Researc.her a project
I decided to interview a few colleagues that I love and admire. Here you can find out more about this beautiful Research.hers.
One interview is in Portuguese, the others in English.
Researc.her UX Research com sotaque brasileiro
Comecei a trabalhar como UX researcher já vivendo na Espanha. Todo o conhecimento dessa disciplina aprendi com queridas colegas que encontrei por aqui e também através de bibliografias, principalmente americanas. Algo que sempre me deixou curiosa é saber como funciona o mercado brasileiro, já que eu estou longe de casa.
Assim foi como começou :)
Conheci a Elizete porque ela postou sobre o projeto UX Research “com sotaque brasileiro” (corre lá até o dia 11 de Março para pegar uma copia!) em um canal de Slack. Imediatamente comprei o livro e tive que conversar com ela pra conhecer mais sobre o projeto.
Acredito que esse projeto é muito importante para a comunidade de Research no Brasil, por isso decidi fazer uma edição especial da Researc.her em português e conhecer mais sobre as autoras: Elizete, Denise e Cecília.
Espero que vocês gostem tanto quanto eu desse trabalho tão bonito que elas estão fazendo!
Contem-me um pouco sobre vocês: O que vocês fazem?
Eliz: Eu sou cientista social com mestrado em Antropologia Cultural. Na minha trajetória trabalhei tanto com pesquisa qualitativa quanto quantitativa. Depois de uma carreira acadêmica, resolvi empreender e abrir a Clave de Fá, empresa de pesquisa. Atualmente, além da Clave, também dou aula de Antropologia, Pesquisa e Consumo no IED Rio e ministro vários cursos de em pesquisa quali e quanti.
Denise: Eu tenho formação em Ciência da Computação, mas fiz doutorado em Psicologia Cognitiva. Praticamente toda a minha carreira está ligada à área de tecnologia, mas tive a oportunidade de transitar por mundos muito diferentes através dos clientes que interagi, empresas de alimentos, cosméticos, petróleo, bancos, etc. Além disso, há uns dois anos, comecei a dar aulas em cursos de especialização em UX e Inovação de universidades da região metropolitana de Porto Alegre. Nas horas vagas, leio muito sobre tópicos relacionados a comportamento — neurociência, cultura, psicologia investigativa e recentemente comecei a aprender caligrafia e lettering — for fun.
Cecília: Minha formação acadêmica é em Pedagogia, com Mestrado em Educação e atualmente faço doutorado em Engenharia e Gestão do Conhecimento. Comecei a trabalhar muito cedo na área contábil, pois minha família atuava na área, e acho que isso influenciou um pouco essa relação academia-mercado em que vivo hoje. A primeira pesquisa “formal” de que tenho lembrança foi uma pesquisa quali-quanti que realizei no primeiro ano do ensino médio, para fundamentar minha exposição para uma feira de ciências da escola. Era uma pesquisa sobre sexualidade na adolescência, assunto tabu em uma época com muita gravidez precoce que vivíamos. Organizei toda a pesquisa sozinha, desde o questionário até o tratamento e exposição dos dados, mas não me pergunte qual minha base teórica, pois não tenho memória dos eventos ou estudos que me fizeram seguir este caminho. Atualmente, além do doutorado, atuo como professora e em projetos da Reference Minds, empresa que sou sócia e atuo com pesquisa e educação.
Cada uma de vocês vem de mundos acadêmicos diferentes. Como ter essa visão diferente ajuda vocês a fazerem pesquisa?
Eliz: Temos diferentes sensibilidades para compreender as pessoas. Cada uma traz um ponto de vista diferente porque nossos backgrounds são diferentes. Como antropóloga, tenho essa preocupação com a Cultura e com os interesses coletivos, como eles estruturam ou são estruturantes de alguns comportamentos que assumimos como normais. E também me preocupa até que ponto devemos nos submeter à nossa Cultura, e até que ponto podemos subvertê-la. Também preciso ser sensível às questões relacionadas aos debates de gênero, raça, classes. Isso é mais cobrado de antropólogas e sociólogas do que de outros profissionais de humanas. Mas temos pontos em comum: eu tenho formação em antropologia e básico de estatística; Denise tem formação em computação e psicologia; Cecília é pedagoga, faz doutorado em Engenharia e Gestão do Conhecimento e pesquisa sobre acessibilidade.
As três têm em comum o trânsito em humanas e exatas, o que faz nosso olhar convergir. Acho que isso torna nosso trabalho mais simbiótico e orgânico.
No campo da pesquisa, que outras mulheres inspiram vocês?
Eliz: na graduação comecei a fazer pesquisa qualitativa inspirada pela Graça Almeida, uma socióloga carioca que moderava grupos focais como nunca conheci outras. Outra referência nesta época foi a antropóloga Margareth da Luz, já falecida, com quem aprendi a transitar entre o mercado e a academia e a perceber as diferenças entre os dois campos profissionais. Ainda no campo acadêmico, tenho duas grandes referências, a Rosana Pinheiro Machado e a Elisa Guaraná. Elas fazem outro tipo de pesquisa aplicada, voltada para o ativismo e para a desconstrução de preconceitos e compreensão do outro na defesa de políticas públicas inclusivas. No mercado, admiro muito a Paola Sales, pesquisadora sensacional, que tem uma sensibilidade e generosidade incrível. E claro, minhas partners nesta aventura, Cecília e Denise, com quem tenho aprendido muito.
Denise: Acho que minha principal referência em termos de pesquisa, aquela que me “converteu” definitivamente, foi minha orientadora de doutorado, Profa. Dra. Lilian Stein. Com ela aprendi que um pesquisador que se preza “não acha nada”, que precisamos fundamentar o que falamos. Foi também meu primeiro contato com pesquisas com seres humanos e aprendi a importância do rigor metodológico e da ética na pesquisa. Outra pesquisadora que me inspira ainda hoje é a Karen Holtzblatt, da InContext Design, que criou o método de Design Contextual há mais de 20 anos e continua ativa sempre inovando e empoderando outras mulheres.
Cecília: minhas referências mais próximas em termos de pesquisa são todas femininas: professoras de graduação e orientadoras de mestrado e doutorado. Uma, em especial, a Profa. Dra. Estela Maris Giordani, que tive o prazer de conhecer em uma oficina de habilidades básicas em pesquisa, quando estava na graduação, é minha referência imediata, pois foi ela quem me ensinou os caminhos da pesquisa qualitativa. Passei alguns anos sob sua tutoria e até tentamos aprender um pouco da pesquisa quantitativa, mas acho que não estávamos prontas para isso, porque abandonamos o curso (risos). Agora vou colar da Denise, porque também sou fã da Karen Holtzblatt. Foi uma das minhas primeiras leituras, quando iniciei como pesquisadora em UX, e a tenho como referência.
