DIY User Research for Open Source Projects
summary
Two-person open source startup publishes user-research templates on GitHub, runs a quick survey with 50 survey responses that reveals bloggers rely on Facebook for audience, conducts rapid interview cycles in 4–6 days and recommends 5–8 interviews or usability sessions. Practical tools include Google Forms/SurveyMonkey, Google Hangouts and join.me for remote calls, Silverback or DIY camera rigs for mobile. A concrete change — switching from MongoDB to MySQL — immediately unlocks more installs and contributions, and analysis focuses on clustering recurring problems into actionable fixes.
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chapters (16)
- 0:00Start
- 1:18User Research in an Open Source Project
- 8:06Feasibility
- 9:21Research When Should You Start Testing with Your Project
- 9:54User Testing
- 10:20What Should You Test
- 14:37Google Forms or Surveymonkey
- 15:12Starter Questions
- 19:48Interviews
- 22:52Google Hangouts
- 25:16Finding Participants for Interviews
- 29:53Usability Tests
- 35:39Tools for the Moderator
- 36:40Usability Testing
- 37:41Finding Participants
- 40:29Browser Plugins
