Miranda Cosgrove visits WIRED to answer her most searched questions from Google. When did Miranda start acting? Does she sing the 'iCarly' theme? How old was Miranda Cosgrove when she made the film 'School of Rock?' Miranda answers these questions and plenty more for the WIRED Autocomplete Interview.DESPICABLE ME 4 is in theaters July 3, 2024 https://www.despicable.me/Director: Kristen DeVoreEditor: Louville MooreTalent: Miranda CosgroveCreative Producer: Justin WolfsonLine Producer: Joseph BuscemiAssociate Producer: Paul GulyasProduction Manager: Peter BrunetteTalent Booker: Meredith JudkinsProduction Assistant: Lauren BoucherPost Production Supervisor: Christian OlguinPost Production Coordinator: Scout AlterSupervising Editor: Erica DeLeoAssistant Editor: Justin SymondsSpecial Thanks: Glass Engine

Iggy Azalea visits WIRED to answer her most searched questions from Google. What is Iggy Azalea’s real name? What was her childhood like? When did Iggy move to America? Does she have any children? What is her new crowdfunding platform DreamVault about? Iggy Azalea answers these questions and plenty more on the WIRED Autocomplete Interview. Iggy Azalea is a partner and creative director at Unreal Mobile, spearheading the charge in the brand's rebranding. Learn more at: https://www.unrealmobile.com/ Director: Justin Wolfson Director of Photography: Brad Wickham Editor: Michael Suyeda Talent: Iggy Azalea Line Producer: Joseph Buscemi Associate Producer: Brandon White Production Manager: Peter Brunette Production Coordinator: Rhyan Lark Talent Booker: Paige Garbarini Camera Operator: Christopher Eustache Sound Mixer: Michael Guggino Production Assistant: Sonia Butt Post Production Supervisor: Christian Olguin Post Production Coordinator: Ian Bryant Supervising Editor: Doug Larsen Assistant Editor: Billy Ward

Kristen Wiig and Will Ferrell visit WIRED to answer their most searched questions from Google. Can Will Ferrel speak Spanish? Was Kristen Wiig a Dallas Cowboys cheerleader? Is Will Ferrel really singing in the movie 'Step Brothers?' What are Kristen Wiig's best Saturday Night Live sketches? Will and Kristen answer these questions and more on the WIRED Autocomplete Interview.DESPICABLE ME 4 is in theaters now https://www.despicable.me/Director: Justin WolfsonEditor: Louis LalireTalent: Will Ferrell; Kirsten WiigLine Producer: Joseph BuscemiAssociate Producer: Brandon White; Paul GuylasProduction Manager: Peter BrunetteTalent Booker: Meredith JudkinsProduction Assistant: Sonia ButtPost Production Supervisor: Christian OlguinPost Production Coordinator: Ian BryantSupervising Editor: Doug LarsenAssistant Editor: Justin SymondsSpecial Thanks: Glass Engine

The cast of Amazon Prime Video’s hit series “The Boys” answer their most searched questions from Google. Is the show exactly like the comic series it’s adapated from? Who from “The Boys” is in the spinoff “Gen V?” Does Chace Crawford sing? How did Laz Alonso become famous? Was Jessie T. Usher really on “Hannah Montana?” How did Antony Starr get the role of Homelander? These questions and many more are answered on the WIRED Autocomplete Interview. Season 4 of The Boys premieres June 13 on Prime Video (finale on July 18) Director: Jackie Phillips Director of Photography: Ricardo Pomares Editor: Estan Esparza Talent: Laz Alonso; Chace Crawford; Antony Starr; Jessie T. Usher Creative Producer: Justin Wolfson Line Producer: Joseph Buscemi Associate Producer: Paul Gulyas Production Manager: Peter Brunette Talent Booker: Mica Medoff Camera Operator: Chris Davidson; Osiris Larkin Sound Mixer: Kari Barber; Chris Omae Production Assistant: Lauren Boucher; Spencer Mathesen Post Production Supervisor: Christian Olguin Post Production Coordinator: Ian Bryant Supervising Editor: Doug Larsen Additional Editor: Jason Malizia Assistant Editor: Andy Morell

Jeremy Renner visits WIRED to answer his most searched questions from Google. How did his acting career begin? How did he become Hawkeye in the MCU? Is Jeremy Renner a good archer in real life? Is he friends with Elizabeth Olsen? How did Jeremy Renner recover so quickly from his life-threatening accident? Jeremy answers these questions and more on the WIRED Autocomplete Interview. Mayor of Kingstown streams this Sunday exclusively on Paramount+ Director: Justin Wolfson Director of Photography: Constantine Economides Editor: Richard Trammell; Louis Lalire Talent: Jeremy Renner Producer: Justin Wolfson Line Producer: Joseph Buscemi Associate Producer: Brandon White Production Manager: Peter Brunette Talent Booker: Mica Medoff Camera Operator: Christopher Eustache Sound Mixer: Rebecca O'Neill Production Assistant: Kalia Simms Post Production Supervisor: Christian Olguin Post Production Coordinator: Ian Bryant Supervising Editor: Doug Larsen Additional Editor: JC Scruggs Assistant Editor: Fynn Lithgow

Actor and comedian David Cross visits WIRED to answer his most searched questions from Google. Does David Cross still do standup comedy? Who does he play in 'The Umbrella Academy?' How long has he been best friends with Bob Odenkirk? Does he write music? Does David Cross have a podcast? David answers these questions and plenty more on the WIRED Autocomplete Interview.David is touring theaters across North America with his new show, David Cross: The End Of The Beginning Of The End. For full tour dates and link to tickets visit https://officialdavidcross.com/pages/appearancesDavid co-stars in the final season of The Umbrella Academy premiering August 8 on Netflix https://www.netflix.com/title/80186863David hosts the podcastSenses Working Overtime With David Cross-https://www.youtube.com/@OfficialDavidCross/videosWatch Davids new special,David Cross: Worst Daddy In The World, here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fnw65BBrlY4Director: Justin WolfsonDirector of Photography: Jack BelisleEditor: Matthew ColbyTalent: David CrossLine Producer: Joseph BuscemiAssociate Producer: Brandon WhiteProduction Manager: Peter BrunetteProduction Coordinator: Rhyan LarkTalent Booker: Mica Medoff; Paige GarbariniCamera Operator: Caleb WeissSound Mixer: Sean PaulsenProduction Assistant: Sonia ButtPost Production Supervisor: Christian OlguinPost Production Coordinator: Ian BryantSupervising Editor: Doug LarsenAdditional Editor: Jason MaliziaAssistant Editor: Justin Symonds

