In the Digital Strategy group at ICF International,
my user experience team gets frequent requests for support in planning and
carrying out a special kind of inquiry called user research. This practice encompasses
usability and a wide range of other investigatory activities that are all aimed
at finding out what will work for the people who will use your system. How Research Helps
User research is practical, applied work. It takes
the tools and methods of investigation common to all scientific disciplines and
uses them for concrete purposes. We do user research to make products work better
or help teams
make better decisions. The goal of user research is to devise ways
to gain insights that will help solve design problems. The keys to success are
strong research planning, solid execution, and persuasive presentation.
Planning and the Order of Things
When planning user research, we typically first
identify a problem. This might be a problem
with a service, a product, or a situation. We then articulate the overarching study goal or research question
that guides the work, that will get us to an answer which will help us solve the problem.
The next step is to decide upon the research methods.
That's the order. Problem statement, research question, method. To belabor the point, we identify research
questions first and figure out a way to answer those questions second. That may sound obvious. Yet in
practice clients often ask us to do it the other way. Without having clearly
defined their problem, identified their goals, or put into words the questions
they need answers to, clients will say: "do an online survey" or
"run a usability test."
Author and researcher Tomer Sharon says: "If you
pick a methodology first, something must be wrong." In our practice, we anticipate
the urge to start with a method first, and then help our clients do things in the
right order.
Successful user research requires us to understand stakeholders
as well as users. Therefore, we work to bring empathy and insight into the
conditions and problems faced by our line of business partners and their clients.
It’s important to know what's driving a client to take shortcuts or jump to
conclusions. But we also bring to the situation our practiced knowledge of how
to do effective user research.
I tell my team: Be confident in your mastery of the
methodology, and keep the dialogue open with your client. This combination lets
us help you do things the right way.
