Linknote — — 144 words

User experience — User research

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How to avoid common mistakes in user engagement — Website and Communications Blog

Have you ever participated in a user engagement session designed for you to share your views, but felt that you weren’t properly included, or that your views wouldn’t be acted on? Fed up with bad surveys and poorly planned focus groups?

Most of us want to engage with our users and stakeholders. We all want to make sure our users have a voice in projects that will affect them. But the approach you take can have a major effect on the success or failure of your engagement.

There are some basic truths about human behaviour that we know from psychology and other social sciences. But in many projects, these basic truths tend to be ignored.

Read this post on my team’s blog for tips on how to avoid the pitfalls of poorly planned user engagement, and how to make user research effective.

Article — — 934 words

User experience

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Adapted from a post originally published on the University of Edinburgh Website and Communications blog. We have recently completed a short collaboration with the Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies to better understand the needs of students of online postgraduate courses. The findings may help us understand the differing needs of students online compared to […]

Article — — 906 words

Society — User experience — User research

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Adapted from a post originally published on the University of Edinburgh Website and Communications blog. The coronavirus (Covid-19) outbreak has posed massive challenges for everyone in society. For practitioners of human-centred approaches to design, where face-to-face interaction is often so important to enhancing our understanding, our current requirement to maintain social distancing creates obvious barriers. […]

Article — — 1,451 words

Business — Service design — User experience — User research

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Adapted from a post originally published on the University of Edinburgh Website and Communications blog. Throughout 2018/2019, the User Experience Service has been collaborating with the Learn Foundations project team to undertake a comprehensive programme of user research with students and staff working with course materials digitally. Through this we have discovered how students’ experience […]

Article — — 1,038 words

User experience — User research

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Adapted from a post originally published on the University of Edinburgh Website and Communications blog. As part of our comprehensive programme of user research in support of the Learn Foundations project, the User Experience Service has conducted contextual enquiry to better understand the contexts and needs of staff members working with our virtual learning environment, […]

Article — — 981 words

Digital — User experience — User research

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Adapted from a post originally published on the University of Edinburgh Website and Communications blog. This academic year the User Experience Service has been collaborating with the Learn Foundations project to undertake a programme of user research. This blog post focuses on one particular strand — interviews with students. Why we interviewed students Our research […]

Article — — 1,091 words

Technology — User experience — User research

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Adapted from a post originally published on the University of Edinburgh Website and Communications blog. The UX Service has been carrying out user research for the Service Management team, who are currently undertaking a programme to develop an API Service as part of the Digital Transformation Initiative. An API — or application programming interface — […]

Article — — 1,572 words

Content design — Digital — User experience

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Adapted from a post originally published on the University of Edinburgh Website and Communications blog. We have recently completed a six month collaboration with University Human Resources Services (UHRS) which has delivered a fledgling digital strategy, developed new content management processes and skills within their team, and rationalised priority areas of their website. Human Resources […]

Article — — 482 words

Digital — User experience — User research

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Adapted from a post originally published on the University of Edinburgh Website and Communications blog. Over the past few months we have been working with University Human Resources Services (UHRS) to help them develop a digital strategy. To gain a greater understanding of the needs of devolved HR staff, we went out to interview some […]

Article — — 1,003 words

Business — User experience — User research — Web

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Adapted from a post originally published on the University of Edinburgh Website and Communications blog. We were recently involved in a project to support ESPA (Ecosystem Services for Poverty Alleviation) in creating proto-personas to inform the redevelopment of their website. ESPA is an global interdisciplinary research programme based at Research into Results, a wholly owned […]