# What Can’t AI See? Ethnographic Research in a Post-Screen World — Melissa Voderberg — session 2026-08-25T23:30:00.000Z → 2026-08-26T00:00:00.000Z _450 transcript lines · 86 slides_ ## Transcript and the work that they continue to do to look after the land, the sea, and the sky. Thank you. Today's event is a, an interesting structure. We try this in June and we're having these sort of two larger breaks rather than three at different sizes, but we get to have brunch, which I love We did this in June and we had a brunch break which is a Sydney thing but we did it in Melbourne and it worked really well. So we're doing it again. But, so the way in which the sessions today are structured is we have a series of three talks and then a bit of a break and then dream more and then a bit of a break and then the last three And, the idea is that we have plenty of time to talk about what we hearing. Design research as a practice is going through a lot of change. I'm sure all of you are grappling with the pace of of change in the tools, the techniques, and the expectation that are put upon us, how people this to work, how quickly they expect to get insights back from our work and the quality of what we're talking to people about and the way in which we're informing design programs, and the work of our organizations is all shifting quite rapidly. We're gonna tackle that and much more today. The thing that I also want us to remember though is that there's a point to us getting out of bed and it's not to grapple with tools. It's to provide insight and understanding and empathy and connection to the people who are putting things out into the world so that those things are better, so that the lives of people and the environment and our planet is better. It's not because tools, it's because purpose and impact. So we wanna talk about that kind of thing and it's a reminder to all of us that the work that we do is important, it's impactful, it has a real impact on the lives of individual people. And we're gonna talk about all of that and more today. So welcome to design research. It's gonna be a fun day. We get to kick off with Melissa Boda who is the director of customer experience in Innovation at Publicis Sapien. Please join me in welcoming Melissa to the stage. Thank you. Good morning. Can you hear me okay out there? What about now when I'm off that mic? All good? K. Okay. Good morning everyone. It's an interesting time in UX design research. Things are moving so fast, and I'm going to I'm going to guess that in the room today, many of you have either been affected by some of the restructures, impacted, or know someone who's been impacted, or have had the difficult decision of having to go through your team members and see who's going to be on the list. It's also a very exciting time. As Steve mentioned, we've got a lot of enablement happening with with AI and other parts of technology that have made some of the process processes that we do a bit faster. I'm been doing design research for twenty years. I'm a direct at Publicis Sapient, which is part of Publicis Group. Is the largest marketing and communication company in the world. So most of my time is either helping companies find the people that they need, so design researchers, research engineers to do the thing that they know do. Or they might not know what to do, and they come to us for assistance to help them understand and try to solve the problem. So the good news is, is that those three new opportunities for research that private and public sector are looking for. So I'm gonna get to those opportunities a little bit later, but first, I want us to also think about where we're at at the moment. At the AI Design Conference earlier this year, Millie Schmidt from Atlassian described it as musical chairs. We're all kind of walking around Some of those chairs get taken out and we're scrambling for a seat. And what that seat might say? It might say content designer. It might say content research it might say UX researcher, it might say UX UI researcher. And we're trying to figure out where do we fit. So many of us are looking to extend our skills We're thinking about how do I do what I know works, and also make sure that I can future proof my job opportunities. So how did we get here? Well, it started in a room, Computers were massive. Things that you purchased, they were things that you went to. They were behind closed doors, and trained specialists were working with them. Then, they got smaller moved into the home, they moved into the office. And then suddenly, we went from this desk, this desktop this computer, into something that non technical people are using all the time. And to be able to have from a room to a desk to a pocket, somebody had to make that easier and intuitive. And that's us. That's design research. That's what we're doing. And so when we think about that transition, we've gone from specialist highly trained, don't need training, don't need to be, the the computer doesn't need to have all the description and all of the intuitive built in and the patterns to now where everyone has it in their pocket. And it's our job to make sure that it's easy. But for all this time, we've been designing for the rectangle. We've taken all of this into pretty much a rectangle. We've tried to bring our environment into this space. Where people do their shopping, their social, their banking. And this is all changing. It's been a long road. And we've looked at to try to get all of the world that we have into this rectangle, We spent time where we've shadowed people, we followed them on their jobs, mechanics, engineers, electricians, doctors. People doing their shopping. Thought about the user, who are they, what motivates them. We've considered the task, what is this thing that they need to do, we've considered the context. Are they doing this on the train on their way to or they have a big screen in front of them? We brought all of this research into guidelines. The guidelines have