Presented by Lynn Holmes Howe
This is an abridgment; view the full video presentation here.
November 17, 2022

Laying off employees is the single most difficult thing leaders are asked to do. It’s never easy or painless to tell someone that he/she is no longer getting a paycheck. But you can still be empathetic, kind, and supportive.

And if you are on the other side of the desk, the one being laid off, the same sentiments apply: it’s never easy or painless. And although there are some things that are out of your control, there are some concrete suggestions that will make that transition a little more manageable. 

Jonas Cederlöf, of the University of Edinburgh, found that layoffs have negative health consequences for workers and may increase their mortality. “Job loss significantly increases expenditures for antidepressants overall,” he said. In addition to the financial aspect of losing a job, getting laid off can cause serious physical, mental, and emotional health issues, lasting long into the future, putting “a massive strain on public resources, including unemployment, healthcare, and social benefits.” Dr. Harvey Brenner of Johns Hopkins University found that for every 1% increase in the national unemployment rate, there were statistically, 37,887 more deaths, 20,240 more heart failures, 4,227 more mental hospital admissions, and 920 more suicides. 

This can be an emotional and sensitive subject, especially if you or someone in your life has been directly impacted. The following discussion serves as a reminder that there is an empathetic and caring community out there, no matter how challenging this experience might be.

How to Layoff with Empathy

How can employers, leaders, and managers better handle layoffs? Taking examples from recent news stories and personal experiences, here are six steps to help conduct layoffs with empathy and compassion.

1. Don’t let the layoffs come as a surprise. Leadership should start offering color and context of what is happening in the company, and why layoffs might be needed.
   • Open and transparent communication with the entire company is needed even more if the news is bad, and times are uncertain. This is important, not just for the employees being laid off, but also for those who are not impacted and will have an entirely different set of emotions as well. 
   • Hiding information or providing misleading, incomplete information are all likely to break your relationship even with those employees who are allowed to stay with the company.
2. Have a plan before you talk to the employee. It’s going to be a difficult conversation, and it’s important to be ready.
   • Prepare a script, brief outline, or talking points in advance. It’s best to get to the point quickly and deliver the bad news. This preparation will help you be as professional as possible under extremely difficult circumstances.
   • Have a list of answers to anticipated questions.
   • Provide each employee with any necessary paperwork, personalized with their information, whether in person or virtual. Don’t put the employee in a position where they have to ask for this paperwork.
3. As a manager, go the extra mile and make time to meet with laid-off employees one-on-one.
   • Talk through the situation with them. Show that you care and acknowledge the work that they brought to the company. Ask how you can help and listen to their feedback. 
   • After delivering the news, give them a few days to think it through. Give them the option if they are comfortable in doing so, to reach out to you at any time.  
   • While you need to clearly communicate that the decision is final, you can still be available for the impacted employees to talk through things if that would be helpful.
4. Let employees know that you are happy to provide letters of recommendation, and then make sure and write them. If you are aware of the layoffs ahead of time, you could even craft these in advance.
   • Give them proper and well-thought-through letters of recommendation.
   • Write them directly for their potential employers or LinkedIn profiles, as well as allow them to provide your contact information to potential employers for reference.
5. Help them find another job through whatever resources you might have.
   • Provide a reference or offer to make introductions.
   • Ask your network whether they know of any openings and forward them
   • Provide them with a free resume builder, free career counseling, etc.
6. Create a severance package. This can go a long way in easing the impact of being laid off. A generous package might include:
   • Additional weeks of salary
   • Company stock options 
   • Health insurance coverage
   • Pay for accumulated vacation or personal time off  
   • Deposits into 401k account
   • Access to internal job portals

Through the layoff process, managers should inform employees of what is happening and what resources are available, as well as give them access to recruiters, career coaches, and connections within your network of contacts.

As leaders and managers, it’s important to also consider the employees that remain, not only in terms of how they see their former colleagues treated and how the layoffs occurred (obviously, the more poorly handled, the bigger the impacts on morale) but also how they are feeling about the loss. Because it is a loss. Research has shown that remaining employees experience impacts on their physical and mental health similar to those who are actually laid off. They may have survivor guilt, and there will be some uncertainty about their future with the organization. Leaders need to share plans for the future of the company and communicate what’s happening to reassure those employees that things are on track and that they are valued and supported as employees. 

How to Prepare for a Layoff

On the flip side, are those employees being laid off or worried that they might be? How can you best prepare yourself, and what can and should you do if that happens?

The best preparation happens before you get that email or phone call. Here is a check-list to evaluate how prepared you are right now, as well as to point out any gaps: 

• Keep your resume current – update it after a promotion or if you have recently acquired a new skill.
• Keep your LinkedIn profile current. 
• Take time to build out your network. Join relevant job groups and professional organizations that you can tap into if needed.
• Acknowledge recruiters who reach out with related job opportunities, regardless of whether you are interested or not. You just might need those connections in the future. 
• Gather work samples to build a portfolio. 
• Keep copies of your performance reviews. These can serve as reminders of work you have done as you create or update your resume.
• Understand your benefits: healthcare, time off, flex spending, equity, and what happens to those benefits in the event of a layoff. Be on top of what exactly is included in your compensation package.
• Make a career plan and know your next step. Have you been thinking about a pivot? Is there something you are passionate about? Maybe take a look around, if it’s feasible, to explore what would be necessary to get that next job. And if there are rumors of layoffs, consider applying for jobs. Interviews may take months, and starting this process sooner rather than later, can yield great benefits.

I’ve Just Been Laid Off; Now What?

First, take a deep breath and do something that brings you stress relief. Allow yourself time to grieve; you will have a lot of emotions. Reach out and connect with others who understand what you are going through. There will be plenty of details to address. Take care of yourself first.

Understand the exit package details (severance, health coverage, COBRA, 401K) and note important dates of when you will have to take action so you don’t lose whatever your package includes.

Make a list of what you need to update/spruce up – your resume, LinkedIn, etc. Refer to the checklist above. Reach out to your network, and ask for recommendations for your LinkedIn page.

If your former company offers free career counseling as part of the exit package, sign up. You may think you’re doing all right, but emotions and grief will come in waves. Learning how to process the impact of the layoff will be important as you move forward to seek out new employment opportunities. 

Consider signing up for any webinars, classes, or events that interest you both professionally and personally. You will have more time on your hands than you’ve been accustomed to. This will ensure that you have something to do each day.  

File for unemployment on the first day that you are eligible, which is generally the first day you are no longer on the payroll.  Be aware that this can be frustrating if you’ve never had to do it before, and can take longer than you think to get through the paperwork.

