Designer Led Research
Microsoft
The Designer Led Research toolkit became a popular and essential tool for UX Designers and User Researchers in my organization. The tool-kit helps UX Designers to easily conduct moderated User Research, post-usability study review discussions, and assisted User Researchers in quickly gathering data on participant feedback.
Partnered with a Developer to create an AI driven plugin that collates and summarizes notes taken in Figma, FigJam projects.
Client
Microsoft Inc., Azure
Role
Senior User Experience Designer
Location
On-sight, remote
Scope
Developed a tool-kit to assist UX Designers moderate their own user research sessions, which includes an AI driven summarization and collation plugin for Figma, to facilitate post-study debriefs and research.
Challenge
Recognizing that UX designers can’t always gain access dedicated User Researchers, I began self-moderating smaller usability studies with guidance from a Senior User Researcher. I soon realized many designers had research experience, and many researchers started as designers—this inspired me to create the Designer-Led Research Toolkit, based on the methods we developed together.
Action
I’ve learned that user research is most effective when the whole team shares ownership of both the process and outcomes. This typically includes a product manager, a designer (usually level II or above), and a user researcher who guides session planning and moderation.
To support this, I used the Hypothesis Progression Framework (HPF), a customer-driven approach that builds team-wide awareness, curiosity, and courage. By co-creating hypotheses, each team member becomes an equal partner in shaping, developing, and validating the work.
I included guidance of when to apply this approach, to help Designers quickly identify projects that are appropriate for it, by answering a few determining questions.
A Design engagement timeline was essential to the concept, so that Designers and User researchers had a clear understanding of roles and responsibilities. A shared goal system is important to remain on track, and the timeline is flexible to the project's needs, since good research practices do not need to take a long time to be effective.
Result
The Designer Led Research Toolkit accelerated the ability for UX Designers to conduct moderated User Research, post-usability study internal review discussions, and assisted User Researchers in quickly gathering data on participant feedback.
The AI driven plugin has become an important part of User Research studies with its ability to instantaneously collate and summarize user feedback and has also proved valuable for researchers grappling with large data sets.
In addition to the timeline, I made sure that the toolkit was equipped with a master guide, to ensure that Designers had clear reference through every step of the process. Features included:
A Checklist: Determining the stakeholders, number of participants, analysis type, types of tasks, and scope of work.
Kickoff meeting: Introduces the concept of DLR, covers the roles, outlines the deliverables, and organizes & documents the game plan.
Strategies for research: Scheduling sessions, setting up virtual meets, use open-ended questions, provide detailed notes, setting up a post-study debrief, and organize & communicate the process.
A Template interview guide, which is basically a multi-page Excel spreadsheet with multiple tabs to keep track of questions and user responses during the customer interview.
Debrief Guide: A Figma,Figjam template to Validate / de-validate Hypothesis/Research questions, provide additional insights, and decide on additional methodology to explore in future sessions, including any action items.
I also partnered with a developer to create an AI-driven FigJam plugin that lets designers select sticky notes and automatically group and summarize them. This streamlined post-study debriefs by instantly surfacing feedback trends, improving team decision-making. It also proved valuable for researchers handling large study data sets.