USER RESEARCH
Who cares about users?
Understanding the impact user research can make, and some principles for getting the most out of it.
User research is nothing new — it has been used across many, if not all, design disciplines for a very long time to deliver products and services that are user-centred.
It seems however, that recently the user experience is becoming a more visible component of everyday lives. It is now common within our vocabulary. This is thanks to companies like Apple, Netflix and Spotify which have focused on maximising the user experience and leveraging this to achieve enormous market penetration. Remember what life was like without a smart phone and streaming? It wasn’t that long ago…
As technology becomes more complex, a paradox occurs. We are able to leverage this complexity to our advantage to make things simpler for us. This isn’t just in the context of information technology, think about advances in materials engineering, manufacturing and across all aspects of our lives.
Take a tried and true example many will have heard before and most of us can relate to — the mp3 player.
Digital audio has been around for a long time. Far before the rise of streaming and portable devices. The problem with digital audio was that it was inaccessible for most people. The early technology was hard to use and clunky. It was hard to get access to digital audio which mostly required file conversion from different media types and required you to have the right equipment and software before you could use it. To top it off, most of the time, available storage limited how much you could have on the device too. It was difficult for users to see how this was better than their trusty discman, so it looked like it was a case of another promising technology that never really took off.
Recognising the potential of this technology, and by taking a user-centred approach to understand the frustrations and desires of users, Apple developed the iPod. It took the technology and re-packaged it in a way that made sense to users. A simple graphical user interface was developed to make it intuitive and usable; storage was increased to improve functionality and access to music was resolved through iTunes. Although it wasn’t perfect, this holistic end-to-end approach resulted in an explosion of sales and has continued to shape the way we consume music ever since.
This is a great example of how considering the user and the user needs can drive product innovation. The key message for me in the trusty MP3 example however isn’t really about considering the user to improve the product; rather it is about considering the user within the context of a service, of which the iPod forms and element. Let’s think about it, without taking this extra step to consider what the entire set of user needs are (product and access to content) Apple would have redesigned a product that albeit beautiful to look at and use, would not have addressed one of the key user needs; access to content. This is why no matter what you are designing you need to look at it holistically to understand what the user really needs. Look beyond the product.
We have countless examples of successful digital or non-digital products that have transitioned from being organisation focused or technology focused to user focused. Let’s take service design for example, have you heard this before, or even thought it?
“Why should I care about the user? I have to deliver this service so I am going to do it the way that makes sense to me. If people want to use it, they will do what they need to do”.
We hear this quite a bit and the truth is that it makes a lot of sense. Often design is done at quite a pace, within tight constraints and based on ideas that may not be fully formed.
Why not do it in a way that works for you and the organisation? At least then you can get on with the important work of providing the service.
Because…
To provide a service that people actually want to use, you must first care about the user.
The problem with the approach above is that you can end up providing a service that nobody wants to use.
At this point, things can get difficult. Very quickly things can move from a service that nobody uses to no service at all (because it has been cancelled or changed etc). This means that no users got the benefit of the hard work to design and implement the service, you didn’t get the benefit of delivering a successful service and the organisation didn’t get the outcomes, data and benefits it was after.
Taking a user-centred approach can help with this. It will help you to understand what the user needs in order to frame the offering in a way that will entice people to use. In some cases, it may expose when an offering just won’t work — saving time, effort and of course money.
People will avoid using services if it is too hard, even important ones.
User research is a thing. It tends to fit within the broader user-centred design methodology. This follows an iterative plan; research; design; and refine approach.
When applied to the design of public services, policies, legislation, digital and non-digital products, technologies, architecture (the list goes on) then the result is better for everyone. Users get an experience that matters to them and providers, designers, developers and manufactures get to do what they do best — provide effective products and services that drive business outcomes, and enrich the lives of people through better designed products and services.
At Pragma we follow our own method for conducting user research that is not designed to be exhaustive but it is designed to be relevant to the work we do. In particular, it focuses on being relevant to the design of user-centred public services.
We love to use everyday examples when we work with our clients to illustrate how user research can help to improve outcomes for citizens and public.
Here are our core principles for engaging with users. No matter what user research technique you use, applying these principles will help you get the most out of your time with users.
- Empathy — Be empathetic, try to see and understand things from the user’s point of view. The way that someone else uses a service may be different to what you expect; it doesn’t make it wrong and may force you to re-think your views.
- Curiosity — Be curious. Focus on the people that use the service and be genuinely interested in the ideas and notions that you are hearing about. Ask them why they feel in certain ways and try to understand the motivations behind their statements.
- Constructive — Create new ideas based on the diverse range of views with the understanding that you are not the only one who has an opinion on a matter.
- Holistic — Get the full picture. Make sure you are not narrowing your focus to the things that you think are important. Sometimes what you think is important is actually part of the problem; it could be that what is important to the users hasn’t even occurred to you or didn’t seem to be a priority.
- Non-judgemental — Treat all research participants without judgement or bias. This will ensure that people offer their genuine views and do not feel that they will be judged or penalised for doing so.
- Open mind — Allow yourself to see things from all points of view and understand that there may be value in things that you would not tend to consider yourself.
This article was written by Pragma Partners Head of Research and Design, Ben Hales. Pragma is a service transformation company based in Canberra, Australia.
