No time for User Research?

Unless All of the ingredients are clearly present- the risk of not researching, modeling, and defining user requirements is one not worth leaving to chance.

I attended the NYC UPA event tonight, hosted at Razorfish: “The Razorfish Transformation of Billboard.com”  – Bryan Hamilton, UX Lead, gave a polished presentation on his impressive work.

He mentioned “due to time limitations there was no time for User Research” to an audience full of … well, UPA is THE Usability Professionals’ Association… and he wasn’t crucified!? So what did he rely on instead of User Research for validating his design concepts?

He answered:

1.) A Killer Killer Team, 2.) his experience and design Instinct, and 3.) strong data provided by his trusting client.

What struck me was the confidence in his ability to deliver without the users voice and the trust in his team that they were on-game every step of the way. The solutions he shared were smart and strategic, the visual design was sharp, and the bullseye of revamping the information design was well thought through.

So was the solution effective? It seems so with metrics that are hard to argue.

Sure, Razorfish is brimming with expertise in advertising, branding, and compelling web experiences. I mean that’s their specialty, right? They have Entertainment and Media on lock-down with top staff and a client roster that any shop would envy.

So is it an act of hubris to say we’re good enough not to generate requirements through user research?

Bryan’s message was that it’s a rare occasion not to engage users and succeed in a transformative design process. Some of the rare ingredients were:

1.) A compact, seasoned all star team composed of technical, UX, and creative. He called them “allies” and commented how special to have it all.

2.) Strong focus and trust from the client to have him lead and make decisions. No layers of overhead for approval. Just drive, man.

3.) Time-boxed (a challenge and asset all in the same)

4.) Strong , objective data (gained from a wealth of info from client, Nielsen, Comscore, and Alexa)

5.) Insight to revenue stream

6.) Open mind from all (no pretense or set expectations of solution- just very clear and ambitious goals)

Lastly, he shared that the technical and design efforts ran in two parallel waterfall streams to get it all done on time. This is something I would love to hear more about. Though, he did hint that it was a point of contention internally and that Agile was proposed as the right tool for the job.

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