user experience agency

User Research Tools

Different user research tools can be more appropriate and useful in different situations.

But, how do you make sure they are useful? How do you get the most out of the method you choose to use?

It’s not just what you ask, but how you ask it, that results in useful insights from customers.

User Research Tools

Research

Interviews

What is a user research interview?An interview is usually just with one participant, to gather information on their opinions and experience. They can be done face-to-face or over the telephone, depending on what is practical.

What are the benefits of interviewing?• Although time-consuming, you can obtain rich, in-depth information• They allow for clarification of both questions and responses• They allow for digression based on participants’ responses that are not pre-

empted by the researcher.

Interviews

How to ensure interviews are useful:

Ask open-ended questions: give users the opportunity to expand on answers and express their opinions

Have a predetermined set of questions as guidance. A pre-set list of questions ensures the researcher asks what they want to know and helps keep within a time limit. But remember it is for guidance…

Probe questions: you don’t have to stick to the plan. Open-ended questions allow for tangents to emerge from participants, not pre-empted by the researcher. Allowing for digression and probing responses can elicit more useful, unexpected insights.

Interviews

Research

Focus Groups

What is a focus group?A focus group is an informal discussion around the relevant topic,to gather information from customers or stakeholders.

What are the benefits of a focus group?• They are easy to organise• You can obtain several viewpoints at once• They allow for clarification of both questions and responses• They allow for discussion and digression

Focus Groups

How to ensure Focus Groups are useful:

What is your objective? Consider what you really need to get out of the focus group; what do you really want to know? This will lead into what you need to ask. But…

Don’t necessarily have too much to ask. Having pre-determined questions are a useful guide and prompt but there are several opinions to obtain and discussion and diversion will naturally emerge. To help this…

Ask open-ended questions. Consider, too, how you ask them: don’t lead your participants. The way you ask a question can strongly influence how people respond, so ask broad, neutral questions to remain impartial and allow your participants to think of their own opinion.

Probe when unexpected responses emerge. Allow participants to discuss their ideas and opinions to obtain some really useful insights.

Focus Groups

How to ensure it is useful: the role of the moderatorThe success of the previous guidelines are facilitated by the facilitator themselves. Moderating skills play an important role in conducting useful focus groups.

Focus Groups

Encourage participation from everyone. Some people are more vocal than others; facilitate a comfortable, relaxed setting and keep a balance between those talking to make sure you really get various opinions, not just those who speak the most.

You don’t have all day. Participants can usually be expected to contribute for 2-3 hours maximum in a Focus Group.

With open-ended questions and tangents, discussions can become lengthy and time goes quickly! The moderator needs to manage time and keep focus.

Research

Questionnaires

Questionnaires

What is a questionnaire in user research? Why use it?

Paper-based or online surveys are used: • To gather information from a lot of people• For a less time-consuming method;

participants can complete in their own time

• Capturing measurable insights

But,• There is no opportunity for clarification of

questions by participants, or further understanding of responses by the researcher.

Questionnaires

Making questionnaires useful: Closed questions can produce quicker responses

and provide measurable, comparable data. Open-ended questions can provide richer

information to add depth and understanding, but too many can be onerous.

Use Likert scales where appropriate. They can provide a quick, clear insight of users’ perceptions, through measurable, comparable data.

Give participants the opportunity to write comments. They may have something interesting to add that the researcher has not considered and is not addressed by the questions.

Research

Card Sorting

What is card sorting?Users are asked to divide cards with keywords written on them into groups that make sense to them. There are two methods for doing this:o Ask users to group the cards into categories they define themselves.o Ask users to divide the cards into groups, under categories or headings given by the

researcher.

What are the benefits of card sorting?• It is a quick, inexpensive method of getting valuable insights into users’ perceptions.• It actively involves users in the research• Several viewpoints can be obtained in a short amount of

time, if the sorting is repeated.

Card Sorting

How to ensure card sorting is useful:Card sorting is a simple task, as long as participants understand what is being asked of them. However, one key way to make card sorting useful is to: Repeat the exercise. By doing the same

card sort multiple times, commonalities and differences between users’ perceptions can be highlighted.

Common themes will quickly demonstrate particular groups or categories that people identify in a given context.

Card Sorting

Research

User Testing

User Testing

What is user testing?User testing involves getting actual end users to try out and give feedback on a new design/system.It can be done in two ways:o Remotely: users can use a prototype and

complete an evaluation survey aftero Lab testing: in a testing area, under a

time limit, users are asked to complete scenarios or think aloud while completing tasks. The researcher will observe, usually discreetly via camera or two-way mirror.

What are the benefits?• You can obtain real user insights and

opinions• It helps to identify real problems in the

use phase• Statistics can be produced and analysed

to find out more about completion successes and errors in use.

• It gives quick insights into what improvements could be made.

User Testing

How do you make user testing useful?User testing is a useful evaluation tool. The researcher has less input in the planning of this method, in terms of influencing its success, other than the set-up must be functioning and enough time should be allocated for the user to complete a session.In remote testing situations, observation is not possible by the researcher. For this reason, lab testing is more advantageous. To enhance remote testing, audio recording would provide better feedback, but this is less likely to be practical than just completing an evaluation survey.

The key ways to ensure user testing is useful are: Observational skills: see how well,

quickly & easily the user operates. (Lab) Using the data: apply the findings

appropriately, to make beneficial changes as a result.

Engaging with users as much as possible is crucial in the development of improvements and new designs, but it’s not just important to involve users.

The design and application of the research methods and how the research is conducted has a great influence on whether the involvement of the users produces useful outcomes, for beneficial changes and improvements.

Make sure you get the right people, asking the right questions, in the right way.

Last word…

Natalie Moore

natalie@zabisco.com0115 9484 454

Thank you!