefits: Fully funded

Description

Women in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) are invited to apply for the fully-funded U.S Government TechWomen Program 2020!

TechWomen brings emerging women leaders in STEM from Africa, Central and South Asia, and the Middle East together with their professional counterparts in the United States for a mentorship and exchange program. TechWomen provides participants access to networks, resources and knowledge to empower them to reach their full potential.

During the five-week program, participants engage in project-based mentorships at leading companies in the San Francisco Bay Area, participate in professional development workshops and networking events, and travel to Washington, DC. for targeted meetings and special events to conclude the program.

Eligibility

Applicants must:

• Be women with, at minimum, two years of full-time professional experience in the STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) fields. Please note that internships and other unpaid work experience do not count toward the two-year professional experience requirement.
• Have, at minimum, a bachelor’s degree/four-year university degree or equivalent.
• Proficiency in written and spoken English.
• Be citizens and permanent residents of Algeria, Cameroon, Egypt, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Kyrgyzstan, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Nigeria, Pakistan, the Palestinian Territories, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Tajikistan, Tunisia, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan or Zimbabwe at the time of application and while participating in the program.
• Eligible to obtain a U.S. J-1 exchange visitor visa.
• Not have applied for an immigrant visa to the United States (other than the Diversity Immigrant Visa, also known as the “visa lottery”) in the past five years.
• Not hold U.S. citizenship or be a U.S. legal permanent resident.

Preference will be given to applicants who;

• Demonstrate themselves as emerging leaders in their chosen professional track through their work experience, volunteer experience, community activities, and education.
• They are committed to returning to their home countries to share what they have learned and mentor women and girls.
• Have limited or no prior experience in the United States.
• Have a proven record of voluntary or public service in their communities.
• Have a demonstrated track record of entrepreneurialism and commitment to innovation.
• Demonstrate a willingness to participate in exchange programs, welcome opportunities for mentoring and new partnership development, and exhibit confidence and maturity.

TechWomen encourages people with diverse backgrounds and skills to apply, including individuals with disabilities.

Benefits

The following costs are covered by the TechWomen program;

• Roundtrip international airfare from participant home country to the United States.
• Domestic airfare from San Francisco to Washington, D.C.
• Housing in San Francisco or Sunnyvale, California during the mentorship period.
• Meals and incidentals.§
• Hotel stays in Washington, D.C.
• Public transportation to the participant’s host company.
• Local transportation to group program events in the San Francisco Bay Area and Washington, D.C.

Interested? Apply here

Creating a user research plan for UX project could be quite difficult if you’re a newbie researcher.

I remember my first attempt at a UX research plan, I was stuck on google trying to figure out a one-size fit template for a research plan. After a rigorous search and found nothing I realized sometimes, you could be a creator for pieces of stuff not currently available.

As a UX Researcher submitting a research plan for approval from your stakeholders is key before the start of your research project.

TO-DO

Collaborate with PMs

In most cases, you need to lias with the Product Manager/Owner of the product you’re about conducting the research.

Business Analyst

It is also necessary you get useful information from whoever is on the Business side of your product. These guys, understand the business side of the product, they carry out business research and make decisions as regards the product in questions. They are vital to your research.

Marketing Team

What is the selling point of your product? What market segment are more responsive users? What metrics do you need to consider ? Marketing teams can provide you with the data to support your research plan.

Support & Operations

The Support & Operations teams handle all the customer complains and feedback. They most times have privy information that could help you a lot. Organizing a short chit-chat with them will go a long way in helping you gain insight into the research project.

The Plan

At this point, it is expected you’ve gotten a knowledgable amount of information as regards your research project added to your background knowledge.

Next step, make a clear division between the kind of research you need to do (Quantitative Research vs Qualitative Research).

Research Roadmap

A research roadmap will guide you and your team through the research project. This should include all the stages of the research project. Take into consideration also your reporting bit of the project. So your roadmap contains the beginning of your Research down to Reporting and Insights.

Make a plan for each research division you choose. Extensively break down each phase of the research.

Quantitative Research — Write out survey questions where necessary, medium to be used, the segment of users or database.

Qualitative Research — Clearly state the type of qualitative research, the location, plans, recruitment process, the number of days and every other necessity that will aid your research.

Budget

Make a clear plan for your budget. This should include gifts for research participants, research materials, Uber/Lyft trips, meals, and everything necessary to make the movement for you successful.

Share, Submit, Feedback, Approval

At this stage, you are ready to share your Research Plan with the key stakeholders, get their feedback, edit where necessary, get the approval and launch your research project.

Creating A User Research Plan was originally published in UX Collective on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

This is a document showing a few research plans I have designed and shared with key stakeholders for approval.

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1VcA52FBEU6_PoVC84F059g0O4L6mOigC1PmaISs9mwA/edit?usp=sharing

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1XS6QDwfpV3fkEv-85D2A-mp4mtE-uT4l76FLZfymxHo/edit?usp=sharing

Reach out to me if you’re interested in seeing others I can't display here because of NDA

UX Research Plan was originally published in PraizUx on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

I and a friend took the Plusacumen IDEO Human Centred Design Course and partook in all the projects given to us.

In the URL shared below, we’ve created a slide for the project done during this course.

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1XO57W17Y25_pAa-1kho9xNWbiiY23xWTCtZxh2APmqs/edit?usp=sharing

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1GQ7S4tfsnpGThRaGUwrZZ7NNLQ7Gr5-RXH8t2WQJoDA/edit?usp=sharing

We worked on designing a solution that will help solve financial illiteracy amongst Nigerian youths.

Lessons From Human Centred Design Project was originally published in PraizUx on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.