John Cena and Awkwafina, stars of the upcoming Amazon MGM film Jackpot! visit WIRED to answer their most searched for questions on Google. Does John Cena still wrestle? What role did Awkwafina win a Golden Globe for? Why does John Cena wear "jorts?" Why did Awkwafina choose a stage name? John Cena and Awkwafina answer these questions and plenty more on the WIRED Autocomplete Interview. Director: Justin Wolfson Editor: Cory Stevens Talent: Awkwafina; John Cena Line Producer: Joseph Buscemi Associate Producer: Brandon White Production Manager: Peter Brunette Production Coordinator: Rhyan Lark Talent Booker: Meredith Judkins Production Assistant: Carlos del Cid Post Production Supervisor: Christian Olguin Post Production Coordinator: Ian Bryant Supervising Editor: Doug Larsen Additional Editor: JC Scruggs Assistant Editor: Justin Symonds Special Thanks: No Roads Productions

Streamer, YouTuber and 100 Thieves co-owner Valkyrae visits WIRED to answers her most searched questions from Google. What is her gaming setup like? Where does Valkyrae stream? When did she first blow up? Where does Valkyrae get her swords? What's Valkyrae's real name? What rank is she in Valorant? Valkyrae answers all these questions and plenty more on the WIRED Autocomplete Interview. Director: Justin Wolfson Director of Photography: AJ Young Editor: Cory Stevens Talent: Valkyrae Line Producer: Joseph Buscemi Associate Producer: Paul Gulyas Production Manager: Peter Brunette Production Coordinator: Rhyan Lark Talent Booker: Mica Medoff Camera Operator: Lucas Vilicich Sound Mixer: Paul Cornett Production Assistant: Lauren Boucher Post Production Supervisor: Christian Olguin Post Production Coordinator: Ian Bryant Supervising Editor: Doug Larsen Additional Editor: JC Scruggs Assistant Editor: Billy Ward

Academy Award-winning actress Halle Berry visits WIRED to answer her most searched questions from Google. What was Halle Berry's first film role? Was Halle Berry Miss America? What does she remember about playing Storm in the original X-Men films? What James Bond movie was Halle Berry in? How long did she train for her role in John Wick 3? Halle Berry answers these questions and many more on the WIRED Autocomplete Interview.THE UNION premieres on Netflix August 16, 2024. https://netflix.com/THEUNIONDirector: Paul Gulyas; Justin WolfsonEditor: Michael SuyedaTalent: Halle BerryLine Producer: Joseph BuscemiProduction Manager: Peter BrunetteProduction Coordinator: Rhyan LarkTalent Booker: Meredith JudkinsPost Production Supervisor: Christian OlguinPost Production Coordinator: Ian BryantSupervising Editor: Doug LarsenAssistant Editor: Justin Symonds

Video journalist and creator of ‘Huge If True’ Cleo Abram visits WIRED to answer her most searched questions from Google. Is Cleo Abram a scientist? How often has she collaborated with MKBHD? Does Cleo Abram have a podcast? Why does she love quantum computing? What has Cleo Abram learned about AI and AI music? Does she have a dog? Cleo Abram answers all of these questions and more on the WIRED Autocomplete Interview. Director: Justin Wolfson Director of Photography: Charlie Jordan Editor: Evan Allan Talent: Cleo Abram Line Producer: Joseph Buscemi Associate Producer: Brandon White Production Manager: Peter Brunette Production Coordinator: Rhyan Lark Talent Booker: Mica Medoff Camera Operator: Christopher Eustache Sound Mixer: Sean Paulsen Production Assistant: Sonia Butt Post Production Supervisor: Christian Olguin Post Production Coordinator: Ian Bryant Supervising Editor: Doug Larsen Assistant Editor: Andy Morell

Superstar Colombian musician J Balvin visits WIRED to answer his most searched questions from Google. Why did J Balvin start making music? What is J Balvin's real name? Is he friends with Maluma? What is J Balvin's most popular song? When is J Balvin coming back to Fortnite? Answers to these questions and plenty more await on the WIRED Autocomplete Interview. J Balvin's newest album, RAYO, is available now: https://jbalvin.lnk.to/Rayo Director: Justin Wolfson Director of Photography: Matt Krueger Editor: Michael Suyeda Talent: J Balvin Line Producer: Joseph Buscemi Associate Producer: Paul Gulyas Production Manager: Peter Brunette Production Coordinator: Rhyan Lark Talent Booker: Paige Garbarini Camera Operator: Lucas Vilicich Sound Mixer: Gray Thomas-Sowers Production Assistant: Liliana Starck Hair & Make-Up: Maureen Sherwood Post Production Supervisor: Christian Olguin Post Production Coordinator: Ian Bryant Supervising Editor: Doug Larsen Additional Editor: JC Scruggs Assistant Editor: Billy Ward

Michael Keaton visits WIRED to answers his most searched questions from Google. Was Michael Keaton the best Batman? Is he in the new Beetlejuice sequel “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice?” Was Michael Keaton a stand-up comedian? Where did Michael Keaton grow up? What does he remember about working with Quentin Tarantino? What was it like for Michael Keaton to make the film ‘Birdman’ with Alejandro González Iñárritu? Answers to each of these questions and more lie ahead on the WIRED Autocomplete Interview. Beetlejuice Beetlejuice releases September 6

