Looking Back…to Look Ahead
Summary
Over the past 25 years, Steve Portigal has seen tremendous growth in user research as a community of practice, as an industry, and as a career. Steve will look at some of the changes that he’s experienced and observed—positive, negative, or otherwise. He’ll share some of the potentially overlooked opportunities to advance our field, issues that demand our limited attention and concern. He’ll also share his perspective on the directions we can drive towards.
Key Insights
-
•
User research has roots back to Edison’s in-home researchers analyzing fuel consumption.
-
•
Time and motion studies in the early 20th century treated people like machines but laid groundwork for usability concepts.
-
•
Louis Cheskin’s 1940s experiments revealed how packaging shapes consumer perception, not just products themselves.
-
•
Xerox PARC in 1969 was pivotal for user interface design, inspiring Apple’s GUI innovations.
-
•
Interval Research (1982), founded by Paul Allen, linked research to startup incubation but mostly influenced culturally.
-
•
Kate Tassie coined PWDR in 2018 to distinguish trained researchers from those who simply do research, adding clarity to role definitions.
-
•
Corporate research often aligns researcher incentives with company success, shifting researcher focus compared to consultants motivated solely by integrity.
-
•
Transcription technology now equals human error rates, but the imperfect 'good enough' acceptance risks degrading research quality.
-
•
The evolution of tools—from cultural probes and disposable cameras to AI-driven platforms—shapes how research is conducted, for better or worse.
-
•
Emerging future scenarios warn of AI replacing UI researchers, variable corporate control of user experiences, and potential for user research as a shared public good.
Notable Quotes
"Historians say the past doesn’t repeat itself, it rhymes."
"We all stand on the shoulders of giants."
"People in organizations are already, to some extent, out there talking to users."
"Research is complex because we use the term to mean anything and everything."
"The in-house researcher has some elements of the client and stakeholder roles."
"The curse of good enough is a real trap that we’re grappling with."
"Paper prototyping was the original scrappy; low fidelity tools produce different responses than high fidelity."
"Corporate capture of research has brought amazing good things but changed the truth to power role."
"Remote research is the default now, but we’ve lost access to rich in-person context."
"The future of user research is not one future but many futures to consider."
Or choose a question:
More Videos
"If you could pre-book your carry on baggage into the overhead locker, wouldn’t that be great?"
Stephen PollardClosing Keynote: Getting giants to dance - what can we learn from designing large and complex public infrastructure?
November 7, 2017
"A principal has built a boat on their own and rode it around the world—demonstrating autonomy and expertise."
Edward CuppsThe Principal Path: Journeying from Management to Individual Contributor
June 11, 2021
"Follow-up questions missed opportunities to probe deeper or were confusing, and participants had to repeat themselves."
Tara TresselInvestigating qualitative depth of AI-moderated interviews
March 10, 2026
"The cult of the new and shiny drowns out the quiet call of the well established."
Sharon BautistaTime to Make the Donuts: How User Research Helped Bridge Disparate Teams
January 8, 2024
"Redefining who researchers are can teach us new ways to share stories."
Jemma AhmedTheme 2 Intro
March 10, 2022
"Using systems tools is only about 5% of my day-to-day work; I handpick them to meaningfully engage stakeholders."
Boon Yew ChewMaking Sense of Systems—and Using Systems to Make Sense of the Enterprise
June 6, 2023
"Networking isn't just knowing people, it's about staying in warm connection with people over time."
Louis RosenfeldCoffee with Lou
January 11, 2024
"Research participants doing research in their own communities can create safer, richer research conversations."
Matt Bernius Rachael Dietkus, LCSW Aditi Joshi Alba VillamilLearnings from Applying Trauma-Informed Principles to the Research Process
March 10, 2022
"Availability bias means hiring managers often pick fruit from a tree they haven't planted."
Dean BroadleyNot Black Enough to be White
January 8, 2024