While you will want to be diligent in looking for new employment, schedule (and limit!) the time you devote to finding your next work opportunity. If you have the chance to rest and restore before you charge right into your next job, do it. Volunteer, dedicate some time to your side hustle, catch up on medical appointments, commit to your hobbies, or use your free time to take an online course to learn a new skill to level up your resume or just for personal use.

About Lynn Holmes Howe:
Lynn has a B.A. in Psychology from Rutgers and started at Bell Labs in 1983 as a Technical Writer/ Systems Engineer. She transitioned to Human Factors in 1989 and then received her M.S. in Applied Psychology – Human Factors Engineering from Stevens Institute of Technology. She had a long career at AT&T: first as individual contributor, then team lead, then as manager focused on improving the wireless and entertainment buyflow & account management digital user experiences. She was laid off in October 2020 after 37 years. She then joined Glossier as Sr. Manager of UX Research in Feb 2021, focused on digital buyflow UX, and was laid off this past August after 18 months. She lives in coastal New Jersey with her husband, has two adult kids, and enjoys the beach, hiking, reading, NYC, traveling, and volunteering.

Appendix

• A Layoff Guide for Twitter Workers · TWC Newsletter (techworkerscoalition.org)
• What to do when you are laid off: A guide to before, during and after – The Washington Post
• What to Do When You Get Laid Off: 7 Crucial Steps | Career Sidekick
• Guide to Layoffs and Layoff Recovery – Job-Hunt.org
• Tips to consider before turning in your company laptop or phone when you leave your job – The Washington Post
• Life After Layoff: 40 Ideas to Motivate + Inspire During a Job Search | Career Contessa
• Laying off Employees? 10 Tips How to Do It With Empathy (kickresume.com)
• It’s Possible To Humanely Lay Off People With Empathy And Compassion (forbes.com)
• How to Lay Off Employees Script: Do’s and Don’ts – INTOO USA
• Employee layoffs and its impact on employees (thehumancapitalhub.com)
• The WorkPlace Report – Layoffs Can Affect Health, Economic Well-Being of Workers for a Long Time 

Survival Guide to Being Laid Off – Days One to Seven

Day 1:  Take a break, plan, and organize

• Do something kind for yourself: Call a friend and grab a drink or two (or three). Get a massage. Take a hike in a beautiful place. 
• Let yourself feel all your feelings; it’s important to process the emotions associated with this loss; taking at least a day to process them will give you the strength to take the next steps.
• Resist the urge to send out 100 random job applications, and instead start planning and strategizing:  What type of jobs do you want, and why? Think about who you can contact in your network that could introduce you to some companies who are hiring. Think about  anyone at your old company who can give you a testimonial or letter of recommendation.

Day 2:  Get the paperwork out of the way

• Unfortunately, there is a lot of paperwork associated with a layoff. However, it’s one of the most important items for what to do after a layoff, and it’s best to get it out of the way quickly. 
• Get your unemployment paperwork and your health insurance paperwork filled out and squared away. Even if you’ve received a severance package with a lump sum and paid COBRA, it’s a good idea to get this figured out right away. You’ll feel better immediately without these administrative tasks hanging over your head.

Day 3:  Update your resume

• Whether you hope to jump back into the same role as before, or if you plan to make a career change, every job search requires a resume refresh; spend today creating an updated resume that reflects the skills and experience you gleaned in your most recent role. 
• Wherever possible, include data and numbers to show off your accomplishments. This step is never more important that after a layoff, when you are eager to prove your value to a new employer;  If you need help with accurate accomplishments and statistics related to your last job, contact your former boss or coworkers. This is also a great networking opportunity; you can end the call by telling them that you’re actively job searching since you were laid off, and you wanted to ask if they knew any hiring managers or employers who are growing their teams right now.

Day 4:  Write a cover letter

• Take the time on Day 4 to write a fresh cover letter that highlights and expands upon the skills and experience in your resume
• Cover letters, they are a powerful tool in any job seeker’s toolbox;  when faced with candidates who possess similar qualifications, recruiters and hiring managers often turn to cover letters to help them decide which candidate to interview.
• For those who have recently been laid off, a cover letter is also a chance to explain why you are no longer in your most recent role, a line or two will suffice.

Day 5: Start spreading the news

• Once you’ve had a few days to process and take care of the administrative tasks, start reaching out to your contacts and network to let them know you are looking for work.
• Even though you may feel a sense of embarrassment about losing your job, the truth is that layoffs are a fact of life. These things happen and it doesn’t necessarily reflect what kind of employee you were.
• People can’t help you if they don’t know you’re searching, or if they don’t know that you were just laid off. Spreading the word in your professional circles is a great way to succeed faster in your job search, and some studies indicate that up to 85 percent of all jobs are filled through networking.

Day 6:  Account for your availability

• The next big thing to do after being laid off is to plan for how you’ll explain the fact that you’re job searching now. 
• Take the time to decide how you plan to articulate your layoff. Write a short, simple explanation of why you lost your job (“Thanks to budget cuts, ten percent of the company was laid off. Unfortunately, I was one of them.”) and what you hope to do next.
• Keep it brief and positive. Never badmouth or share negative details about your former employer, but do explain the situation and why the layoff occurred (restructuring, financial difficulties, etc.)

Day 7: Use your freedom wisely

• It’s often hard to relax and enjoy yourself during a layoff. Money might be tight, or the stress of the job search could be weighing on you. However, it’s wise to do your best to enjoy this time away from the daily grind. 
• Take advantage of this break to get back in shape, learn a new skill for fun, volunteer, dedicate some time to your side hustle, catch up on medical appointments, commit to your hobbies, or use your free time to take an online course to learn a new skill to level up your resume

A UX Researcher’s Guild Online Event
Moderated by Danielle Green and Jess Vice
This abridged version was written by Booker Harrap. View the full video presentation here.
Session 1 – May 12, 2023

We’ve all heard the buzzword: “research democratization” – the idea of distributing research responsibilities among team members who are not researchers. But is it a strategy that everyone should adopt? Salt Lake City-based researchers Danielle Green and Jess Vice posed this question in an informative and professional discussion. Here are some comments from that event.

“To be good at UX, you need to have empathy and compassion.  If we democratize that, we’ll all do better work and live better lives.”
– Anonymous UX Researcher

For as long as UX Research has existed, the question has been asked, “Who should conduct it?” The term “research democratization” is used to describe the practice of enabling non-researchers to perform research studies. Democratization can amplify the impact of research efforts, and allow teams to meet their research goals. However, allowing inexperienced team members to conduct tests comes with challenges. Below is a summary of the recent “Research Rumble” event where 35 UX professionals were asked to weigh in on the topic. 