Legendary actors John Lithgow and Jeff Bridges visit WIRED to field their most searched questions on Google. Where did John Lithgow grow up? What was Jeff Bridges’ first movie? Does Jeff Bridges play guitar? When did John Lithgow start acting? What does Jeff Bridges love most about 'The Big Lebowski?' Answers to these questions and plenty more await on the WIRED Autocomplete Interview.The second season of FXs The Old Man premieres with two episodes on Thursday, September 12 at 10pm ET/PT on FX, streaming the next day on Hulu.Director: Jackie PhillipsDirector of Photography: AJ YoungEditor: Matthew ColbyTalent: Jeff Bridges; John LithgowLine Producer: Joseph BuscemiAssociate Producer: Paul GulyasProduction Manager: Peter BrunetteProduction Coordinator: Rhyan LarkTalent Booker: Mica MedoffCamera Operator: Lucas VilicichSound Mixer: Gray Thomas-SowersProduction Assistant: Lauren Boucher; Shanti Cuizon-BurdenPost Production Supervisor: Christian OlguinPost Production Coordinator: Ian BryantSupervising Editor: Doug LarsenAssistant Editor: Fynn Lithgow

Kamala Harris, the 49th Vice President of the United States and 2024 Democratic Presidential Nominee, joins WIRED to answer her most searched for questions on Google. Where is Kamala Harris from? What does Kamala Harris stand for? What was her childhood and early family life like? What policies would Kamala Harris pursue as President? Vice President Kamala Harris answers these questions and many more on the WIRED Autocomplete Interview. Director: Justin Wolfson Editor: Louis Lalire; Brady Jackson Talent: Kamala Harris Line Producer: Joseph Buscemi Associate Producer: Paul Gulyas; Brandon White Production Manager: Peter Brunette Production Coordinator: Rhyan Lark Talent Booker: Lauren Mendoza, Meredith Judkins Post Production Supervisor: Christian Olguin Post Production Coordinator: Ian Bryant Supervising Editor: Doug Larsen Assistant Editor: Justin Symonds Special Thanks: Democratic National Committee

Actor Liev Schreiber visits WIRED to answer his most searched for questions on Google. What’s the correct way to pronounce Liev Schreiber’s name? What are his thoughts on his time playing Ray Donovan? Does Liev Schreiber play hockey? Who is he in ‘Scream?’ Has Liev Schreiber been in a Broadway show? Will Liev Schreiber return as the mutant Sabertooth in the Marvel Cinematic Universe? Liev answers these questions and many more on the WIRED Autocomplete Interview.The Perfect Couple is available to stream exclusively on Netflix.

Good Mythical Morning creators and hosts Rhett & Link return to WIRED to answer an updated batch of their most searched for questions on Google. What did Rhett and Link do before Good Mythical Morning? What academic degrees have the duo earned? Why did Rhett & Link sell Smosh? Why don’t Rhett & Link feed themselves while on camera? When did Rhett & Link first get popular? Will they ever retire? Answers to these questions and plenty more await on the WIRED Autocomplete Interview with Rhett McLaughlin and Link Neal.Wonderhole premiered August 23 on YouTube with new episodes released weekly on Fridays https://www.youtube.com/@rhettandlinkDirector: Justin WolfsonDirector of Photography: Ricardo PomaresEditor: Michael Suyeda; Louis LalireTalent: Link Neal; Rhett McLaughlinLine Producer: Joseph BuscemiAssociate Producer: Paul GulyasProduction Manager: Peter BrunetteProduction Coordinator: Rhyan LarkTalent Booker: Mica MedoffCamera Operator: Shay Eberle-GunstSound Mixer: Justin FoxProduction Assistant: Faith Evans; Spencer MathesenPost Production Supervisor: Christian OlguinPost Production Coordinator: Ian BryantSupervising Editor: Doug LarsenAssistant Editor: Justin Symonds

Andrew Garfield and Florence Pugh, stars of the film "We Live In Time," visit WIRED to answer their most searched for questions on Google. Will Andrew Garfield play Spider-Man again? Where is Florence Pugh's accent from? Are Andrew Garfield and Tobey Maguire friends? Is Florence Pugh going to be in another Marvel movie? Andrew Garfield and Florence Pugh answer these questions and plenty more on the WIRED Autocomplete Interview. WE LIVE IN TIME opens in NY/LA on October 11, and everywhere October 18 Director: Adam Lance Garcia Director of Photography: Dave Sanders Editor: Cory Stevens Talent: Andrew Garfield; Florence Pugh Creative Producer: Justin Wolfson Line Producer: Joseph Buscemi Associate Producer: Paul Gulyas Production Manager: Peter Brunette Production Coordinator: Rhyan Lark Talent Booker: Lauren Mendoza Camera Operator: Nigel Akam Gaffer: Dave Plank Sound Mixer: Kevin Teixeira Production Assistant: Nicole Murphy Post Production Supervisor: Christian Olguin Post Production Coordinator: Ian Bryant Supervising Editor: Doug Larsen Assistant Editor: Billy Ward

Superstar musician and actress JENNIE visits WIRED to answer her most searched for questions from Google. When did Jennie join Blackpink? When did Jennie Kim start singing? When did she move to New Zealand? What is Jennie Kim really like? What is her favorite fruit? Jennie answers these questions and plenty more on the WIRED Autocomplete Interview.

Anna Kendrick visits WIRED to answer her most searched for questions on Google. Did Anna Kendrick enjoy the 'Pitch Perfect' films? How old was she when she made 'Scott Pilgrim vs. The World?' How did Anna Kendrick get her start as a performer? Anna replies to these questions and many more on the WIRED Autocomplete Interview WOMAN OF THE HOUR starring and directed by Anna Kendrick premieres on Netflix October 18, 2024. http://www.netflix.com/womanofthehour Director: Justin Wolfson Director of Photography: AJ Young Editor: Louis Lalire Talent: Anna Kendrick Line Producer: Joseph Buscemi Associate Producer: Paul Gulyas Production Manager: Peter Brunette Production Coordinator: Rhyan Lark Talent Booker: Meredith Judkins, Mica Medoff Camera Operator: Marques Smith Sound Mixer: Gray Thomas-Sowers Production Assistant: Faith Evans, Spencer Mathesen Post Production Supervisor: Christian Olguin Post Production Coordinator: Ian Bryant Supervising Editor: Doug Larsen Assistant Editor: Fynn Lithgow

