User Research
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Next up in our SlideShare series is "User Research." It will give you an insight into what user research is, types of approaches, why you need to do research in your users and much more.
Transcript of User Research
user experience agency
Research
What is User Research?
User Research
“It’s a reality check. It tells you what really happens when people use computers. You can speculate on what customers want, or you can find out... Research offers an understanding of how users behave online, and is a solid foundation on which to build a design. "
- Jakob Nielsen
Research
When is User Research done?
1. Research Phase
• It’s important to get user feedback during the critical parts of the project.
1. Research• Talk to users: Who they are,
What they do and experiences with current solution.
• Positive &/or negative points about current solution.
• End product: Personas.
• Useful information to know at this stage:1. User Information: • Age, gender, education, skills & employment etc. will help put the users in
perspective.2. Thoughts on current solution: • Positive or negative experiences with the current solution.3. Their wants & needs: • Get users to express about the solution from the user. This will help refine
the solution so that it meets users needs.
1.1 Information during Research
1.2 Create Personas
• At the end of the Research stage you should have a set of user profiles called Personas!
• Details on a persona may vary depending on a project. Can cover:
1. Personal information2. Personality traits : Experience, conscientiousness,
extraversion etc.
3. Criteria to architect around: Internet literacy etc.
4. Motivations: Mastery, Enjoyment, Self confidence, Recognition, etc.
5. Content to implement: Videos, images, tool etc.
2. Evaluation Phase
2. Evaluation• Feedback from users on the
proposed solution. • Let users interact with solution and
give their thoughts.• From my experience, 2 reviews is
ideal. Allows you to get feedback on changes.
• Useful information needed:1. User Information: • Get an idea of the users‘ skill levels in internet literacy, technology as well
information on age, gender, education & employment.2. Solution Feedback: • Users explore the solution or conduct tasks. Encourage users to talk freely
about their interactions and expectations.
2.1 Information during Evaluation
Research
Types of Research
Ways to Research your users
Interviews Focus Group Card Sorting
Questionnaires OtherUser Testing
Interviews – What is it?
• Interviewing is a qualitative approach. • Allows users to state their opinions and
go in-depth.• It’s good to use open-ended questions
to allow users to express their experiences.
• Having a series of questions you want to ask beforehand.
Interviews - Why use it?
• Gives you rich information.• Breakdown complex subjects.• Insight into a persons reasoning• Opportunity to get user’s
perspective, into their psyche & own experiences.
• Form tangents. Able to respond to user’s answers and ask more questions. Methods like Questionnaires don’t allow you to do this effectively.
Example of an one to one interview
Questionnaire – What is it?
• Mainly use close-ended questions, but open-ended questions can be useful to add depth.
• Use Likert scale. It is an effective way to measure positive & negative responses.
• Split questions into sections. Easier to be filled out.
• Limit the number of questions.• Don’t want a lot of open-ended
questions.• Close-ended questions can be answered
quickly.
Example of an online survey we used for HeartMatters
Questionnaire – Why use it?
• Allows users to be more objective.• Can be a quick response, which
people can do in their own time.• Data to be collected from a large
group easily.• Capturing user feedback in
measurable way.• To get best results you should use it
with other methods such as user testing.
Example of a questionnaire/online survey we have used.
Card Sorting - What is it?
• Keywords &/or nav items on cards.• Two types:
1. Open: Users told to organise cards with site contents into groups they define.
2. Closed: Users told to organise cards into particular groups.
• Ideally you want to perform the exercise multiple times with small groups. This allows you to see if there are any common patterns.
Example of card sorting
Card Sorting - Why use it?
• Inexpensive and insightful method.• Help restructure the site’s navigation
& improve findability. • Interesting exercise to get users
actively engaged.
• “Provide insight into users’ mental models, illuminating the way that they often tacitly group, sort and label tasks and content within their own heads.” - Information Architecture for the World Wide Web
Example of card sorting we did for BHF
User Testing – What is it?
• Getting real-life users to interact with the site and get their feedback.
• Two types of testing: 1. Online testing: Users explore a
web link and fill a survey at the end.
2. Lab testing: Can have user to either think out loud or complete scenarios.
• Jakob Nielsen identified that with 15 users you can pick up 100% problems. Ideally, groups of small users works better.
Example of In-Lab user testing we did for IETUsing Morae as the software .
User Testing – Why test?
• Perfect opportunity to see users in action and identify real problems.
• Getting users responses.• Use of statistics: Look at completion
& error rates.• Leads to quick wins such as improve
users experience and completion rate.
Example of In-Lab user testing we conducted.
Focus Groups – What is it?
• Group of users discuss certain topics. It can last up to 2-3hours.
• Identify a clear objective for your focus group. What are you aiming to achieve?
• Have a services of questions & topics to talk around. Open-ended questions are ideal.
• Have a variety of users, which represent the audience.
• Encourage everyone to participate and talk by asking their opinions.
• Try not to lead users, but follow up on what they say.
• For more on focus groups . It is worth reading this
Example of a focus group we did for Barclays
Focus Groups – Why use it?
• Good approach to use at the start of the project to get an idea of what users are thinking about the current or new solution.
• Create insightful debates. See what people agree or disagree with.
• Users can share their own experiences. This can give further insight into the users’ mind set.
Example of a focus group we did for BHF
Other Useful Approaches
• In-lab eye tracking study involves users interacting with a site, whilst you track eye movement.
• The following two are more stats based rather than reasons from users:
• CrazyEgg allows the tracking of on-page clicks and other on-page movement.
• Google Analytics allows you to analyse web traffic. View onsite usage, conversion rate, bounce rate etc. Gives you a lot of interesting statistics.
Example of a Heat Map
Research
When to use each approach?
When to use each approach?
• Research phase. The ideal approaches to get information:
1. Focus Groups2. Interviews3. Questionnaires/Online Surveys4. Card Sorting5. Web Traffic
• Evaluation phase. The ideal approaches to get feedback:
1. User Testing2. Questionnaires/Online Surveys3. Eye Tracking4. Web Traffic
Evaluate
Last Word
• All in all, user involvement is very important. It’s essential for you to engage with the users as much as you can. Their thoughts are important and will help you create the perfect solution for them and the client.
Last Word
USERS FIRST