informed design. Design has gone into design guides and style guides. The style guides have become design systems. The design systems are now built into components, and the component is a software. So all of this research and this this these insights, these personas, this understanding of what makes a great interview, our discussion guides, they can be able to find the way that we ask questions and what a good insight looks like and what a good quote looks like to be able to justify Have we been so good at research? That we've researched ourselves out of a job? So we started with computers. Into the home and then we have this huge uptick where we really needed UX researchers and design research to try to make things intuitive. We had the on of on Internet banking, then we had COVID where lots of companies were standing delivery services and trying to make this e commerce a thing. And we've had this shift now. We've had this drop off where we had a lot of AI solutions in market where businesses are they're skipping research side, they're going straight from need to design. With Claude Code and others cranking out designs, sometimes that research step is being missed. But again, the good news is we are about to move in into a new world. We're moving away from the rectangle and we're moving into spatial auditory experiences. It's estimated, Garner said that by 2030, over 40% of Internet browsing is going to be auditory. Also, we've got the increase of of agents and agentic experiences. And a lot of the research that we're doing now is to help determine what can an agent automate, where do we need the human and the Where there's areas where it's either legislative or policy or inclusivity or those cultural nuances where we absolutely must have a person doing that work. So there's a lot of areas that are increasing, in the next ten to twenty years. This is a project in The UK where they did a working with people who have a face c f. So this is where it's difficult for people to remember the word at the time that they want to remember that word. And difficulty sometimes with being able to understand language. This There are some really positive results from this where the people were wearing these glasses, with the AR overlays to help guide them in everyday tasks. And you can see here that that's a really positive feedback from people who now are able to go about their regular activity, pass as being someone just wearing some glasses, not a special fitted device. And, be able to have that extra assistance for them to do that recall at the moment in time with memory prompts and images to help them be able to translate and be independent in in their life. Now I know what you're all thinking. What about all the perverts? And there was just an article this morning, around Brisbane about people wearing those glasses to go to the public pools and banning people. This frustrates me so much. And there's always a bad apple who's gonna, destroy the barrel, whatever the the phrase is. But this is happening. There is a huge uptake in people using glasses, using KineMaster, and auditory experiences to try to make their lives easier. And the demand and the sales show that. So as we're thinking about how do we design for gestures and movements, and body language, and and ways that people will be able to communicate yes, no, stop, go with their hands, with their body instead of just their clicking with their fingers. There's a lot of things we need to consider from a cultural perspective. So looking across cultures, there's many parts of the things that we do that vary. This in Japan means come here, in western society often means go away. Nodding left to right in Western society, often means no. And in Indian society, it means yes, green. A lot of these little gestures have to be thought about if we're going to let people con control the device and the digital experience with their body, with their with their face, with the facial mapping, and with their the way that they hold their themselves. Okay. So Erin Meyer wrote a book called The Culture Map. She interviewed thousands of people, over 30 to try to understand the Yeah. One second. The sound's dropping out. So the livestream, so we'll put you Yep. Okay. I take this one off? No. No. That's for the room. This is just for the stream and to get it sorted. Okay. Okay. No worries. Yeah. I'm continuing on this. Okay. No worries. So she interviewed thousands of people to try to understand the difference in different cultures and to what do we do when we're designing these digital experiences that need to be localized so that we make sure that we're talking to people in the right way. She also looked at time, so thinking about some countries where it's a bit more flexible and more of a suggestion than an actual time, and something we should be considering when we are trying to have, moments where people are either waiting for a a page to load or waiting for something to come in, thinking about how long do we need for that to be. And in different local areas, they might be more accepting or they might be more frustrated. So So it's kind of a lot. If we suddenly have gone from designing for the rectangle and we feel like we've got it sorted and now we're being asked to design for people in their culture as they've been raised for an entirely different way of living and working in different parts of the world. Who can we learn from? So there's three anthropologists that we'll touch on that have done some interesting field work that we can bring some of those methods, into our work. So Margaret Mead spent time in Samoa trying to understand different ways that gender roles were raised in society. She also looked at how the nature nurture debate went and her belief was that how people are raised and the way they think about gender and the way they think about sexuality is not biology. It is how you're raised. But what she found by living there for years and years, it was difficult for her to be part