DOORBELLS, DANGER, AND DEAD BATTERIES
USER RESEARCH WAR STORIES
Steve Portigal
Doorbells, Danger, and Dead Batteries
User Research War Stories
By Steve Portigal
Rosenfeld Media, LLC
457 Third Street, #4R
Brooklyn, New York
11215 USA
On the Web: www.rosenfeldmedia.com
Please send errors to: [email protected]
Publisher: Louis Rosenfeld
Managing Editor: Marta Justak
Interior Layout Tech: Danielle Foster
Cover Design: The Heads of State
Indexer: Marilyn Augst
Proofreader: Sue Boshers
© 2016 Steve Portigal
All Rights Reserved
ISBN: 1-933820-34-9
ISBN-13: 978-1-933820-34-7
LCCN: 2016955132
Printed and bound in the United States of America
This book is dedicated to Anne, Sharna, Cheryl, Bruce, Talia, and Arianna who fill my life with a bounty of story-worthy experiences.
HOW TO USE THIS BOOK
Who Should Read This Book?
The stories in this book will appeal broadly, but the lessons these stories offer are most valuable to people in the world of product development who spend time talking to users. Researchers, designers, product managers, software developers, marketers and beyond—anyone who is learning from people in order to do a better job at creating a thing should read this book. While someone with more experience interviewing users will likely see more connections to their own experience, the lessons here for doing better research are valuable to anyone who does—or will do—user research.
What’s in This Book?
Each chapter deals with one challenging aspect of user research. A chapter begins with an overview of the topic and is then illustrated by several different war stories by different authors. The chapter concludes with a list of takeaways that show you how to apply the lessons of the stories to your own user research practice.
What Comes with This Book?
This book’s companion website (
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
What are war stories?
War stories are personal accounts of the challenges researchers have out in the field, where mishaps inevitably occur. The term originated around 1839 and is used broadly to describe the types of stories shared across many professions and communities, not just warriors and user researchers.
Why is this book about user research that went wrong?
There is a lot of material about the right way to do user research. But, in reality, sometimes things do go wrong (or to be precise, differently than intended). There’s a lot to be learned from what actually happens, warts-and-all. With this insight, you might be able to prevent something unwanted from happening in the future, or at least have a better way of dealing with it the next time it comes up.
Should I read this book in one sitting?
While there are a lot of stories here, they are mostly pretty short, so you could binge-read them if you chose, but it’s probably better to take it one chapter at a time. This gives you the opportunity to digest and reflect before diving in again.
Are there more stories?
Yes. The original archive is at www.portigal.com/category/series/warstories, and it includes stories that aren’t in this book. As people contribute new stories, they’ll be posted at that link, and at this book’s companion website (
Can I submit my own story?
Yes, please! You can email story pitches to [email protected]. Remember, these are stories about fieldwork (not about focus groups or usability tests). These stories are not about your research findings, but rather the kind of experiences that you have. Stories don’t need to include company or client names.
CONTENTS
Julia Thompson: For Want of a Shoe
Alicia Dornadic: Don’t Hate on a Tinkler