OK, we’re only at number 19 so far, there’s still a way to go. Still, what’s there so far suggests it’ll be an amazing series. As the site doesn’t make it easy to see all of the methods so far, here’s a list of what’s there to date:

  1. Concept Interviews: Users write down statement to do with the use of a product, and rank them.
  2. Brainwriting: generating ideas quickly by getting people to write them down rather than say them
  3. Freelisting: a complement to brainstorming where people list examples in relation to a particular question.
  4. Reverse Brainstorming: asking a question that generates problems or criticisms rather than solutions.
  5. Metaphor Brainstorming: guiding brainstorming by framing with metaphors
  6. Future Workshop: four phase futures technique (preparatory, critique, fantasy, and implementation phases)
  7. Claims Analysis: looking at how changing an existing feature on a product will affect various user groups
  8. Repeated Card Sorting: doing card sorting repeatedly in order to find out the underlying product characteristics.
  9. Reverse Card Sorting: a variation of closed card sorting where you measure users’ cards sorts against a proposed solution.
  10. Perspective Based Inspection: getting users to review a product from a specific perspective (e.g. disabled user, power user)
  11. Bodystorming: Physical scenario modelling.
  12. Teachback: Testing the robustness of a product’s mental model by having an expert teach a novice and the novice ‘teach it back’.
  13. Consistency Inspection: Like QA, but for product consistency across a product experience.
  14.  Yes, And: Taking from improv to further ideas.
  15.  Misuse Scenarios: looking for situations for unintentional (accidental) and intentional (e.g. malicious) misuse.
  16. Backcasting: a strategic method where you start from a desired future and work backwards.
  17. The User Interface Race: challenging users to compete to complete tasks under time pressure
  18. The User/Task Matrix: plotting task frequency against groups
  19. Laddering Questions: the IDEO ’5 Whys’ and other methods

Each method comes with discussion of the strengths and weaknesses, as well as other resources. The list was started in January 2011, so we’ve probably got a while to go until we get the full list (6 months, eh?), but it’s certainly worth keeping an eye on. See full list on the Autodesk Designing User Experiences blog.

via johnnyholland.org