Gudelines and Toolkits

About the Project 

Curiosity is the mother of invention, they say

I’ve always been curious about why I make certain decisions—ones that sometimes feel arbitrary, illogical, or even contradictory to facts. For a while, I wondered, Is there something wrong with me?

Then, I came across two books that reassured me: I’m not alone. In fact, all humans make irrational decisions. These books—Nudge by Richard H. Thaler & Cass R. Sunstein and Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman—marked the beginning of my journey into Behavioral Economics.

As I delved deeper, I saw a direct link between these principles and Product Design. But much of this research is buried in complex academic language. So, I took it upon myself to simplify these concepts—deciphering them into practical, real-world examples that any designer can grasp.

It’s a massive undertaking, but I’m glad I started.

Showcase

Following images show some screenshots from the document. The entire document can be presented to you upon request. 

The Process

Collection:
I started by collecting all the possible behavioral science research in one document. 

Understanding:
All the research principles had a complicated research lingo that I had to understand myself first. I took one principle by one and did my own desk research to make sure that I understand these principles thoroughly. Although, this work is ongoing and it looks like it is going to be my lifetime work. Learning about these principles gives me immense joy and gratification that directly helps me as a designer. 

Correlation:
Correlating this to design was the fun part. I was amused to learn how these principles relate to Product design. This exercise, I believe only elevated me as a designer.

Documentation:
Once understanding and correlating to design were done, I documented each principle and made sure that the research lingo is simplified and took relevant screenshots as examples. With simple language and examples, these principles are even more easy to understand. 

Benefits

Documenting behavioral science principles and correlating those to Product Design opened my eyes and gave me a new way of looking at Product Design. I think I now understand more easily, why they make "only 2 left" for an e-commerce product and which principle it is related to. 

All in all, I think an understanding of these principles has only elevated me as a Product Designer.  

About the Project 

I have been working in the field of User Research since 2006 and conducted various research methods such as Focus Groups, 1 on 1 interviews, contextual inquiry, etc. One thing I strongly felt is that there has to be a good toolkit with templates for researchers that they can use to carry out their research and as they say, necessity is the mother of invention, I started working on the toolkit.  

I painstakingly collected all my previous artifacts and unbranded them. For example, moderator guides, reports, etc. 

This toolkit includes more than 20 research methods and guidelines, good reads, examples, and templates that researchers can use to carry out their research. 

Of course, each project requirement is different so the researcher should not simply copy and paste from the template but also make changes as per the requirement.  

Showcase

Following images show some screenshots from the toolkit. I will present the entire document to you upon request. 

The Process

Collection:
I collected all the artifacts from my previous research projects and also collected some from other sources. 

Un-branding:
I had to un-brand all the artifacts to avoid copyright infringements problem and fine-tune those to make sure that they are easier to understand and use. Since some of the research was conducted a long time back, I had to update certain elements.

Documentation:
I started with creating a base document to explain each research method and launch these templates. A short explanation about each research method, when to use it, and templates make this document an instrumental toolkit for any user researcher. 

Benefits

This document can serve as a foundation for you as a researcher or your research team. Templates are carefully crafted to make sure that all the necessary elements are captured. 

For example, the Usability Testing template would have a screenshot, ideal path, probe questions, area for note taking, task completion success Metrix, and user response for each step of the task.

All in all, this is a complete package for any user researcher.