Plain language skills are vital for surveys. If people can easily understand your questions, then that will help them to give accurate answers. And plain language specialists are constantly thinking about their audience and its needs – which is vitalContinue reading… Use your plain language skills to improve your survey
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Get more insight from smaller surveys by patchworking
There’s a dilemma in the world of surveys: we want to find out lots of things by asking people questions, but they do not want to answer Big Honkin’ Surveys any more. Patchwork is the art of putting small piecesContinue reading… Get more insight from smaller surveys by patchworking
Surveys that work: a 10hr workshop for Rosenfeld Media
My publisher Rosenfeld Media invited me to join the Rosenfeld Media online workshops program to teach an intensive 10hr dive into surveys. It was a pleasure to work with participants from the United States, Canada and Germany. In sessions onContinue reading… Surveys that work: a 10hr workshop for Rosenfeld Media
Surveys that work for the Harvard User Research Community
I was delighted to begin this year’s presentations by talking about my book, Surveys That Work, as part of the Brown Bag Book Club series organised by the User Research Center at Harvard University An encouragingly large group of HarvardContinue reading… Surveys that work for the Harvard User Research Community
All projects (and services) start in the middle
I’m a big fan of the user-centred agile approach to service delivery that is gradually being adopted by most government departments in the UK, and many other organisations too. I mean – let’s turn those words around. Who would wantContinue reading… All projects (and services) start in the middle
Why plain language and Plain English are different
When a user says to you “why can’t they write in Plain English?”, that’s a very reasonable request for us to think harder about how we are writing content. What I’m going to discuss here is the difference between “plainContinue reading… Why plain language and Plain English are different
Don’t be afraid of the big long page
This post is co-authored by me and Amy Hupe. Long pages of content can seem daunting, so to make them look shorter, designers and developers often reach for things that hide some of the content, such as accordions, tabs, carouselsContinue reading… Don’t be afraid of the big long page
Research needs space to breathe – an Effortmark poster
‘Research needs space to breathe’ is a poster in my continuing collaboration with illustrator Julia Allum. The words come from a blog post by user researcher Amy Everett. In her post, Amy talks about setting expectations when doing research, aboutContinue reading… Research needs space to breathe – an Effortmark poster
How to prototype a digital form on paper
Here are three ideas for creating paper prototypes of digital forms. Or any form, really. Print widgets onto stickers Long, long ago – in 1999! – Gerry Gaffney made a paper prototyping kit that is free to download. It’s aContinue reading… How to prototype a digital form on paper
Try a preliminary sift to streamline your card-sorts
Here’s my favourite tip for card sorting. I get each participant to first of all put the cards into four categories: Things I definitely need or would do right now Things I have done or needed in the past ThingsContinue reading… Try a preliminary sift to streamline your card-sorts