Let's start from the basics, shall we?
Who is a user?
A user in this context is a person who utilises or makes use of a product. This product could be a chair, a mobile phone, or your favourite pizza app. You are a user, I am a user, and we all make use of products daily because it is of value to us.
Experience is the impression formed by the user; you and I, while interacting with this product. It could be great or not.
So what is User Experience Research (UXR)?
User Experience Research is a systematic study of target users that aims to understand the users and their experience by collecting and analysing relevant data which will in turn inform product design.
Think of it as getting to know several people deeply so that you can help create something valuable for them.
Why is UXR so important?
Companies interested in building products of value, one that speaks to user needs, cannot design or build for users if they don't understand what these users need.
In the words of Frank Chimero,
People ignore designs that ignore people
Through UXR, stakeholders understand the needs of users and can then proceed to build to cater to these identified needs.
A clear understanding of user needs, motivation and pain points, influences product design. It prevents designers from designing for themselves instead of the user and allows stakeholders to sleep better at night knowing that resources being invested in a new product or upgrade of an old one isn't in vain.
If users are satisfied companies get rewarded through increased patronage, and business is good. UXR is a fundamental part of successful product delivery.
When is UXR performed?
UXR is conducted throughout the iterative design process. Iterative design occurs in 3 stages; assessment, design and build. It is iterative since it has to be conducted over and over again until the desired solution which caters to user needs is achieved.
Here's a scenario for an easier understanding of iterative design.
Company X wants to build a product but they want to enter the market backed by user research. Company X decides to conduct iterative design beginning with "Assessment". This assessment tells Company X what users are currently doing and what they need so that Company X can understand the design space. In addition to this, the assessment informs Company X of the problems of users so that Company X can build a product to solve that problem.
After the assessment, Company X takes the information to the design team and initial ideas are generated to solve the problems identified from the assessment.
The design ideas are then used to build prototypes which can be used to get feedback on whether the design is heading in the problem-solving direction or not.
Here comes the iteration; assessment methods such as formal inspection or user-testing are used to see if this prototype is giving good UX or bad UX. Insights gotten from these assessments are taken back to the drawing board, new designs are generated or modifications are made to the old design, more prototyping occurs and assessments are performed again until stakeholders are satisfied that the product is ready for launch.
Throughout this process of building for users, user experience researchers interact with and study these users to synthesize insights from this interaction which will contribute to product delivery.
Key takeaway
User experience research is conducted to ensure a user-centred product design through an understanding of user needs, motivations and pain points.
You've come to the end of my 1st blog post. I hope this was simple to understand yet educative.
I post about user experience research once a week and I'll work towards putting out more articles on the topic.
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