of the society and also an observer. So she was one of the first anthropologists who took so much footage, photographs and video, she took 25,000 photos and 20,000 feet of video that then she could look at afterwards to try to then decode some of those patterns and some of that behavior. It was difficult when she was in the room doing that. We've probably all had experience where you've been in a room and conducting an interview or shadowing or walking through an experience with someone, And there's so many things going on, it's hard for you to notice what are the things that are are really what are those patterns? What are those behavioral patterns? Not until you go into the video afterwards that you can make sense of it. The next one, which I'm sure most of you are familiar with is Jane Goodall. So she was only 26 when she arrived to Tanzania in 1960. When she first arrived, it was the first time anyone had done a project this length with chimpanzees, and they were absolutely frightened of her. It took her months and months of sitting quietly in the forest until she was able to get closer and observe them with their habits and their behaviors, things they did together, and things that they did independently. And after that time, she was finally had her breakthrough, which is when she identified one of the chimpanzees grabbing a a twig from a plant, stripping the leaves off, plunging it into a termite mound and to get the termites out to eat. And that was the first time that anyone had documented that it's not just humans who make tools to use in their life. So that, again, raised the question in science between what is human and what what are animals. And Sarah Pink who's developed the area of ethnography in and sensory ethnography, where she worked with people following them, shadowing them, being in their home with them while they did, daily activities. And one of the areas that she looked at was in laundry in Indonesia. To try to understand these washing machines that had gone into households. How are people actually using them? Just because they buy the washing machines doesn't mean that they're actually using them in the same way that we might. And she found that there's actually quite a lot of distrust for the washing machines, and that there was a, a belief that the washing machines would destroy people's clothes, especially things that have been screen printed. So people were only using the washing machines for doing the spinning. And the drying, and even the water. They were distrusting the water from the government and using well water to to wash the clothes because it had less chemicals. So some of these insights that don't come from just sitting in an interview in in a room with some and asking them about their activities, about actually shadowing while they're doing things, trying to prompt with questions and understand that behavior. So what can we bring from these three anthropologists? So what we learned from from Margaret Mead is it's difficult to sometimes identify patterns when you're in the environment. So we can use some of the AI computer vision to be able to look at patterns. From Jane, it was about once the the people or the subject starts ignoring us, that's when we get to understand what the real behavior is. And then from Sarah, going along with people as they're doing that prompt. But I don't know about you all, but I don't have two years to research a project. We often will have two weeks, two months, short time anthropologists, you know, you'd spend years working with people. So looking at AI and some of the enablements here, we can look at using some of the decoding to be able to understand where patterns are happening. But it's still up to the researcher to be able to undo that sense make To try to look at a pattern, we know it's happening, but we might not know why it's happening. That helps us take all of this footage, the stuff that we wouldn't normally have time to do, to get down to the patterns, then, you know, kind of I'm doing an inverted double diamond. Let me do it this way. This way. Down where we understand what we need to look at, and then go wide again to be able to probe and to find out what are some of the things. Taking a long time to get to those new opportunities. Okay. What are they? This is exciting stuff. Right? Okay. The first one that we're hearing interest from companies and government about is about the spatial UX researcher. So this might be some of you who are really interested in in ethnography, You love the you love traveling or you love being around different cultures. You love noticing the things that make us unique, that make us different. These skills are gonna be very in demand, as we bring those into understand the nuances of culture. And what does this mean when we're thinking about designing haptics and gestures and ways for people to communicate what they want to do in the digital realm. The next one is around agentic foresight researcher. Agents, am I right? Okay. Yes. There's things they can do. But we still need to have researchers figuring out and thinking about what a alternative futures might exist when they are doing some of our work. We've seen in the news where companies have been pretty full on and done slashing, cut lots of jobs, and then realized later, actually we needed people to do some of that stuff. Oh, we've kind of messed up. So the agentic foresight researcher is there to assist businesses and government thinking about what are all of the front stage and back stage activities we do in this organization. Where are the areas where things can be automated? And where do we need people specifically dedicated around legislative policy, inclusivity, areas that we require a human in the loop. And then what might this possible future look like? So we've been asked for researchers who can play out some of those new future can say, this is what this might look like. And people who are very good at doing that those process maps thinking