In Support of Research Democratization

Multiplying Research Output:

“If you are organized and tactical, allowing you to oversee their research with minimal involvement, you can accomplish more.”
– Research Rumble Attendee

Let’s face it, there are always more research requests than resources. Delegating tactical research activities like usability testing to designers or other team members allows experienced researchers to focus on more strategic endeavors. By removing researchers as the bottleneck, time is saved. Researchers are then free to contribute to high-stakes projects, providing greater business value.

Amplifying Research Impact:

“Research democratization can help propagate the impact of research.”
– Research Rumble Attendee

When stakeholders feel ownership over research findings, it increases user empathy and buy-in. Additionally, stakeholders bring different perspectives and diverse skill sets, which can contribute to well-rounded data over time. This collaborative approach can result in a more comprehensive understanding of users and a more user-focused design process.

Improving Existing Practices:

It’s inevitable–team members outside of the research team are going to talk to users. Rather than spend our energy working against the process, it may be better for researchers to train PMs, designers, and other team members on best practices for gathering valid user feedback.  

Preparing for the Worst

“Research democratization is good planning because if the company has to downsize, it’s good to have some people with training in some research methods.”
– Research Rumble Attendee

This may not seem like a very friendly thought to researchers who want to protect their jobs, but research democratization is a safeguard from a business perspective. Having different team members with research experience ensures that some research capabilities remain within the organization, even when researchers quit or teams are restructured.

Against Research Democratization

Reducing Research Quality:

“Sometimes stakeholders, especially PM’s, just use [research] to validate their own ideas, introducing bias into the research… No data is better than garbage data.”
– Research Rumble Attendee

“Non-researcher research often requires researchers to come in and essentially do their work for them anyways because they didn’t get good data.”
– Research Rumble Attendee

There is a difference between conducting research and extracting valuable insights. One of the greatest assets of a trained researcher is their understanding of the myriad sources of bias, enabling them to design and execute tests that yield accurate data. Their training in experimental design and data analysis means their insights are more likely to reflect reality than delusions based on our assumptions. This objectivism is enhanced by a lack of direct involvement in product design. Conversely, stakeholders are often attached to their designs, feature ideas, or user assumptions. This can lead to research that only confirms what we think we know. Research projects conducted by untrained researchers are at a higher risk of returning useless or inaccurate insights, leaving researchers to repeat the trope: “No data is better than bad data.”

Investing in Operational Tools:

“As an organization gets larger it gets harder to find a balance between systemically coordinated efforts and lean factors.”
– Research Rumble Attendee

“You can only hope that the systems [you put into place] will be utilized by non-researchers doing research.”
– Research Rumble Attendee

To make research democratization successful, non-researchers must have access to appropriate tools and support systems to conduct research effectively and efficiently, and they also have to buy into using these tools and systems (which is not always a simple task). This delegation also creates a workload of instruction and oversight on the part of the researchers. Sometimes, researchers are forced to redo the work of untrained team members, which wastes time. Another important note on this topic is the general and unavoidable difficulty with finding a balance between structured process and agile research, especially in larger organizations.

Recruiting Mishaps:

“Non-researchers may not always have the patience to really recruit properly.”
– Research Rumble Attendee

Impatience, lack of research expertise, and failure to coordinate across teams can lead to recruiting the wrong users or over-recruiting the same users. Recruiting the wrong users invalidates the findings, and over-recruiting the same users can lead to skewed data or annoyed customers.

Sacrificing Other Tasks:

“Where is the extra time coming from?”
– Research Rumble Attendee

One way or another, research takes time. When designers or Product Managers are asked to conduct research, it takes time away from their work. This can lead to situations where, say in the case of a designer, you could wind up with lower-quality designs and lower-quality research.

Endangering Job Security:

Any time we teach other people how to do our jobs, we may be putting our own jobs at risk. More on this below.

Final Thoughts:

Most researchers agree that democratization is not appropriate for high-level strategic research. But for tactical research with lower risk, it might be the perfect fit. It depends on the circumstances, but on most teams, there are non-researchers who are capable of conducting valuable tests (perhaps with a little guidance). If the tools, operations, and oversight are available, you can accomplish more by democratizing research.

As a final thought,  let’s address the issue of job security. If anyone can conduct research, why keep specialized researchers on the payroll? In a recent article by Judd Antin, titled “The UX Research Reckoning is Here” the author states that UX Researchers are losing their jobs because they are not providing business value. He argues that researchers are wasting time on vague, foundational research projects and end up delivering findings that aren’t clearly actionable. Researchers can’t see the forest for the trees – they miss supporting business goals on their zealous missions to understand the user. This isn’t necessarily fair to researchers; this dynamic is often due to systemic issues in company leadership, leaving them cut off from the information and resources needed to inform these high-stakes decisions. Nonetheless, there is a valid point here: researchers need to provide business value. If researchers can focus bandwidth on research that reduces the risk of costly business ventures, it becomes easy to justify in-house researchers as specialized team members. It could be that, by enabling designers and product managers to conduct tests for lower-risk projects, researchers are actually better able to protect their jobs in the long run.

. . .

About Danielle Green (she/her): Danielle is a product and UX professional specializing in research and strategy (high growth, product-market fit). She is an Instructor and mentor with eight years in product, and five years leading teams. As a professor of practices at Claremont Graduate University, Danielle teaches the core courses for the User Experience MA in Applied Cognitive Psychology. She is also the founder and director of the Claremont UXR Laboratory (claremontuxrlab.com), a graduate student lab for UX Research, and has extensive experience in many domains, such as: e-commerce, SaaS, Edtech, Virtual Reality, and hardware.

About Jess Vice (they/them): Jess loves working with people and is curious and excited to understand what drives them to make decisions. Jess offers a deep background in qualitative and quantitative research, user experience best practices, and high-level strategic planning and is particularly good at making meaning from research and using it to create data-informed strategies for creative and development teams. Jess is also intensely aware that the first point of contact is always the internal teams they work with — if a relationship is not built on trust, they know they won’t be a successful researcher and strategist. Jess has been working in marketing and advertising, CRO, SaaS, and product for over 14 years, and is consistently thrilled with how much more there is to learn.

About Booker Harrap (he/him): Booker recently graduated with a master’s degree in UX Research from Claremont Graduate University. He is currently a UX Researcher with Atticus Capital and is working with the Games & Interactive Technology Lab on an emotional wellness program for middle school students using gamified mobile applications. Booker is actively seeking employment opportunities in UX research. For more information,  please send an email to hire@uxrguild.com.