Singer-songwriter Charlie Puth visits WIRED to answer his most searched for questions on Google. What was Charlie Puth's first single? What famous songs has he written for other artists? How did Charlie Puth react to Taylor Swift's lyric referencing him? When is his birthday? Charlie Puth answers these questions and plenty more on the WIRED Autocomplete Interview. The Charlie Puth Show is now available on The Roku Channel Director: Justin Wolfson Director of Photography: Charlie Jordan Editor: Cory Stevens; Estan Esparza Talent: Charlie Puth Line Producer: Joseph Buscemi Associate Producer: Brandon White Production Manager: Peter Brunette Production Coordinator: Rhyan Lark Talent Booker: Paige Garbarini Camera Operator: Lauren Pruitt Sound Mixer: Sean Paulsen Production Assistant: Sonia Butt Post Production Supervisor: Christian Olguin Post Production Coordinator: Ian Bryant Supervising Editor: Doug Larsen Assistant Editor: Billy Ward

Rapper Offset visits WIRED to answer his most searched for questions on Google. When did Offset start rapping? Where did Offset get his name from? When is Offset's album dropping? What was Offset's first song? What is Offset's fashion style? Offset answers all these questions and more on the WIRED Autocomplete Interview. Director: Justin Wolfson Director of Photography: Brad Wickham Editor: Ron Douglas Talent: Offset Line Producer: Joseph Buscemi Associate Producer: Brandon White Production Manager: Peter Brunette Production Coordinator: Rhyan Lark Talent Booker: Jenna Caldwell Camera Operator: Chloe Ramos Gaffer: David Djaco Sound Mixer: Sean Paulsen Production Assistant: Sonia Butt Post Production Supervisor: Christian Olguin Post Production Coordinator: Ian Bryant Supervising Editor: Doug Larsen Assistant Editor: Fynn Lithgow

Beomgyu, Taehyun, Yeonjun, Soobin and Huening Kai of TOMORROW X TOGETHER visit WIRED to answer their most searched for questions on Google. What does TXT mean? What is the best TXT song? Who is the best dancer in the group? What collective name do TOMORROW X TOGETHER fans go by? What is Yeonjun's ideal type? What is Soobin’s personality like? Is Taehyun a magician? What does Beomgyu smell like? Does Huening Kai have perfect pitch? TXT answer these questions and many, many more on the WIRED Autocomplete Interview.Gen Z Icons TOMORROW X TOGETHER returned with the 7th Mini Album, The Star Chapter: SANCTUARY. Available on all streaming platforms now!Director: Justin WolfsonEditor: J.Y. ChunTalent: Beomgyu; Choi Soo-bin; Huening Kai; Taehyun; YeonjunLine Producer: Joseph BuscemiAssociate Producer: Paul Gulyas; Brandon WhiteProduction Manager: Peter BrunetteProduction Coordinator: Rhyan LarkTalent Booker: Jenna Caldwell; Katie PearcePost Production Supervisor: Christian OlguinPost Production Coordinator: Ian BryantSupervising Editor: Doug LarsenAssistant Editor: Billy Ward

Alzheimer’s, a progressive form of dementia, may occur in middle age or in old age, and while a lot of research is on for drug treatments, none has been successful.

MIT professor Xuanhe Zhao said the development could open a new era of wearable imaging.

Such a probe can easily be fabricated into a strip-based kit that may enable on-site diagnosis

Fiery Feeds is better prepared to meet the needs of that kind of user thanks to a pair of important additions: full-text search and saved searches. Throw in optimized iPad pointer support, plus a new native article rendering option, and the latest Fiery Feeds update is a compelling one.

Trump was the most searched term among Chinese social media users last year, a report claimed, despite a severe public health crisis that brought the country to a standstill in the first quarter.

The National Technical Textiles Mission is a flagship scheme of Ministry of Textiles focused on developing the research and development capabilities of the local industry, especially in the areas of high-performance fibre development.  

IIT Madras’ Centre for Computational Brain Research is receiving support from Nvidia

This was part of the Gairdner Foundation’s announcement of its 2024 Canada Gairdner Award winners

The Sudha Gopalakrishnan Brain Centre powers an ambitious Global Project to image the human brain at the cellular level by generating unprecedented human brain data, scientific output and technology tools

This innovation has the potential to revolutionise data encryption and security, offering enhanced protection for sensitive information in digital interactions.

The nuclear physics hub needs to finance the construction of the Future Circular Collider as its existing particle accelerator — famed for discovering the Higgs Boson — edges toward the end of its useful life

Do you find yourself designing screens with only a vague idea of how the things on the screen relate to the things elsewhere in the system? Do you leave stakeholder meetings with unclear directives that often seem to contradict previous conversations? You know a better understanding of user needs would help the team get clear on what you are actually trying to accomplish, but time and budget for research is tight. When it comes to asking for more direct contact with your users, you might feel like poor Oliver Twist, timidly asking, “Please, sir, I want some more.” 

Here’s the trick. You need to get stakeholders themselves to identify high-risk assumptions and hidden complexity, so that they become just as motivated as you to get answers from users. Basically, you need to make them think it’s their idea. 

In this article, I’ll show you how to collaboratively expose misalignment and gaps in the team’s shared understanding by bringing the team together around two simple questions:

1. What are the objects?
2. What are the relationships between those objects?

A gauntlet between research and screen design

These two questions align to the first two steps of the ORCA process, which might become your new best friend when it comes to reducing guesswork. Wait, what’s ORCA?! Glad you asked.

ORCA stands for Objects, Relationships, CTAs, and Attributes, and it outlines a process for creating solid object-oriented user experiences. Object-oriented UX is my design philosophy. ORCA is an iterative methodology for synthesizing user research into an elegant structural foundation to support screen and interaction design. OOUX and ORCA have made my work as a UX designer more collaborative, effective, efficient, fun, strategic, and meaningful.

The ORCA process has four iterative rounds and a whopping fifteen steps. In each round we get more clarity on our Os, Rs, Cs, and As.

I sometimes say that ORCA is a “garbage in, garbage out” process. To ensure that the testable prototype produced in the final round actually tests well, the process needs to be fed by good research. But if you don’t have a ton of research, the beginning of the ORCA process serves another purpose: it helps you sell the need for research.