about the different steps people go through, and people who have either maybe come from a BA background or services design background who are familiar with mapping out those different flows and the people that are involved. And the last one is around change researchers. So again, we're having requests from government and from private businesses around people from a UX background, and a UX researcher background, design background, to be working with the change managers to help bring through those insights on the ground of what's going to happen for either tech adoption, for new ways of working, or for different types of roles that people have not yet started. People who are in this role have normally come from either gone through a digital transformation or worked on a project that is around digital transformations, they know some of those common stages. They're often people who are very good at connecting, and being able to understand talking to a bunch of different stakeholders and understand this is what's in it for them, this is what's in it for them, this is what's in it for them. And feed that back to the change plan. Okay. And the last one. So again, exciting stuff, new opportunities for UX and design research. And the different areas that sit within them. Whether people have an area that they've really enjoyed and they wanna go deeper, extending those skills into the area of AR, VR, extending those skills into more of a business analysis. So more of a BA background and really enjoy that thinking about feedback loops and cybernetics around that. Enjoying that logic and structure, or people who are more in the change space. So being able to assist change managers, and be able to assist some of those stakeholders, through areas of complexity, change. Okay. It's an exciting time, and there's lots of new areas. Thank you very much. I'm all corded up. We'll do that, baby. You. So, we have a little bit of time for some questions for Melissa. If you ask the question, I'll repeat it so that it gets through to the people who are listening online for the recording. But if you have a question put up your hand, then I'll call. Yes. Yeah. That's a great question. So cybernetics is about adjustments through feedback. So systems that do that naturally, so animals, plants, people, machines that adjust when there's feedback to show that something isn't quite right. So getting it back on path. So the way that that person, for the agentic researcher that I think that they're their, skills could be extended is still around thinking about if we are having this new process, that comes in, what are some of the downstream impacts that that could have on the people, the process, the technology? That the business or organization needs to be aware of. I don't see it as much as needing to know about computer science, it's more about understanding the patterns and the cause and effect. If we cut a 100 jobs and put in 20 agents, how might that impact how we deliver our products and services today? And what are some of those alternative futures, and how that could look? So I from my view and the people that I've worked with, that still within the service design researcher role, but people who are more on the process mapping side and that that comes naturally to them and and that they love it. Right? You want people to love what they do. Any other questions? Yeah. Around inclusion. Yeah. That's a big one. So let me think. When we were working on a project, if few years ago, it was about inclusion for people to access toilets, and using publicly available data. And, it was about accessible toilets. We got halfway through the project, and we realized that these accessible toilets, and the way that the data had actually been cut, was if there was a big enough space for a wheelchair. They had not even thought about what if someone doesn't have a care with them, and what if someone wants to go to the toilet by themself to be able to open the door by themself, and be able to get out by themself. So we advocated for them to recut the data to not just be an accessible toilet, but to be able to have another layer which is around independently accessible toilet. I was through a day in the life, it was shadowing, I was walking with people and and doing their activities with them, following them through, and getting on a tram. For one of them, I had a wheelchair for a day to just get around public transport and and see what it's actually like when you you're seeing the world from a different height, from different things that are available to you, different lengths that you can reach. Different bumps that you've gotta get yourself up and down from. Scary. Yeah. Yeah. That's a that's a great question and something I think we're all grappling with. So the first one is if you can try to vet it down to what is the stack that that organization is gonna use. You know, are they gonna be doing copilot agents? Is it a the the possibilities within that. And then once you do that, the next step normally do is look at that particular tech suite's roadmap, what's coming, you can often get access to that to see. It might not be a a part of the feature set right now, but in six months this this is going to drop. That then we can be preparing for that. And that because you can't learn, you can't know everything. Right? Is a lot more school kids on weekend and school lights children, a lot more school lights children. On weekends, but also before and after school fishing. Does anyone notice that? I I was fascinated by it. So growing up, as an 18, 19, 20, 21 year old, I used to go fishing a lot. I enjoyed the camping side of it, the hiking side of it, all that kind of stuff. But I couldn't quite wrap my head around now why you have these groups of kids taking up fishing. They're on the bike with their rollers and their and their reels and stuff, they're on loan bikes, I see them riding to get down to the water. Every day. And I had the opportunity recently to talk to them