Moderated by Helen Lee Lin as part of the UX Researchers’ Guild
This is an abridgment; view the full video presentation here.
Session 6 – May 6, 2023

When applying for jobs, what one thing are recruiters or hiring managers looking for? The simple, one-word answer is: impact. In this final session of her “Farewell Academia: Hello UXr” series, Helen Lee Lin discussed this all-important topic and how best to frame it in portfolios and resumes.

What is Impact and Why is It Important?

Impact is anything that changed because you contributed or participated in it – any way you’ve managed to move the needle. It doesn’t have to be increasing sales by a certain percentage, reaching a certain number of people, or getting 2,000 users through your product. It can manifest in small ways: whether through administrative, academic, or industry work. 

It may come as a surprise, but impact is one of the things you can control during the job-hunting process. In the last session, recruiter Ploy Hermithian shared that much of the recruiting process is quite superficial. Ploy talked about connecting job candidates to hiring managers based on where people lived or what university they attended. As odd as it might seem, the determining factor as to whether you get your next job could be as random as that, and not the accomplishments on your resume. 

But when you consider that recruiters might take shortcuts like this, it makes you wonder: “What can I do to help control this narrative? How can I ensure they notice those connections?” Presenting yourself well online, and on your Linkedin profile resume, is a huge factor. Make it easy for recruiters and hiring managers to find this information. This will help them see your potential. Because there is a lot of jargon in UX research, recruiters or people working in a business context may not understand what you’re trying to communicate. If you can translate the impact understandably, it will help cement the intention of a line on your CV or resume that much more quickly.

It can also increase your confidence in interviews and, in turn, influence your negotiations for compensation.

How to Talk about Impact

Most of us focus a resume on tasks completed: Made copies; Organized files in the university’s filing system; or Completed forms for IRB approvals, for example. And while these tasks were necessary to complete the job you were hired for, they don’t clearly communicate what was accomplished by doing those duties.

The most common way to show impact on a resume is to Add Numbers – to quantify what you’ve done. For example, if you conducted research, instead of just saying that your duty was to interview participants, include how many people you interviewed. Doing this will show your breadth of experience in how to address unexpected occurrences. 

If you have presented at several conferences, this will show you can convey yourself verbally and reach a broader audience than just within a classroom setting. These numbers will help show how much you’ve done, and for how long, and how many people were affected. This is an easy way to show impact.

For example, instead of listing: “Reported on committee activities, every quarter,” be more specific with: ”Published quarterly report on committee activities to a professional audience of 10,000+ members.”

Another way to extend the discussion of impact on a resume is to go further explain the resulting effect. Ploy Hemrathiran pointed out in the previous session the importance of presenting your research in a way that’s Understandable to a Five-year-old, without a lot of insider jargon. Recruiters are not researchers and may not understand the details of analysis and the different methods you use, nor will they be able to appreciate those subtleties.

For example: let’s say you want to include that you instructed 1,000 students, every semester for three different courses. This would be using the numerical method. A five-year-old might understand the concept of school and that there could be different subjects. But what is that exactly mean? You could simplify it by saying, “Taught students how people interact with each other in a course that lasted for a year.” 

Helen shared that she once worked in a development office as an intern where she was responsible for correctly inputting the addresses of potential donors. That would mean nothing to a five-year-old. But if she said instead, “Contacted potential donors who might be willing to finance the building of an auditorium for all of the students,” that’s something that is going to be more understandable. Of course, don’t use the exact language you would use for a child, because your resume is for adults. But think of noting what the specific effect or goal was instead of leaving it up to people’s imaginations.

Using the previous example, instead of listing, “Reported on committee activities every quarter,” using this method, this could be stated as the following: “Informed colleagues of resources for professional development by regular newsletters.” 

A third method, “Look into the Crystal Ball,” revolves around the idea that expected impact is just as important as impact that has already occurred. To do this, look at the task that was done, and then extrapolate to what you’re expecting to happen. 

Again, with the previous example, “Reported on committee activities every quarter,” could be expressed as “Guided colleagues to funding sources, publication, networking opportunities, potential jobs, and other resources for professional development by writing regular newsletters.”

These examples show the impact or end result at the front of the statement and how this was accomplished towards the end. But you can also reverse the order and have the duty first, and then the impact at the end.

What Does Impact Look Like?

Resumes don’t need to be comprehensive or focused on how you spent most of your time. Nor do you need to list every duty you’ve had at a particular job. Instead, look for ways you have influenced or changed things. 

To find your impact, move past your specific job duties. These can be big or small or even preventative in nature. Consider these impactful tasks below within the following areas: Administrative, Academic, and Industry. Listed below are some examples of how impact might look in these areas. Notice that each statement includes an action verb, putting the focus on the efforts made to complete each task.

• Administrative:
  • Improved an application form to be more understandable, efficient, and logical
  • Pioneered the inclusion of diverse/inclusive answers on demographic questions in the org or team
  • Successfully lobbied for additional budget to _______
  • Prevented delays and saved time with accurate data entry, regular moderation of files
  • Boosted org morale and created networking opportunities by planning social activities
  • Convinced organization to begin using _________ software or vendor
  • Wrote instructions or made a video to help colleagues learn how to do something
• Academic: 
  • Inspired undergrads to pursue a particular career or take on graduate school
  • Communicated complex ideas to layperson audiences on the fly, verbally and in writing
  • Optimized information presentation and application to encourage learning
  • Trained/mentored future scientists, professionals, etc.
  • Led or managed a laboratory of junior scientists, researchers, etc.
  • Collaborated with cross-functional roles to achieve ___
  • Evangelized new tools or methods
  • Introduced different ways of doing or measuring _______
• Industry: 
  • Affected power users, or users whose lives were changed by the product
  • Increased [category of metrics – success rate, satisfaction] rather than specific numbers
  • Provided foundation for design principles
  • Informed product roadmap or feature’s strategic direction
  • Built team empathy for users
  • Uncovered additional questions or research areas
  • Identified opportunities for improvement
  • Shifted the needle on ___ (before and after comparisons)

While these impact statements aren’t necessarily quantifiable, they still have meaning and are impact. People in business or the tech industry might say, “Well, your experience is not the type that we want, and yet you have 15 or 20 years of experience.” Just don’t be the one to discount your accomplishments! If you can help others see your potential, then you already have something to be proud of.

How to Create Impact

To illustrate how to create impact, Helen shared the following story:

“There was an initiative I tried to start at work. We conducted research to decide what it would look like, wrote a proposal, and got buy-in from the levels that were above us. And we actually launched the initiative. But unfortunately, due to several factors, it didn’t take off. One of the two people I was working with had to go on a long leave of absence, and the other one moved off the team so we could no longer execute it together. At the same time, we onboarded some new people and started initiatives for them that superseded the original initiative that I had created. But even so, we did go through all the time and effort to survey people to find out what they wanted, to actually propose the initiative, and then develop how it would look.”