Na opinião de vocês, qual o nível de maturidade da pesquisa em produto no Brasil?
Eliz: vem crescendo rápido. Venho da experiência do marketing e, comparando com esta área, a pesquisa com pessoas para desenvolvimento de produtos e serviços está amadurecendo dentro das empresas.
Em cinco anos nenhuma empresa no Brasil conseguirá progredir sem ter uma área de experiência do usuário.
Denise: este foco na experiência está crescendo e daqui há pouco não poderá ser mais considerada uma área acessória. Terá que ser incorporada aos processos dentro das empresas. Mas ao contrário da Eliz, eu tenho a impressão de que ainda estamos engatinhando, especialmente quando se trata de produtos digitais, pois apesar do discurso de inovação, ainda se investe muito pouco em recursos para pesquisa.
Cecília: vejo que o interesse pela experiência do usuário tem crescido muito: há muitos cursos, livros, sites, uma infinidade de materiais que fica até difícil escolher, mas ainda são poucas as práticas que realmente considerem a experiência do usuário, assim como são poucas as empresas que investem em pesquisa. Quando se fala em acessibilidade, então, estamos caminhando lentamente: falamos muito sobre acessibilidade, a defendemos, pesquisamos sobre ela,
mas ainda não conseguimos promover muitas experiências acessíveis e verdadeiramente inclusivas.
Quais são os obstáculos que encontram fazendo pesquisa no Brasil? Acham que difere muito entre trabalhar em empresa ou para clientes?
Eliz: A principal dificuldade ainda é a compreensão da importância da pesquisa, não só na fase de desenvolvimento, mas nas fases de entrega também. A pesquisa é vista como um “custo” e não como um “investimento”. O ponto em comum nas empresas (inhouse) ou nas consultorias (outhouse) são os prazos. Dependendo do problema e do objetivo trazido, falta tempo para aprofundar questões. Outro problema é financeiro: falta investimento, comparando com os investimentos em pesquisa com pessoas fora do Brasil, aqui ainda falta avançar para que as áreas tenham recursos e invistam em dialogar mais com os usuários.
Denise: concordo com tudo que a Eliz falou, só acrescentaria que em empresas de software, a resistência interna, da liderança e das equipes de produto é, na maioria das vezes, a mais difícil de ser superada.
Cecília: concordo plenamente com a Elizete e a Denise, penso que as questões de prazo e dinheiro que encontramos pelo caminho são decorrentes principalmente da falta de compreensão sobre a importância da pesquisa, sempre entendida como desnecessária ou eliminada pela máxima “nós já sabemos o que eles precisam”.
Como vocês veem o impacto da pesquisa dentro do mercado Brasileiro?
Eliz: o impacto é alto. Desde o desenvolvimento do produto até a compreensão das questões contemporâneas, quanto mais as empresas investem em pesquisa, menos chances têm de errar.
Denise: A maioria dos produtos precisam ser adaptados no Brasil, para a legislação, para a cultura, para a compreensão da população.
E sem pesquisa, isso se torna mais difícil, o que gera um custo imenso de retrabalho e manutenção.
Eliz: Precisamos desenvolver mais os produtos tecnológicos brasileiros. E aqui é feito sem investimento em pesquisa com as pessoas. Os produtos são criados, desenvolvidos, lançados e só quando já está no mercado é que se percebe o que precisava ser feito para que ele fosse adotado pelos usuários.
Cecília: O impacto da pesquisa é grande. Como trabalho com acessibilidade, ouço muito a frase “coloca acessibilidade nesse recurso”, como se acessibilidade fosse somente um conjunto de ferramentas e diretrizes, mas na verdade estamos falando em experiência, então precisamos pesquisar para entender melhor o usuário e seu contexto.
Tendo conhecimento do que é feito no exterior, tem algo no mercado brasileiro que chama a atenção de vocês por ser muito diferente?
Como tudo que se faz no Brasil, com frequência esbarramos no famoso “jeitinho” e na burocracia. Na verdade, devido à baixa maturidade do mercado brasileiro em relação à experiência do usuário, as mesmas barreiras enfrentadas no mundo todo ganham dimensões bem mais críticas por aqui. Por exemplo, em uma pesquisa com vendedores de lojas de roupas para um aplicativo voltado para esse público, as dificuldades em encontrar e chegar até as pessoas certas incluem também as autorizações e aprovações de diversos níveis hierárquicos dentro da empresa, que às vezes ainda preferem indicar pessoas que estão fora do perfil-alvo. Além disso, temos um cenário com restrições importantes de natureza econômica, cultural e social — tudo junto! — o que torna as barreiras ainda maiores.
Uma empresa sueca desenvolveu um app de localização de redes wi-fi gratuitas. Mas fizeram na Suécia, para ser lançado no Brasil. A idéia era ótima. Mas na Suécia a Internet funciona e as pessoas têm aparelhos mais modernos e robustos, com mais funções. Chegou aqui e a realidade era outra: aparelhos antigos, com pouca memória, com planos pré-pagos ou sem dados móveis. Tiveram que contratar alguém aqui para fazerem uma pesquisa para eles poderem lançar uma nova versão, adaptada.
Como vocês veem o futuro da pesquisa no Brasil?
Vemos com otimismo. A tendência é que as empresas percebam os retornos do investimento em pesquisa e isso fará melhorar os resultados, tanto para as empresas quanto para os usuários. O aumento de cursos, workshops e formações também colabora para a profissionalização do mercado. Há um processo de evangelização nas empresas sobre a importância da pesquisa, e isso faz com que elas busquem melhores profissionais. E muitos profissionais estão buscando a formação em pesquisa, migrando para a área, o que tende a tornar o campo melhor e mais bem estruturado.
https://benfeitoria.com/uxrsotaquesbr
Como surgiu a ideia de fazer o livro UX Research com sotaque brasileiro?