about it. And there was a group of three or four boys, maybe 15, 14, 15 years of age. Two brothers and their friends, and they were going fishing. And I said to them, like, why? What's the like, why are you doing it? Get out of the house? Get away from the screen? Not watch TV, sick of streaming YouTube videos, just like all of the things around technology, and not I I thought maybe I had missed ## Slides ### 00:02:23 [Faint diagram or flowchart with unreadable text on a white background] ### 00:02:35 WHAT CAN'T AI SEE # Ethnographic research in a post screen world Melissa Voderberg ### 00:02:56 ### WHAT CAN'T AI SEE # Ethnographic research in a post screen world Melissa Voderberg ### 00:03:17 # Ethnographic research in a post screen world ## WHAT CAN'T AI SEE Melissa Voderberg publicis sapient ### 00:03:33 ### WHAT CAN'T AI SEE # Ethnographic research in a post screen world Melissa Voderberg [Logo for Publicis Sapient] ### 00:03:37 ### WHAT CAN'T AI SEE # Ethnographic research in a post screen world Melissa Voderberg [Logo for Publicis Sapient] ### 00:04:04 # Ethnographic research in a post screen world ## WHAT CAN'T AI SEE ### Melissa Voderberg ### 00:04:28 # Ethnographic research in a post screen world ## WHAT CAN'T AI SEE Melissa Voderberg ### 00:04:33 # Ethnographic research in a post screen world ## WHAT CAN'T AI SEE Melissa Voderberg ### 00:04:57 # DESIGN RESEARCH ### UX AUSTRALIA | WEB DIRECTIONS [Black and white photo of a woman smiling in a car, with a large, complex piece of electronic equipment in the passenger seat] ### 00:05:18 ### UX AUSTRALIA | WEB DIRECTIONS # DESIGN RESEARCH [Image of a desk setup with a laptop, a smartphone, and other items] ### 00:05:33 ### HISTORY OF COMPUTERS ## From specialists... to everyone [Three black and white images showing the evolution of computer use: a man at a large early computer, a young girl at a desktop computer, and a person taking a selfie with a smartphone.] ### 00:05:54 ### HISTORY OF COMPUTERS # From specialists... to everyone [Black and white image of a man operating a large, early computer] [Black and white image of a young girl sitting at a desk with a personal computer] [Black and white image of a person taking a selfie with a smartphone, making a rock-and-roll hand gesture] ### 00:06:19 # DESIGN RESEARCH UX AUSTRALIA | WEB DIRECTIONS [Photo of a construction worker in a hard hat and high-vis vest using a tablet outdoors, displaying an application with an augmented reality view of pipes or machinery.] ### 00:06:35 # DESIGN RESEARCH ## SQUIGGLE = BEELINE! - Would you like to learn a bit about how you use the library space? - Do you currently use the library? ### 00:06:39 # DESIGN RESEARCH ## UX AUSTRALIA | WEB DIRECTIONS ### User Journey Map Template Questions - Would you like to learn a lot about how you use the library space? - Do you currently use ### 00:07:03 [A woman on a bus uses a laptop, pointing at a user interface on the screen that shows concentric squares and a 'Continue' button.] ### 00:07:25 # DESIGN RESEARCH [Photo of a woman in a green top taking notes from a man in an orange high-visibility shirt and white hard hat] ### 00:07:50 # Demand for UX / Design Researchers - Research required for AR & auditory experiences - Research required for agentic experiences Source: 1990-2025 Indeed data [Line graph showing demand for UX researchers over time, with a peak around 2020 labeled "Covid", a subsequent decline labeled "AI solutions in market", and a projected increase for future research areas.] ### 00:08:15 # Demand for UX / Design Researchers - Research required for AR & auditory experiences - Research required for agentic experiences Source: 1990-2025 Indeed data [Line graph showing the demand for UX Researchers over time, with peaks around 2020 (labeled "Covid") and a projected increase from 2030 onwards (labeled "AI solutions in market")] ### 00:08:33 # UX AUSTRALIA | WEB DIRECTIONS ## DESIGN RESEARCH ### Demand for UX / Design Researchers - Research required for AR & auditory experiences - Research required for agentic experiences [Line ### 00:08:35 # UX AUSTRALIA | WEB DIRECTIONS ## DESIGN RESEARCH ### Demand for UX / Design Researchers - Research required for AR & auditory experiences - Research required for agentic experiences [Line ### 00:08:59 # Demand for UX / Design Researchers - Research required for AR & auditory experiences - Research required for agentic experiences [Line graph showing the demand for UX Researchers from 1990 ### 00:09:23 ## AR overlay benefits ### APHASIA - Brain condition affecting speech - Can be caused by a stroke, brain > "You look at a 2D-map and it doesn ### 00:09:48 # AR overlay benefits ### APHASIA - Brain condition affecting speech - Can be caused by a stroke, brain ### Screenshot of an article titled "Making smartglasses accessible: perspectives and prototypes from co-design with people with aphasia" > "You look at a 2D-map and it doesn't give hills, elevations... it highlighted a route that was stair free!" > - Gerard > "It's amazing! Oh my god you look fantastic, these glasses look normal! [to other participant]" > - Patrick > "Going to McDonald's; I can't spit out the words that I want. This helps." > - Steve > "You could imagine in an old people's home - everyone using one of these." > - Joy Source: Quilty, H., Keats, T. Making smartglasses accessible: perspectives and prototypes from co-design with people with aphasia. Doi: 10.36399/ds.v2i2.02253-2 [Illustration of smartglasses with augmented reality overlays showing a video call, navigation, object detection, and other features] ### 00:10:13 # Spatial & auditory design - "I've definitely lost followers': influencers face backlash over Meta 'pervert glasses' content" - "Fear and backlash build over smart glasses and privacy" - "Apple said secretly to be developing tiny screenless AI device" - "OpenAI's First Device To Be Movable Screenless Speaker To Challenge Apple" - 500 million Alexa-enabled devices sold worldwide - 2027 Air pods with camera