Uncovering Latent Needs Through Design Research

What users don’t say

@PaulJervisHeath

paul@modernhuman.co✉

Uncovering Latent Needs Through Design Research.

What Users Don’t Say.

Photo creditFlickr user G8lite - http://bit.ly/151fWVN

©ModernHuman.MH

Presented by Paul-Jervis Heath on Friday 21 June 2013 at UX Scotland.

I’m not an anthropologist, ethnographer or even a user experience researcher

🕅🕆🕋Photo credit

Flickr user Lewaedd-Q - http://bit.ly/1cTyhdm

I’m just a designer who wants to create better products and services

Photo creditby Head London - http://headlondon.com

©

Indifference

Hyg

iene

Fac

tors

(Usa

bilit

y)D

iffer

entia

tion

(Exp

erie

nce)

Understandable

Interesting

Useful

Compelling

Indispensable

Advocacy

Getting inside peoples’ heads is the only way to uncover their latent needs.

Early Adopter Early Majority Late Majority Laggards

Adapted from: Diffusion of Innovations, Everett M Rogers. (1962).

Crossing the Chasm, Geoffrey Moore. (1991).

Formal Casual

image of mental model

Diary Studies

Meet & Brief

Diary Study

DiaryAnalysis

1:1 Interview

Shadowing

Contextual Interviews

image of mental model

Analysis Methods

Go where your users go

Immersion

Do what your users do

• the context

• the physical environment

• decor and atmosphere

• the other people present

• how people are acting

• unspoken cues between people

• how people react to one another

• inherent nomenclature and terminology

• other artefacts or objects present

• the situation and position of those artefacts

• how your presence has affected the situation

Recognise what you’re witnessing

• your own visceral and instinctive reactions

• immediate associations with other things

Capture the seeds of ideas

The hurdles and challenges

• Contextual design research is an important tool for going beyond expressed needs and finding implied needs and latent needs.

• Focus groups and usability tests are not design research.

• Formal design research can be hugely beneficial. It’s rigorous and leads to insights, behavioural patterns, indications and predictors.

• Casual design research shouldn’t be underestimated. Immersion and experience lead to ideas.

Wait. What was that again?

🕅🕆🕇🕊Photo credit

Flickr user djking - http://bit.ly/13ObNXf

Paul-Jervis Heathpaul@modernhuman.co@pauljervisheath

ModernHuman.We use human-centred design to help businesses invent their future. We’re a design practice & innovation consultancy. Find out more at http://modernhuman.co

🕅🕆Photo credit

Flickr user andreaskopp - http://bit.ly/12yywna

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