Illustration by G. Dallas, 1884 (The British Library)

Imagine you’ve just completed user testing around a new set of features and you’re feeling pretty good about how it went. You identified some serious problems, validated that users can complete a key task, learned something novel about how people work, and you’re ready to share your conclusions with stakeholders. Job well done!

Well, maybe… Researchers have identified more than 160 cognitive biases, many of which have the potential to distort your user research and lead you to faulty conclusions. Knowing something about these biases and following a few best practices can help researchers defend against them and come to more reliable findings.

At the UXPA Boston 2017 conference in late May, I attended a talk on this topic called “Best Check Yourself! Dealing With Cognitive Biases in User Research,” by Colin MacArthur. I’d like to share some of my takeaways from that talk plus some suggestions based on reading I’ve done since then.