capability - **167%** AR Glasses Sales surged in the past year [Bar chart titled "Smart Augmented Reality (AR) Glasses Market Report 2026" showing market size growth from $1.5 billion in 2020 to $3.95 billion in 2026] [Graphic of a green teardrop with an upward arrow indicating 167% growth in AR Glasses sales] ### 00:10:34 # Spatial & auditory design - 'I've definitely lost followers': influencers face backlash over Meta 'pervert glasses' content - Fear and backlash build over smart glasses and privacy - Smart glasses ### 00:11:00 # Spatial & auditory design - 500 million Alexa-enabled devices sold worldwide - 167% AR Glasses Sales surged in the past year - 2027 ### 00:11:24 # DESIGN RESEARCH UX AUSTRALIA | WEB DIRECTIONS [Close-up image of two hands: one dark-skinned hand resting on a lighter-skinned person's shoulder, and the lighter-skinned person's hand making a peace sign.] ### 00:11:50 # DESIGN RESEARCH > YOU MUST NOT VIOLATE AT THIS CHURCH [Image of several men kneeling on prayer rugs in a mosque, with a red 'no entry' symbol partially obscuring the text ### 00:12:14 # UX AUSTRALIA | WEB DIRECTIONS # DESIGN RESEARCH ## ARE YOU TALKING TO ME? # Communication - **Direct** Messages are explicit, clear and direct - US - Australia - Canada - Netherlands - Germany - UK - **Nuanced** Messages are nuanced with subtle signals - Finland - Denmark - Poland - Spain - Brazil - Argentina - Italy - Mexico - Russia - Singapore - France - Saudi Arabia - Iran - Kenya - China - Japan - Korea - Indonesia Source: Erin Meyer, "The Culture Map" [Diagram showing a spectrum of communication styles from "Direct" to "Nuanced", with various countries positioned along the spectrum.] ### 00:12:33 # Communication ## Are you talking to me? - **Direct**: Messages are explicit, clear and direct - US - Australia - Canada - Netherlands - Germany - UK - Finland - Denmark - Poland - **Nuanced**: Messages are nuanced with subtle signals - Spain - Brazil - Argentina - Italy - Russia - Singapore - France - Kenya - Saudi Arabia - Iran - China - Japan - Korea - Indonesia Source: Erin Meyer, "The Culture Map" [Diagram showing a horizontal spectrum from "Direct" to "Nuanced" communication styles, with countries listed under each category.] ### 00:12:35 # ARE YOU TALKING TO ME? ## Communication - **Direct** - Messages are explicit, clear and direct - US - Australia - Canada - Netherlands - Germany - UK - Finland - Denmark - Poland - **Nuanced** - Messages are nuanced with subtle signals - Spain - Brazil - Argentina - Italy - Russia - Singapore - France - Kenya - Saudi Arabia - Iran - China - Japan - Korea - Indonesia Source: Erin Meyer, "The Culture Map" [Diagram illustrating a spectrum of communication styles from "Direct" to "Nuanced", with various countries categorized under each style.] ### 00:12:59 ## 9:00 AM IS JUST A SUGGESTION, RIGHT? # Time - **On-time** - Lower tolerance for tardiness - Germany - Japan - Netherlands - **Late** - Higher tolerance for tardiness - Saudi Arabia - Nigeria Countries falling between On-time and Late (from left to right on the spectrum): - Denmark - US - UK - France - Spain - Russia - Italy - Mexico - Brazil - China - India - Kenya > Source: Erin Meyer, "The Culture Map" [Diagram showing a cultural spectrum of time perception, with countries positioned from "On-time" (low tolerance for tardiness) to "Late" (high tolerance for tardiness)] ### 00:13:24 # DESIGN RESEARCH UX AUSTRALIA | WEB DIRECTIONS ### 9:00 AM IS JUST A SUGGESTION, RIGHT? ## Time - **On-time** - Lower tolerance for tardiness - Countries: Germany, Japan, Denmark, Netherlands, US, UK, Spain, France, Russia - **Late** - Higher tolerance for tardiness - Countries: Italy, Mexico, Brazil, China, Kenya, India, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia Source: Erin Meyer, "The Culture Map" [Horizontal spectrum diagram showing countries positioned between "On-time" (lower tolerance for tardiness) and "Late" (higher tolerance for tardiness)] ### 00:13:48 # DESIGN RESEARCH ### ANTHROPOLOGY ## Methods to borrow **Margaret Mead** 1901 - 1978 - Fieldwork in SE Asia - Studied how cultures raise children, mark adulthood, and shape identity **Jane Goodall** 1934 - 2025 - Studied wild chimpanzees in Tanzania - Discovered chimps use tools, forcing us to redefine what makes us "human" **Sarah Pink** 1966 - Present - Fieldwork across Indonesia, Europe, and Australia - Developed sensory ethnography: studying the atmospheric, and intuitive [Black and white portrait of Margaret Mead] [Black and white portrait of Jane Goodall] [Black and white portrait of Sarah Pink] ### 00:14:12 # DESIGN RESEARCH ## UX AUSTRALIA | WEB DIRECTIONS [Black and white photo of a tropical coastline with waves crashing on a beach, lush hills covered in trees, and palm trees in the foreground] ### 00:14:35 [Desaturated image of dense, forested mountains with mist] [Light, textured image on a projection screen] ### 00:14:59 # UX AUSTRALIA | WEB DIRECTIONS ## DESIGN RESEARCH ### 00:15:23 [Close-up of a person's forehead, eye, and blonde hair, with green foliage in the background] ### 00:15:48 # DESIGN RESEARCH [Four hand-drawn bar charts on a grid background, comparing data for two entities labeled 'JJ' and 'SH'. Each entity has two associated charts, one displaying a larger set of categories and another a smaller set, with some bars highlighted in orange.] ### 00:16:14 [Close-up portrait of an elderly person's face, showing wrinkles around the eyes and mouth] ### 00:16:34 Yogyakarta 2014 [Video footage of a busy street scene with people on bicycles and motorbikes, and small shops] ### 00:16:37 Yogyakarta 2014 [Video footage of a busy street scene with people on bicycles and motorbikes, and small shops] ### 00:17:05 # Lia - 37 years old - Married - 1 child - Professional in education sector [Portrait photo of Lia, a woman wearing a grey hijab and a striped shirt, next to her persona details] ### 00:17:28 # Nur - 42 years old - Married - 3 children [Image of a woman in a home setting, with text