User Research Workshop by Dr. Sarita Seshagiri

Date: 11-7-2016 to 12-7-2016

Description: A 2-day workshop on User Research was conducted on 11th and 12th July 2016 by Dr. Sarita Seshagiri (former Senior Lead Design Researcher at the Samsung R&D Institute) for the students of M.Sc. (Digital Society) at IIITB. It was also attended by faculty members and researchers of the IT & Society domain at IIITB.

The workshop started with an introductory session on user research and its relevance in the corporate world; the common misconceptions, mistakes and challenges associated with it; and case studies of user research undertaken recently. Following this, the students formed groups and worked on topics aimed at understanding user needs through field immersion studies. They defined their research questions and conducted user interviews on the first day. The second day of the workshop included sessions on transcribing of user quotes; conducting cluster analysis and creating affinity trees based on the interviews; and developing opportunity areas and solutions that answer the problem statement defined by the groups.

CITAPP at IIIT Bangalore is an interdisciplinary think-tank set-up to focus on the policy challenges and the organizational demands made by technological innovation. Of particular interest to the Centre is how technological advances, along with institutional changes that harness the legitimacy and the powers of bureaucracies and market, address the needs of underserved communities.