A crash course on UX Research

In this article, we’re going to cover the basics of UX Research. It’s a quick starter course, so you can go from zero-to-hero as quickly as possible. We’ll start with exactly what UX Research is, and then move on to discuss simple Design Research methods used, as well as its role and value within the broader design process.

Sounds good? So let’s get started!

So what is UX Research ?

UX (User Experience) Research is the sun in our UX solar system.

It is the systematic investigation of users and their requirements, in order to add context and insights into the process of designing the User Experience. This involves a variety of techniques and methodologies to reach conclusions, determine the facts, and uncover the problems.

“User research is how you will know your product or service will work in the real world, with real people. It’s where you will uncover or validate the user needs which should form the basis of what you are designing.”

– Chris Mears, UX Consultant

Many of us have a lot of thoughts about our customers and users. Often we work with assumptions. Assumptions are great! They are absolutely necessary for us to work as designers, but at the same time they become dangerous when treated as facts.

Design research gives us a structured, methodical approach to understanding our users. With it we are able to represent and articulate them in an unbiased way.

Still not clear? Maybe we can get a clearer picture by diving into the “why”.

Why is Research so critical in UX process?

Research helps us learn about the users and their behaviour, goals, motivations, and needs. It also shows us how they currently navigate a system, where they have problems and, most importantly, how they feel when interacting with our product.

It’s extremely important to do UX research before designing any product or service because of the following pointers:

• To validate our assumptions.
• To create designs that are truly relevant to our users.
• To understand the ROI (return on investment) of our design.

Human beings are weird. We don’t always do the most logical thing. And often we go out of our way to experience things that bring us joy. These reasons illustrate why research can help us to understand our users in ways that no other approach can.

“Good user research is the 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 eventually fall apart.”

– Neil Turner, founder of UX for the Masses

10 Basic steps to keep in mind while doing UX Research

Design process isn’t set in stone, so neither should be our research methods. Always adapt our design process for the product we design. We are sharing 10 basic steps. We hope this will encourage more designers to add UX research as an important step in their design process.

1. Put theory to practice

There is no use reading hundreds of articles, going through hundreds of books, doing a thousand courses and not putting them into practice. Theory without practice is empty.

2. Always know who your direct user is

Defining the target audience for the solution we are building is our top priority. Understanding our audience helps us predict their needs better. Grouping users according to factors such as age groups, areas of interests and behaviour patterns, will help us plan our candidates for user interviews.

3. Try not to influence the answers

When we start with user interviews, it is difficult to ask questions without influencing people to answer we want to hear. To avoid it, the best way is to have a well-defined script. It takes time to appreciate people’s authenticity and guide them to real answers.

4. Build personas to better understand our users

Personas are a fictional representation of our real demographic, gathered from previous research methods such as user interviews. Remember that every good persona is based on solid data. This will help you standardize needs and get solutions faster. You can think of it as a folder with your similar users. Each folder has its own name, photo and brief description. Each persona should have defined goals, pains and habits.

5. Define your tasks with scenarios

While performing usability tests, we have realised that people have a hard time explaining what they think. So create a situation and place them in context, this can even be hypothetical, by doing this users will be able to picture themselves using the product at the right time and place. If there is a well-defined scenario and a task to complete, the user tends to bring more feedback about the difficulties they find in the process of the task.

6. Know the techniques and use them at the right time

Though there are a bunch of techniques and methods to perform UX Research, it’s usually difficult to plan which one to use at which time based on the requirements and budgets available for the project.

Card sorting is a simple technique which requires the least effort, in which you write words or phrases on cards, then you ask the user to categorize them. You might also ask them to label them in categories this helps us observe patterns common in users.

Another simple technique used is Mental Models, it is based on belief, not facts, i.e. it’s a model of what users know (or think they know) about a system such as your website.

A type of usability testing technique known as A/B testing is another way of learning what actions users take. The test requires randomly showing each version of prototype to equal number of users, and then reviewing analytics on which version better accomplished a specific goal.

7. Test your ideas with the help of prototypes

We don’t have to refine and iterate visual design to check if our concept works for the user. Make things simple and usable. Fail fast, learn faster.

Some Tips to keep in mind

-Don’t test everything all at once

Every feature takes time to be tried and understood. When we have an application full of features and user flows, plan in a way that we focus on a single problem at a time while testing. Our brain is not designed to think aloud for hours and if we force our users to do so they will start saying things they don’t really want to say.

-Empathise with your users

Don’t forget that all users are ultimately human beings. Doing field research and by looking at the user’s home, how they behave in that environment, what emotions they have in real life, we can better understand the decisions they make. Relating to their problems is difficult if you don’t know what and where our users use the product.

-Taking care of errors in the beginning is better than fixing them later

It’s always better to check for errors before publishing cause that’s more rewarding than seeing the product crashing online and then testing to find out what’s the problem.

-Always use real content while designing

Avoid using Lorem ipsum and dummy placeholders in your prototypes. Users will not be able to relate to the same. The text is a part of the experience. Make sure to take advantage of the precious time people are giving you.

Conclusion

User Experience cannot exist without users. Creating user interfaces involves intricate and complex decisions. User research is a tool that can help you achieve your goals.

Even the most well thought out designs are assumptions until they are tested by real users. Different types of research can answer different types of questions. Know the tools and apply them accordingly. Leaving the user out is never an option.

To summarise this article in one line:

UX — U = X (where “X” means “don’t do it”).

Originally posted on 17Seven.co on 26th July, 2019.