Cecília: A ideia inicial surgiu da própria atuação profissional, que mostrava a carência formativa dos profissionais envolvidos com UX nas empresas. Há muita oferta de cursos, workshops, etc, mas quando um projeto inicia em uma empresa, os profissionais não têm tempo de fazer uma formação para atuar naquele projeto, então ele ou já sabe um pouco sobre UX, ou não tem qualquer formação, o que dificulta o desenvolvimento da pesquisa, coleta e tratamento de dados, por exemplo. Muitas vezes, essa grande oferta de cursos atrapalha quem está iniciando na área, pois há muitas opções e se torna difícil escolher por onde começar. Assim, a ideia era escrever um livro que desse suporte aos pesquisadores, sobretudo na escolha dos métodos mais adequados para o contexto do pesquisador, considerando seu orçamento e prazo. Isso é um desafio e tanto, pois o pesquisador, mesmo o iniciante, precisa conhecer a teoria para poder praticar pesquisa e geralmente encontramos o inverso: profissionais que fazem pesquisa sem nunca ter estudado qualquer teoria.
Denise: Também recebemos muitos pedidos de referências em português, nos cursos que ministramos e, embora existam vários canais ativos, como blogs e páginas, precisávamos algo mais basal. Eu e Cecília já vínhamos amadurecendo a ideia desde o final de 2015. Quando conhecemos a Elizete, que também já pensava num livro e tinha alguns materiais escritos e aí deslanchou de vez! :) Era a peça que faltava no nosso quebra-cabeça. Desde que “fechamos o time”, temos nos reunido semanalmente e trabalhado arduamente, mas tem sido muito produtivo e gratificante.
Como foi a experiência de escrever um livro? Surgiu algo de “síndrome do impostor”? Se sim, como vocês enfrentaram esse problema que muitas vivemos?
Eliz: Ainda estamos vivendo esta experiência. Estamos fazendo várias coisas relacionadas ao livro ao mesmo tempo: entendendo o mercado editorial, fazendo a campanha de crowdfunding, fazendo a mobilização e o marketing, e escrevendo o livro. É um grande desafio para nós.
Denise:Acho que para mim e para Cecília rolou um pouco da síndrome do impostor, por isso a vantagem de escrever em equipe, diminuiu um pouco essa ansiedade. Fazemos reuniões semanais e conversamos todos os dias sobre os andamentos do projeto. As três se animam mutuamente!
Cecília: com o crowdfunding percebemos o tamanho da encrenca que nos me metemos (risos), porque a demanda é muito maior do que imaginávamos. Na verdade, eu até tinha um certo medo de lançar este projeto, de tirar do mundo das ideias e colocá-lo no mundo real não só pelo medo do fracasso, mas também por suspeitar que demandaria um esforço muito grande. Todo dia olhamos se aumentaram as contribuições, a gente fica feliz, ri, depois se assusta, vê a responsabilidade, acha que não vai conseguir, daí no outro dia tudo se repete, é um looping constante, enquanto durar o projeto. A gente não tinha essa expectativa, de realmente tirar do papel. Mas agora veio a urgência, além da vontade. Está acontecendo, felizmente!
Qual foi o tema mais importante que vocês abordaram no livro?
Cecília: o como fazer pesquisa em UX. É muito difícil para quem não é de pesquisa pegar toda a teoria e transpor para a prática profissional. Ser pesquisador é uma construção que demanda tempo de estudo e prática, então dizer como as pessoas devem fazer pesquisa em UX, principalmente para quem está iniciando nessa área, é o mais difícil.
Denise: Ser capaz de escolher o que é mais adequado em cada situação de pesquisa, para cada objetivo, tipo de produto, característica de usuários, isso é um aprendizado. E colocar isso no livro não é fácil, pois precisa ter uma visão de cada método para saber escolher.
Eliz: Também foi difícil escolher se faríamos mix methods ou se aprofundaríamos em um ou dois métodos. Escolhemos apresentar um panorama dos métodos qualitativos, para que o leitor não ficasse com a impressão que fazer pesquisa com usuário é só entrevista individual, ou só etnografia.
Tem algum tema que vocês gostariam de ter explorado mais?
A abordagem quantitativa na pesquisa com pessoas ficou de fora. Fazemos um panorama de métricas e métodos quantitativos, mas assumimos que seria superficial e apenas para estimular que leitores procurassem conhecer mais também.
Que conselhos vocês dariam para uma pesquisadora que acaba de começar (e que comprou o livro de vocês, claro)?
Primeiro, que leia o livro, é claro! (risos)
Segundo, que busque outras fontes, outros livros, artigos, boas práticas, etc. Sempre temos aqueles autores que nos inspiram, mas precisamos buscar outras fontes, saber o que outros profissionais estão fazendo de bom pelo mundo.
Afora isso, é importante demais:
Nunca perder o foco no objetivo da pesquisa.
Se expor a experiências diversas e ampliar sua cultura geral, interagir com outras áreas de conhecimento.
Treinar o olhar, observando como as pessoas se comportam, o que elas falam, o que elas fazem, mas sem julgá-las.
Se vocês pudessem dar uma recomendação de 3 livros cada uma, quais seriam?
Eliz:O primeiro é o livro do Juliano Spyer, que aborda como as classes populares interagem com a tecnologia, chama Mídias Sociais no Brasil Emergente (disponível em: http://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/10052478/1/Mídias-Sociais-no-Brasil-Emergente.pdf). O segundo é A representação do Eu na vida cotidiana, um clássico da Antropologia, do Erving Goffman, excelente para pesquisadores que ficam se perguntando o que fazer se o entrevistado mentir. Também A vida social das coisas — As mercadorias sob uma perspectiva cultural, uma coletâneas de artigos de vários pesquisadores, sobre as diferentes representações e usos dos objetos e produtos em diferentes culturas.
Denise: Contextual Design (de Hugh Beyer e Karen Holtzblatt) é um livro escrito em 1997, e o primeiro a sistematizar a pesquisa contextual na criação de produtos digitais, de uma forma viável. O Estilo Emocional do Cérebro, do neurocientista Richard J. Davidson, examina os as emoções e mostra como funciona a conexão mente-cérebro-corpo manifestada através dos padrões cerebrais que moldam nosso comportamento. Cada um de nós possui uma identidade emocional única -ou estilo emocional, que é a combinação de seis dimensões. A Arte de Ler Mentes, do sueco Henrik Fexeus, é uma leitura muito fluida e até divertida sobre comunicação não-verbal, microexpressões faciais e linguagem corporal.
