Researching the Future: The Future of Research

For decades, UX research has helped organisations reduce uncertainty by understanding users' current needs and behaviours, but the questions being asked are shifting toward what the future might hold. This short talk shows how strategic foresight, combined with user research, expert interviews, trend analysis and weak signals, can help researchers build plausible future scenarios that stakeholders can use to identify risks, opportunities and stress-test strategy.

For decades, UX research has helped organisations reduce uncertainty by understanding users' current needs, behaviours and experiences. But increasingly, the questions researchers are being asked are changing. Clients no longer just want to know whether something works today; they want to understand how emerging technologies, behaviours and societal shifts might shape their business tomorrow. While researchers can't predict the future, they are uniquely positioned to spot the patterns, tensions and behaviours that may shape it.
Using the Three Horizons framework and the concept of cognitive paywalling as an example, Melanie Wadey demonstrates how researchers can combine user research, expert interviews, trend analysis and weak signals to build plausible future scenarios. Armed with various versions of the future, stakeholders can identify risks, opportunities and stress-test strategies to make decisions that can stand up to tomorrow.