Sidebar contribution for Chapter 14 of UX Research by Brad Nunnally & David Farkas
So What: The two most important words in design research
Earlier this year, I had the honor of contributing a sidebar to Brad and David’s book UX Research: Practice Techniques for Designing Better Products. My original draft is presented here, and will hopefully entice you to buy the book.
In reporting research results, the two most important words are “So what?”
When you’re considering what to report, it’s tempting to behave like a scientist–present the data as objectively as possible. You want to depict an idealized form of your product’s audience, absolute and objective in their representation, free from contaminants like business objectives and technical constraints.
But you’re not a scientist: you’re a member of a product team. Insights have value when they help you and your teammates make decisions, when they can tell you “so what.” Creating an artifact at the tail end of your study may not be necessary if you can translate the findings immediately to design decisions. Perhaps your insights tell you what information to prioritize or strip out. Perhaps your insights help you restructure a flow or choose the right words to describe it.
With the “leaning” of UX, stakeholders increasingly don’t expect polished reports. Much of my research is captured in a simple text file, a collection of insights, answers to questions, and recommended changes. These notes form the basis of the discussion with the team, and that discussion constitutes the deliverable.
That conversation epitomizes “so what.” Through that conversation we dig into what we observed and talk about why it matters. We look at the original research objectives and ask ourselves what we learned. We talk about possible impacts to the product or the design. This could be as micro as the label on a button or as macro as which features we should prioritize.
Research is the most important tool designers have. Great data yield great insights, and great insights yield novel ideas. Where does great data come from? It starts with great questions–questions about what information helps users achieve their goals and what process aligns best with their mental models. It starts with questions about how they perceive different labels and how they think content should be categorized. Our efforts to seek answers to these questions must be driven by the aim to have a positive impact on the product. Our efforts must yield not only answers to questions, but an understanding of why they matter.
Pretty good, right? You should buy the whole book. It’s got lots of sidebars from other people smarter than me and great insights on how to do research for UX projects.
And if you’re looking for an experienced team to help you with some UX research, look no further! My design firm EightShapes has been serving organizations like yours for the last 10 years. We work on projects of all shapes and sizes, bringing to bear the best design tools and techniques.
Have a project that could use our help? Let us know.
