User Research and its importance in UX design process
“Begin with the end in mind” — Stephen Covey
Before talking about UX, user research and its importance let me tell you what design is. Design in general is problem solving, it’s the process of visualizing and planning the creation of objects, systems, services etc. The ultimate goal is to provide a solution for the addressed problem or need.
UX or User Experience can be defined as any interaction a person has with the system or an object. How the user feels, how the user navigates, and how he accomplishes his desired task. Each and every element of the interaction is taken into account by UX design. UX is human-centred design keeping human perspective throughout the design process.
“The trouble with not having a goal is that you can spend your life running up and down the field and never score” — Bill Copeland
Once the problem and goal are identified its time to start User Research. It is the starting point for every designer, as it helps us learn more about the users, their goals and motivations, their needs, and behaviours. Without User Research we wouldn’t be able to learn about how users actually interact and navigate our system, and we wouldn’t be able to identify the obstacles they find in their way to their goal.
There are two kinds of research methods used in the industry Qualitative and Quantitative.
Research methods are specific procedures for collecting and analysing data. Developing your research methods is an integral part of your research design. When planning your methods, there are two key decisions you will make. First, decide how you will collect data. Your methods depend on what type of data you need to answer your research question. Second, decide how you will analyse the data.
Qualitative research is expressed in words. It is used to understand concepts, thoughts or experiences. This type of research enables you to gather in-depth insights on topics answering “what”, “how” and “why” questions that are not well understood. Common qualitative methods include interviews with open-ended questions, complete the following, rapid fire, match the following, observations described in words, and literature reviews that explore concepts and theories. Comparatively this method is more flexible.
Quantitative research is expressed in numbers and graphs. It is used to test or confirm theories and assumptions. This type of research can be used to establish generalizable facts about a topic by answering “how many” and “how much” questions. Common quantitative methods used include testing hypotheses, comparison, experiments, observations recorded as numbers, and surveys with closed-ended questions. This kind of research often require larger samples and select participants in order to avoid biases and generate more accurate findings. Google forms, type forms, survey monkey and email are couple of the tools used for this method.
Now that we know the kinds of research methods let’s look at how to plan the research. Planning is equally important as executing. Planning starts with preliminary study of the subject or the product through literature review, competitive audit, subject expert interviews. Participating in a community or organization to observe culture and behaviour also provide insight on how to plan. With the help of these interactions, we will be able to generate a list of research questions. These questions are the heart of user research. With these questions ready we will be in a position to identify which method of research should be conducted for accurate results.
As a designer one of the greatest qualities that we should acquire is Empathy, it is the ability to sense other people’s emotions, coupled with the ability to imagine what someone else might be thinking or feeling. It is a great way to connect with the user’s immediate frustrations, hopes, fears, ability, limitations and goals. It allows us to dig deep into our understanding of the user and create solutions that will not only solve a need, but effectively improve our users’ lives.
We know by now once the problem is well defined our goal is to solve the problem from reoccurring. In order to achieve that identifying the root cause of the problem is important. Using the method of “5 Why’s” we can get to the root cause of any problem. The 5 Whys technique was developed and fine-tuned within the Toyota Motor Corporation as a critical component of its problem-solving training. It is a simple questioning method to reach the root cause of a problem. You have a problem or you identify a defect, then ask the question “Why” repeatedly. Each “Why” forms the basis of next “Why”. You can go beyond 5 Why’s if you do not reach the underlying source of the problem or a defect.
User interviews are critical in this method and as designers we should be well planned with our questions, place, time and the availability of the user before conducting interviews. Always take notes or record (Audio/video) for future reference with the permission of the user. Try and have a face-to-face interview with the user whenever possible for a better understanding of the problem.
While conducting interviews the designer should be confident on the subject. Always let the user talk more, simple way to achieve is to ask more open-ended questions as discussed earlier. Never read out questions always try to present those questions as a part of the conversation preferably in a language the user is comfortable. Try not to waste the users time by asking irrelevant questions or taking the entire conversation to an opposite direction always be mindful of the questions that we ask considering the region, age, cast and culture.
Now it’s time to analyse the data, while conducting or reviewing the interviews try and find patterns that are similar to other users this ability to identify similar pattern is called Affinity Mapping. Every such patterns counts for quantitative data analysis. Qualitative data is more difficult to analyse than quantitative data. It consists of text, images or videos instead of numbers.
On the other hand, Quantitative data is based on numbers. Simple math or more advanced statistical analysis is used to discover similarities or patterns in the data. The results are often reported in graphs and tables. In this, date gathering/survey and analysing is done on a larger group or many channels possible to reach the desired target soon. Since this is a larger group keeping a deadline and completing it on time is a challenge. Always keep backup of the raw data for future reference.
“Good user research is key to designing a great user experience. Designing without good user research is like building a house without solid foundations — your design will soon start to crumble and will eventually fall apart”.
– Neil Turner, founder of UXfortheMasses
