Much of what we encounter in the practice of User Experience is based on a well-worn problem-solving approach.
A typical arc of problem-solving looks something like:
Identifying problems and deficiencies
Analyzing the causes
Analyzing solutions
Developing an action plan
We as UX researchers spend a lot of time at steps 1 and 2. Finding and analyzing the causes of problems is something we’re really good at. It keeps designers and product managers coming to us with their hypotheses of why something’s not working, and asking for our help to find out more.
There’s undoubtedly value to the answers and insights we provide in these interactions, but we need to take a step back and ask ourselves about the impacts of reflexively spending so much of our energy looking for and orienting around problems.
How does this orientation influence the kinds of data we’re collecting? How does this inform our interactions with participants?
We at Progress UX Research have been orienting towards what Appreciative Inquiry (AI) calls the positive core to see what is instead possible if we look for what is already working well, or has worked well in the past.
“Questions are fateful”- David Cooperrider
AI is based on the work of David Cooperrider, Ph.D., and is traditionally applied in the context of facilitating change in organizations. It’s also a method we’ve been integrating into our research projects and workshops as a way to mobilize friendly curiosity, creative imagination, and enlivened designing.
We need to consider the power of a question, especially in the fertile context of imagination and design. If we look for problems, we’re fixing based on what is wrong or missing. If we look for strengths, we’re creating something new based on what’s already working. How then can we think about conducting UX research in a way that orients towards this creative, positive core instead of chasing more problems?
Get Started with Positive Framing
An approachable way to integrate this into your research sessions today is by using a technique taught by AI called Positive Framing, a way of intentionally shaping a conversation to focus on a desirable outcome and energize others towards positive results. This encourages creativity, curiosity, imagination, and engagement by taking a negative, deficit-based frame and transforming it into a positive frame.
Positive Framing has three steps:
Name it — What is the problem, the issue, or the thing you don’t want?
Flip it — What is the positive opposite? The thing which you do want
Frame it — What is the desired outcome if this positive thing is true?
Here’s an example of how this may work in a research session with a participant. You hear your participant say something like,
I would never use this as a sign in for this app, and I’m already turned off to it. It wants to connect with my Facebook account and import all of my contacts, my posts…everything? You’ve got to be kidding. I hear there’s lots of people out there trying to get into accounts and steal things. I don’t like it at all.
Okay, the negative thing is pretty clear, so let’s begin with the Naming step. Using your reflective listening skills, you may say something like,
I hear that the security of your private account is really important to you and you feel like this is asking for too much permission, is that right? Look for affirmation that you got it right and didn’t miss anything.
When you affirm that you’ve captured what they don’t want, move to the Flip step, where you now name the positive opposite. You might say something like,
So what I hear that you do want is a way to log in that doesn’t require access to your private accounts, like Facebook. Right? Again, check for agreement.
So now we have a conversation rooted in the positive. You can ask the participant to name the best positive outcome, or even ideate together about it, moving into the final, Framing step. That may sound something like,
Tell me how you would like to see this work instead, allowing you to sign in easily while also keeping your personal data safe.
And then off you go, this time in a positive, creative direction, from which it’s much easier to collaborate and dream solutions together.
Try out this technique the next time you hear someone, even yourself, speaking from a negative, deficit-seeking place. With your self-awareness on board, notice the effects on the body, your energy, their energy, and how this may change when you instead flip the conversation towards a positive desired outcome.
By owning the responsibility for the questions we ask as researchers and especially, the way we ask them, we enter a reality where the strength of a system creates the most positive and effective change. We reverse our old ways of thinking from a problem-based to a solution-focused approach, and open to a new realm of possibility.
JON-ERIC STEINBOMER, Co-Founder and Research Director at Progress User Experience Research, is co-author of the book Heart of UX ™ second edition, in print September 2020.