This week’s podcast (which is episode 67) features Jenn Downs (@BeParticular) from Mailchimp who came by the UnmatchedStyle office last month to do a remote usability study with Julia (@blueys). We held her hostage asked her if she would do an interview with us for a short featurette on usability testing.
The UX team at Mailchimp seems to be pushing to get to more interesting info by visiting their users and also hosting in-house usability test viewing parties. In this blog post by Jenn, Sharing the UX Love, she goes into more detail on how they’re getting into these different approaches.
Design Researcher
Jenn’s position at Mailchimp is Design Researcher. Coming out of QA she’s responsible for tracking user issues with the Mailchimp product. Conducting usability studies and helping the UX team to understand where users are encountering trouble and helping to make the product better. I especially think it’s smart that they focus on doing usability tests in their customer’s environments, which is where the product really get’s used, not in some lab setting. They come out to your office, meet you in a coffee shop or show up at your home to gather their information.
I think its great that they put real effort into usability testing. The “Sharing the UX Love” article is pretty sweet too.
I know, I want to be invited to one of their usability pizza parties.