Cecília: para uma pessoa que sofre de “gula livresca”, essa pergunta é horrível! SÓ três?! Bem, eu sou apaixonada pelos livros do António Damásio e um dos livros de sua autoria que é de leitura essencial é “O erro de Descartes: Emoção, Razão e Cérebro humano”. Neste livro, o autor nos mostra, a partir de explicações biológicas e culturais, como a emoção (e a ausência dela) afetam nossa razão. Outro livro que eu adoro é “Flow”, de Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. O autor fala de experiências satisfatórias e me fez ter outro olhar sobre a realização de atividades, felicidade e engajamento. A terceira indicação é o livro “Observing the User Experience: A Practitioner’s Guide to User Research”, de Elizabeth Goodman, Mike Kuniavsky e Andrea Moed. É um livro com muita informação, mas que nos mostra o que, como, quando e onde fazer UX.
E aí, vocês se apaixonaram pelo trabalho delas tanto quanto eu? Conectem com a Elizete a Denise e a Cecília no Linkedin!
Researc.her — Fang Chen
I met Fang several years ago. With her I did my first ever design project, the client didn’t have much money, so he paid us with a fancy lunch. The website is still alive.
Join me dear reader in this last interview with this really special and sweet person :)
Can you introduce yourself?
Hello! I’m Fang, I’m from China, and I live in Spain. I love both countries so much. I hope I can be a thinker, a truth seeker, and a long life learner in my lifetime.
I’m a business designer who believes in creating values not only for business purposes but also for the well-being of societies and future generations. I’m also an educator of innovation and design aiming to help young people to liberate their minds, create confidence and generate meanings of doing.
What is your background?
I studied Geography Information System in college, then made some further education in Marketing and Innovation & Service Design. I’ve worked in companies of marketing and design agencies dealing with different tasks like market research, user research, business strategy, interaction design, service design, etc.
On the research field, which female professionals inspired you?
Everyone I’ve worked with left me inspirations, because everyone is so different and special, and for me, it’s fascinating and encouraging to know different souls and their different ways of building a relationship with the world, it’s amazing.
One woman I admire in a broader research field is Jane Goodall who is a primatologist and anthropologist aged 84 and is known as the world’s foremost expert on chimpanzees. She spent 55 years studying social and family interactions of chimpanzees which to me is admirable, not only for the longtime dedication but also for her passion and real love for these animals.
Today in design field you can see that “empathy” is being emphasized and used as a method, but thinking of it, shouldn’t it be one of the natural qualities that we humans have being what we call ourselves homo sapiens?
In your opinion, what is the value of research?
Well, in my opinion, research contributes a basic information system to the project, which is the shared workplace of data for whoever is involved in the project. A good research helps teams to organize the known information, unknown information and makes people aware of their wrong beliefs or prejudices which I think it’s very important.
Besides, a good research opens the road for a better understanding of the project’s system and raises neutral conversations between its parts, which I think makes positive emotional connections between different parts and that’s essential for any corporation composed by people.
What obstacles do you find in your daily work?
I think apart from the solid aspect which could refer to create better tools and protocols(always needed, for example, a reliable information searching tool that gives you only valuable information), the main challenge for me doing intellect tasks remains on how to improve the efficiency of dealing with a large quantity of information in a short time, like how can I learn faster and better while I’m getting older.
I don’t like the idea of depending mainly on AI tools that some people say ideally that technology “only complements” human’s abilities. I hope I can get smarter and use the rest 90% of my own intelligence since we still have so much to explore inside, why are we so hurry to explore extensions outside?
How do you see the future of research?
I think there is still a lot to cultivate in the education system until research integrates into everyone’s natural approach of doing things because I believe research represents a scientific and responsible process of reasoning.
Open-minded, empathy, empty cup attitude, being capable of self-educated rather than waiting to be fed and especially being motivated of learning new things and feeling involved in the situation of others are easy to talk in the research context but challenging to do, and they are not about research obviously.
Can you give some advice to someone that is starting now?
Be a curious person.
Look into yourself and find out your prejudices.
Be a good listener and write down your thoughts.
Be a truth seeker who always keen on looking for essence.
Be generous when distributing your time and energy.
Be aware of your limits and make good use of your resources.
Be polite and respectful.
Be aware of the need for creating your own knowledge system.
If you think you are not good at something, practice it 100 times.
Be a lover of life and cultivate your own intellect land calmly. :)
Please, recommend three books that you love about research.
Being a researcher in the business world who is constantly dealing with data of different people and different situations in different environments, for me, it’s necessary to have a basic reflexion on a wide range of knowledge like human behavior and human culture. I recommend Edward T. Hall’s Beyond Culture and The Silent Language.
Systematic thinking is needed for we need to understand the functionality of the whole system and the chain effects in it to be able to make responsible conclusions, Thinking in Systems by Donella Meadows and Diana Wright, in this case, is recommended.
Want to know Fang a bit more? Here is her Linkedin.
Researc.her — Emanuela Mazzone
Emanuela (Memi) is a terrific designer and researcher. She helps the designer community as an organizer of Ladies that UX Madrid.
Join me once more dear reader to discover this wonderful Italian Lady!
Can you introduce yourself?
Hi, I’m Emanuela Mazzone, born and raised in Italy, I lived for a while in the North of England and I am currently enjoying staying in Madrid.
I’m curious about how the world around me works, so I like to observe things, listen to people and be surprised by them. My work as a UX researcher is to continuously seek ways to improve experiences, whether is by understanding how to enhance a service, designing new interactions of a device or testing existing products.
What is your background?
My background comes from academic research — I studied in Siena (Italy) with a final year project on what was named Human–Computer Interaction, where I learnt lots of research theories applied to design, quite disruptive at the time, like Cognitivism, Scandinavian Participatory Design, Activity Theory, Grounded Theory, etc., and met many nordic researchers while in international Interaction Design projects.
Then I moved to UK, and worked as a research assistant in the Child Computer Interaction group, experimenting with many different co-design techniques in research projects on children’s technology. There is also where I completed my PhD research.
When I arrived in Spain I joined the aDeNu research team at Uned, mainly focussing on the usability of virtual learning platforms and getting in touch with the accessibility aspects of design. Having worked in so many different and interesting research projects, what I felt I was missing was a bit of reality touch, working on products that were out in the real world. That is when I ended up in Tuenti (part of Telefonica group), to build up more experience on product design. Now that I’ve been there for a while, I’m back to research, contributing to reinforce the research culture and practice within the company.
