Understanding Agency Through Testimonios: An Indigenous Approach to UX Research

Abstract

Purpose: This article presents a UX study conducted during a roundtable collaborative event with Indigenous interpreters and translators. The work highlights the value of Indigenous testimonios as a UX method for gathering narratives that trace a user's experience through a collective voice. Testimonios also trace users' social and cultural contexts while prompting participants to exercise their agency and promote social change. Method: This UX study engages Indigenous testimonios as a primary method. Mapping testimonios allows researchers to explore a participant's narrative arc that begins with a personal experience that links a collective struggle resulting from a system of oppression and ends with a call for social change. Results: Using testimonios as a UX method yielded data that traced individual and collective pain points that defined the critical issues with which Indigenous interpreters and translators grapple and emphasized their civic engagement, amplifying their agency through a method situated in their contexts. This work also highlights dialogue and desahogo, or emotional relief, as key elements of testimonios shared in a collective setting. This study shows that Indigenous interpreters and translators, as technical communicators, are foremost community activists. Conclusion: A testimonio method prompts participants to reflect on issues at a deeper level through narratives and dialogue. It also engages the unique differences of participants while revealing general similarities. Testimonios can ultimately help design content, products, and processes that better align with the unique contexts of Indigenous individuals and other underrepresented groups who express their needs in a collective manner.