User Research

Welcome to the next lesson on UX and design thinking. In the previous article, we explain how to make prototypes and critique your design based on the customer approach, link to the previous article.

This article would mainly talk about how to exactly do effective user research, you will learn to:

• Describe the skills required to conduct and recruit for an effective user interview.
• Define contextual inquiry and articulate its benefits.
• Prepare unbiased interview questions.
• Conduct an effective user interview.

Illustration Interview, pic by @pexels

As Designers or Product Manager, your concern is to design solutions and products that work best for your users. You cannot do this unless you understand who your users are and what their needs are.

Why Not Just Ask People What They Want?

• People are experts in their own problems, not in the solutions.
• People have no idea what they want. It is up to you to interpret what they say. Get them to tell you as much as they can about why.
• It is your responsibility to hear about the problems of many people, and find a solution that addresses a potentially diverse set of problems.

Why do you need to do user research?

Remember, you are not the user.

• User research reduces risk. Making up needs is an expensive risk.
• Validating needs beforehand increases the chance of success.
• Ensures that you’re solving a problem that actually exists in people’s lives.
• You are not the user. You may be one of them, but you can’t speak for everyone.
• Create empathy for other people and their struggles by walking a mile in their shoes.

Types of User Research

There are 2 types of user research you could actually do:

1. Generative research is exploratory and gives direction and new ideas about what a product should be.
2. Evaluative research determines if an idea works. It can validate if your current product is meeting user needs.

How to do Interview in Research

1. Make the best interview out of good preparations

Good preparation is the key to a successful interview. This is how you make a good old fashioned preparation:

• Define the research goals. Make sure you put them in the research plan and/or share them with your team so everyone is on the same page.
• You may need to interview your clients or stakeholders. Do your clients know their research goals? Help them along by asking key questions to make sure you’re researching the right subject.
• Prep a discussion guide. This will guide your interviews and help you ask about all the important topics you don’t want to forget.

2. Asking questions
You need to start with opening questions before you can squeeze something out of the more focused questions. Get your users to warm up and establish a good connection with them in the beginning. Make sure the opening questions to the other questions relating to your research goals.

For example, if you are looking to validate the need for a pizza delivery app, you might first ask about food preferences.

3. Moderating an interview

1. Guide the conversation, don’t control it. Use active listening techniques to refocus their thoughts without leading the conversation
2. Ask open-ended questions. Uncover feelings, beliefs, and personal stories. Never settle for “yes” or “no” answers.
3. Be prepared to improvise. You never know what people will tell you. If your interview turns into a more organic conversation you may want to roll with it — think of it as a checklist of topics you want to cover.

4. Make observational notes

• You can’t possibly write down every single thing, so don’t try.
• Notes should not consist of solutions!
• Focus on observations, quotes, and inferences

Conclusion

You need to make a research plan to do successful user research. Here are the ground rules you should note before doing user research and interview:

• Background information including your name and contact information, as well as the name and contact information of any stakeholders.
• A line or two describes what led to this study.
• The high-level goals.
• A description of the participants (relevant demographics, primary characteristics).
• A timeline (recruitment, interviews, results).
• A script that includes a numbered list of questions you will ask.