Unlocking Innovation: The whys and hows of user research in industrial environments
What are the benefits of applying and conducting user research in industrial environments and frameworks? What are the main user research techniques to consider and why it is important to focus on users’ needs and problems in order to innovate?
In today’s fast-evolving business environment organizations that operate in industrial production (oil & gas), transportation, or supply chain sectors need to be innovative and agile to remain competitive. Design thinking and user research are powerful approaches that can support organizations stay ahead of the game by providing a structured approach to problem-solving and innovation. In this article, we will explore the benefits of conducting and applying user research in industrial environments and frameworks. It can be applied to assess a wide range of business problems, but most importantly for digital product development and innovation of services.
In industrial frameworks, most of the time the end-users of the products designed for internal workflows are the employees themselves. Therefore, understanding their needs and goals is fundamental for creating efficient workflows, productivity, boosting engagement and safety at work. After all, if someone knows the process inside-out with all its flaws and opportunities, are the workers involved directly in it. The key to successful design thinking user research lies in keeping the users and their needs at the center of the design process (human-centric).
The importance of design research
The goal of design research is to systematically approach users to understand their needs, contextual and environmental factors and to continuously gather insightful feedback. It includes collecting data through observation, interviews, surveys, collaborative workshops (or focus groups) and field visits. Design research provides a foundation for informed and effective solution design by helping organizations understand their needs and pain points.
Although at first it may seem hard to engage and organize the research, especially in very operational environments but eventually the value gained from shared decision-making and problem-solving prevails over the initial resistance. The commitment to design research and process can support the management in understanding problems and underlying issues better, which will eventually bring about better decision-making. It will most certainly make employees feel included in the process of designing the products and solutions tailored for them and their needs.
Let’s go over 3 common types of qualitative design research techniques that can serve us during our research, define, ideate, and prototype design thinking phases.
- User interviews: Formal & Informal
- Field visit: Shadowing & Touring (Workflow, Asset & Document analysis)
- Focus groups/Collaborative workshops: Probing, Validating & Testing
User interviews
User interviews are an essential component of design research as they provide valuable insights into the user’s needs, pains, motivations, goals, and preferences. Interviews by nature encourage designers to empathize with the users, which leads to more honest and deeper conversations and understandings. Oftentimes the issues in operational sites appear because of a series of systemic errors or because of accumulated debt caused by how the process was designed. Therefore, having an external observer who interrupts the bias and pinpoints the problems is helpful to uncover underlying issues. The design researcher will also try to identify patterns and commonalities among users which are important for designing tailored products. It’s also a way to confirm or reject assumptions made during the design process (user testing).
For remote interviews done by video call, I would suggest conducting a structured interview that is focused on asking a specific set of questions in a predetermined order.
For example: In which way do you record warehouse inventory? How do you share them between different units/users?
If possible, record the call so you can go back and extract the information correctly. Note that not everyone, especially in operational sites, has access to a computer where that call can comfortably be carried out, or even that they feel comfortable being formally questioned.
In that case, it is better to conduct unstructured interviews that are more conversational, that allow a free-flowing conversation, and leave space for the discovery of unexpected insights. These kinds of interviews are best done in person and often in the place of work. By doing so the designer has the opportunity to capture key points related to the physical context of the person interviewed.
Questions for a conversational interview could be: How do you fill these documents? Followed by a show and tell. Or an open-ended question that stimulates sharing of other sub-issues such as: Is your office always this busy?
Independently of the interview type, it is a good practice to prepare an agenda of topics beforehand and it is indispensable to take notes. If it is not possible to do so during the interview because you might be in a factory or construction environment, it should be done soon after while it is still fresh in the mind. You can help yourself with recording or taking photos if the situation allows it.
Shadowing
Shadowing is a design research technique based on observation. The researcher accompanies the user and observes his day-to-day activities or the way they use certain products or services in their natural environment. As a qualitative method, it is not meant to be conducted on a massive scale because it’s time and resource-consuming.
