User interviews and Usability Testing
We conduct user interviews to find out what a user is looking for in a product, what will they use, what they would like. My favorite though is determining what a user might like in a product from a completely unrelated answer — which sometimes appears to you as related once you have flushed it out, and mapped it. People’s likes, dislikes, preferences appear in lots of areas of their lives and can be related back to what they might prefer in a product. Someone said (Tyler and/or Neil) that Apple has a tendency to make products that fit user’s needs even before a user knows they would ever need them. How smart! Being able to read the temperature of people and what kind of things they would really be drawn to, enjoy and use, and being able to conclude that data from other related/unrelated data is pretty amazing. I feel like I answered the why more than the what in that first part.
The what: User interviews themselves- an interesting exercise in being totally un-reactive. You don’t want to guide a user’s opinion by reacting well to one and answer and not to another. Also an interesting study in how our reactions guide what people say in everyday life. Also I’m hoping it comes with time, but writing good interview questions is really a real skill too — where you are gaining useful and powerful information by asking the right questions.
This is incredibly useful, but it seems that people are giving you a shocking amount of information no matter what — and it makes itself visible in the affinity mapping, even when you had no idea it was there. The process works!
Usability testing now — the what: Usability testing is getting users to try your app prototype, assigning them a task and seeing how they navigate it. Recording which areas seemed difficult and un-intuitive for them, and which areas were easy. Also very useful! How else are you ever really supposed to determine how it will be for people to use the app without watching people do it. It may seem logical to you, but you made it! And maybe to your colleagues too, but they watched you make it! And may be working on similar projects. What about though if all the users make it through your usability testing on the first round? I guess they would still have suggestions though — people always have opinions on those kinds of things, and they're really really useful. Things you yourself could never have thought of because you’re too close. I guess you could also make your tasks more difficult, could lead to different results.
Hmmm, what more can I say about user interviews and usability tests. It is very interesting to interview people — you definitely do have to be interested in other people’s stories to have a job like that. I hope that I am a person who is interested in that. I think I am, I mean not always, but I feel like that’s pretty normal. (Also I hope I am writing this post correctly, this is an only slightly reigned in brain dump). I wonder if the conclusion after doing lots and lots of these kinds of interviews is that people are mostly the same, or quite different. I’m sure the answer is a bit of both — but I wonder what the trend is. Does doing something like that make you a stronger believer in humanity or less of one. Eh probably both is the answer to that question too. I am quickly approaching the end of my time boxing here. I guess with a final thought — Both user interviews and usability testing are incredibly useful, because you are gaining other perspectives, and the more perspectives you take into consideration, the more powerful and all encompassing your ideas will be. You can relate them back to concrete research instead of just an idea you had.
and in conclusion — goodnight 🌙
