Paul Matthews & Henry Osadzinski / Repertory Grids as a UX Research Tool

Repertory grids are an assessment method developed originally in psychology for eliciting personal constructs (subjective attitudes and values) toward things or people . In UX they have been used for comparing prototypes, competitors and specific products and services in a domain of interest.

In this workshop we will get you to be the “subjects” or users for a repertory grid study, while pointing out good facilitation practice and possible variations in approach.  We hope to demonstrate how the repertory grid can provide a useful and focused structure for a user study.

We will spend a little time on data analysis and methods of data aggregation, as these help to illustrate the usefulness of the method and how individual results can be combined to say something about a user group.

Paul Matthews is a Senior Lecturer in Information Science and Digital Media at UWE, teaching modules on User Experience, Knowledge Organisation and Information Architecture. He also does a little web consultancy for the United Nations and was recently part of a research team that designed SAM, a self-help anxiety management app.

Henry Osadzinski is an MSc Information Management student currently investigating the use of repertory grids for improving image tagging systems for museums and galleries. He is also a part-time Search Executive for Sift Media, focusing on editorial best practice to improve accessibility and search visibility.