Beyond User Research
How community dialogue and radical inclusivity is creating a new age of digital
We’re in an era that’s seeing a dramatic shift from a one-size-fits-all approach where the organization dictates what the product and service delivery experience will be, to a landscape where individuals and individual communities are seen and heard for their unique needs, values and concerns.
Increasingly, community organizations are moving past the classic UX toolkit, leaning into deep listening and participatory design as ways to co-create sharply relevant, empathetic service experiences.
“We believe that we have process expertise, and people in the community have contextual expertise about their own environment and their own needs that we will never have,” says Ceri Rees, Domain7’s Director of Engagement Strategy.
Creating a space where the community truly helps create the outcome is still new ground for many in the digital space, but we believe it’s the future of successful design. While the UX principles of user-centric design are becoming more ubiquitous, the idea of co-creation or participatory design still sounds risky for many organizations. “We’re not talking about crowd-sourcing your design or ‘design-by-committee’,” Ceri emphasizes. She points instead to the idea of working towards participatory design by cultivating an “engaged dialogue,” where the perspectives gained from the community are carefully considered and integrated by expert design practitioners and strategists, and where sustained, meaningful interaction with a community of users continues throughout a project.
Seasoned strategist and facilitator Kevan Gilbert also underscores the intentionality behind successful community listening, pointing out the contrast with passive listening practices such as “social listening,” where brands tweak messaging based on customer sentiment without really changing the underlying experience. “I think it makes a really big difference to be engaging in listening when you’re actually planning to do something about it. People know you’re moving towards a complete transformation of some kind,” Kevan points out. “You’re actually trying to understand how to better serve people’s needs.”
Listening in support of a transformative change requires a commitment of trust on both the part of the organization and the community. The organization builds trust with the community by demonstrating they have truly heard the needs of the community, while the community learns to trust the practitioner’s expertise in meeting those needs. For organizations and design teams, this can mean learning ways to not only listen, but also to dig into a conversation for greater understanding. Pushing beyond task-based research, we challenge ourselves to find ways to demonstrate that we’ve heard what the community has said, and invite them to interact with potential solutions.
“We listen for the need that is at the root of someone’s suggestion and solve for that,” Kevan explains. “Find what is important to them and create principles from those insights to govern what we’re going to do throughout the project.”
The increased insight creates a more successful project, but the process also creates a more engaged and satisfied community.
“If I actually paraphrase back to you and say, ‘It’s really important for you that we address these underlying needs here,’ then you feel heard in a different way than if I just say ‘thanks for sharing,’” Ceri points out.
“Now, the way I address those things might be quite different than the way you had in your mind, but it is going to truly meet both your needs and other user needs that we’re holding in tension.”
Sometimes, the traditional UX tools we have to understand users may actually get in the way of listening and clarity. On a recent project, a client emphasized the need to design something that works for every member of their community, without filters or assumptions. This meant breaking with convention, and choosing not to create user personas to stand in for their actual community of living, breathing people. Ceri notes that the process was challenging, but believes the successful outcome (a more engaged and satisfied community of users) proved the wisdom of finding new ways of working. “Sometimes the tools we have need to be pushed,” she maintains.
Kevan goes a step further. “The only reason you need a persona is if you haven’t actually had the chance to interact with the customer,” he states.
“Personas are a stand-in for having organic empathy for somebody you’re serving. Ideally, community listening shortens that gap so that you’re having those conversations.”
Ultimately, whatever methods or tools are used, the intentionality needed to take a radically committed community listening approach must be signalled at the leadership level of an organization, and incorporated into the design of a project or partnership from the start. “Our fundamental commitment must be different than the world we have lived in for a very long time,” Ceri explains. “Our fundamental commitment is to the user’s vantage point. We’re saying ‘Who are you, what do you need, and how can our products, our services, serve your needs?’”
Leaders can create this space by signalling a commitment in their own interaction style and choices. In a recent community-centric project with Seattle Public Library, Helen Tapping, Head of Marketing and Online Services, provided an open email address where anyone in the Seattle community could reach her with their input and feedback. Such a move signals not only the leader’s commitment to the community’s perspective, but also communicates freedom to the organizational and project teams to find their own ways to open their work up for community engagement. From policy setting, to team composition and partner selection, leaders can set a tone of seriousness about proactive community involvement.
New tools, new mindsets and new methods introduce a learning curve, but it’s one that can take community organizations into the future at the front of the pack. Seattle Public Library’s decision to craft a radically inclusive and transparent process with community listening, feedback, and dialogue built into each stage of research, design and development, resulted in stronger digital performance. But the benefits didn’t stop there. Applications for library cards, interactions with librarians, and patron engagement with an array of often-overlooked library services have all increased, and the community has taken to social media to praise not only the new site, but also the process involved.
Kevan believes that design professionals and community organizations are just getting started. “Community listening and participatory, collaborative design is a movement that has so much possibility and potential to change the way we collaborate and what we can achieve together,” he says. “It’s kind of the punchline of being alive: learning to work together better.”