In other words, the ORCA process serves as a gauntlet between research and design. With good research, you can gracefully ride the killer whale from research into design. But without good research, the process effectively spits you back into research and with a cache of specific open questions.

Getting in the same curiosity-boat

What gets us into trouble is not what we don’t know. It’s what we know for sure that just ain’t so.

Mark Twain

The first two steps of the ORCA process—Object Discovery and Relationship Discovery—shine a spotlight on the dark, dusty corners of your team’s misalignments and any inherent complexity that’s been swept under the rug. It begins to expose what this classic comic so beautifully illustrates:

This is one reason why so many UX designers are frustrated in their job and why many projects fail. And this is also why we often can’t sell research: every decision-maker is confident in their own mental picture. 

Once we expose hidden fuzzy patches in each picture and the differences between them all, the case for user research makes itself.

But how we do this is important. However much we might want to, we can’t just tell everyone, “YOU ARE WRONG!” Instead, we need to facilitate and guide our team members to self-identify holes in their picture. When stakeholders take ownership of assumptions and gaps in understanding, BAM! Suddenly, UX research is not such a hard sell, and everyone is aboard the same curiosity-boat.

Say your users are doctors. And you have no idea how doctors use the system you are tasked with redesigning.

You might try to sell research by honestly saying: “We need to understand doctors better! What are their pain points? How do they use the current app?” But here’s the problem with that. Those questions are vague, and the answers to them don’t feel acutely actionable.

Instead, you want your stakeholders themselves to ask super-specific questions. This is more like the kind of conversation you need to facilitate. Let’s listen in:

“Wait a sec, how often do doctors share patients? Does a patient in this system have primary and secondary doctors?”

“Can a patient even have more than one primary doctor?”

“Is it a ‘primary doctor’ or just a ‘primary caregiver’… Can’t that role be a nurse practitioner?”

“No, caregivers are something else… That’s the patient’s family contacts, right?”

“So are caregivers in scope for this redesign?”

“Yeah, because if a caregiver is present at an appointment, the doctor needs to note that. Like, tag the caregiver on the note… Or on the appointment?”

Now we are getting somewhere. Do you see how powerful it can be getting stakeholders to debate these questions themselves? The diabolical goal here is to shake their confidence—gently and diplomatically.

When these kinds of questions bubble up collaboratively and come directly from the mouths of your stakeholders and decision-makers, suddenly, designing screens without knowing the answers to these questions seems incredibly risky, even silly.

If we create software without understanding the real-world information environment of our users, we will likely create software that does not align to the real-world information environment of our users. And this will, hands down, result in a more confusing, more complex, and less intuitive software product.

The two questions

But how do we get to these kinds of meaty questions diplomatically, efficiently, collaboratively, and reliably? 

We can do this by starting with those two big questions that align to the first two steps of the ORCA process:

1. What are the objects?
2. What are the relationships between those objects?

In practice, getting to these answers is easier said than done. I’m going to show you how these two simple questions can provide the outline for an Object Definition Workshop. During this workshop, these “seed” questions will blossom into dozens of specific questions and shine a spotlight on the need for more user research.

Prep work: Noun foraging

In the next section, I’ll show you how to run an Object Definition Workshop with your stakeholders (and entire cross-functional team, hopefully). But first, you need to do some prep work.

Basically, look for nouns that are particular to the business or industry of your project, and do it across at least a few sources. I call this noun foraging.

Here are just a few great noun foraging sources:

• the product’s marketing site
• the product’s competitors’ marketing sites (competitive analysis, anyone?)
• the existing product (look at labels!)
• user interview transcripts
• notes from stakeholder interviews or vision docs from stakeholders

Put your detective hat on, my dear Watson. Get resourceful and leverage what you have. If all you have is a marketing website, some screenshots of the existing legacy system, and access to customer service chat logs, then use those.

As you peruse these sources, watch for the nouns that are used over and over again, and start listing them (preferably on blue sticky notes if you’ll be creating an object map later!).

You’ll want to focus on nouns that might represent objects in your system. If you are having trouble determining if a noun might be object-worthy, remember the acronym SIP and test for:

1. Structure
2. Instances
3. Purpose

Think of a library app, for example. Is “book” an object?

Structure: can you think of a few attributes for this potential object? Title, author, publish date… Yep, it has structure. Check!

Instance: what are some examples of this potential “book” object? Can you name a few? The Alchemist, Ready Player One, Everybody Poops… OK, check!

Purpose: why is this object important to the users and business? Well, “book” is what our library client is providing to people and books are why people come to the library… Check, check, check!

As you are noun foraging, focus on capturing the nouns that have SIP. Avoid capturing components like dropdowns, checkboxes, and calendar pickers—your UX system is not your design system! Components are just the packaging for objects—they are a means to an end. No one is coming to your digital place to play with your dropdown! They are coming for the VALUABLE THINGS and what they can do with them. Those things, or objects, are what we are trying to identify.

Let’s say we work for a startup disrupting the email experience. This is how I’d start my noun foraging.

First I’d look at my own email client, which happens to be Gmail. I’d then look at Outlook and the new HEY email. I’d look at Yahoo, Hotmail…I’d even look at Slack and Basecamp and other so-called “email replacers.” I’d read some articles, reviews, and forum threads where people are complaining about email. While doing all this, I would look for and write down the nouns.

(Before moving on, feel free to go noun foraging for this hypothetical product, too, and then scroll down to see how much our lists match up. Just don’t get lost in your own emails! Come back to me!)

Drumroll, please…

Here are a few nouns I came up with during my noun foraging:

• email message
• thread
• contact
• client
• rule/automation
• email address that is not a contact?
• contact groups
• attachment
• Google doc file / other integrated file
• newsletter? (HEY treats this differently)
• saved responses and templates

Scan your list of nouns and pick out words that you are completely clueless about. In our email example, it might be client or automation. Do as much homework as you can before your session with stakeholders: google what’s googleable. But other terms might be so specific to the product or domain that you need to have a conversation about them.

Aside: here are some real nouns foraged during my own past project work that I needed my stakeholders to help me understand:

• Record Locator
• Incentive Home
• Augmented Line Item
• Curriculum-Based Measurement Probe

This is really all you need to prepare for the workshop session: a list of nouns that represent potential objects and a short list of nouns that need to be defined further.