Even though the outcome was not what she had hoped for, Helen still chose to make it a line on her resume and framed it this way: “Designed a peer feedback initiative for fellow UXRs and revamped it based on iterative feedback.” She wasn’t able to take it further and say where it would have gone since they had ended the initiative. But including her efforts as a line item showed the intended impact and the potential for things she could do in the future.

Here are some other considerations for creating impact:

• Don’t settle for the status quo
• Ask ‘Why not?’
• Be one of the first to do something
• Stay at the forefront of trending topics in your field
• Fix something that’s broken
• Mentor or train someone
• Share knowledge, evangelize perspectives
• Write or create something – disseminate it
• Change someone’s mind
• Give someone direction
• Connect people
• Discover what’s missing and fill the gap

Ideas are impact, and following through with them is an even greater way to have increased impact. You can be the first one to do something, and then show everybody else the way, or you can be one of the ones to latch onto it, and then take it even further. In either case, you are contributing to positive impact.

About Helen: Helen Lee Lin received her Ph.D. in Social Psychology and has worked in applied research in adolescent literacy and children’s nutrition, and with combat veterans with traumatic brain injuries. She took a career pause while living in Ankara, Turkey for 6 years and then transitioned to UXR in 2018. She volunteered for Hack for LA for six months and broke into industry in January 2021 with a contract at TikTok. She is currently a contract UXR at Meta, working on Facebook Groups.

Moderated by Helen Lee Lin with guest speaker Ploy Hemrathiran
A presentation of the UX Researchers’ Guild
This is an abridgment; view the full video presentation here.
Session 5 – April 15, 2023

In Session #5 of the “Farewell Academia, Hello UXr”  series Helen Lee Lin welcomed guest speaker TEKsystems onboarding coach and specialized digital creative recruiter Ploy Hemrathiran. In this session, Ploy talked about ​what to include in a LinkedIn profile, how to work with recruiters, and discussed ​recruiters’ goals when reviewing a potential candidate’s portfolio.

How to Optimize Your LinkedIn Profile

Keep in mind that Linkedin is a social media platform to connect with other business people and be sure and include information to make those connections more meaningful and effective.

A common mistake when working with a recruiter is not having a LinkedIn profile. A couple of years ago, that might have been okay. But not having a Linkedin now makes a recruiter’s job more difficult. Hiring managers or recruiting coordinators use LinkedIn to screen potential candidates. They will take a look at your LinkedIn to make sure that it matches your resume. For example, if your resume says you are a UX researcher, but your Linkedin says you are a Research Associate, could indicate a red flag. Ensure that your resume and your Linkedin match.

Be sure you’re representing yourself at the best. Presentation does matter. This includes having a professional image as your profile picture. It doesn’t have to be done in a studio, but it should be clear, not blurry.

Another thing that is often overlooked on Linkedin is recommendations. As I look at someone’s Linkedin and see they are at Amazon where I know they are looking for a UX researcher, I might contact them to see if you know this person. Having recommendations and professional references is important and can help solidify those connections you’re trying to make. 

While it is obvious to include your current and past work histories, recruiters also want to know about you; who you are, and what you‘ve done. If, for example, you graduated from a school that specializes in AI or AR, that might make a difference. But recruiters will take maybe 20-60 seconds to look at resumes and profiles. Be sure and highlight what matters most without making it too long. But it has to grab my attention. 

Unfortunately, many people leave the “About Me” section blank. We want to know what you’ve done, but we also want to know what makes you unique. Even hobbies or side gigs can highlight additional skill sets that a recruiter is looking for. I typically recommend two bullet points in this section. 

As a recruiter, I use Control F to find what I am looking for. If my client wants someone with B2B experience with Cloud software, I’ll Control F “Cloud.” Or if I want to know if someone has used internal tools, I’ll Control. F “Internal”. If I don’t find these keywords, I’ll probably assume that this person is not a great fit. 

If the client wants someone who has worked with Salesforce before, that’s very easy and quick to find. Sometimes our clients are very specific about what types of background they’re looking at. So when you leave a blank, it’s almost like a guessing game.

Be sure and note whether your work is a contract or full-time. This helps recruiters understand your availability. If interested, they can reach out for more information as to when your contracts end and set up a follow-up call.

Lastly, post content! And like other people’s posts. This will help boost your posts and utilize your network more effectively. 

Partnering with Recruiters

Partnering with a recruiter implies a relationship. And with any relationship, it takes effort on both parts to make it work. You can help your recruiter, and thus yourself, with a few easy steps.

I interact with upwards of 100 people each week, whether by phone or email. And because I’m in staffing, everything moves quickly, and as much as I would love to remember everyone’s name, it can be challenging. So be intentional in your interactions.  

First, let your recruiter get to know you. Make yourself memorable in some way. My name is Ploy, which I describe as rhyming with “employ” or “deploy.” This way, someone will more than likely remember me. Make a connection in some way that stands out so that a recruiter will remember you. 

Because a relationship is a two-way street, take time to get to know your recruiter. Do they work for a staffing agency or are they from internal recruiters? Is it a contract? Is it full-time? Do they have a special specialization, or focus on different skill sets?

As you share your own skill sets, be careful to avoid saying you are open to anything and everything. That might seem like a good mindset to have. But if you want to go into Ux research, I would be very intentional about your journey and what want to do. As a recruiter, this will help me identify what jobs would be best for you. 

Because I interact with so many people, it may take longer to respond than I would like. That’s why taking the time for a recruiter to get to know you is so important. It makes it so much easier to place people in the perfect positions. 

Even though you may not hear from a recruiter as often as you would like, please know that they do care and want what is best for you. Unfortunately, there is a misconception that recruiters only care about themselves. That has not been my experience. Because of this, don’t be afraid to reach out to them for any updates via text or a LinkedIn message if you don’t hear back in a timely manner. 

To make this communication easier, I highly recommend asking about your recruiter’s preferred method of communication. Some people will say you can give them a call, while others will say they will reach out to you. Be sure to ask those questions.

And if a particular recruiter doesn’t find anything for you, check their network to see if they know someone with whom you might be able to connect. Finding a great job is all about networking, and a recruiter can be a big part of that process.