On the research field, which female professionals inspired you?
During all these years I had the honour to know so many brilliant researchers and professionals, it’s hard for me to select only a few! Starting with Edith Ackermann (recently passed away): I had the privilege to meet her at several research conferences, and to be charmed by her contagious passion in her work on constructionism and learning.
A completely different type of academic researcher I learnt a lot from is Janet Read, the professor of my research group in England. Very far from the stereotypical academic figure, she’s nothing formal, but dynamic, hands-on, I’d say the living example of “try it out, fail cheap and learn from it”, in a time when this current ‘lean’ philosophy was not invented yet!
Yvonne Rogers, she was my external PhD examiner, I’ve always admired her work as a pioneer in Interaction Design but was really impressed by her human side, very friendly and caring. I’ll never forget that after a long and thorough Viva examination she told me ‘You should be proud of your work!’
I can go on forever, mentioning all the many female colleagues I worked with and who are still an example for me, but I better stop here. All they have in common is a remarkable dedication to their work, great empathy both with users and co-workers, and outstanding managing skills.
In your opinion, what is the value of research?
To me, design research is an asset to invest on early on in the process in order to guarantee (or increase the probabilities of) successful solutions. Its value is to provide a real understanding of the context you are designing for, therefore optimising resources towards solving a real need.
At the end of the day, design is about creating artifacts that easily interact with users, and in order to interact with someone it is important to actually know that someone, not only assuming, or even worse, pretending to know them.
This is the role of research: to go beyond assumptions and provide solid knowledge and understanding on which to base your design decisions.
What obstacles do you find in your daily work?
I am lucky enough to work in a company that value research, but business goals often push into tight timings and research needs to adapt to them if it doesn’t want to be kept out. For example, I had to learn to compromisesome scientific rigour to adapt to fast moving projects pace while still guaranteeing valid results.
Another tricky task for research is to keep continuous connection with product development and stakeholders evolving goals, i.e. making sure that research insights are actually feeding the design decisions and are reflected in the final solution, not lost in the way.
How do you see the future of research?
I see UX research has lately become highly valued by companies and sought for in design — lots of training courses and job positions spring up. These signs are definitely good news, but the challenge is not to make it fall into just a trend.
Data are now so easy to access to and collect, the hard bit is what to do with them.
We see daily examples in the media that the same bunch of data can have so many different interpretations and lead us into so many different conclusions. For this reason it is important to be very conscious on how we do research. This point is where a thorough analytical methodology makes the difference in rooting design solutions that will work for a purpose.
Can you give some advice to someone that is starting now?
Go, try, experiment. There’re a lot of references to learn from and resources to use out there. Even if you don’t officially work as a user researcher yet, you have access to real users and real problems to understand everywhere.
So the sooner you start with it, the sooner you will get to understand how it works, learn from your own mistakes, get familiar with the process and improve your techniques. And of course, if you have the chance, work together with someone who has more experience, observe them, ask questions, ask for feedback.
Please, recommend 3 books that you love about research
Since I am sure that nowadays it is much easier to find useful and interesting books about techniques on UX Research and Service Design, I’ll go and dig into my uni background to dust some classic references off ;)
Robert Cialdini, “Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion”. I think that it is very important to understand how human mind works if we want to design products that easily communicate with them. Deep understanding of communication is also vital when conducting user interviews or surveys, not to bias responses and get useful valid results. I am sure there are newer books on communication and psychology, but this one had an impact on me at the time.
Donald Norman, “Things that make us smart”. Another classic (together with “Design of everyday things”) to understand where all the Design principles we use actually come from.
Bill Moggridge, “Designing Interactions”, which is a collection of interviews of great technology designers who made history.
You can find Memi on Linkedin and add her so you won’t miss a thing.
Researc.her —Irene Estrada
Irene was my prototype teacher, she taught me about the importance of narrative and storyboards, also about the whys behind prototyping.
She is professional and wise, from consultancy to product, you can learn a lot by talking with her.
Can you introduce yourself?
I’m Irene Estrada and I work as Service Designer in BBVA.
What is your background?
I studied Industrial design engineering but early on I understood that we were not designed in a right way: we were designed without understanding the origin of anything, without a methodology to understand the needs. At the university, we instinctively chose projects for quite complicated, almost extreme targets (blind, children with speech difficulties …), which pushed us to try to understand the behavior and needs from the user.
While I was working in very technical fields, I decided to start studying social anthropology. Then I started working in service design and design research, after joining in the h2i institute pilot course.
On the research field, which female professionals inspired you?
Tricia Wang. I saw her speaking in the Epic Conference in London some years ago, and I was fascinated by her ability to communicate, be insightful, provocative and at the same time rigorous.
Mercè Grael and Maritza Guaderrama were my teachers in design research and they open to me new worlds in my head. And nowadays I’m very inspired by my colleagues in my daily work, Cristina Salmerón and Beatriz Horcajo.
In your opinion, what is the value of design research?
Understanding correctly and at the proper level of depth, is not a simple task. I think we are doing more research every time, but sometimes I fear that agile, lean methodologies and sprints make it challenging to have a truly and deeply understanding
Even so, I believe that it is more and more necessary in this complex world full of constant conflicts.
What obstacles do you find in your daily work?
The bias. In my daily work, I am surrounded by people who know and verbalize all the time how customers and users are, without any doubts.Sometimes the opinions about the user’s behavior are too general, the diversity is not respected, and the biased opinion is more relevant than the research facts. It does not allow us to work more with questions than with answers.
They work more with evaluative research than exploratory research, especially because there are environments where it is believed that there is nothing more to investigate, we already know everything about the customers.
How do you see the future of research?
I hope and wish that design and design research will be more present in the future in areas that have not yet arrived in Spain, such as education, health, justice and social services.
Can you give some advice for someone that is starting now?
Try to be very close to someone with a lot of experience, to observe, copy, learn… and let him/her correct you and finally find your style of doing research.
When I started doing research, I was working with Jesús Carreras in Designit, and he was very generous, we shared the field work, and he evaluated me every time we did an interview, every time we were analyzing, every time we wrote the conclusions … I felt that he pushed me a little bit more each day and for me, it was one of the moments that I learned most in my life.
Please, recommend 3 books that you love about research.
“The Field Study Handbook” by Jan Chipchase. The last one book that I read in design research, a sign of this research times: transcultural research, international fieldwork, ephemeral studios…
“The Innocent Anthropologist” and “Not a Hazardous Sport” by Nigel Barley. They are clear examples for me when you think you understand something, but in reality, you have only made your interpretation to understand and survive, but deeply you never understood the whole.
