The Romance of User Research
The hallmark holiday of heart-candy-sayings is approaching and it’s the perfect time to talk about user research. Though it may not be the first thing you think of when dreaming up your Valentine’s date, effective user research methods are the romantic gestures that can nurture strong, lasting user-design relationships. Before you guffaw at my seemingly misplaced romanticism, let’s consider a scenario:
Imagine you are on a date. Perhaps it’s someone that was recommended by a friend. It’s possible that you’ve heard of them but you’ve never interacted before. They show up right on time, the conversation is seamless and engaging and your interaction is so in tune — it’s almost like they already knew you. They really get you. The date went so well that by the end of the night you can’t wait to spend more time with them again. Not only was the night a great experience but they call you the next day as they said they would. The whole experience, in it’s concerted pleasantness, brings on excitement and warm fuzzy feelings when you think about experiencing it again. Maybe it’s love.
Well, why can’t your digital user experience be like that?
People recommend sites and apps to each other all the time. We are frequently new users and interact with user interfaces on a daily basis. Sometimes the experience is like that perfect date scenario and sometimes it just doesn’t work out that well … sometimes content is confusing, dull or difficult to understand; sometimes nothing interacts in the way you expect it to or the site doesn’t respond to your actions. These experiences can be incredibly frustrating. I’m willing to bet if a date went that sour, there wouldn’t be a second one and people are even more judgmental in the digital sphere. Imagine your date getting up just 10 seconds after meeting you. That’s how fast a user responds to a bad user experience. So it’s important to provide users with good experiences and the best ones establish a real human connection through the digital interface. As Aarron Walter states in Designing for Emotion, “Through our designs, we can see and connect with other human beings”. In other words, when we design we are interacting with users; communicating and receiving feedback (e.g. how often users return or spend time with this design, what the evaluation of the design as a product is via reviews). This connection with other people can be made better with user research. What user research brings to design is effective communication; a real understanding and appreciation of the user. This is how we can make significant connections — romantic, isn’t it?
So how do you swoon your users, provide the best user experience and build better user-product relationships through effective design? The answer is as simple as person-to-person relationships: get to know them. Though there may be some instances of coincidence, more often than not, it is difficult to anticipate what someone needs without knowing them (and in what context). It could even be counter-productive to assume. “Users” and “participants” are real people with real needs, wants, dislikes and behaviors . And there will be real interaction with our design which is why it is important to know who we are designing for — and here is where user research comes in.
User research is a way of understanding the behavior and perspective of the people who will be using or experiencing the design. It is the process of discovering important information through the appropriate research method and maintaining a stance of cognitive empathy to really recognize and understand the information received. Design solutions from these insights speak to and with your user in a way that they understand rather than talking at users in a way that may not be accurately translated. Without proper empathetic understanding, that essential common ground is lost and communication falters. Through design we are communicating a message whether it be brand, product or otherwise — and there are times where a product has so many wonderful things to say but poor communication in design limits attention, desire and ultimately interest which could inhibit great relationships from forming.
At first, user research seems fairly straight forward. It’s finding out user needs by interacting with users (or individuals who represent users), right? But sometimes getting the underlying truth is a little bit more complicated than outright asking. I’m sure out in the real world we’ve all come into contact with contradictory conversations and confusing displays of behavior. If you don’t believe me, think about how many times someone has said they were fine to you when they really weren’t — or even how many times you’ve said you were fine when you weren’t. The truth of the matter is, sometimes people don’t tell the truth about what they feel or need. Not because they are liars but because we interact in a world of social norms, idiosyncratic perceptions and infinite hidden emotions and motives. A quick perusal through psychology will also point out that it can sometimes be difficult to pin point what it is we really need. How can someone tell you if they themselves aren’t exactly sure? So in order to find true user needs, we need to ask the right questions and really listen to our users.
And by ‘really listening’ I mean really listening; focusing on the user responses. Not waiting for our turn to speak. This is how we come to understand someone else. We need to take off our own shoes so we can walk in theirs. It’s about understanding the world through their perspective without clouding the interpretation with our own world view. Admittedly this could be difficult, since after all you are you and no one else, but this is how to learn their language.
There are tons of resources that give great tips for effective user research. Many of which state the important of avoiding leading questions and maintaining objectivity. There are no wrong answers because design is determinant on user perspectives. There have been numerous occasions where I’ve heard “dud” or “bad” in reference to a user research session and this, to me, sounds like a poor research mentality. New or unexpected information is incredibly helpful in re-strategizing design. This is why it is important to conduct user research before a final product is built and developed. User research should never be used as an after-thought method of validating. Instead, it should be integrated within the design process and be an informant of design. It is very easy to misinterpret and misrepresent data once an idea is already constructed. Additionally, we sometimes discredit unexpected data as negative or insignificant. We see this in other fields of research as well. It is what leads many researchers to publish misrepresented data in favor of the positive/ significant result. But when this happens, down the road it means backtracking instead of moving forward. Remember that study that said previous studies couldn’t be replicated? This is something that we don’t want to happen with design research because it means behavior won’t be replicated with your design. It means a missed or poor connection.
The influence of research is enormous when done effectively. When we discover what people truly need and design something that fits into their mental model, to the user, it is almost like we are crafting something specifically for them. And feeling like something was made specially for you certainly feels like being loved. Solving problems that people didn’t even know they had or making a necessary task easier for people shows a true understanding of them and their needs. It’s the bouquet of flowers on a bad day, carrying the heavy textbooks, the ‘I’m paying attention to you’ that we all crave from relationships. And when we design digital experiences we are building relationships with our users.
There are tons of analogies that can be brought in here about intimacy, communication and love in reference to user research. Maybe I’m just a romantic that is passionate about research but, hey, it’s not that far fetched to find love just by asking questions and truly getting to know someone.