Tips for UX Research Case Studies/Portfolios

• Format:
  While a pdf is acceptable, it’s becoming more of an expectation to have a portfolio or a website. From my perspective, I look to see how easy it is to read. Can I get the gist of what this person is doing within two minutes? I look for a clean research portfolio that is easy to navigate. Whatever format you choose, make sure that your fonts are consistent throughout your presentation. Your name and section headings might be in a different font, but the rest should be in an easy-to-read format. Also ensure that the placement of information (for example, section headings, deliverables, etc) is consistent from page to page.

• What is your role?
  Sometimes people forget to include what their role is. I need to be able to see it right off the bat.

• Research question:
  Include your research question early on before you get into the process. What is the problem that you are trying to solve? Make this a separate section near the beginning of your portfolio to make it stand out and easy to find.

• Timeline and Collaboration Partners:
  As a recruiter, I look at your timeline, and the reason for it, and if you worked with anybody else. Who were your collaboration partners? This might include working cross-collaboration with product managers, developers, engineers, and designers. If you’re transitioning from Academia, you might not have those opportunities. But I also want to know if you partnered with others.

• Background:
  This might include improving order, size, and communications for particular products. Simplify your explanations using no more than four or five sentences. To help readers know more than a quick summary of findings, direct them to deeper information. This is where a website is helpful. You can embed hyperlinks to include additional analysis. You won’t lose content and readers will clearly understand what you have done.

• Explain Your Processes:
  As I read through your resume, one of the things I will look for is your processes. If I don’t see it there, that’s where your portfolio comes in. You can also use bullet points to show the steps you took to address your research question. Again, this breaks up all the text and makes it easy to read.

• Incorporate images:
  While images in a Ux portfolio may not be as important as they are in a design presentation, adding pictures will do two things: break up the text and make your portfolio more interesting to look at. A helpful, and perhaps more relative, visual might be a screenshot from a spreadsheet to explain data or processes. An image could also be used to explain the background, a summary of findings, methods, tools, process, data, analysis, and survey questions. Having some images will help recruiters understand better what you’re trying to communicate.

• Added Information:
  Depending on the processes you use, describing the environment of your testing, for example, if it was done remotely, could help to explain outcomes. A remote test does not allow participants to ask clarifying questions which could affect the data. Giving explanations like this will help recruiters understand your findings better. This will also help you advocate for your own research if the data is clean and easy for your stakeholder to digest.

• Conclusions, Reflections, and Lessons Learned:
  Use the STAR approach when designing your portfolio by explaining the Situation, Task, Action, and Result. But also add your reflections. What did you find that could have been more helpful? What could have been that next step? I love seeing conclusions and impact. This is the solution to the research question that I look for in the beginning. Here again, I will use Control F and look for your recommendations to solve the problem. This might be in a separate paragraph but should be easy to find.In addition, share what you learned from the study. Stay focused on your research question and try to not make your case study overly long. It can also be helpful to include any challenges you faced. I know that research is not smooth sailing all the time. Understanding how you met and addressed those challenges helps me understand you even better.

While every portfolio will look different, above all, do all you can to take the guesswork out of the process for whoever may be looking at your presentation. The easier you make it for them, the more likely a recruiter or hiring manager will want to work with you.

About Helen: Helen Lee Lin received her Ph.D. in Social Psychology and has worked in applied research in adolescent literacy and children’s nutrition, and with combat veterans with traumatic brain injuries. She took a career pause while living in Ankara, Turkey for 6 years and then transitioned to UXR in 2018. She volunteered for Hack for LA for six months and broke into industry in January 2021 with a contract at TikTok. She is currently a contract UXR at Meta, working on Facebook Groups.

Moderated by Helen Lee Lin as part of the UX Researchers’ Guild
This is an abridgment; view the full video presentation here.
Session 4 – February 11, 2023

Once you have wrapped up fielding your UX project, it’s time to dive into analysis and reporting! In this session, Helen Lee Lin shared examples of UXR portfolios and talked briefly about the level of detail, storytelling, and presentation resources.

UX Analysis Guide

The first thing to look at is the depth of analysis. Here are some tips to ensure that you are on the right path.

While you may be familiar with analysis in the world of academia, expect that you’ll spend far less time analyzing data in industry. For an interview study (8-12 participants), plan on about 2-3 days to synthesize data, which may overlap with study fielding and reporting timeline.

One thing to remember is that stakeholders prize timely insights. But don’t be afraid to advocate for the time you need – just be reasonable. Consider providing “quick insights” or “initial insights” when there is time pressure so stakeholders will know you are actively working on the project. Then, follow up with a deeper dive and higher-fidelity shareout if needed.

Sometimes leads or stakeholders have made a go/no-go decision, and further reporting will no longer be relevant. Keep lines of communication open to understand their timeline and how it corresponds with what you have planned.

While it is preferable to have more than one researcher on a project, you’ll likely be the only one. You probably won’t be tagging/coding data with other raters or attempting inter-rater reliability.

Key Features of UX Analysis

As you’re doing your analysis, here are some key points to consider.

You won’t dissect every bit of information, but you are looking for patterns. You’re looking for information that answers your main research questions. This will help provide direction for your stakeholders in their decision-making. Look for signals that speak to any of those things. 

Perhaps your data scientist has questions they want answered with qualitative data. They might have some specific insights from the data that they’ve collected. But they don’t know why it’s happening. You can help by looking for answers along those lines.

Speak to your stakeholders. Your manager is usually tapped in and can guide you there if necessary. Your product manager usually has these questions in mind as well.

Be on the lookout for surprising and interesting insights. Maybe it was not something you set out to study, but then it turned up in the patterns you’re missing from your data. If something piques your interest, ask yourself: “Is this an example that would make a good story?”

It’s common for a user research team to point out what designers or engineers have done wrong. Look for things that your team or product is doing well. You know these team members have been working for months to design and build what you’re studying. The last thing you want to do is to tear apart their work.

You also want to know what’s working well for the users. You don’t want to break the good experience they are having. As you iterate on the product and start changing things, try to preserve either the general aspect of what was working well for the user, or the experience itself.

Make special note of customer requests and new questions for future research that arise. These can point to the root problem that the users want solved. You may not be able to meet every request, especially if it is just one person that wants it, but identifying the problem will be helpful in the long run.

Think About Your Audience

As you think about the deliverable, the presentation you’re putting together, your audience will generally be your first question. Your presentation may vary if it’s an interview presentation. So, depending on the company you interview with, you may speak only to other researchers. But you could present to an entire product team, including engineers and designers. Ask your recruiter or hiring manager who will be present to know how to direct your presentation. 

If it’s a presentation for your entire workplace, keep it general. Include any research-related details in an appendix for researchers, because those are the questions they will have in mind. But you don’t want to distract the non-researchers with that extra information.

