UX labs: ‘a week in the life’

Hire the labs for your own projects (multitude of research activities possible)

Since unveiling our shiny new UX labs last April, we’ve loved making the most of them by hosting a huge range of different research activities. As well as utilising them for System Concepts client projects, many clients hire the facilities to run their own research.

Here’s a quick run-down of a typical week in the life of our labs… including building vacuum cleaner assault courses, hosting guide dogs, and other activities that may surprise you!

Monday – creative workshop (voice interactive tech)

We ran a great creative workshop with 8 participants, to evaluate their use of voice interactive technology. The spacious UX labs enabled us to design and facilitate interactive exercises and record a wide variety of qualitative and quantitative data.

Our clients watched every moment from the comfort of our observation suites, with some of their team watching remotely via a secure live stream. Seeing usability barriers in reality, or hearing heartfelt feedback from users, can really pack a punch in highlighting elements that need to be improved, as well as those that are working really well.

Our research insights were used to inform the development of our client’s own new voice technology.

Tuesday – ergonomic evaluation (cordless stick vacuum cleaner)

We evaluated the ergonomic performance of a new cordless stick vacuum cleaner by, in essence, creating a vacuum cleaner assault course! We positioned furniture around the lab to test the handling of the vacuum cleaner, with 6 participants each completing a wide array of tasks using various attachments.

The incredible pan, tilt and zoom capability of our lab cameras meant that the clients observing next door could follow participants’ every move in crystal clarity using a simple joystick control. Our analysis and recommendations helped our clients to improve areas of their design, mitigating usability issues and benefiting their wider user population.

Wednesday – 1:1 accessibility sessions (digital app and website)

We ran six 60 minute long 1:1 sessions to test the accessibility of a new digital product, on both mobile and desktop platforms, for users with a range of impairments. Our labs are fully accessible, and we welcome everyone, including participants with any type of physical, visual or cognitive impairment (our team especially loves sessions that include friendly guide dogs!).

The UX labs cameras’ picture in picture functionality enabled researchers to record the output from two devices simultaneously for each participant, in addition to the two camera-view images of the lab.

This helped us to analyse users’ real-time interactions, the fine detail of their navigation, and their errors or confusion when using the new app and website. Additionally, our clients could truly appreciate the interaction of the accessibility software being used, such as screen readers, and how this influenced their users’ experience of their product.

The video recordings and selected clips we provided post-research really helped to bring our findings to life. We find these types of assets invaluable in demonstrating the difficulties faced by users with impairments, clearly illustrating the need to incorporate accessibility principles at every stage of the design process.

Thursday – client hire

A regular client returned, hiring our exceptional lab facilities for the day for their own research sessions. If you wish to hire our labs we can provide delicious refreshments for the day and meet and greet each participant to prepare them for your session – while you have the labs to yourselves and run your own show.

Of course, we’ll always be on-hand if you need anything – and don’t forget we have highly skilled facilitators who can conduct your sessions if you would prefer. Our easy to use technology will enable you to record and stream your sessions in full, with options to add logos or overlays to your footage to take it to the next level. Up to 8 members of your team can attend in person and watch the sessions from the comfort of our observation suite, or from anywhere in the world via a secure live stream that we can set up.

Friday – training session and webinar activities

Our expert consultancy teams deliver both UX and IOSH certified Health and Safety training. On this occasion, our labs were used for both these workstreams in just one day!

We ran a half-day manual handling course in the morning – our central London location and highly respected health and safety practitioners make these training courses very popular.

In the afternoon it was the turn of our UX team to deliver an ‘Introduction to UX’ webinar. Our experienced consultants are often called upon to develop and deliver bespoke UX training, and webinars have been a popular way of delivering this for overseas clients. Live streaming of these events enables real-time Q&A sessions, and provides high-quality recordings for clients to share across their organisation.

Email to enquire about our training courses

Saturday – another client hire (yes, our UX labs are even available on Saturdays!)

We’re an accommodating lot here at System Concepts: generally we work to conventional office hours, but please just get in touch if our lab could be useful to you during evenings or weekends – we’ll make every effort to accommodate your needs.