Facilitate an Object Definition Workshop

You could actually start your workshop with noun foraging—this activity can be done collaboratively. If you have five people in the room, pick five sources, assign one to every person, and give everyone ten minutes to find the objects within their source. When the time’s up, come together and find the overlap. Affinity mapping is your friend here!

If your team is short on time and might be reluctant to do this kind of grunt work (which is usually the case) do your own noun foraging beforehand, but be prepared to show your work. I love presenting screenshots of documents and screens with all the nouns already highlighted. Bring the artifacts of your process, and start the workshop with a five-minute overview of your noun foraging journey.

HOT TIP: before jumping into the workshop, frame the conversation as a requirements-gathering session to help you better understand the scope and details of the system. You don’t need to let them know that you’re looking for gaps in the team’s understanding so that you can prove the need for more user research—that will be our little secret. Instead, go into the session optimistically, as if your knowledgeable stakeholders and PMs and biz folks already have all the answers. 

Then, let the question whack-a-mole commence.

1. What is this thing?

Want to have some real fun? At the beginning of your session, ask stakeholders to privately write definitions for the handful of obscure nouns you might be uncertain about. Then, have everyone show their cards at the same time and see if you get different definitions (you will). This is gold for exposing misalignment and starting great conversations.

As your discussion unfolds, capture any agreed-upon definitions. And when uncertainty emerges, quietly (but visibly) start an “open questions” parking lot. ????

After definitions solidify, here’s a great follow-up:

2. Do our users know what these things are? What do users call this thing?

Stakeholder 1: They probably call email clients “apps.” But I’m not sure.

Stakeholder 2: Automations are often called “workflows,” I think. Or, maybe users think workflows are something different.

If a more user-friendly term emerges, ask the group if they can agree to use only that term moving forward. This way, the team can better align to the users’ language and mindset.

OK, moving on. 

If you have two or more objects that seem to overlap in purpose, ask one of these questions:

3. Are these the same thing? Or are these different? If they are not the same, how are they different?

You: Is a saved response the same as a template?

Stakeholder 1: Yes! Definitely.

Stakeholder 2: I don’t think so… A saved response is text with links and variables, but a template is more about the look and feel, like default fonts, colors, and placeholder images. 

Continue to build out your growing glossary of objects. And continue to capture areas of uncertainty in your “open questions” parking lot.

If you successfully determine that two similar things are, in fact, different, here’s your next follow-up question:

4. What’s the relationship between these objects?

You: Are saved responses and templates related in any way?

Stakeholder 3:  Yeah, a template can be applied to a saved response.

You, always with the follow-ups: When is the template applied to a saved response? Does that happen when the user is constructing the saved response? Or when they apply the saved response to an email? How does that actually work?

Listen. Capture uncertainty. Once the list of “open questions” grows to a critical mass, pause to start assigning questions to groups or individuals. Some questions might be for the dev team (hopefully at least one developer is in the room with you). One question might be specifically for someone who couldn’t make it to the workshop. And many questions will need to be labeled “user.” 

Do you see how we are building up to our UXR sales pitch?

5. Is this object in scope?

Your next question narrows the team’s focus toward what’s most important to your users. You can simply ask, “Are saved responses in scope for our first release?,” but I’ve got a better, more devious strategy.

By now, you should have a list of clearly defined objects. Ask participants to sort these objects from most to least important, either in small breakout groups or individually. Then, like you did with the definitions, have everyone reveal their sort order at once. Surprisingly—or not so surprisingly—it’s not unusual for the VP to rank something like “saved responses” as #2 while everyone else puts it at the bottom of the list. Try not to look too smug as you inevitably expose more misalignment.

I did this for a startup a few years ago. We posted the three groups’ wildly different sort orders on the whiteboard.

The CEO stood back, looked at it, and said, “This is why we haven’t been able to move forward in two years.”

Admittedly, it’s tragic to hear that, but as a professional, it feels pretty awesome to be the one who facilitated a watershed realization.

Once you have a good idea of in-scope, clearly defined things, this is when you move on to doing more relationship mapping.

6. Create a visual representation of the objects’ relationships

We’ve already done a bit of this while trying to determine if two things are different, but this time, ask the team about every potential relationship. For each object, ask how it relates to all the other objects. In what ways are the objects connected? To visualize all the connections, pull out your trusty boxes-and-arrows technique. Here, we are connecting our objects with verbs. I like to keep my verbs to simple “has a” and “has many” statements.

This system modeling activity brings up all sorts of new questions:

• Can a saved response have attachments?
• Can a saved response use a template? If so, if an email uses a saved response with a template, can the user override that template?
• Do users want to see all the emails they sent that included a particular attachment? For example, “show me all the emails I sent with ProfessionalImage.jpg attached. I’ve changed my professional photo and I want to alert everyone to update it.” 

Solid answers might emerge directly from the workshop participants. Great! Capture that new shared understanding. But when uncertainty surfaces, continue to add questions to your growing parking lot.

Light the fuse

You’ve positioned the explosives all along the floodgates. Now you simply have to light the fuse and BOOM. Watch the buy-in for user research flooooow.

Before your workshop wraps up, have the group reflect on the list of open questions. Make plans for getting answers internally, then focus on the questions that need to be brought before users.

Here’s your final step. Take those questions you’ve compiled for user research and discuss the level of risk associated with NOT answering them. Ask, “if we design without an answer to this question, if we make up our own answer and we are wrong, how bad might that turn out?” 

With this methodology, we are cornering our decision-makers into advocating for user research as they themselves label questions as high-risk. Sorry, not sorry. 

Now is your moment of truth. With everyone in the room, ask for a reasonable budget of time and money to conduct 6–8 user interviews focused specifically on these questions. 

HOT TIP: if you are new to UX research, please note that you’ll likely need to rephrase the questions that came up during the workshop before you present them to users. Make sure your questions are open-ended and don’t lead the user into any default answers.

Final words: Hold the screen design!

Seriously, if at all possible, do not ever design screens again without first answering these fundamental questions: what are the objects and how do they relate?

