Unpacking Research Democratization
In this episode the Chris & Mustafa are focused on the very buzzwordy topic of research democratization. Not surprisingly, the guys first do a conceptual analysis of ‘democratization’ and try to elucidate its meaning. To help facilitate the conversation Chris & Mustafa reference an article that outlines four levels of research democratization: access, participants, facilitation, and ownership. Before the guys get into debating democratization they talk about how underappreciated and ill-understood research is in some organizations and why. They also compare and contrast applied and academic research. Chris thinks that applied work should attempt to achieve peer review quality even if business stakeholders or desingers may not expect or even require that level of rigor. After walking through the four levels of research democratization, Chris and Mustafa end the show by asking if letting non-researchers own research projects is ever merited. Mustafa believes once an organization hits a certain level of research and UX maturity the option is on the table and Chris is much more skeptical. Chris thinks research expertise challenges the basic premise of research democratization. Sit back and enjoy another episode of YouX!
