576 Natoma in San Francisco.

* Directions: The Google Map
* Bike: Bring it inside, there’s plenty of room.
* Car: Tons of street parking.
* Transit: #9 Muni stops in front, or taxi from 16th & Mission BART.

Is it a method, a process, a discipline or a literary genre? Cultural anthropologists want you to know that you’re probably not doing “real ethnography” in design research — does that make your research findings less valid? I’ll talk about the difference between “fake” and “real” ethnography, connections between user research and ethnography, and why “doing it wrong” in the field may be the right thing to do for your users, your clients, and your organization.

Is there a (healthy) codependency between research and design? What happens when organizations try to use design to address research and design? What happens when organizations use research to address research and design? Steve will examine the status quo and what can happen when things play out differently.

Are there [m]any examples of how “the transformative and the amazing” stemmed from a user research seed? If you think of the interface or the product being the way that people work together as a team, I’ve seen a lot! I’ve seen how mental models help people ward off requests from corporate for stupid ideas, how the models increase qualified leads, make sense of where a process is broken, convince VCs that another round of funding is a good idea, and that a new product line requested by execs shouldn’t be pursued … yes, stopped in its tracks. I’ll present short case studies of how transformation for the people within an organization still counts as amazing.

Are there [m]any examples of how “the transformative and the amazing” stemmed from a user research seed? If you think of the interface or the product being the way that people work together as a team, I’ve seen a lot! I’ve seen how mental models help people ward off requests from corporate for stupid ideas, how the models increase qualified leads, make sense of where a process is broken, convince VCs that another round of funding is a good idea, and that a new product line requested by execs shouldn’t be pursued … yes, stopped in its tracks. I’ll present short case studies of how transformation for the people within an organization still counts as amazing.