Learning-by-Doing: Field Studies

Field studies are the best way to learn about your customers’ goals and needs. Visiting people in their own environment can help you learn very different kinds of information from that collected in usability labs or other methods. So why have so few companies perfected the field studies method? Probably because of one or a combination of the following reasons: 1) not understanding the importance of this method, 2) planning and conducting these studies is new and foreign to them, 3) misconceptions that it is too time-consuming or expensive, or 4) they have tried field research but were unsuccessful in interpreting the piles of data collected. This tutorial will help solve these problems, leading participants through lecture and exercises. After taking this workshop, participants will be able to conduct their own successful field studies.