What’s user research and how can it help you build better products?

One of the main aspects of product and service design is user research. User research is the creative stakeholder’s compass in a world of infinite possibilities and comprises a diverse set of activities that help design teams make decisions based on evidence rather than personal hunches and opinions.

There are several ways of conducting user research, including:

Qualitative research, which tries to answer questions like “Why?” (e.g. Why do users leave a purchase funnel at a specific step?) and “How?” (e.g. How do travel agents make a reservation on the platforms they use?). There are several methods of conducting qualitative research, including:

• Usability testing, which describes a set of activities during which participants are presented with one or more designs and are asked to perform a set of tasks, while creative stakeholders observe their actions. Usability testing can be both qualitative and quantitative and we will examine it as a method in a specially dedicated section later on.
• Interviews, which describe different types of activities where creative stakeholders ask users one or more questions about the topics they want to know more about. This includes their interests, brand perception, expectations, needs and issues they face.
• Field research, which describes a set of activities that are conducted at a user’s work or home environment. In contrast to running studies in a lab or at a design team’s office, field research provides invaluable insights on how users work and perform in a real context.
• Focus groups, during which participants (usually the number of participants spans from 5-9) gather together and give feedback on existing products or future designs.

Quantitative research, which tries to answer to questions like “How much?” or “How many?” (e.g. How many users make a purchase after entering a website? How much time do users need to make a purchase?). Quantitative research includes methods like:

• Surveys: aimed at gathering information about one’s users.
• Analytics: which provide information about users’ interaction with products and services.
• A/B or Multivariate Testing: which aim to provide insights into how users interact with two or more versions of given designs.

Qualitative and Quantitative user research offer different perspectives to the process of design and, as a result, both of them are invaluable. Depending on the questions that design teams may have at different phases of the design process, it’s possible that different user research tools may be needed, applying both qualitative and quantitative research methodologies. If your team and organization has user researchers, their participation in all design activities would be strongly encouraged in order to help them understand and propose the best user research tools and approaches for each individual situation.

What is usability testing?

Usability testing is probably one of the cornerstones of product and service design, due to the method’s ability to present creative stakeholders with how users think and interact with their products.

During usability testing sessions, a usability expert (also called a user researcher) presents users with one or more designs and asks them to perform a set of tasks. The researcher observes and takes notes on what users say and do, trying to understand how they think, how they perceive the presented interfaces and which aspects are unclear or confusing.

Usability testing can take many forms. Usability testing sessions can for instance be:

Moderated or unmoderated

• Moderated, during which a researcher facilitates the session, taking notes, intervening when users are stuck or confused and asking questions when considered necessary.
• Unmoderated aren’t facilitated by a researcher and during them users receive instructions about the tasks they need to complete through software solutions. As a result, users complete such types of usability testing sessions on their own. Their actions are recorded, allowing researchers to analyze them later on.

Remote or on-site

• Remote: during which the researcher and the user connect to the session from two different locations. In cases like this, the usability test is conducted though a video-conferencing tool
• On-site: during which the researcher and the user are physically located at the same place.

Usability tests should be conducted with real users. This is because any other approximation of a design team’s audience may be biased or based on false assumptions about their user base. I occasionally meet stakeholders who propose internal usability testing, where participants are going to be other team designers or developers. Apart from a case where the final product’s users will be these very designers and developers, internal usability testing is a bad idea. Usually creative stakeholders possess a more advanced skillset, as well as an understanding of a product and how it works compared to the average user. As a result, by running usability tests with experts rather than real users, it’s highly likely that the design direction will be geared towards power-users, rendering the final solution unusable for the broader product or service audience.

Usability testing is always relevant! Teams can conduct usability tests from the very early stages of product design up to and after their release. Usability tests can be used to confirm or reject an initial concept hypothesis, examine the validity of low and high-fidelity prototypes, or assess the usability of finalized products.