Notes Design

A bit late on this, but make sure you don't miss Steve Portigal's 4th column at Interactions Magazine, discussing the challenges of delivering design research insights to clients, and the need to take time so that they're wise, appropriate, and meaningful. Tough to pick just one sample from the article, but here's a nice bit on the notorious focus group:

Last summer I sat in on a focus-group-like session. We were at the end of a long table of people whom we had met in various observations and interviews throughout the previous week. One of the clients who had commissioned the work was sitting at our end of the table and operating the video camera--no small task, with about 12 people engaged in conversation. At one point she turned to me and asked: "We don't need to get this stuff right now, do we? Nothing's happening, so I can stop recording?" Surprised, I encouraged her to keep the video rolling. Editing in-camera may have worked for Hitchcock, but it's absolutely not the way to go for any sort of user-research process. It's not that each moment in such a session is dripping with raw data that will strongly inform any recommendations, but rather that you don't necessarily know the value of what's happening in the moment that it's happening.

Request the PDF of Hold Your Horses here.
The excellent Portigal Consulting blog here.