What is People-Centred Research?
People-Centred research is a practice that supports the design process by helping designers understand the needs and behaviours of the people they are designing for. It involves people at many stages of the design process to define opportunities, get inspiration, co-create solutions, test prototypes and validate solutions.
This is what I learned from my teachers Dario Buzzini and Fahmida Azad at Copenhagen Institute of Interaction Design in Copenhagen, Denmark.
Why it is important?
If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses.
- Henry Ford (Founder of Ford Motors)
Customers can easily describe a problem they’re having — in this case, wanting to get somewhere faster, but not the best solution.
Research is crucial to understand the needs and behaviour of users to add context and insight into the process of understanding their real pain points. It is an essential element of the user experience that can drive and inspire solution development. People-centred research is a chance to invite people whom we are solving problems for into the design process to gather a set of views and perspectives that I as the designer may have failed to anticipate by considering only my own experiences or values.
When do we use user research?
- When we need foundational knowledge about a specific context or user group and to seek new opportunities.
- When we need the inspiration to drive the generation of ideas.
- When we need to evaluate and inform the development of ideas.
- When we need to test specific mental models interactions or affordances.
Types of user research
Quantitative research is any research that can be measured numerically. It answers questions such as “how many people clicked here” or “what percentage of users are able to find the call to action?” It’s valuable in understanding statistical likelihoods and what is happening on a site or in an app.
Qualitative research is sometimes called “soft” research. It answers questions like “why didn’t people see the call to action” and “what else did people notice on the page?” and often takes the form of interviews or conversations. Qualitative research helps us understand why people do the things they do.
Who do we research with?
The user isn’t always the customer. In most cases, a product will have many users. The researcher should engage with anyone connected to the product they are designing for and
- Superuser
- Non-user
- Analogous user
In the case of healthcare product like Zyla, it would be
Patient, Caregiver, Loved ones, doctor, community, insurance provider, e-pharmacies, pharmaceutical, corporates & TPA’s.
Coming up soon — How to take an interview in detail.
Talk to the right people
This is a list from the above-mentioned categories that is Target User, Subject matter expert, extreme user, former user, Non-user to get perspectives and not miss on any insight.
How do we do research?
- Empathy building Activites:- These methods help understand behaviours and perceptions in context at the moment where the individual experiences them. In this sort of activity, the user shows the researcher how they accomplish certain tasks, essentially immersing the opposite side in their work or home culture. eg. Ethnographic Interviews.
- Contextual Inquiry:- These methods of research using a semi-structured approach to understanding people’s context by having conversations and making observations at relevant locations. eg. Non-direct Interviews.
- Participatory Exercises:- These methods invite the research participant to play a more active, participatory role in the research process through visual activities. They also allow the research to build empathy by experiencing a situation first hand. Eg. Shadowing
- Guided tours:- Ask for a guided tour of a location or context that is important to the people you are researching to understand what goes on there from the perspective of the individual.
Read 10 Mindsets to keep when doing user research also when researching.
To develop empathy towards our users, we need to do more than listen. We need to observe others and have a close reading of their behaviours, subtle indications, their non-verbal expressions, body language, and environments.
Thanks for reading and appreciating me to share my learnings with everyone.
More about user research below:-