Recruiters typically spend less than 30 seconds on a resume. It might be as little as six or seven seconds to see if they should triage a particular regimen, or if they need to look deeper. When it comes to portfolios, managers might give it a glance for about three minutes before deciding if they see potential in what you can bring to their team or organization. Provide information as succinctly as possible and make it easy to find. Your project may not be deemed relevant at first, but if you have something that piques their interest, that could be the foot in the door to score that interview.

Creating Portfolio Case Studies

The first thing that anyone will see is your title. Give special attention to how you present yourself and choose a title that conveys the expected impact or POV. Try to get information on the users to make it relevant.  Some examples might be:

• “Optimizing new user onboarding…”
• “Understanding young adult creators’ community needs…”
• “Identifying gaps in admins’ moderation tools…”

Play to your strengths. If you have a niche market, include it. Ask yourself: “What makes this case study distinct from others or showcases special skills?” Then be specific: “Diary study and moderated interviews, teens 13-17, APAC market,” for example.

Explain your role in the project. If you were not the lead on the project, clearly identify which parts of the project you owned and what was done by others.

You will want to include the titles, but not the names, of your stakeholders’ and which cross-functional roles you worked with. This could include:

• Common: PM (product manager), EM (engineering manager), ENG (engineers), UXD/PD (designers), UXW/CD (content/writers), DS (data scientists), Marketing/Analysts/Insights
• Also possible: C-suite, Directors, Heads of…, Leads, Strategists

There are several processes for creating your portfolio case study: the collaboration process, the decision-making process, and the research process. Each needs to be addressed and communicated to your stakeholders.

The collaboration process involves identifying how you kept stakeholders well-informed and when you sought any necessary alignment with them. Other questions to consider are: How did you gain stakeholder buy-in, and how did you manage your stakeholders?

The decision-making process presents the steps you took to gather information. What information did you need and how did you gather it? What decisions did you make as you scoped your project, and why?

Finally is the research process.  What were your constraints? Budget, time, recruitment difficulties? What blockers did you run into while fielding? How did you solve or pivot?

If under NDA, keep findings high-level or change variables/numbers. This may mean being vague or simply describing the impact this finding would have. Update your impact as time passes as you see new effects of your research.

No portfolio is perfect. Take a hard look at what you’ve done and plan what you’d do differently next time. Be transparent and honest about mistakes. What did you learn from your mistakes? What steps have you taken, or will take, to improve in the future?

Visually Appealing Portfolios

As researchers, not designers, your content is more important than showing designs. However, visual considerations are still important for your audience’s user experience. Consider the ease of finding key information, including headings, labels, and putting sections in a logical order. Be mindful of font type, the color of the text, and background and alignment, all of which will affect the readability of your text. 

Communicate information but avoid large blocks of text. Break up your text by bolding key phrases or using bullet points. And lastly, proofread for grammar and spelling! Ask friends who are unfamiliar with your work to review for understandability, accidentally omitted information and typos.

Portfolio/Presentation Resources

The following are some presentation resources that Helen has used. Most are free, with some additional resources available for a fee.

• Free slide templates that come with professionally designed layouts, icons, and images
  • Slidescarnival, Slidesgo, Slidesmania, Canva
• Free stock photos
  • Unsplash, Pexels, Pixabay, Nappy.co, Freepik, The Noun Project, more resources here
• Free icons/graphics
  • Icons8, Flaticon, The Noun Project, Drawkit, Storyset, Undraw, Opendoodles, Blush.design, StreamlineHQ
• Other helpful presentation resources
  • Mockdrop, ThisPersonDoesNotExist, DiverseUI, LottieFiles, MOV to GIF

Tips for an Interview Presentation

If you’re doing your presentation as part of a job interview, Helen offers the following tips:

• Reduce text and voice-over details instead
• Spread information out across more slides
• Include checkpoints where you pause for questions
• Include slides that emphasize key takeaways
• Include slides with pullout quotes from participants, or interesting statistics
• Illustrate with screenshots of the UI that you’re discussing and be sure to label them clearly and accurately
• Add more images, graphs, and icons to break up text
• Place additional details in an appendix or appendices

Tips for a Work Presentation

If the deck will be shared throughout your company, here are some additional considerations:

• Add a TL;DR (Too Long, Don’t Read) or executive summary.
  • Summary of key insights
  • Similar to abstracts in academia, but with less focus on background and methods
• (If relevant) include a success story from your participants, and tie it into insights or the recommendations you’ll be making.
• Use example scenarios, give names to the users or personas – make the info “sticky” for your audience.
• Add diagrams and graphs to illustrate concepts
• Include hero quotes and video clips from participants
• Illustrate with screenshots of the UI that you’re discussing
  • Be sure to label them clearly and accurately
  • Tell stakeholders what the product is doing well (don’t tear apart Design and Eng’s hard work)
• Add recommendations – where should your stakeholders go from here?
• Place additional details in an appendix or appendices.

About Helen: Helen Lee Lin received her Ph.D. in Social Psychology and has worked in applied research in adolescent literacy and children’s nutrition, and with combat veterans with traumatic brain injuries. She took a career pause while living in Ankara, Turkey for 6 years and then transitioned to UXR in 2018. She volunteered for Hack for LA for six months and broke into industry in January 2021 with a contract at TikTok. She is currently a contract UXR at Meta, working on Facebook Groups.

Moderated by Helen Lee Lin as part of the UX Researchers’ Guild
This is an abridgment; view the full video presentation here.
Session 3 – January 7, 2023

Once you have completed a research plan, which is aligned with the goals of the stakeholders, and have chosen your methodology, it’s time to recruit and field participants for your UX research study. In this session, Helen discussed screeners, incentives, interviews, cardsorts, and diary studies. 

To begin, she offered the following tips to aid in this effort:

• Due to the high rate of no-shows in some segments of users, consider over-recruiting. Plan on over-recruiting by 15-20% for diary studies, especially if the study lasts longer than one week or if tasks present a considerable burden.
• Consider recruiting distinct and extreme segments (users versus non-users, power users versus newbies, users who feel somewhat strongly to very strongly about X topic).
• Place knockout questions near the beginning when logical.
• For qualitative studies: Use 1-2 open-ended questions to vet the participant for insightfulness, level of detail, fluency of thought, organization of information as well as  what POV they can offer.
• UserTesting: break your segments into narrow recruitment “audiences” to better distribute recruitment between gender and age groups.

She also shared two common mistakes that can mar your recruiting: not considering who should be in your sample, using leading questions when screening, or giving away the study topic in the screener intro.

Using Screeners in UX Research

If you know the participants you will be interviewing, a screener may not be needed. But if you don’t and need to recruit outside your organization or a known pool of users, use this tool before signing on with people for an upcoming study. 

