Empathy towards ourselves: the chaos of working as a female UX Researcher

It was a usual afternoon in Delhi. I was standing on a busy street waiting for my Uber. I had just completed a very interesting research session, a home visit. We discover a lot of little nuances when we enter a person’s safe space. With all that data in my mind and my laptop, I stood there on the street, dwelling on what would be the implications of some of the behaviors. Right before my Uber arrived, a man came in front of me and started wanking off. And to my surprise instead of taking a minute to process, I rushed for another home-visit.

This is not a ‘Me too’ article but an article to bring an empathy towards the occupation itself.

We are in an industry where time is money and timelines are always stretched too thin. Quick research has become the status quo without realizing the effort required in research. This may be partly due to user research being so new or the lack of leadership in the field.

User Research is intermingled with the chaos of life. As we dive deep into people’s experiences and behaviors, we open ourselves to their vulnerability and in turn open ours to them. We are similar to counselors, to keep our participants ethically safe and to make it a positive experience. In this process, we, however, neglect our needs that can be physical and/or emotional.

Here are some different aspects of physical as well as emotional needs that I try to fulfill as a UX Researcher.

The experiences that I have mentioned in this article have spanned across my career as a UX Researcher.

Physical needs

Until now, I had never thought about the following things as needs and completely took a few things for granted.

1. Skipping Water:

I have never calculated or recorded the amount of water I drank. I used to think that the amount I drank was enough. Especially on days in-field, I used to skip drinking water. There have been so many times when I have been engrossed in a session or have too many back to back sessions that I forgot about it. I remember hogging on biscuits or sweets at the end of the day, thinking that I was hungry instead of thirsty. With being sugar-high as well as dehydrated, I used to feel exhausted by the end of the day.

I realized where I was going wrong when I visited a nutritionist. She right away told me that I had to consume 2 lit of water every day. This may not be possible in-field, however, I do try to consume at least 1–1.5 lit during the day. I carry a bottle of water around and use it to track my consumption.

We may go to places where there might not be clean toilets available. This has definitely affected how much water I drank in the past. A few months back, I discovered a wonderful product for women: Pee Buddy. It has made me feel more comfortable whenever I had to use public toilets.

2. Skipping Meals

I used to feel that skipping meals was part and parcel of UX researcher’s day. Again, due to a hectic schedule or unavailability of restaurants/eateries, I have skipped meals in the past. This did affect my ‘being in the present’ during the sessions. What I now do is, I plan out my meals. I search on the internet beforehand on the availability and schedule my sessions likewise. I also carry trail mix & biscuits with me for emergency situations.

3. Safety

As this is a much bigger topic, I have detailed it down to sub-points:

• Hotels:
  Staying in a new city is always nerve-racking especially if its in a hotel. Fortunately for me, I have never stayed in an unpleasant hotel, however, there are things that I always do to make myself feel more comfortable in the new setting.
  - I usually do a visual sweep of the room to see if there are any oddly places objects to see if something stands out. Such objects may have a hidden camera.
  - I turn off any or all of the electrical appliances that are not required like alarms, kettle, TV, etc. A camera needs an electric source that can be taken from such appliances.
  - I do the finger-nail-on-mirror trick of the bathroom mirror to see if it’s a one-sided mirror
• Traveling alone vs traveling in a group:
  I travel with co-workers/stakeholders for research. An extra hand is always helpful in the field but it will also increase empathy within your team.
  In case you have to travel alone, I really recommend a personal emergency alarm. I never had to use it, but it does assure me. It also does pass through airport security as compared to a pepper spray.
• In-lab vs In-house session:
  In case you are having sessions in-lab, it would be a pretty standard setup. However, if you are doing home visits, especially in sensitive areas, it is always better to tell a colleague about your schedule. Ask him/her to keep a track of your whereabouts.

Emotional Needs:

This is something that I never thought about till recently. I understood the importance of taking care of myself as a researcher, as it inherently affects you in the long run.

1. Mental exhaustion

Having longer days and listening to people more than half a day is exhausting. And it isn’t just listening, for five1-hour interviews or three 2-hour interviews, I am listening intently, observing behaviours both verbal and actions, taking notes and also taking care of equipment. Not to mention the debriefing that happens after every session. This has led to me being completely worn out by the end of the day.

Now I try to schedule not more than three1-hour interviews per day and likewise and I make sure I have ample time in between sessions.

2. Trauma

It’s extremely overwhelming when research involves people, stories. Stories may have things that you are not prepared to hear about. People also say things that may trigger your past experiences or mention anything derogatory towards a particular segment.

Also as human stories are, they tend to stick to you. You may be reminded of them from time to time. And throughout the session, you need to maintain the demeanour of a moderator. This can induce a lot of stress. Especially if you want to help the participant but it may be tagged as unethical.

To cope with all this I take time to breathe, share stories/experiences with other researchers, do yoga and meditate and keep time off for myself.

Things I do:

We as user researchers, in many ways, advocate and empathize with the needs of our users. It is necessary to observe the toll our profession takes on us holistically. I do the following as my self-care routine:

1. Track my mood daily, especially on my days in-field, to understand what are the stress triggers. I use the Daylio app for the same.
2. Breathe when I am stressed. Fitbit has a wonderful feature Relax where it helps me calm down by giving haptic feedback. This way I can calm down in public without anyone noticing.
3. Have a buddy on call in case I really need to talk to someone

I feel these are just starting points, but the conversation has begun. It is indeed challenging to acknowledge the expense of our profession. However, we can do a lot many things to ensure our health and well-being. I am interested in knowing what other User Researchers do in such scenarios.

Want to keep the conversation going? Connect with me here, or comment to share your experiences and tips.

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Hope you found this article useful. Feel free to drop any feedback in the comments. And if you want to chat about research, design and product, feel free to drop me a DM on any of the platforms.