“Frame Analysis” by Erving Goffman, a classic book in social & psychological research.
Do you also want to learn a lot from Irene? Find her on Linkedin.
Researc.her — Grace Ascuasiati
I met Grace back in 2008, and right away I knew that she was someone special. We coincided on Designit for a short period of time, and having her at the office was a delight!
Join me reader on this new adventure of research to know her a bit better.
Can you introduce yourself?
My name is Grace, I am a design researcher because I believe empathy is key to building meaningful and respectful products that help people.
I currently work at BBVA in what we like to call Design Transformation, with the goal of helping the whole organization learn, share and apply design tools.
Before BBVA I worked as a Design Researcher for Spring Studio in San Francisco and Designit in Germany and Spain, where I had the opportunity to do research all over the world, for clients like Simple Bank, Ikea, Huawei, etc.
What is your background?
I studied Psychology and specialized in Sociology of Consumption and Marketing Research. I had been working in marketing research for a couple of years unaware of the existence of user experience world, until I received an offer from a very well known design agency in Madrid. I was lucky enough to get a job there (at the time I didn’t know how many people were dying to get an opportunity like that).
In that agency is where I became a design researcher, and where I started learning the best way there is to learn, through practice, amazing colleagues I admire to this day, and must read books.
I went from working to craft better messages, to helping improve and develop useful products and services, to creating from ideas… and I found my vocation.
On the research field, which female professionals inspired you?
I am constantly inspired by women around me. I especially admire the ones that take the time to not only constantly reflect about their work and the impact of what they do on people, companies and society, but also to share these reflections through writing and/or teaching and somehow make us all better professionals.
I have had the pleasure to have Maritza Guaderrama as my mentor and colleague, she is a reference in the sector not only due to her experience, but because she teaches in a way that not many experts can, always connecting the dots between design research, anthropology and sociology, which is extremely important to maintain rigour in our practice.
In the same line, I admire Dorothy Silva, because she is very cultured, a great teacher and friend, and last but not least, she is always up for the next extracurricular challenge.
Other professionals that I recommend following and reading at any point in your career are Tricia Wang, for a refreshing view of anthropology and technology, Indi Young and Erika Hall for tips and exquisitely crafted arguments to advocate for our work.
In your opinion, what is the value of design research?
Design research is what makes the difference between a useful and a useless product or service. In my humble opinion, it impacts people around us as they realize that the things we design with design research in the process will be used, appreciated and even loved by someone.
I am aware that behind every great product launch there isn’t necessarily design research, however, at some point in that product’s development it will be necessary and it will be part of a turning point.
What obstacles do you find in your daily work?
In my current position understanding and dealing with the intricacies of a big organization. It’s hard, but it’s also quite a humbling experience to see that neither design nor the user are at the center of everything and the process of making that happen is organizational change.
As a design researcher, and after more than a decade working in the sector, it is still challenging to prove the value of design research. Even in places where it is now an established practice, there is still struggle to get the time to do it right and to do it at the beginning of the projects.
How do you see the future of research?
Very exciting! Design research is becoming more and more relevant as we design for global, for different cultures with different customs, languages, codes… If we want to be respectful and useful, design research is a must, and it will keep evolving.
A great example of why this is relevant is what happened to AirBnB and the name they chose for their brand in China, which made it sound like it was store selling sex toys… an epic fail that is taking more time and money to fix than a good design research.
Can you give some advice for someone that is starting now?
Read, read, read, and get out of your comfort zone. Learn through practice and if you don’t have the opportunity at your workplace, create it. I am not officially a design researcher now, but I never start a project without research. If this is difficult in your context, do personal projects or pro bono work (this also fills your heart).
Please, recommend 3 books that you love about research
For starting I’d say start with The Design of Everyday Things is a must, for understanding what empathy means from a designers perspective I really like Designing for People, and for understanding the world we are working in and the concept of complexity, since we are not islands and we have to work collaboratively, Team of Teams.
I guess for a design researcher everything is about research : )
You can find Grace on Linkedin and send her some love.
Researc.her — Mayus Sierra
When I moved back to Spain many moons ago, I met Mayus. She was a great neighbour and a better friend. We shared a similar past and present, changing from psychology to design, it was delightful to share some of these experiences with her.
Dear reader, I think you will enjoy as much as I did to know what she is up to now, and what she has to share with us.
Can you introduce yourself?
Hi! I am Mayus, researcher, service and interaction designer. I was based in Madrid but came back to Asturias one year ago, so now I work remotely, trying to find that unicorn called “work-life balance.”
What is your background?
After completing my degree in Psychology, I started working as a researcher at the University of Oviedo with a focus on Social Psychology. After some years (and a big economic crisis!) I decided to move on, and here is where I found the UX world. I took Javier Cañada’s Vostok course and a few months later, started working in Fjord Madrid as an intern. There I grew up as a designer. I was involved in quite a lot of “concept design” projects, so research was a key part to build something based on real needs.
After 6 years in Fjord, I moved back to Asturias and took a pause to spend some time with my newborn son. Now I am back in the game, working remotely for Hanzo Studio.
On the research field, which female professionals inspired you?
Lorna Ross had a great impact on me after I saw her in Fjord’s Kitchen event talking about her experience as Design Director in the Center for Innovation at Mayo Clinic. There, she worked to improve patients experience in the hospital and faced challenges when having to explain the value of design to healthcare professionals.
Jee Park is one of my favorite research brains. She has a strong ability to extract insights from huge amounts of data. If you want to know her a bit more, you can find her in Impossible (London).
Joumana Mattar is a fantastic researcher and the queen of workshops; she is a great facilitator and comes up with activities that will help you get the most of the participants. You can find her in Fjord Madrid.
In your opinion, what is the value of design research?
It’s the basis of successful service. Design research focuses on finding and understanding the real problems users face and helps define the final purpose of a project.
This way we avoid developing not only what is technically possible but also useful for the final users.
Often not even our clients have a very clear or actionable definition of the service and design research helps them find a way and build a roadmap for that service.
A very useful value for designers is that research results kill opinions and personal experiences, focusing only on insights with real impact.
What obstacles do you find in your daily work?
First one is, of course, budget! Research phase is still something difficult to sell, and even if so, the budget for it is not usually enough to plan proper research. Anyway, if you don’t have much time, some guerrilla research can bring valuable insights.
