Hello and welcome back to the K.I.S.S.* – Experience Design Series sharing basic UX Knowledge with you focusing on User Research today.
Please remember the word “user” can be used interchangeably for various stakeholders. If you are working on a customer or employee experience project, the following foundations are as relevant even though some of your methods might change in case no software or digital product is involved. Either way, there will always be a goal the user wants to achieve.
To keep it simple I will use the word “user”.
*The Design Principle K.I.S.S. stands for keep it simple, stupid and is the main goal of the K.I.S.S. - Experience Design Series.
User research is the process of studying and understanding the needs, behaviours, experiences and motivations of users when designing or developing your product or service using qualitative or quantitative research methods.
You are not your user + human beings are little liars and very biased. And yes, dear future research superstar - this counts for you just as much.
Your user [client | guest | employee] might be lying to you during a testing session and only mention feedback and opinions they believe they should say to not become excluded from the group [social desirability bias].
Alternatively, or unconsciously, they might try to provide you with the answers they think you want to hear or just be nice. #SocialBeingsWeAre
What people say, what people do, and what people say they do are entirely different things. - Margaret Mead [american cultural anthropologist]
If you are curious to hear more about bias in general, stay tuned for another simply stupid short article about common forms of bias soon. #SneakPeak
Therefore, you want to mix & match various qualitative and quantitative research methods to reduce bias and find out what the real underlying issue is.
Finally, and in order to reduce your own bias, you have to ensure you are not basing your next development plan on assumptions or are only inviting two common user groups, excluding others who could benefit just as much from your product or service [sampling bias].
Let’s not beat around to bush and dive straight into some research methods:
Qualitative Research --> helps to understand underlying motivations and emotions
* Card Sorting is our Method of the Day and will be described with more details later on
Quantitative Research –> helps to understand behaviour and trends
“It is easy to be different, but difficult to be better.”
* Yay, another quote that stuck on my mind from a random course and veryyy true.
Remember, we are living in an era where a lot of us are presenting themselves and their work online.
Users often leave websites within 10-20 seconds and the first impression is already formed within 0.05 seconds [that’s only 50 milliseconds].
This is a veryyyy short time to stand out from the crowd. So, do your homework [research] right. It will be worth it.
Card Sorting is an awesome UX research method you can use when you need to uncover the mental model of your users of your current information architecture *. If you have an online shop, you need to ensure the grouping of your products is in alignment with your users’ assumptions where they believe they could find a certain product. Card sorting will help you to validate.
The same approach counts if you are hosting a massive blog or knowledge base where various categories and sub-categories are used to make sense of a large amount of data and supporting the search process.
Haven’t we all had the great idea of a knowledge base at work and whenever you need something you struggle to find the piece of information? Do you even find everything in your own file structure on your personal computer?
Do a card sort! I personally also think it is super fun as it involves tons of [hopefully colourful] post it notes if you do it in person or using tools such as miro or mural [unpaid advertisement] or just a simple tool to keep it simple.
All you have to do is write all of your categories and sub-categories / products on cards or upload them onto a card sorting tool. You can then decide whether you would like to do an open or closed card sort:
* Information Architecture provides your users with a logical navigation structure that makes is clear where they can find what they need without feeling confused.
* Mental Model describes the thought process of making sense of something. If a user believes a tool works in a certain way but cannot complete their goal as the tool works differently, this misalignment will be described as user friction.
Now you have already received an overview of UX Research Methods, but before you get started, let’s make sure we are using your testing time right defining a goal, preparing for the method you choose and considering a few points to avoid.
Before you kick off with your user testing now, plan it wisely asking yourself the following questions:
Are users not acknowledging your cross-selling offers? Are users randomly dropping out of a specific process? Are conversion rates generally below a certain threshold?
Be very specific and clear defining your goals and define [primary] tasks you would like to test.
Example Task for a Usability Test: Please book a double bedroom for 3 nights with 2 guests, twin beds including breakfast in July.
For a Usability Test you might also want to prepare a test script helping you to stay on track while observing the user and asking a lot of what and why questions. You might have heard about the 5 Why’s, which is a problem-solving method repeating to ask “why” for 5 times to identify the root cause of an issue. Try it out!
A few things to avoid when conducting UX Testing:
* I know you might be super-duper passionate and excited, but time spent with users is actually about them and time for you to find out as much as you can.
We all get carried away, especially when we are super excited. So, use your scripts, research method and testing plan reminding you on the main goal to help you receiving the best information to fine-tune your business. You can get carried away later once you know you are on track and walking in the right direction.
When to do research?
It is recommended to include user research sessions at various stages of your product or service life cycle. Let it be the initial research phase, testing a prototype or the final validation prior to a bigger go live date.
Remember, it is an iterative process and nothing you only do once.
User Research helps you with qualitative and quantitative methods to keep understanding needs and pain points and validate assumptions when finalising further design decisions at various stages of your Business Life.
Research Methods are your analytic tools to make sense out of the available information in your market and understanding your target group as best as possible.
It shows how your users are naturally interacting [behaviour], what they are trying to do and the context of use [environment]. This has the great side benefit of community building and uniting with your users and stakeholders on a common cause.
Finally, research results can also provide you with inspiring innovative ideas & help you to stay competitive as your business and products will develop overtime.
User research will support you with insights to develop and enhance new features, products and services and will be part of your iterative business lifestyle.
Are you asking yourself now - “What do you with all the data?”
Watch out for the next article focusing on UX Analysis Techniques. For any questions, notes or UX Research Support, feel free to send me a message with your request via the contact form on the landing page or send an E-Mail.
https://www.nngroup.com/articles/card-sorting-definition/
https://www.uxdesigninstitute.com/blog/what-is-information-architecture/
https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/mental-models
https://userpilot.com/blog/ux-bias/#:~:text=This%20bias%20occurs%20when%20we,makes%20other%20plans%20look%20cheap
https://www.data-panda.com/post/laddering-technique-and-5-whys#:~:text=The%20%225%20Whys%22%20method%20is,and%20uncover%20its%20underlying%20cause