Let’s Talk: User Research
Today, I will talk briefly on User Research, stay locked down 🙂.
User Research
User research is a non-negotiable part or aspect of User Experience Design. User research is done to gather Qualitative and Quantitative data in relation to product or service about to be created or rendered. User research is very important before commencing the design of a product because, results gotten from the research is what will guide you on what the target users want, why they want such feature, and how to help them achieve their goals easily.
You may be confused on what I meant by Qualitative and Quantitative data above, well, stress not! I will give a detailed explanation soon.
Qualitative data
This simply means, understanding how the target users feel towards the product, users opinions on how the product should be designed or the look and feel. Also, the problems the users encounter while using your product, the reasons why they take certain actions/decisions while using your product and finally what motivates the users about your product. You may have noticed, I talked more about the users and not the UX designers, this is because you are creating the product for a certain set of “Users”.
Qualitative data research can be carried out by any of the following techniques:
- guerrilla testing
- field studies
- focus groups
- interviews and so on…
“Know your users”
Quantitative data
The research here deals more with numerical data values and statistics. It is used to quantify the opinions and behaviors of the user. Quantitative research is carried out to understand how to group the opinions and behaviors of the users interviewed. It majorly deals with figures. Below is a list of how quantitative data research can be carried out:
- user surveys : questionnaires
- web analytics
- a/b testing etc..
Having understood what Qualitative and Quantitative data research is about, I will share four(4) reasons why User Research should be carried out before a product is designed.
- To create designs that are truly relevant to your users.
- To create designs that are easy and pleasurable to use by your users.
- To understand the Return On Investment of your user experience design.
- To improve the product experience.
Summarizing all I have said, User Research is a non-negotiable aspect of User Experience Design.
Feel free to leave comments and claps 👏🏽
