How to do user research during the pandemic?

Pandemic is a tough time, we all have been hit by covid directly or indirectly. Some faced health issues, some were hit by monetary loss, many businesses simply got shut, companies have been doing pay-cuts, lay-offs and what not.

But ironically it certainly created a boom in the digital economy, demand for digital products and interactions were never in demand before like today. However, there was a different problem organisations were facing in understanding their user's needs.

Now that no one could step out in such a time, companies couldn't understand what their users are going through? what are their anxiety levels? How badly their surroundings have been affected? How do provide them relief in doing their business at such a time? And so on..

Clearly, the demand for user research was also rising. But the question is how to do user research in such a time?

User demographics vary tremendously across different states and cities due to various factors like their location, language, education, family size, occupation, etc. However, the factor of tech-savviness may completely change the research approach towards the users.

As a fundamental step, I prefer to do the desk research first, to map out the scope & needs of the project and in this process, I could sense the problem that I might address and can identify the areas of enquiry that I can use to probe users during the interview.

Some of the activities that I undertake during desk research are like —

• Performing Design Audit
• Heuristic Evaluation
• Conducting Pestle Analysis
• Drawing anecdotes & scenarios from available resources like online articles, books, previous research data
• Mapping Trends
• Relying on data analytics generated through digital platforms
• Anticipating user needs with past behavioural data
• Preparing Proto Personas
• Competitive Analysis, etc

The list can go on & on, but after attempting the desk research, I prepare the central research question & plan the approach for the same.

So what are the alternatives to approach the users remotely?

As I mentioned, tech-savviness is the major factor that can change the approach for user research. Considering this, let’s look at the alternatives from the following two lenses:

A. If your users are tech-savvy:

then following tools & methods can be utilised to conduct user research:

1. Remote User Interviews — Remote user interview process can be useful for explorative user research. You can learn about your users while speaking with them over different online tools. A simple video call over Skype or Google Hangouts may help you notice their expressions along with their verbal cues. However, if you want your notes to be well structured and get handy user clips to share with clients quickly, then you can make use of tools like Validately, Lookback, Loop11 and UserZoom Inc. etc.
2. Remote Moderated Usability Testing — Usability Testing is a method used in design to evaluate the product performance by the user. Using remote research & testing tools like Validately, Lookback & Loop11, one can carry out usability testing to understand the user’s cognitive experience while performing the tasks on the given product. In moderated usability testing you can direct the user when to perform the task using these remote usability testing tools.
3. Unmoderated Usability Testing — The effort mostly goes into preparing the unmoderated study and publishing it online. But once done you may send out the study to a large sample size of users. Tools like maze and Optimal Workshop can help conduct usability testing with large user sets. This method provides you with the opportunity to see user behaviour at its most natural because they are performing the task in their environment without a moderator/researcher’s involvement.
4. In context videos: After taking permission from users, you can record them in their natural space by making use of the camera. You may ask the user to set up the camera like a fly on the wall and continue with their daily chores. In this way, you can see how users interact with the people, objects and products they use in daily life.

5. Diary studies with pictures & messages: In this method, your participants can prepare a daily journal on the go as they perform any activity. They can chronologically write & share pictures about what activities they performed, why & how they performed them. These entries can be recorded digitally and can be regularly shared with researchers when they write it.

6. Open-Ended Surveys — By making the questionnaire more open-ended you can gather qualitative responses from your users. This allows you to do a detailed analysis of users’ quotes. This could be used to approach guerrilla research or it can be exclusive to fix the number of participants of a specific user profile.

B. If your users are NOT tech-savvy:

In case your users are not tech-savvy you can still make use of the following methods:

1. On-call in-depth interviews — You can learn about your users while speaking with them overcall. Users who are not comfortable using Skype or other video call tools can talk overcall. The hidden benefit of the on-call interview is that your users can be more vocal and blunt about their experience since no one is watching them. On the other side- they may become impatient during the call, in this method, it is crucial to develop rapport before initiating the study.
2. Diary studies with pictures & keywords, voice clips — In this method, your participants can log their daily activities using digital tools like WhatsApp which is easy to use and accessible for the majority of non-tech-savvy users. Participants can share their daily log with pictures, voice notes and keywords.
3. On-call survey — In case you have very little time and want to get user feedback on an existing product or you have a set of questions with mostly binary answers then an on-call survey can help share maximum user responses in minimum time.

On-field proximity approach — If you are really lucky and you find your users located in the safe zone (in case it's close to your place), you may speak with them to get a better understanding of their behaviours in their environment. However, it is recommended to stick to the above methods for the safety of all.

The idea is to make informed decisions for the design therefore user research is required. Hence, it’s always better to be able to uncover some understanding of users rather than none. Using alternative methods like suggested above can help get an understanding of your users during such time.

Thanks for reading! Let me know what do you all think about it or share comments for better suggestions and methods.