The third workshop focusses on understanding how to conduct usability research with a prototype or existing service. This session covers:

• designing usability research – different methods of usability research which can be used to understand whether your product meets user needs, including lab based, in-home and online usability.
• recruiting for usability research – identifying the best ways to recruit suitable participants for undertaking usability research. This includes working with a recruiter, using local organisations and recruiting through existing services.
• conducting usability research in Alpha and Beta – exploring the difference in methodologies in Alpha and Beta. This includes understanding the differences between the product in Alpha and Beta stages, and the opportunities that having a volume of users in real life offers in Beta, including analytics, A/B or multivariate testing and surveys.
• identifying key insights and turning insights into iterations – understanding how to ensure that your research findings become a key part of the cycle of iteration.

We believe that usability research should be covered in a different workshop to skills for Discovery. Discovery research is about understanding the problem and designing the right thing. Usability research covers Alpha through to Live Service and is about designing the right thing in the right way. Researchers can use skills they have developed in workshop 1 about interviewing and observation, but apply them in a different way for usability.