The User Researcher Industry Day: an Exciting Window into the Growing Field of User Research in the UK

On June 10, 2022, The University of Sheffield (UoS) organized the User Researcher Industry (URI) Day at the Diamond building. This event had speakers from different industries sharing their experiences and giving us an idea about working in research. The day consisted of diverse segments and was quite interesting especially for international students. Read on if you’d like to know more!

We were first greeted with a table of refreshments and a stand where we registered our presence and sticked a name tag on our chests. I had come in a bit late, so it was only a few minutes before we were signaled by Dr. Sophie Rutter to enter the lecture theatre for the program to start. Sophie also made the welcoming speech and gave us the program for the day.

Figure 1 Reception: breakfast and registration

Employability Team

The day started with the employability team at the university. Mr. Liam Barr discussed the overarching strategy that the employability team works in adherence to. He said that there are 36 attributes that the university tries to align its students’ skills or characteristics with, because these are some of the most in demand attributes in the market. Dr. Leo Appleton, from the information school, shared some best practices and encouraged students to look at the MySkills section of CareerConnect, and said that the importance of the URI Day was in our ability to ask employers questions and get to know real world experiences.

I remember that I checked MySkills at the start of the year. I guess I should be revisiting that now!

UX at University Library

We were then shown three major User Experience (UX) case studies from the University of Sheffield Library. The first, explained by Mr. Stephen Mould, talked about improving the entrance to the Library. Steve explained that UX research was new to the library, and that at first, they were making it as they go. It was through trial error that they started understanding how best to improve the layout of the entrance. In fact, they used three important methods: quantitative observation, qualitative observation, and direct questioning, which helped rearrange some of the areas leading to a more natural flow of people and ultimately less traffic. Steve also mentioned that the onset of Covid had its toll on these efforts leading to the complete rearrangement of certain sections. Although there aren’t any UX personnel currently at the library, he stated that they might hire a specialist in the future.

The second case study was presented by Mrs. Claire Ives, who talked about ad hoc UX. Claire discussed some of the interventions they implemented like Love/Breakup letters which are letters written by students talking about the positives and negatives of the library. For example, one winning entry was an ode to a student’s favourite seat, who she used to book in advance because of how much she loved to study there. Other interventions included a pop-up library which is like a mobile desk that asks students what they need and helps out. Claire insisted that it was very important to listen to what students say because they have modern ideas and can give valuable feedback.

The third and final case study was also delivered by Steve. This consisted of performing an evaluation of Starplus, the online library search system. The team did surveys, interviews, focus groups, and observations (screen captures) to develop many recommendations. They discovered, for instance, that there was a lot of noise when showing results, like book reviews, which were not as important to users. They also discovered that the results were many times randomly ranked.

Figure 2 Steve & Claire Explaining their Case Studies (left) and Leo Asking Questions

These case studies showed me an aspect of the library that I wasn’t aware of: how UX is used to improve the library services. It was very interesting to see how this research is being done, especially that we had taken many courses on qualitative research methods like surveys and interviews. Being able to see how these were done, and how they are used to generate recommendations for real world applications was quite exciting.

Alumni Panel

Following the case studies, we listened to some university alumni. Mark Bonne, for instance, started out as a student here and worked with Sophie on a project that involved face scanning Facebook users. He then applied for numerous companies and did a lot of interviews before starting work at Capgemini. He now works for an e-commerce company. Ying Jiang graduated in international marketing and works at her own retail company. She gave some insightful points about starting your own company like thinking about the structure of the company and all the legal requirements necessary, choosing the industry you feel you belong in, the importance of location, and how cash flow must always be maintained.

Figure 3 Mark and Ying Sharing their Experiences

I had never thought about starting my own company here in the UK, so this wasn’t my cup of tea. However, it is always interesting to get an idea about the main challenges and requirements for starting your own business.

Ideasmiths

Next was Mr. Ian Franklin, who talked about working at Ideasmith doing research in government. He worked with government departments like the National Health Services (NHS) and Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs (HMRC). This was one of the presentations I was looking forward to because I had worked in the government for around six years, and doing user research for governmental institutions was very interesting to me because of its scope and impact. Ian discussed one very important and modern idea: Democratizing Design, i.e. designing with the people, not for the people. He also mentioned that when working in government digital services (GDS), you typically pass through several stages before reaching a suitable output including: gathering user requirements, alpha testing (a model), beta testing, and DevOps where you keep trying to update and improve your output. Ian also mentioned that the government was the entity that does the hard stuff that others will not.