I promise you this: if you can secure a shared understanding between the business, design, and development teams before you start designing screens, you will have less heartache and save more time and money, and (it almost feels like a bonus at this point!) users will be more receptive to what you put out into the world. 

I sincerely hope this helps you win time and budget to go talk to your users and gain clarity on what you are designing before you start building screens. If you find success using noun foraging and the Object Definition Workshop, there’s more where that came from in the rest of the ORCA process, which will help prevent even more late-in-the-game scope tugs-of-war and strategy pivots. 

All the best of luck! Now go sell research!

Ever since I was a boy, I’ve been fascinated with movies. I loved the characters and the excitement—but most of all the stories. I wanted to be an actor. And I believed that I’d get to do the things that Indiana Jones did and go on exciting adventures. I even dreamed up ideas for movies that my friends and I could make and star in. But they never went any further. I did, however, end up working in user experience (UX). Now, I realize that there’s an element of theater to UX—I hadn’t really considered it before, but user research is storytelling. And to get the most out of user research, you need to tell a good story where you bring stakeholders—the product team and decision makers—along and get them interested in learning more.

Think of your favorite movie. More than likely it follows a three-act structure that’s commonly seen in storytelling: the setup, the conflict, and the resolution. The first act shows what exists today, and it helps you get to know the characters and the challenges and problems that they face. Act two introduces the conflict, where the action is. Here, problems grow or get worse. And the third and final act is the resolution. This is where the issues are resolved and the characters learn and change. I believe that this structure is also a great way to think about user research, and I think that it can be especially helpful in explaining user research to others.

Use storytelling as a structure to do research

It’s sad to say, but many have come to see research as being expendable. If budgets or timelines are tight, research tends to be one of the first things to go. Instead of investing in research, some product managers rely on designers or—worse—their own opinion to make the “right” choices for users based on their experience or accepted best practices. That may get teams some of the way, but that approach can so easily miss out on solving users’ real problems. To remain user-centered, this is something we should avoid. User research elevates design. It keeps it on track, pointing to problems and opportunities. Being aware of the issues with your product and reacting to them can help you stay ahead of your competitors.

In the three-act structure, each act corresponds to a part of the process, and each part is critical to telling the whole story. Let’s look at the different acts and how they align with user research.

Act one: setup

The setup is all about understanding the background, and that’s where foundational research comes in. Foundational research (also called generative, discovery, or initial research) helps you understand users and identify their problems. You’re learning about what exists today, the challenges users have, and how the challenges affect them—just like in the movies. To do foundational research, you can conduct contextual inquiries or diary studies (or both!), which can help you start to identify problems as well as opportunities. It doesn’t need to be a huge investment in time or money.

Erika Hall writes about minimum viable ethnography, which can be as simple as spending 15 minutes with a user and asking them one thing: “‘Walk me through your day yesterday.’ That’s it. Present that one request. Shut up and listen to them for 15 minutes. Do your damndest to keep yourself and your interests out of it. Bam, you’re doing ethnography.” According to Hall, “[This] will probably prove quite illuminating. In the highly unlikely case that you didn’t learn anything new or useful, carry on with enhanced confidence in your direction.”  

This makes total sense to me. And I love that this makes user research so accessible. You don’t need to prepare a lot of documentation; you can just recruit participants and do it! This can yield a wealth of information about your users, and it’ll help you better understand them and what’s going on in their lives. That’s really what act one is all about: understanding where users are coming from. 

Jared Spool talks about the importance of foundational research and how it should form the bulk of your research. If you can draw from any additional user data that you can get your hands on, such as surveys or analytics, that can supplement what you’ve heard in the foundational studies or even point to areas that need further investigation. Together, all this data paints a clearer picture of the state of things and all its shortcomings. And that’s the beginning of a compelling story. It’s the point in the plot where you realize that the main characters—or the users in this case—are facing challenges that they need to overcome. Like in the movies, this is where you start to build empathy for the characters and root for them to succeed. And hopefully stakeholders are now doing the same. Their sympathy may be with their business, which could be losing money because users can’t complete certain tasks. Or maybe they do empathize with users’ struggles. Either way, act one is your initial hook to get the stakeholders interested and invested.

Once stakeholders begin to understand the value of foundational research, that can open doors to more opportunities that involve users in the decision-making process. And that can guide product teams toward being more user-centered. This benefits everyone—users, the product, and stakeholders. It’s like winning an Oscar in movie terms—it often leads to your product being well received and successful. And this can be an incentive for stakeholders to repeat this process with other products. Storytelling is the key to this process, and knowing how to tell a good story is the only way to get stakeholders to really care about doing more research. 

This brings us to act two, where you iteratively evaluate a design or concept to see whether it addresses the issues.

Act two: conflict

Act two is all about digging deeper into the problems that you identified in act one. This usually involves directional research, such as usability tests, where you assess a potential solution (such as a design) to see whether it addresses the issues that you found. The issues could include unmet needs or problems with a flow or process that’s tripping users up. Like act two in a movie, more issues will crop up along the way. It’s here that you learn more about the characters as they grow and develop through this act. 

Usability tests should typically include around five participants according to Jakob Nielsen, who found that that number of users can usually identify most of the problems: “As you add more and more users, you learn less and less because you will keep seeing the same things again and again… After the fifth user, you are wasting your time by observing the same findings repeatedly but not learning much new.” 

There are parallels with storytelling here too; if you try to tell a story with too many characters, the plot may get lost. Having fewer participants means that each user’s struggles will be more memorable and easier to relay to other stakeholders when talking about the research. This can help convey the issues that need to be addressed while also highlighting the value of doing the research in the first place.

Researchers have run usability tests in person for decades, but you can also conduct usability tests remotely using tools like Microsoft Teams, Zoom, or other teleconferencing software. This approach has become increasingly popular since the beginning of the pandemic, and it works well. You can think of in-person usability tests like going to a play and remote sessions as more like watching a movie. There are advantages and disadvantages to each. In-person usability research is a much richer experience. Stakeholders can experience the sessions with other stakeholders. You also get real-time reactions—including surprise, agreement, disagreement, and discussions about what they’re seeing. Much like going to a play, where audiences get to take in the stage, the costumes, the lighting, and the actors’ interactions, in-person research lets you see users up close, including their body language, how they interact with the moderator, and how the scene is set up.