overlaid on a graphic resembling a piece of paper hanging from a clothesline] ### 00:17:51 # AI enablers for ethnographic tools AI can identify patterns, but the researcher should still do the sense-making [https://uxaustralia.org/2019/11/diary-study-a-way-to-extend-ux-research/](https://uxaustralia.org/2019/11/diary-study-a-way-to-extend-ux-research/) [Diagram showing a camera recording a person (Video & Images), leading to a multi-view image of a room, which then leads to an image of the room with AI-detected patterns (green squares) on people (AI Patterns & Computer Vision)] ### 00:18:14 # AI enablers for ethnographic tools ## Video & Images ## AI Patterns & Computer Vision AI can identify patterns, but the researcher should still do the sense-making Source: [https ### 00:18:34 # AI enablers for ethnographic tools AI can identify patterns, but the researcher should still do the sense-making [https://uxr.studio/2019/11/08/ai-study-a-way-to-extend-ux-research/](https://uxr.studio/2019/11/08/ai-study-a-way-to-extend-ux-research/) [Image showing a person filming another person with a video camera, labeled "Video & Images"] [Image showing a room from four different camera perspectives, labeled "Video & Images"] [Image showing the same room with people, overlaid with green grids indicating AI computer vision analysis, labeled "AI Patterns & Computer Vision"] ### 00:18:36 # AI enablers for ethnographic tools AI can identify patterns, but the researcher should still do the sense-making [https://uxr.studio/2019/11/08/ai-study-a-way-to-extend-ux-research/](https://uxr.studio/2019/11/08/ai-study-a-way-to-extend-ux-research/) [Image showing a person filming another person with a video camera, labeled "Video & Images"] [Image showing a room from four different camera perspectives, labeled "Video & Images"] [Image showing the same room with people, overlaid with green grids indicating AI computer vision analysis, labeled "AI Patterns & Computer Vision"] ### 00:19:02 ### UX / DESIGN RESEARCHERS # New opportunities ### 00:19:23 # Spatial UX Researcher AR/VR Research | Auditory & Haptics Research Researching how people behave and move through physical space by combining anthropology, ethnography, and interaction design. ### 00:19:35 # Spatial UX Researcher ## AR/VR Research | Auditory & Haptics Research Researching how people behave and move through physical space by combining anthropology, ethnography, and interaction ### 00:19:47 # Spatial UX Researcher ### AR/VR Research | Auditory & Haptics Research Researching how people behave and move through physical space by combining anthropology, ethnography, and interaction design ### 00:20:13 # Agentic Foresight Researcher ### Strategic Foresight | Systems Thinking The Agentic Researcher will conduct research across organisations to understand current ecosystem and present 'alternative futures' for agents to play a role. **Key Research Areas** - Research to understand dependencies across people/process/technology as agents are incorporated to workflows - Policy and strategy research to guide decision making **Previous experience in:** Workflow Research Service Design [Overlapping diagrams showing complex process maps or system diagrams] ### 00:20:33 # Agentic Foresight Researcher UX AUSTRALIA | WEB DIRECTIONS DESIGN RESEARCH Strategic Foresight | Systems Thinking The Agentic Researcher will conduct research across organisations to understand current ecosystem and present 'alternative futures' for agents to play a role. ## Key Research Areas - Research to understand dependencies across people/process/technology as agents are incorporated to workflows - Policy and strategy research to guide decision making ## Previous experience in: Workflow Research | Service Design [Several overlapping, detailed process diagrams or flowcharts showing various steps and connections] ### 00:20:35 # Agentic Foresight Researcher ### Strategic Foresight | Systems Thinking The Agentic Researcher will conduct research across organisations to understand current ecosystem and present 'alternative futures' for agents to play a role. ### Key Research Areas - Research to understand dependencies across people/process/technology as agents are incorporated to workflows - Policy and strategy research to guide decision making Previous experience in: **Workflow Research** **Service Design** [Multiple overlapping, detailed process diagrams or flowcharts] ### 00:20:57 # DESIGN RESEARCH ## Agentic Foresight Researcher Strategic Foresight | Systems Thinking The Agentic Researcher will conduct research across organisations to understand current ecosystem and present 'alternative futures' for agents to play a role. ### Key Research Areas - Research to understand dependencies across people/process/technology as agents are incorporated to workflows - Policy and strategy research to guide decision making ### Previous experience in: - Workflow Research - Service Design [Multiple overlapping diagrams showing complex process flows or system maps] ### 00:21:21 # Change Researcher Psychology | Digital Adoption | Service Design The Change Researcher blends organisational psychology with an understanding of technology and the patterns behind tech-adoption. ## Key Research Areas - Current state pain points and stakeholder insights across business and organisational units - Benefits realisation research to map to business and organisational impact Previous experience in: **Digital Transformation** | **Organisational Change** [Diagram titled ADKAR showing Awareness, Desire, Knowledge, Ability, Reinforcement] [Infographic titled Types of Change Management] [Photo of three people collaborating around a laptop] [Complex chart or timeline with multiple rows and columns] ### 00:21:35 # Change Researcher Psychology | Digital Adoption | Service Design The Change Researcher blends organisational psychology with an understanding of technology and the patterns behind tech-adoption. ### Key Research Areas - Current state pain points and stakeholder