Nina, I wrote a piece for UXMatters a little while back which might be of interest, although it doesn't quite touch on your particular circumstance - it may trigger some thoughts, though - http://www.uxmatters.com/MT/archives/000287.php
One of the first things I suggest you do is to get a hold of any call-centre logs from your various support areas. And talk to the sales reps with a semi-structured interview. It sounds like you'd have a difficult time getting an overseas trip approved, so I'll leave that out for the moment. However, try and get your sales reps to identify users - or potential customers - who would be happy to talk to you about their decision-making processes or experiences with the product itself. Then conduct a series of phone interviews and work through the results as a purely qualitative process. This may help you target some specific research opportunities, and be in a position to argue the case for that overseas ethnographic research project :) Steve 2008/10/16 Nina Alter <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Hi Gang: > > So, I'm working with a startup right now, that has zero funding (for real, > not because they don't understand/support design) for Usability and User > Research studies... and I'm trying to get creative with how to gap this > void, with tangible information of some sort. > > Our users are in other countries- and as point-people there, I have a few > sales reps, tho that's it. > > My immediate craving is to just get to know our users beyond our own (and > industry-wide) assumptions about them- and for Christmas, a chewy > Ethnography study falling out of the sky would shoot this designer straight > over the moon. > > So I'm asking y'all here for suggestions/recommendations of resources > (books or online stuff) to help me develop some initial > "getting-to-know-our-users" work... and then guidance with how to > collect/analyze/assemble findings from mid-process usability studies. > Initially I'm thinking that surveys might be my only option in this- and > suggestions to help in composing/planning those would be awesome- as would > be other ideas of additional/alternate/better devices to employ. > > I'm very lucky in that I've worked with some incredible individual > researchers and research firms over the last 5 years, and have learned so > much from them... but one of the greatest things I've learned from all of my > involvement with research/study projects, is simply how little I really know > at all. > > Any suggestions, feedback, or guidance would be truly appreciated. > > Thanks!! > : ) nina > ________________________________________________________________ > Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! > To post to this list ....... [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Unsubscribe ................ http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe > List Guidelines ............ http://www.ixda.org/guidelines > List Help .................. http://www.ixda.org/help > -- ---------------------------------------------- Steve 'Doc' Baty B.Sc (Maths), M.EC, MBA Principal Consultant Meld Consulting M: +61 417 061 292 E: [EMAIL PROTECTED] UX Statistics: http://uxstats.blogspot.com Member, UPA - www.upassoc.org Member, IA Institute - www.iainstitute.org Member, IxDA - www.ixda.org Contributor - UXMatters - www.uxmatters.com ________________________________________________________________ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ....... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe ................ http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines ............ http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .................. http://www.ixda.org/help
