How can I speed up a shadowing session?

How can I speed up a shadowing session?

To speed up a shadowing process, you can employ a technique for digital tasks by asking the person to record her screen and think aloud while performing the action.

This can be easily done with tools like Loom or Descript that both have free tiers and work on many platforms.

It has a two benefits:

  • More shadowing sessions: You can ask multiple people to do it without being present,

  • Faster replay: You can play the sequence at 2X speed to see the shadowing session in a much quicker way than doing it live.

This can also work for some physical tasks. People can for example, record themselves using their smartphone if they are stationary or can use one hand to do the task while holding the smartphone in the other hand to show what they are doing.

Q&A: Research in Service Design

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  • How do I verify that there are enough people with this problem?
  • How to prioritize user research?
  • What are good structures for a prototype?
  • Does research in service design look like research in social sciences or market research?
  • How can I know if I have a good product/service market fit?

Mapping

  • How do you start a competition analysis for a new physical service?
  • What are tricks when creating digital maps with Google Maps for research?

Recruiting and compensation of research participants

  • How much should I pay research participants?
  • What are important elements to put in a screener?
  • Should feedback be free?
  • Should I use family and friends in my prototyping testing sessions?
  • How do you recruit users and testers?
  • What are the different ways to recruit research participants?

Research reports

  • How can you make your research age well?
  • How can I visualise complex ideas with simple forms?
  • What's a good structure for a research report?
  • What are examples of research reports?
  • What information should be included in a design report?
  • ▶️ What is a good structure for a slide that summarises a research report?
  • ▶️ What are different types of research insights?
  • Why do I make websites for some workshop reports?

Synthesizing research

  • ▶️ How to structure the synthesis or insights of user testings?
  • How to analyze interviews or research data?
  • What to do when I'm stuck in analysis paralysis?
  • How can I turn open questions into numbered data?
  • How do I choose the chart type to show my data?
  • ▶️ What do I do with all the research I've made?

Surveys for Service Design

  • How can I combine surveys and interviews?
  • Is a survey a good start for a research project when you don't know much about the group you want to serve?
  • How can I make street or door to door survey less akward?

Note taking during research

  • How do you take notes during user interviews?
  • Where can I find sample interviews to train my note-taking skills?
  • Should I collect more data?

Shadowing for Service Design

  • How can I speed up a shadowing session?
  • What can make or break a shadowing session?
  • What should I do after a shadowing session?