Research

As a UX researcher, you want to learn so that you can inform your team. Your job is basically to answer questions, confirm/reject assumptions that underlie the design of a product or service. How do you do that? You develop a toolkit of methods, which allows you to pick method(s) that answers your questions with the highest degree of confidence.

One seemingly straightforward way is asking people. But, can we assume that people actually know whether they like something? or whether they would use the product? Obviously not. Henry Ford apparently said that

If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses.
Henry Ford

For most research questions it makes a lot more sense to observe people as they go about completing a task. You can learn about what they do and what hacks they developed. To understand what goes on in their mind, you want to get their thoughts out in the open.

Introduction to the Session

“Thank you for your time today. My name is Agnes and I’m an independent researcher, which means that I do not work for the company that designed the product we are going to look at. Today I want to get your feedback on some pages of an application using an Iphone.

Before we get started, I want to make sure you’re comfortable with the process, so here’s what you can expect during today’s 60-minute session:

I was not involved in the design of anything you’ll see today. So whether you like or dislike what you see will not make a personal difference to me, so you can be totally honest.
With your permission, we would like to record today’s session. This is for research purposes only so that I can go back and make sure I got my notes right. Your responses and feedback will be completely confidential and will not be shared with anyone outside of this research study. When reporting about what you said, I will not say anything that could personally identify you: instead, I will refer to you as person#3.
This is in no way an assessment or a test of you – indeed, we are here to learn from you. If something does not make sense to you, it is likely to be challenging for other people as well, so that would be something the designers need to fix.
Throughout the process, I’m going to ask you to think aloud. I like to describe this as “putting your brain on speakerphone” and verbalizing if you like or dislike anything, notice something interesting, find something confusing, or even if you’re just reading something on the screen. Saying all of that aloud helps me to understand and follow along with you. It is not natural for most adults, so I may just remind you from time to time to talk out loud in case you.
I also have some colleagues who will be observing today’s session. I may check in with them at some point to see if they have any questions they would like me to ask you, but that’s the extent of your interaction with them today –you can treat this as just a one-on-one conversation between you and me.
Do you have any questions for me before we get started?

Extended version can be found here (password protected)

https://kissedbyux.com/work-samples/moderator-guide-for-concept-testing-digital-wallet/

Why do research?

A woman, holding a cup of coffee and a cell phone, plus a laptop

Unfortunately, research costs money and time, and thus some companies are hesitant to invest in it. UX research does not directly translate into profit making in a way that a new machine does, so it requires some justification,

Research is the foundation on which you can build your product.

If you have this solid foundation, and your ideas are validated through research, your product will likely find its users.

Let’s consider the business perspective of UX research – the return on the investment (ROI)

What are the returns?

We have all had a fair share of frustrating websites, trying to figure out what they do, or how they work, what they can do for me, the user. How long do I stay on that page? Not enough to figure it out, because, well, there are loads of similar websites, offering the same benefits in a way that appeals to me. A set of features that I think is not just useful but delightful.

How did this second website know what I am looking for? Well, there is a small chance that they just guessed right. Or, a more likely scenario, they first learned about

their target audience – demographic, technical savviness, what gadgets they own, etc.

the features/content users find desirable

the constraints and the environment that users would use their product

the style they find appealing

So what are your returns?

You will avoid wasting money on developing features and content your users have no need for or just cannot use

You will know about your target users’ needs, affinities, skill level, etc. that allow you to design the product that users can embrace. A.k.a. success both for your users and for your company,

Planning your research

Come up with a set of questions for your research you need answers for. What assumptions are you making now that may not be true? How would you do things differently if you found out that assumption A was not correct? If it made your product/process quite different, then it makes sense to validate that assumption through research. Another way to look at it: Imagine that you are a year older, and your product did not succeed. What are the things you wish you had known a year earlier to avoid the flop? B

Conducting the research study

Participants

While you can simply observe people as they go about their everyday life, it is more likely that you want to know how they interact with a certain product or interface. And not just observe them: you may want to gain insight into their thinking while they are using your product. Which means you need to ask people (and not just your friends) to test drive your product. How do you get them to do that? How many users do you need to interview? For how long? And how will you make sure that your interviewees behave the same way as your target users?

Tag: Research

Moderator Guide