Industry Panel

The industry panel consisted of four main speakers from industry: Emma Buckee, Lead Product Designer at Sky Betting & Gaming, Victoria Garcia Greene, Senior User Researcher MadeTech, Laurie Nicholas, Head of Product and User Experience at Mina, and Cam Spillman, Managing Director & Co-founder Paper.

This section was one of the most valuable, in my opinion, because it gave us some insights into what employers are looking for and how we can best cater our applications for them. Several questions were asked by Dr. Salihu Dasuki for the panelists to answer, like: 1) What would make an application stand out? Emma talked about having passion and a set of fundamentals that shows the employer that you can grow. Victoria insisted that we should not narrate what we’ve done. Instead, we should talk about the output of our work. Liam also wanted to see curiosity from applicants. 2) Does experience matter? Emma said that there usually is a bias towards someone with experience, but it’s also about how the applicant presents himself and his experience. Victoria said that we should be confident because we have many soft and hard skills. Cam mentioned that he looks for critical thinkers, someone who questions the status quo. 

Figure 4 Industry Panelists Answering Audience Questions

With more questions from Salihu, and very interesting answers from the panelists, the audience also started asking questions. I shared that students, especially internationals, sometimes find it difficult to talk about why they are applying for certain companies because we may be interested in the role itself and can be unaware of the history and roles of companies in the UK. Victoria reassured me that this is quite common when starting jobhunting after graduation, and recommended to check the companies webpages in detail to better understand their values and work before applying. Liam also insisted on the importance of having aligned values. It is very important to him that the company he is applying to shares similar values.

Networking Lunch

Following a very engaging and valuable panel, we were gone for lunch just outside the lecture theatre. We had a diverse selection of sandwiches, fruits, and desserts, which recharged us for the rest of the day. We also had the chance to talk to the different participants during lunch. I was happy to have a chat with Mark Bonne, who talked to me more about his current work and his previous experience at the University of Sheffield. I also took the chance to discuss government research with Ian who was very generous in sharing some of his extensive experience about working with the government as well as current job opportunities.

Figure 5 Networking Lunch

User Engagement in Libraries

When we got back Mrs. Eve Jamieson talked to us about the Library Champion Program that was implemented at King’s College London. Students apply and work at specific programs and in return they gain skills like UX research. Eve also talked about the different methodologies that they adopted like touchstone tours where champions do tours for staff with the audio recorded, focus groups where they ask champions questions, and guerilla interviews where they went to other libraries to see how they worked. 

Figure 6 Eve sharing here library experience

Speed Dating

The final, and possibly most interesting round for many students, was the speed dating round. Here, we were divided into groups that alternated in having direct chats with the panelists. We got to ask more questions about the companies and panelists themselves, like what do they expect from us if we applied to work with them and whether they are open for employment or not. It was so much fun to chat with the panelists face to face and this allowed to us to be ourselves even more. Many panelists also shared their business cards or LinkedIn profiles, an important step for us to build our network and connect with important and friendly people. Although we didn’t have enough time to chat with all panelists, I believe I got to know some very interesting user researchers and hopefully make a good first impression.

Figure 7 Our Group Talking to Emma During the Speed Dating Round

Closing Comments

Finally, the information school student academic representatives Sheeba Ancy, Biwei Chen, and Sneha Roychowdhury closed the session with thanking notes to the organizers, participants, and attenders of the day, and talked about how important and exciting it was for them to participate in the organization of this event.

Final Thoughts

The URI day was a new experience to me. I was very happy to see people from the industry share their experiences and give us tips about how to apply and what to look for. I was also quite interested in their work. Although I’m an Information Management student, I didn’t realize how much user research went into improving library services, for example. It was also remarkable to see how research methods like interviews and focus groups are shared between diverse industries.

However, one of the most valuable outcomes at the URI day, in my opinion, was the ability to connect with workers in the industry. As students, we must exploit these chances to build our network and open ourselves for employment, and I believe the URI day helped us do just that.

 -Ali Mroweh, MSc Information Management student