User Research

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Why Conduct User Research?

User Experience designers’ end goal is to always satisfy the needs of the end user. To be able to make this happen we must understand who the user is and what their main requirements are. Conducting effective user research can help to refine ideas to those most relevant and help to target product to the specific user needs. This type of research can be both formative and summative and that is why it is such a crucial element of the user centred design process. Some of the ways to conduct formative user research are:
  • Focus groups/user workshops – Sessions consisting of multiple users is the perfect environment for ideas to bounce around the room. Additionally, people may find it easier to agree with others so you may quickly have a joint consensus.
  • Expert interviews – Experts in the field of question are knowledgeable and may already know what methods are effective and how to execute them.
  • Creating user personas – Building a profile for a fictitious character could be the best way to think in the same way as the user.
  • Stakeholder workshops – As the people who are relying on your expertise, stakeholders are essential to keep close from start to finish.
  • Surveys – Formatively, surveys can quickly narrow down the criteria however they can take a while to analyse due to false/inaccurate data.
  • Card sorting – A brainstorming technique for individuals to create an information architecture that makes sense to them. What will they look for first? How will they get to a certain page? …
  • One-to-one interviews – If the user group is based off an existing party of people, this can be an effective way to gain more insight.
  • Prototyping – Prototypes with controlled user testing in between iterations means (theoretically) that each version will be better than its predecessor.
  • Task analysis – Breaking down tasks to outline pros and cons can save time in the long run so insufficient data isn’t gathered and stored.
This type of research is performed while the project (or an element of) is being formulated and has not yet been deployed for testing.
Following this, summative research methods include:
  • Analytics reviews – Looking over all the different types of analytics (item clicks, page views, user journeys etc.) post-launch can show user interaction and web traffic that is valuable to the progression of the product/service.
  • Statistical data review – Viewing statistics is most valuable when there is a large enough user group. Data can speak for the masses and if analysed correctly can prove scientific methodologies.
  • Diary studies – A user is told to give an in-depth description of their thoughts, feelings and interactions with the product in a diary for 1-2 weeks. This is an extremely personal way to test user interaction and can be hard to get the user to fully engage throughout the whole testing period.
  • Eye tracking – If the designers and developers can see where people are looking and how long for when using their product, it could come to light that what may come across as obvious to them isn’t so much when deployed in a natural environment.
  • Surveys – Summatively, surveys can be conducted to gather mass data about the product or service. These can be paid or unpaid opportunities for the user however for the developers and designers this extra knowledge is invaluable.
  • Usability testing – Further understanding into the functionality of the product from the users perspective to see how real life scenarios would play out.
Summative research is applied at the end of the design process to validate and test the product and/or service.

Formative User Research

As part of my formative research, I have created a user persona called Deborah. She is a 56-year-old female from Norwich who is married and has 2 children. Issy is 18 and Mike is 16 and both of them attend City College. They all live together at home and are classed as a middle-class family. Deborah isn’t very physically active apart from her enjoyment of walking around doing a spot of shopping on the weekends. Although unemployed, she still has busy days spent cleaning the house, preparing food for the other family members and indulging in reading and crocheting. She loves spending time with her family over dinner and with her husband attending cello concerts at various venues around Norfolk. She has an iPhone 7 because her children recommended it and the guy in the shop said it was the pink one was perfect for her. In the tech world, she classes as a late adopter, meaning that she catches onto technological trends after the mass surge resulting in her always asking her children “What if I press this?”. Due to the combination of free time and a smartphone, she spends the time in between hobbies scrolling through her Facebook feed (which Issy kindly set up for her) and reading through news articles on the BBC News app. Along with this, they have a family computer that she likes to browse on after dinner whilst everyone is doing their own thing. She wears reading glasses so sometimes its difficult for her to see small pieces of text and she always clicks on top articles because they tend to have bigger bolder typefaces. In addition to this, she is always keen to click on pictures of cute animals or bright crochet designs. Deborah has been a vegetarian for 16 years now as part of a preparation plan for when her menopause starts. She wants to make sure her body is happy and healthy so along with this she takes vitamins and eats fruit and veg regularly. She is an extroverted person and loves meeting people who share her interests and she is part of a ‘Vegetarian Mums’ group on Facebook. She would easily spark up a conversation with the cashier at the supermarket about a lovely coffee she got the other day with her friend Angie.
From this user data I can already decipher some distinct design features for the website:
  • Must respond well to tablet and mobile
  • Clear text and call-to-actions
  • Fully menu and wine list to be included
  • Advertise the vegetarian and vegan aspect well

Psychology of Design

When considering the psychology of design principles in digital media, UX designers must have a certain level of empathy towards the users. After all, it will be other human beings viewing the platform who have thought processes, reactions and instincts. It is easy to get caught up in a digital world and being in this industry, surrounded by early adopters of technology, the thought that someone doesn’t know what a burger menu is can be an alarming truth. Unless your design is specifically tailored to a professional audience who know exactly what they’re doing, immediately know where to look and understand what all the buttons do (which is highly unlikely), you will have to guide your user through your online service, somehow, without actually being there.
For the purpose of my project, I will be looking into Hick’s Law. Also known as The Hick-Hyman Law, it dictates that the more stimuli presented to an individual, the larger amount of time it will take for them to make a decision. In turn, the user can get frustrated and choose the first thing they saw, something in the middle out instinct or just abandon the endeavour entirely.
RT = a + b log2 (n)
“Where ‘RT’ is the reaction time, ‘(n)’ is the number of stimuli present, and ‘a’ and ‘b’ are arbitrary measurable constants that depend on the task that is to be carried out and the conditions under which it will be carried out. ‘A’ could be finding the right present online for your mother-in-law; ‘B’ could be an onscreen chat with your mother-in-law in which she reminds you it’s her birthday tomorrow.” (Interaction Design Foundation, 2018)
I find this most relevant to my design because the front page of The Greenhouse Trust’s website is incoherent and confusing. Using Deborah’s user persona, she found this site after being told about it by a friend on Facebook. Whilst on the family computer, she clicked on the link and the most obvious call-to-action is ‘THE GREENHOUSE’ on the top banner in green writing. She clicks on this and it brought back to the homepage. After this, it’s a tie between ‘Current Menu’ and ‘Mixed Cases of Organic Wine’. As Deborah enjoys drinking wine she contemplates clicking this link when she notices the menu bar at the top. Out of instinct, she decides to look at the menu from left to right and chooses the second option ‘Find Us’. Now she knows where the shop is located she thinks it will be easier to go in person and have a look around.

Conclusion

Creating a user persona was extremely helpful and beneficial for me to come up with some solution ideas. I now have a better understanding of how to make improvements because I have looked at it from a different viewpoint. I want to create another user persona that encompasses a student because that will give yet another insight into the usability of my ideas. I am thinking of creating this persona to test an idea so it will still be formative research but I am interested to see this method applied to a different stage of the project. Looking more into Hick’s Law and exploring how this is an appropriate methodology to follow was a positive step towards shaping how I will move forward with the project.