In looking at questions to use in a screener, move beyond yes and no queries. If you were screening participants to use a mountain biking app, for example, a question such as “Have you ever ridden a bike?” clues in the participant as to what you’ll be studying. If they’re motivated to get into your study because they wish to be paid, or for some other reason, they know to respond, “Yes.” These kinds of pointed questions, therefore, would not be ideal. It’s better to hide the target behavior of interest or the target attitude of interest and not make it so obvious. 

A better question for the above example would be, “Which of these have you done?” and then list options such as: “Rode a mountain bike; Cooked food; Called a friend; or Bought a ticket.”

The best approach to screen for this example, however, would be to ask questions along the lines of: “In the recent past, have you participated in any of the following activities at least once a month?” with options such as: 

• Completed a day hike
• Went mountain biking 
• Trained for a 5K
• Used a single-person kayak
• Swam for 30 minutes
• Attended a sports clinic

This route is specific and targets the type of person that you want. Check with your stakeholders to know how engaged of a user  that person needs to be for the upcoming study. Using this last approach, you can hide your desired response among other specific responses. This is certainly not the only question you could ask to achieve this goal. But this example shows a much more effective way to identify participants that would be target users of a mountain biking app.

Compensation for UX Research Study Participants

If you find people are not as willing to participate as you had hoped, look at what you are offering as an incentive or compensation. Consider a non-monetary benefit that the organization can offer to these individuals. Compensations or incentives will increase trust and communicate that you do value their feedback. Offering compensation of some kind is one of the best practices,  

Surveys and Unmoderated Interviews for UX Research

An unmoderated interview is a study that can be run on User Testing or on UserZoom, where the participant is usually either voice- or video-recorded. Similar to a survey, participants respond to a series of questions. In this scenario, you are not there to correct them if they go off course, you can’t probe them further if they don’t go into enough detail nor can you redirect them if they misunderstand the question.

Here are some tips to make un-moderated interviews work for you:

• Do a soft launch with a small N, then review the data or recordings to ensure participants understand all the instructions and questions and that all questions/images/skip logic are programmed correctly.
• Make sure participants understand what they are giving feedback on.
• Use carefully labeled & highlighted screenshots or photos of the experience they are responding to.

Some common mistakes that can and should be addressed before launching an un-moderated interview include:

• Using the wrong/broken/duplicate links
• Not allowing ‘share’ or preview access to Figma/Google files
• Writing unclear instructions or questions
• Using ambiguous or idiomatic phrases with international markets
• Not triple-checking branching and skipping logic

A last consideration is to instruct participants to record in a quiet, well-lit space and to check that their microphones are not covered up. The recording needs to be the best it can since it will be your main source of data.

In-depth Moderated Interviews for UX Research (IDIs)

The ideal scenario when running moderated interviews is to record the session or have another researcher who is also a trained note-taker. This will free you up to focus on participants’ expressions and nonverbal queues helping you to know when to probe more deeply. 

But sometimes you won’t have this ideal situation and will do all this by yourself. Whether you’re on your own or have the luxury of a second person or a recording of the interview, it’s always a good idea to take time to debrief time after the first one or two participants. Set aside an hour or so right after those first couple of participants to see how many questions you were able to get through. You might find that there are questions you can throw out while prioritizing or rewording others that participants seem to find confusing. You can then complete the rest of your interviews with a more streamlined set of questions and go back to the more low-priority questions if there’s time. 

Some common mistakes to be aware of with moderated interviews include the following:

• Not reminding participants to download needed software,forgetting to prep needed devices ahead of the session
• Not including an initial icebreaker with “easy” questions about them
• Noting the participant’s talking speed, whether they will require reining in or encouragement to speak
• Talking over/interrupting participants during quotable moments
• Spending too much time trying to build rapport or establish commonalities: this is an interview, not a conversation with a friend. Plan on listening at least 75% of the length of the interview.
• Sticking too rigidly to scripted questions (it’s okay to go off-script and dive into a tangent, especially if you have saturation on research questions from previous participants)
• Asking a scripted question about something they’ve already answered, making participants feel like you weren’t listening
• Leading the participant with biased phrasing, or using too many examples

Using Cardsorts for UX Research

If using cardsorts, conduct these in-person whenever possible or with screen share recording allowing participants to think out loud as they sort the cards. This is really where your insights will come from. After the session, run the analysis to see how they grouped the cards. It’s also important to know why they’ve chosen to group them a certain way, because people may group cards similarly, but not have the same reason for doing so. And don’t be afraid to jump in and ask any questions that may come to mind during this process

Some other considerations are to have participants review the cards they placed under each category at the end and make final adjustments to their categorizations before submitting the cardsort. If you intend to ask follow-up questions about specific cards (e.g., “Were there any cards that belong to more than one category?” or “Were any cards difficult to understand?”), ask them before the cardsort is submitted so they can look back at their sorted cards.

If you are running your cardsorts as an un-moderated study, ensure that the text is as clear as possible and that if examples are necessary, participants know where to find those examples. 

Some common mistakes with this method might be: including too few or too many cards (the task typically takes 10-20 minutes); not vetting the text on the cards which could cause ambiguity; and not providing context or examples for cards that may require some explanation.

Diary Studies for UX Research

Think of a diary study as a variable that you track on a daily or regular basis. If people have kept a calorie counter or food diary or tracked the number of steps they walk every day, that’s a form of a diary study. For participants to follow through with recording their experiences, make it simple and require no more than 10 to 15 minutes each day, with the initial onboarding questions taking a bit longer.

When using diary studies, keep the tests clear and make the study no more than 8 to 10 days long. The length is crucial because there’s going to be a lot of attrition unless you have highly invested users who are engaged and willing to do something for longer than that. In academia, this might include participants from your department at your university, people who are basically a more adaptive audience and would likely be available for a longer study. In industry, plan on a shorter study –  no more than 10 days. After that, there would be a lot of drop-off, and you would still need to compensate them accordingly. If questions were not thorough enough, invite these participants to come back for post-study interviews. These might include participants who offered interesting insights or those with very different points of view. During these later interviews, dive deeper into things only touched on in the diary process.

About Helen: Helen Lee Lin received her Ph.D. in Social Psychology and has worked in applied research in adolescent literacy and children’s nutrition, and with combat veterans with traumatic brain injuries. She took a career pause while living in Ankara, Turkey for 6 years and then transitioned to UXR in 2018. She volunteered for Hack for LA for six months and broke into industry in January 2021 with a contract at TikTok. She is currently a contract UXR at Meta, working on Facebook Groups.