Tell your story to make it stick. How to communicate UX research insights in a compelling way.
Someone once told me “80% of UX research is communication, 20% is actual research.”
You can generate amazing, ground-breaking research insights, but they are not going to have an impact if they don’t “land” with your stakeholders. Basically, the story you’re telling has to stick, otherwise, you lose. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Here are some of my tips on how to communicate your research findings clearly and compellingly and increase the impact you have on your stakeholders.
Take stakeholders along on the research journey
A well prepared and executed presentation is a great way to communicate your research insights but I don’t think it’s enough to rely on your presentation alone, to bring your story across. You should advocate for the research you are doing, already before and while you are doing it.
I remember once reading “Researchers should be tour guides, not reporters”. So we can do better than reporting back insights after doing our round of user interviews. Instead, the communication should start at the beginning of your research project. You want to actively involve your stakeholders in the preparation, conduction and synthesis of your research. Take them along on the research journey and show them all the sights in real time.
By having your team be part of your research, the foundation for making your story stick is already built. It’s much easier to follow and stay interested in a topic you already know about and are invested in. It will foster more engagement and interest during your insights communication.
Let’s take a look at how to make your insights presentation shine.
Break up insights into digestible chunks
Great presentations make complex information accessible, understandable and actionable. But when doing user research a lot of data is collected. Then when going through the video recordings and notes it’s easy to get overwhelmed and lose focus. At this point, it helps to go back to your original research questions. What was it, that we wanted to find out? And what helps us solve the problems that we have? By answering these original questions you can organize your insights into digestible chunks.
When creating your insights presentation try to fit each topic on one slide. Keep it concise and it will be much easier for your audience to navigate through your presentation.
Design your slides for easy scannability
A great insights presentation will have the views stay up for months. You want your stakeholders to go back to your insights presentations, whenever they need the user perspective. But no one wants to dig through endless slides, looking for that one insight they remember reading once.
This is how I like to design my slides for easy scannability:
- The main insight should be the first thing someone sees when looking at your slide. After all, that’s the information they came here for, so make it easy for them to find it!
- Below you can add more details about your learnings that lead up to the main insight
- End your slide by stating the product and design opportunities, that evolve from your insight. I like to write them in “How might we format”
- Enrich your slide with memorable user quotes and snippets from your user interviews
- I like to keep the original research question on the slide, as it allows for a more specific search when scanning your insights presentation
- Use colors and shapes to distinguish between different topics. For example, you can use a purple theme for your exploratory findings and then switch to a green theme for your prototype-related insights
Let’s see it in action:
Emojis are GREAT
Emojis are an easy and effective way to bring your message across on slides. Especially when it comes to design-specific learnings I like to make use of a few.
✅ / 😍 Something works as intended/ positive feedback on a specific feature
❌ / 😭 Something failed / negative feedback on a specific feature
❗️/ 🤔 Users showed concern/ were unsure about a specific feature
💡 An idea or suggestion users made or an opportunity they saw
👉🏼 Next steps or things to keep in mind for the team
The emoji palette is big, find your signature ones!
Bring your research insights to life
1. with user quotes
User quotes are a great way to underline your insights and make them more believable. Imagine reading “Gen Z prefers working on their smartphone instead of computer”, vs:
Quotes are also the perfect little “snack” to share throughout your research project in your stakeholder channel. They give a sneak peek of what’s going on in the user interviews and will create more excitement for your final insights presentation. Try it out!
2. with insights reels
If you want to turn it up a notch, insights reels are the way to go.
Insights reels create empathy with the user and make your insights something for the whole team to look forward to. They have the power to motivate and inspire your audience, by making them hear the user’s voice firsthand.
Whenever there’s an important point I want to bring across, I combine the video footage of 2–3 participants talking about that exact thing. Cutting and combining the snippets is easily done with iMovie and you can even add subtitles.
Insights reels are also a great way for those team members who weren’t able to join any user interviews, to gain empathy with the user.
And you’ll be surprised at how many excited messages you’ll get after sharing your clips. And how people will start to look forward to your insights presentations because of them.
Everyone loves a good Giphy or meme
A great way to make presentations memorable is to make them fun. And what’s more fun than a good Giphy or meme? Tell me…I’ll wait.
You can be creative but here are my personal favorites:
End with a question or poll for your audience
There’s no better way to end your presentation, than with a question or poll for your audience. It will make your audience reflect on what was presented and can lead to great discussions.
Some examples of questions to end with could be:
- What was your most surprising learning today?
- Which user quote stuck with you the most? (paraphrasing allowed)
Another way to end your presentation is to collect feedback on how it went and how useful your audience thought your presentation was for them. It’s a great way to stay on top of your game and keep improving.
I sometimes like to finish with a slide like this:
Use time wisely
I get it, you’ve been working on this research project for weeks. You’ve collected a lot of interesting insights, are enthusiastic about them and want your team to know every little detail about them. But have you ever sat through a 90-minute presentation, where your eyes were closing and your thoughts drifting? A presentation can be as engaging as can be but after a while, it’s just super hard to keep focusing. So keep it concise! In my experience, insights presentations should be kept to a max of 30 minutes presentation time with 15 minutes of Q&A. If you can’t fit it all, you can always create backup slides and share the extended presentation with your team afterwards (for those who can’t get enough).
By doing this you’re also showing that you’re respectful of people’s time, which your team will surely appreciate!
And that’s all. My tips for making your research insights compelling, engaging and sticky. Good luck!