If in-person usability testing is like watching a play—staged and controlled—then conducting usability testing in the field is like immersive theater where any two sessions might be very different from one another. You can take usability testing into the field by creating a replica of the space where users interact with the product and then conduct your research there. Or you can go out to meet users at their location to do your research. With either option, you get to see how things work in context, things come up that wouldn’t have in a lab environment—and conversion can shift in entirely different directions. As researchers, you have less control over how these sessions go, but this can sometimes help you understand users even better. Meeting users where they are can provide clues to the external forces that could be affecting how they use your product. In-person usability tests provide another level of detail that’s often missing from remote usability tests. 

That’s not to say that the “movies”—remote sessions—aren’t a good option. Remote sessions can reach a wider audience. They allow a lot more stakeholders to be involved in the research and to see what’s going on. And they open the doors to a much wider geographical pool of users. But with any remote session there is the potential of time wasted if participants can’t log in or get their microphone working. 

The benefit of usability testing, whether remote or in person, is that you get to see real users interact with the designs in real time, and you can ask them questions to understand their thought processes and grasp of the solution. This can help you not only identify problems but also glean why they’re problems in the first place. Furthermore, you can test hypotheses and gauge whether your thinking is correct. By the end of the sessions, you’ll have a much clearer picture of how usable the designs are and whether they work for their intended purposes. Act two is the heart of the story—where the excitement is—but there can be surprises too. This is equally true of usability tests. Often, participants will say unexpected things, which change the way that you look at things—and these twists in the story can move things in new directions. 

Unfortunately, user research is sometimes seen as expendable. And too often usability testing is the only research process that some stakeholders think that they ever need. In fact, if the designs that you’re evaluating in the usability test aren’t grounded in a solid understanding of your users (foundational research), there’s not much to be gained by doing usability testing in the first place. That’s because you’re narrowing the focus of what you’re getting feedback on, without understanding the users' needs. As a result, there’s no way of knowing whether the designs might solve a problem that users have. It’s only feedback on a particular design in the context of a usability test.  

On the other hand, if you only do foundational research, while you might have set out to solve the right problem, you won’t know whether the thing that you’re building will actually solve that. This illustrates the importance of doing both foundational and directional research. 

In act two, stakeholders will—hopefully—get to watch the story unfold in the user sessions, which creates the conflict and tension in the current design by surfacing their highs and lows. And in turn, this can help motivate stakeholders to address the issues that come up.

Act three: resolution

While the first two acts are about understanding the background and the tensions that can propel stakeholders into action, the third part is about resolving the problems from the first two acts. While it’s important to have an audience for the first two acts, it’s crucial that they stick around for the final act. That means the whole product team, including developers, UX practitioners, business analysts, delivery managers, product managers, and any other stakeholders that have a say in the next steps. It allows the whole team to hear users’ feedback together, ask questions, and discuss what’s possible within the project’s constraints. And it lets the UX research and design teams clarify, suggest alternatives, or give more context behind their decisions. So you can get everyone on the same page and get agreement on the way forward.

This act is mostly told in voiceover with some audience participation. The researcher is the narrator, who paints a picture of the issues and what the future of the product could look like given the things that the team has learned. They give the stakeholders their recommendations and their guidance on creating this vision.

Nancy Duarte in the Harvard Business Review offers an approach to structuring presentations that follow a persuasive story. “The most effective presenters use the same techniques as great storytellers: By reminding people of the status quo and then revealing the path to a better way, they set up a conflict that needs to be resolved,” writes Duarte. “That tension helps them persuade the audience to adopt a new mindset or behave differently.”

This type of structure aligns well with research results, and particularly results from usability tests. It provides evidence for “what is”—the problems that you’ve identified. And “what could be”—your recommendations on how to address them. And so on and so forth.

You can reinforce your recommendations with examples of things that competitors are doing that could address these issues or with examples where competitors are gaining an edge. Or they can be visual, like quick mockups of how a new design could look that solves a problem. These can help generate conversation and momentum. And this continues until the end of the session when you’ve wrapped everything up in the conclusion by summarizing the main issues and suggesting a way forward. This is the part where you reiterate the main themes or problems and what they mean for the product—the denouement of the story. This stage gives stakeholders the next steps and hopefully the momentum to take those steps!

While we are nearly at the end of this story, let’s reflect on the idea that user research is storytelling. All the elements of a good story are there in the three-act structure of user research: 

• Act one: You meet the protagonists (the users) and the antagonists (the problems affecting users). This is the beginning of the plot. In act one, researchers might use methods including contextual inquiry, ethnography, diary studies, surveys, and analytics. The output of these methods can include personas, empathy maps, user journeys, and analytics dashboards.

• Act two: Next, there’s character development. There’s conflict and tension as the protagonists encounter problems and challenges, which they must overcome. In act two, researchers might use methods including usability testing, competitive benchmarking, and heuristics evaluation. The output of these can include usability findings reports, UX strategy documents, usability guidelines, and best practices.

• Act three: The protagonists triumph and you see what a better future looks like. In act three, researchers may use methods including presentation decks, storytelling, and digital media. The output of these can be: presentation decks, video clips, audio clips, and pictures. 

The researcher has multiple roles: they’re the storyteller, the director, and the producer. The participants have a small role, but they are significant characters (in the research). And the stakeholders are the audience. But the most important thing is to get the story right and to use storytelling to tell users’ stories through research. By the end, the stakeholders should walk away with a purpose and an eagerness to resolve the product’s ills. 

So the next time that you’re planning research with clients or you’re speaking to stakeholders about research that you’ve done, think about how you can weave in some storytelling. Ultimately, user research is a win-win for everyone, and you just need to get stakeholders interested in how the story ends.

The Research Roadmap is a bold, actionable plan that will drive even greater research impact and solidify our position as a global research leader.

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The locations linked to Sunil Shrivastava, an aide to the CM, are also being searched, they said

[Auckland, New Zealand] : Libertas Academica, 2008-

National Bureau of Economic Research