Generally, it is better to use it as a start of wider research, however in industrial frameworks, it has a different relevance. I would highly recommend carrying out field visits for industrial projects. It helps understand better the actual dynamics, displacement of equipment and buildings, and how that influences the people involved in the process we are trying to analyze. It is fundamental as well for establishing a connection with the user. Once the connection is established people are keener to offer insight and contribute to problem solving. Where shadowing can’t be fully practiced, I recommend a tour by people who directly operate a workflow on the site.
Although present, the designer should not interfere with the research subject as it might change the circumstances that may lead to the recording of misleading facts. This means while we record the observations, we should do it in a subtle and non-distracting manner. For example, taking photos or videos of only the key steps or just simply writing it down. Keep in mind that it should be easy to extrapolate notes afterwards. All questions that may come up during the activity should be asked at a separate time.
Personally, I like to use a virtual board for notetaking instead of simply writing things down. Sometimes it’s just easier to draw sketches, graphs or maps of the industrial site. You can even ask for the maps and attach them to your board. For example, for mapping shifts and schedules, you can use color coding method or a calendar type of layout. One could say we are creating a sort of mood board for our observations. At a later time, it could be convenient to share that information with the subjects observed and therefore validate our observation. For example, you can correct mistakes or fill in missed information together.
An important note for the observer is that the subject must feel at ease in order to share faithfully their daily routine. Work dynamics in operational sites are quite different than the ones of an office environment therefore one must be open to different perspectives, communication styles, and ways of working.
Focus Group — Collaborative workshops
Before engaging in the activity of shadowing participants are interviewed or involved in group discussions (focus groups) so designers can learn more about them. A focus group is essentially a large-scale (5–10 participants) interview. Participants are brought together in a controlled environment to discuss a particular topic or issue under the close eye of the facilitator that carefully manages the activity.
Sometimes in operational sites, it can be hard to engage participants in these kinds of activities, especially for a prolonged time and possibly without any distractions. Consider that for some jobs taking 2–3 hours from their daily task can be a major obstacle, therefore one should be flexible and do as much prep work as possible, so no time is wasted.
For example, it can be for the purpose of user journey mapping or user experience feedback (testing) and validation sessions. Bringing different roles from different operational and managerial units that do different jobs (but are part of the same workflow) is useful in gaining a mutual understanding, a zoom-out vision, and serves to uncover bottlenecks and areas of opportunity together.
If we are using focus groups to test and refine concepts or digital products, consider a method such as paper or printed prototypes. It encourages engagement, and it can give a sense of “space for change” since it is not a definitive version. Not everybody is familiar with digital tools and sometimes they can seem too real or definite therefore the feedback can be limited to the specific mockup and not the need or goal it tends to solve. Something I like to do when I’m gathering user feedback for a digital product is to leave a printed version of wireframes. Therefore, the user can check them out on their own time or during a break from the regular work. In this way they are released from the pressure to think at once and we won’t be missing out on important feedback.
The benefits of design thinking & research in an industrial framework
Design thinking fosters creativity and innovation by encouraging employees to think outside the box. In operational sites everyone is busy carrying on their daily task therefore the time for inclusive and collaborative moments where everyone can share their ideas and problems is often scarce. A good employee’s product experience (user-friendliness) is key for creating products and services that are easy to use (intuitive) and, therefore, will function well, making workflows less error prone, fast and efficient for the user and related network.
Organizations can identify new opportunities for innovation backed by qualitative data. Data-driven insight, in fact, leads to informed decision-making that is grounded in the user’s needs. I’d argue that in an industrial framework, a field visit is one of the most important activities that aid designers in gaining a more authentic insight. It is quintessential to understand firsthand the challenges users face, their priorities, and their preferences, and consequentially adapt the solution design. But most importantly it helps build partnerships and it facilitates setting up truly collaborative environment.