Another pain point usually appears when working with external recruiting agencies. Not getting the right questions in the screener can bring some problems and make you end up with a different sample than the one you are expecting, so it’s very important to be specific and clarify everything with the other team.
An important topic that should be an obstacle, but a positive one, are ethics. During my previous experience doing research in Academia, I learned the importance of valuing our users time and effort, make them feel comfortable and respected. Make sure your research will not have a personal negative impact on them. And of course, if you get paid for your job, users involved in your research should get compensation too.
Finally, involving all the team in different moments of the research process (PMs, IxD, Visual designers, developers,…) saves a lot of time and makes sure the insights learned don’t get lost in the way.
This is not possible sometimes and very difficult most of them. We should anyway try to find common spaces and moments to share where we are in the planning and what we have learned so far.
How do you see the future of research?
I hope the value of research will increase as the Design market matures in Spain. So hopefully we will be able to expand the research phases and go deeper in technologies like VR, gadgets embedded in our bodies or no UI designs.
When talking about people, also new needs will emerge for new family structures, new jobs coming and others disappearing, people living longer,…
My personal dream: I hope Design Research will also be involved in the process of improving the social dimension of companies. Help build more inclusive and diverse work environments.
Future in research looks as interesting as challenging.
Can you give some advice to someone that is starting now?
Be open-minded and enjoy the ride while putting yourself in other peoples’ shoes. Get involved, hands-on, observe and participate. And never, ever think that you already know the answers, you might be surprised.
Shit happens, so try to prevent but also be flexible. Always test your scripts; do it with the first users and then take some time to review and rethink. Try to foresee future stoppers in the design process and plan the research, so you get solid answers to refer to when doubts arise.
Look around and spend some time reading about other fields like Psychology, Anthropology or Business. This will lead you to a richer understanding of causes, effects, and behaviors.
Please, recommend 3 books that you love about research
Just enough research, by Erika Hall
Design research: Methods and perspectives, by Brenda Laurel.
Interviewing Users: How to Uncover Compelling Insights, by Steve Portigal
Hope you enjoyed knowing more about Mayus! You can find her on Linkedin and send some love.
Researc.her — Damaris Rodriguez
Sometimes when I ask people “what would you like to do as a designer?” a lot of them simply say “I want to do what Damaris does”.
I invite you, dear reader, to be one of those people because Damaris’ work is extraordinary.
Can you introduce yourself?
My name is Damaris Rodriguez, and I am the co-founder of Sonder, a design collective focus on social change. For the last four years I have used my design skills to understand global health challenges, from creating solutions for maternal health in India, Nigeria, co-creating hand washing solutions in Ethiopia, piloting group models for AnteNatal Care in Uganda to designing services for women to support the end of pregnancy in Mexico.
What is your background?
My journey on design started in Media, and after a few months in university, I realized media it was not going my passion. I began to focus my attention on graphic and web design, and I started to read what User-Centered Design was and curious to learn more. Started to work in digital design and explore the world on interaction design, in the digital and also physical world. During the years the material world got more my attention, and my curiosity went more to understanding what the right problems that design could bring value, rather than designing solutions.
On the research field, which female professionals inspired you?
Since I started to work, I always observe women later in their career and reflect on their journey. I still admired women that the connect their personal self with their professional self. But the majority of my research work is being focused on maternal health, so I have the opportunity to talk with many women, midwives and also many female researchers.These days my biggest inspiration is Ledia Andrawes and Melanie Wendland. These two women are the people I spend more time talking recently, and I feel privileged for joining me co-funding a design collective. I feel incredibly privileged to have female professionals around me that create a fantastic environment and inspire me every single day to be the best person and designer I could be.
In your opinion, what is the value of design research?
I believe that design research has an incredible value to inspired and informed better design solutions. But for me, the untapped value of design research is more focus on the process rather than the outcomes. Design research brings an opportunity to shape design as an intervention to enable an environment for dialogue, openness, equality, and empowerment.
The process of design research is a fantastic opportunity to bring people together, to accept diversity and focus on what brings us together and find the commonalities rather the differences.
Today, we are always talking about how societies are becoming more polarised, and I see the amazing opportunity of design research to design solutions that create more collaboration and constructive dialogue.
What obstacles do you find in your daily work?
Design Research is still a quiet new discipline in Global Health. We are still trying and showing the value and the impact of applying design approaches to health challenges. I spend a lot of my work communicating the value of design research compared to other Social Behavioural Research approaches. This obstacle creates an excellent opportunity to be very thorough with the design process and continuously reflect on how your work can lead to better health outcomes.
How do you see the future of research?
I’m very worried to see that most design produced is mostly embedded and serving the capitalist system. We have exciting times ahead where we need to start proposing alternatives for our future.
Designers, we need to start looking beyond and start asking ourselves, more significant and bolder questions.
Can you give some advice to someone that is starting now?
Use your environment as a starting point for your journey. We always tend to try to explore unexplored territories, but you can do so many things and start understanding better your environment. Methodologies and tools are there to use, but I see people starting in design obsess with them these days. My recommendation would find people that inspire you and try to learn from them as much you can. That is what I did when I started, and I really recommend you to do.
Please, recommend 3 books that you love about research.
I don’t like to recommend books on how to do research. I never felt they were interesting to me, and if always feel it makes design research a step of steps, rather than a mindset and a way to understand the world around us.
One book I could recommend is “Design, when everybody designs” by Ezio Manzini. Its one perspective on the evolving role of design participatory approaches for social innovation.
Now I bet you want to do what she does, right? You can find her on Linkedinand send her some love!
Researc.her — Maria José Aguilar
Maria José was my first real contact with Research. We’ve worked together many moons ago and instantly became good friends. She has a passion for keeping on learning and cool stationary. We are both crazy for some new pens and brushes. She is an excellent professional, and now I have the privilege of working with her again with a massive challenge of international research. I’m thrilled that we can go on this adventure together.
Can you introduce yourself?
My name is María José Aguilar, and I work as a UX Researcher in a company called Solera based on Madrid.
We develop solutions for damage claims and repair estimations, and our customers are Insurance Companies and car repairers. My goal is to provide feedback about our current solutions and insight about new needs in the market, to the UX design and product team while building a UX Research framework that gathers all the information that we collect on each UX Research track.
What is your background?