insights across business and organisational units - Benefits realisation research to map to business and organisational impact Previous experience in: **Digital Transformation** **Organisational Change** [Infographic titled "Types of Change Management"] [ADKAR model diagram showing Awareness, Desire, Knowledge, Ability, Reinforcement] [Image of three people collaborating around a table with laptops] [Detailed timeline or process flow diagram] ### 00:21:57 # UX AUSTRALIA | WEB DIRECTIONS ## DESIGN RESEARCH # Change Researcher Psychology | Digital Adoption | Service Design The Change Researcher blends organisational psychology with an understanding of technology and the patterns behind tech-adoption. ### Key Research Areas - Current state pain points and stakeholder insights across business and organisational units - Benefits realisation research to map to business and organisational impact ### Previous experience in: - Digital Transformation - Organisational Change [Infographic titled "Types of Change Management"] [Diagram illustrating the ADKAR change management model] [Photo of three people collaborating around a laptop] [Complex project timeline or Gantt chart] ### 00:22:23 # Next Gen Design Researchers ## Skills comparison ### Spatial UX Researcher - **Soft skills:** Emotional intelligence, cross-cultural sensitivity, adaptable - **Hard skills:** Ethnographic field research, gesture/haptic prototyping, AR/VR research methods - **Helpful background expertise:** Anthropology, ethnography, linguistics (nonverbal communication) - **Personality:** Extroverted, curious about other cultures ### Agentic ### 00:22:31 # Next Gen Design Researchers ## Skills comparison **Spatial UX Researcher** - **Soft skills**: Emotional intelligence, cross-cultural sensitivity, adaptable - **Hard skills**: Ethnographic field research, gesture/haptic prototyping, AR/VR research methods - **Helpful background expertise**: Anthropology, ethnography, linguistics (nonverbal communication) - **Personality**: Extroverted, curious about other cultures **Agentic Foresight Researcher** - **Soft skills**: Systems thinking, structured facilitation - **Hard skills**: Service design blueprinting, journey/process mapping, workflow and decision-tree design - **Helpful background expertise**: Business analysis, operations/process design, cybernetics or systems engineering - **Personality**: Reflective, detail-oriented, enjoys structure and logic **Change Researcher** - **Soft skills**: Storytelling, can translate research into compelling narratives - **Hard skills**: Stakeholder mapping, digital adoption research, benefits/uplift documentation - **Helpful background expertise**: Organisational psychology, digital transformation programmes - **Personality**: Relationship-builder, energised by helping others ### 00:22:55 # Next Gen Design Researchers ## Skills comparison | | Spatial UX Researcher | Agentic Foresight Researcher | Change Researcher | |---|---|---|---| | **Soft skills** | Emotional intelligence ### 00:23:18 # Thank you. Melissa Voderberg Director | Customer Experience & Innovation publicis sapient [Circular profile picture of Melissa Voderberg] [QR code for contact information] [Publicis Sapient logo] ### 00:24:05 [A serene landscape photograph of a body of water with rocks and a small tree on the shore] ### 00:24:29 # Design is my passion [Image of a calm body of water with rocks and a small tree on a distant shore] ### 00:24:31 # Design is my [Washed-out landscape image of a body of water with rocks and a distant tree] ### 00:24:56 # Designing research for AI moderators [Abstract graphic with a large stylized letter or circular shape with glitch effects] ### 00:25:20 # Designing research for AI moderators [Abstract graphic with digital distortion, possibly representing AI or communication] ### 00:25:34 # Designing research for AI moderators [Abstract graphic resembling a glitched speech bubble or stylized letter, with horizontal lines and distortion] ### 00:25:39 # Designing research for AI moderators [Abstract graphic resembling a glitched speech bubble or stylized letter, with horizontal lines and distortion] ### 00:26:02 # Designing research for AI moderators [Abstract graphic resembling a large number "90" or letters "GO" with a digital glitch effect] ### 00:26:22 # Designing research for AI moderators [Abstract graphic with a stylized "90" or similar shape, featuring a glitch effect] ### 00:26:36 # Designing research for AI moderators [Abstract graphic resembling a stylized "90" with horizontal lines] ### 00:26:58 # Designing research for AI moderators [Abstract graphic with purple and pink hues, resembling distorted digital patterns] ### 00:27:21 # Designing research for AI moderators [Abstract graphic resembling a stylized "90" with a digital glitch effect] ### 00:27:33 # Designing research for AI moderators [Abstract, stylized graphic on the right side of the slide] ### 00:27:55 # Designing research for AI moderators [Abstract graphic with two large, rounded shapes filled with a glitched, digital texture in shades of purple and grey] ### 00:28:17 # Designing research for AI moderators [Abstract graphic with a stylized number or shape, featuring horizontal lines and a glitch effect] ### 00:28:35 # Designing research for AI moderators [Abstract graphic resembling a stylized "GO" or "G0" with horizontal glitch effects] ### 00:28:36 # Designing research for AI moderators [Abstract graphic resembling a stylized "GO" or "G0" with horizontal glitch effects] ### 00:28:57 # Designing research for AI moderators [Abstract graphic on the right side of the slide, composed of two overlapping, rounded shapes with a glitch-like texture] ### 00:29:18 [Blurry abstract graphic with horizontal lines and a large circular shape] ### 00:29:33 [Abstract graphic with faint horizontal purple and pink lines and a large circular shape on a white background] ### 00:29:37 [A blurry white slide with horizontal purple/pink lines and a large circular shape at the bottom]