Things You Need To Do As UX Researcher Beside “Researching”
UX Research is not a new thing. Although there are still many companies out there that do not have a dedicated team to do research, they have started to realize the importance of conducting user research. Most of them do the most basic UX research at least, which is the usability testing.
Indeed, research plays an important role in the design phase. We need to know and understand the user needs to help the business user and designer in decision making. Also, in the mid and last stages, we need to validate the product to make sure that we deliver what user needs and that they can use our product effortlessly.
Regarding the stages and processes in UX Research, what to prepare, what method to choose, or how to analyze, there are many articles that discussed these things out there. You can even easily find tutorials and workshops to do user research. But turns out, besides those activities, there are other important things you need to do so that your research activities can run more smoothly! (Things that I stated here were based on my working experience in my first year as a UX Researcher). So let’s check it out!
Engage with your stakeholder
Most of UX Researchers might agree with the statement that it is sometimes difficult to make stakeholder listen to the insights we get, even though we have claimed that what we tell them is coming from the user’s voice. Therefore, most of us are more likely to have met this theory:
“As UX researchers, we need to ensure that “everyone in our team understands the end users with the same empathy, accuracy and depth as we do.” It has been shown that there is no better alternative to increasing empathy than involving stakeholders to actually experience the whole process themselves: from the design of the study (objectives, research questions), to recruitment, set up, fieldwork, analysis and the final presentation.” — Zoe. Smashing Magazine
In reality, involving stakeholder is not as easy as said in the theory. Why? Firstly sure, everyone has already equipped with their job description and responsibility. Well, they probably really want to be involved, because basically people now are quite aware of the importance of stakeholder involvement in a user research. And of course, because there is no stakeholder who wants their products to fail, it’s their product anyway. One problem that prevents them to do so is, simply they just don’t have time.
That’s why we need to approach them. In the beginning, if they cannot attend the kick-off meeting to set the objectives and research questions, create the template that is coming from you. Do not make the stakeholder think from scratch so that they can get a picture of what is going on. Then discuss with them. Whether it has met their expectation or things that they want to know.
You can include the script, but don’t discuss what questions should be asked. They don’t have the specific knowledge about research, they most likely don’t know what kind of questions are good to be asked.
And in the research itself, make them attend at least a session. They will certainly be able to get some insights from a qualitative research session. Also to make them witness with their own eyes that the insights we report to them are really coming from the users.
Be a good listener
You can get theories about how to be a good interviewer, what questions should be asked or what are the do’s and don’ts for the interview. But one thing to keep in mind and should be the key in an interview is to be a good listener.
It is a matter of soft skills which will grow along with your experience. Listen to everything that your users need to say. They are never wrong. When doing a task, even if things are done wrong and the user’s explanation is wrong, keep listening. Don’t cut their words and just listen. Don’t try to fix and tell what they have to do. Because actually, the user is just explaining what they expect to see despite their wrong actions.
If possible, make it as casual as possible. Users need to feel as comfortable as possible if want to see their most natural behavior. ask about how they did things, don’t shower the user with questions that make them intimidated, such as asking them the ideal solution of a design. Reduce the sentences you need to say to the user. Try to not explain things.
Curiosity
Be a good listener is great. But don’t let your curiosity buried as you listen to the story of the users. It is indeed quite tricky, balancing when do you need to stop talking and listen, and when do you need to ask to follow up questions.
“WHY? HOW? WHAT?”
When doing the interview, users might be busy telling us things what they want. When that happens, instead of just accepting and listening to what the user is saying, try to dig deeper into the background story. Why they want that kind of feature for example. Mostly, they want a particular feature to be built because they encounter problems. However, the solution they stated might not be the best solution. That’s why we need to keep asking why and why. Listen first, then ask to follow up questions.
Broaden your connection, keep a good relationship with your participants
As a UX Researcher, we are demanded not only to be able to communicate well but also to be able to have a good socialization skill. We are not just doing interviews, but we are creating a conducive environment so that participants feel comfortable and being open to us.
This socialization skill is not only useful for the interview process, but also for the planning process. Recruiting participant is an activity that can be very time to consume, especially if we do not use recruiting services. Sometimes we are in a condition where we need to quickly recruit the participants to be able to validate products quickly due to the stakeholder request. This is the moment that we can see the benefit of building connections. Because we use our own friends to be participants, most likely we already know their background, so we can decide directly whether they fit into the target user or not and can immediately ask for their help.
On the other hand, in some cases, we need to use our social skill to maintain good relations with our former participants, as a solution if you find a condition where you need to iterate in a product research. We need to re-contact the previous participant to validate, for example, whether they still encounter the same obstacle after the revamp.
Things that we can do it by giving the user appreciation at the end of the research session that we are really grateful for their participation, also inviting the user back and see whether they are willing to become our participants again. After finishing the research, there are times when the user we interview will contact us to file a complaint. Why? It could be because they feel they know someone inside the company, and if they tell their problems through us, their problems will be dealt with faster. If you ever get a complaint like that, respond well. Build trust and relationship.
Don’t stop after presenting the research insight. Validate!
We might already know that presenting insights obtained from research is a mandatory process in UX Research. But then, what? Apparently, our job as a UX Researcher does not stop there.
Take a quick look at your designer’s works. Make sure the insights we got has been delivered well to your designers. Check whether the opinion from the user has been applied to the product design and their frustration has been taken into account. If the changes made are not in line with the insights, discuss with the designer. Ask their reasoning or you can validate the designer’s ideas by doing another quick test. Remember again, involve them in the process.
Last from me…
Practice makes better. And I believe UX Research things are all about practice. Start now from the very small actions. The more you do the better you get. Me myself and my UX Research team are also still trying to practice things I mentioned before. We keep learning to improve our skills and prepare a more mature process to make things better.
If you’re interested in applying for a full-time position or intern as an UX Designer or UX Researcher, Blibli.com is currently hiring! Send your resume to recruitment@blibli.com and get the chance to work with other UX Designers & Researchers with their own unique stories.