Chilean by birth, I studied a Graphic Design degree in Chile and a post-degree in web design in Madrid and ended-up living here permanently.
Although my designer career evolved and moved me to where I am, I think that the origin of my motivation in Research was with my first job doing survey questionnaires for a market research agency in Santiago where I enjoyed to meet different people and listen to their stories (although I had to walk a lot).
After several years in working as an external consultant in Usability, I moved to Tuenti for working in Product Design as an Interaction designer first and as a UX Researcher later.
Since December 2016 I moved to work at Solera, leading the UX Research area.
On the research field, which female professionals inspired you?
Ivonne Rogers since several years ago I went to a talk she gave at the Carlos III university about social design where she explained some projects that involved a whole community. By those days I was working on web projects, and it was very inspiring to see that design solutions and research can go beyond the pixels.
Also, she is a co-author of the book “Interaction Design” which is one of my favorites.
Haiyan Zhang due to her dedication to social goods on “The big life fix,” a TV show where a team of designers and developers help people in need. There are few episodes, but I especially loved her dedication developing a tool for allowing another designer who had Parkinson, to use a pen and be able to draw again.
Locally Maritza Guaderrama since she is a relevant figure in the research field in Madrid. She gave us a couple of classes during the lean startup course at the H2i school, and they were so useful, very clear and practical.
In your opinion, what is the value of design research?
I identify two layers of value depending on the scope that design research can have:
Working with a UX research framework:- Allowing to identify different customers profiles based on usage/consumption trends it is also possible to observe the evolution of those segments, their changes in some behaviours or discover new patterns. This facilitates business decisions.
- UX Metrics makes it measurable what gives the product team knowledge over what is happening with the product along the time.
- Data-driven conversations put the team on the same page and keep personal opinions out of the table.
- Further steps/actions are based on real user’s goals rather than a guess or tech boundaries.
Introducing a UX research track into a single project:- Reduces design proposals uncertainty and gives a way to measure it
- Reduces product/service value proposal risk
What obstacles do you find in your daily work?
For international projects run by several people (sometimes outsourcing people you do not know), there is a lack of protocols and procedures for logistical aspects. In my case, I do research in several countries in collaboration with local teams, and it is hard for me to find a good recruitment agency for specific interviewee’s profiles or to reward participants abroad.
Also, it is common to deal with technical issues like what software to use when recording especially when doing field research.
Lessons I have learned about these things are:- To pay attention doing the screener (it is better to include a couple of questions to narrow the sample) and to double check with the agency the participants and the agenda.
- Apart from the screener, share with the agency the goals of the research or give them as much context and support as possible.
- Ask for the research agenda closed one week before starting the execution of the track and share it with the rest of the team while checking that everyone is familiar with the tools you are going to use and that there are licenses for everyone.
How do you see the future of research?
Since the technology is allowing richer interactions in our daily life such as the hue light bulbs, the nest thermostat, mobile phones connected with cars, printers or televisions, I see an interesting future for a ubiquitous UX research beyond the web and mobile devices.
I see four big stages for every UX research project: Planning, Execution, Analysis and Delivery.
For the Planning and the Execution stages maybe we are going to use more field research, but I do not think that the tracks and their logistics will change that much.
I think that the big change is going to be in the Analysis and the Delivery stages because we are going to need different frameworks that consider all these new layers of information and their variables. I see an exciting challenge there.
Also, thinking about an ideal future, I would like to work in a future where I could say “I am a UX Researcher” without having to explain what it is.
Finally, regarding the feminist side of this interview, I really would like to see more women involved as managers in projects developing new business, services, and products.
Can you give some advice to someone that is starting now?
Be curious. In general, as a permanent attitude. Read about design and all the topics around such as psychology, history, communication. For a research track, get familiar with the product or service you are going to do the research and know about it to be able to do the right questions.
Do not do the work alone after the kick-off meeting. Along the Planning, stage have follow-up meetings with the stakeholders to feel that everyone is on the same page.
About meetings, follow-up meetings should be well planned to review the status of several specific topics and should not last more than 20 min.
For each track, define specific research objectives and keep the focus on them. Keep away the temptation of trying to solve everything in one track and help other stakeholders to do the same.
Based on these objectives think about the outcomes first, before doing the script and keep them in mind while conducting the sessions.
Look for the unexpected. During the Planning, if you are testing something, prepare your script to allow people, not like your idea and give you feedback. If you are discovering needs and observing people, leave room for unexpected things.
In the end, schedule a retrospective meeting with the team to talk about the past research track and what would they enjoyed and what things would they improve for further projects.
Finally, take advantage of failure and constraints. If you make a mistake or things do not go as expected, use this to learn, to review yourself as agile as possible and improve your workflow. It may sound like a big challenge but failure well managed can be an excellent tool for skills development and team motivation.
Please, recommend 3 books that you love about research
Specific about UX research:Measuring the User Experience — Tom Tullis
Exposing the Magic of Design — Jon Kolko
101 Design Methods — Vijay Kumar
For other strongly related areas:Designing the conversation — Russ Unger (for moderation)
The Good, the Bad, and the Data: Shane the Lone Ethnographer’s Basic Guide to Qualitative Data Analysis — Sally Campbell Galman (for qualitative data analysis)
Quantifying the User Experience — Jeff Sauro (for quantitative data analysis)
The Manga Guide to Statistics — de Shin Takahashi y Ltd. Trend-Pro Co.
(for statistics)
Did you love Maria José as much as I do? You can find her on Linkedin or write her a love letter!
A researc.her is born
I was lucky when I first started designing. I had the privilege to work with a woman that is not only a great designer but also a lovely human being. Watching her working made me understand her passion for our work and the importance of each phase. I could apply my knowledge of psychology and fell in love with research and analysis.
On my way up where I’m at this moment, I had the pleasure of knowing and learning from fantastic other female designers. As a designer on the making, I had incredible teachers that pushed me in the right direction. As a freelancer that was working on projects collaborating with various design studios I could learn different perspectives, methods, and way of thinking that shaped me to the researcher I’m today.
I know that tech is not a diverse discipline yet and that not every designer has the opportunity to work with these amazing women as I did. To celebrate that March is Women’s month and also to honor these incredible women in my life I want to share a piece of their knowledge with you dear reader.
On the following weeks, I’ll be publishing a serie of posts called Researc.her where you can read their stories. Hope you can enjoy as much as I did! Stay tuned!
PD.: an special thanks to Maria Munuera for the help with the name!