via Complete Beginner’s Guide to Design Research – UX Booth | UX Booth.

Research actually begins the moment we learn about a project, whether we acknowledge it or not. As user experience designers we aren’t content simply designing to specification. Instead, we ask questions. We take notes. We learn everything we can about our client and their audience—and that’s before we even begin! In this article, we explore the (purported) method to this (seeming) madness, appropriately known as design research.

A NOTE ON USER-CENTERED DESIGN

Design research is an integral part of the oft–misunderstood user–centered design process. This process, employed by user experience designers, is both iterative and cyclical. Its outputs serve as its inputs. Initially, solutions are proposed based on embodied, observable phenomena related to the problem space. Next, a design solution is agreed upon and then prototyped. Eventually, it’s tested against its target audience. Finally, the process repeats itself.

Design research, as described in this article, assumes the reader follows a user–centered design process.

What is design research?

Design research describes any number of investigative techniques used to add context and insight to the design process. Although this article discusses research in the context of contemporary UX/Interaction Design for websites, Design Research has been practiced for decades (since the 1960s) in the architectural, industrial, and academic communities. For a deeper look into this industry, check out publications like Design Research Quarterly, or consider attending the Design Research Conference.

Design Research techniques can be incorporated before, during, or after the design solution is established. If done before or during the design phase, these techniques are collectively known as user research; if after, they’re known as user testing. User research attempts to answer questions like “whowill use this design?” and “how does this concept work in the context of our users’ workflow,” whereas user testing seeks to answer: “how effective is this design?”

The diagram below provides an overview of user–centered design techniques,highlighting research activities in red.

PURPOSE

As previously mentioned, Design Research is conducted to add context to the design process.

It’s also used to combat the natural tendency to design for ourselves (or our stakeholders) rather than designing for our target audience. Don Norman, cognitive psychologist and author of The Design of Everyday Things, explains: “We tend to project our own rationalisations and beliefs onto the actions and beliefs of others.”
Without design research we tend towards a self–serving, uninformed design process.

ANALYSIS

The design team is ultimately responsible for analysis of user research. Analysis turns the data collected during research into actionable information. Prominent analysis techniques include (the creation of): personas, mental models, storyboards, nomenclature etc. Although the techniques described here will guide you in conducting research, the presentation and discussion of that data is more important.

MALLEABILITY

Design Research is littered with unanswered questions: How many usersshould we interview (before we can decisively conclude what’s wrong)? What kind of research should I conduct? Should I conduct qualitative or quantitative research? etc. No one technique or approach is correct. It all depends on the fidelity of the technique and the context in which it is applied.

How is user research done?

User Research has the potential to be a sizable undertaking, depending on whether or not the client is iterating on an existing website or commissioning a new one. Regardless, it’s the researcher’s job to explain to their clients what the project’s goals and budget imply for the forthcoming research initiative.

Fortunately, all signs point toward a more casual, habitual approach to user research. Many of today’s practitioners eschew expensive laboratory or field research for rapid behavioral observation.

The following tools and their “plain–English” descriptions are based heavily on the article Can You Say That in English? Explaining UX Research to Clients first run on A List Apart in November, 2009. Although this list is far from comprehensive, it’s enough to get your team started conducting user research.

• Non–directed Interviews

  Non–directed interviews are the best way to develop a design strategy without asking users or stakeholders to spell it out. Simply set up some rough guidelines and converse with your audience—but be sure to focus more on listening.

  More information: Nondirected Interviews: How to Get More Out of Your Research Questions and The Secrets of Consulting

• Contextual inquiry

  Contextual inquiry involves observing what people do as they go about their day—not what they say they do. It’s useful for creating a website that supports users’ actual (and not supposed) activities.

  More information: Inside Your Users’ Minds: The Cultural Probe, See for Yourself: About the Power of Observing, wikipedia.org.

• Questionnaires

  Questionnaires invite people to say who they are, what they do, and where they go. Creating one is supremely simple with tools such as Wufoo or Google Docs.

• Card sorting

  Card sorting asks people to explore relationships between content and/or hierarchies in an effort to find commonalities. Card sorting is a super simple way to help people find information more quickly and easily on your website.

  More information: Card Sorting: a definitive guide.

On a final note, if you need more comprehensive user research, I highly recommend following Indi Young’s Mental Models.

How is user testing done?

As previously mentioned, user testing involves asking potential users of your product or service to complete a (set of) task(s) using a version—ideally a prototype—of your product or service in order to determine its utility and its usability.

Thanks to the Internet, the practice of user testing has seen a dramatic shift over the past few years; despite the fact that it’s less than 50 years old. Nate Bolt and Tony Tulathimutte describe the prevalence of user testing in large organizations in their book Remote Research:

In-person lab research procedures were developed, refined, and standardized, and then became entrenched in the corporate R&D product development cycle. Practically everything gets tested in a lab nowadays: commercial Web sites, professional and consumer software, even video games.

Fortunately, user testing is becoming increasingly prevalent in smaller organizations.

TESTING PROTOCOL

Regardless of where it’s conducted, user testing always follows a similartesting protocol:

1. Identify potential users (ideally done during user research, see above)
2. Recruit potential users
3. Create test guidelines
4. Schedule test sessions with potential users
5. Administer the test
6. Analyze the results

A super–simple method for doing just this is explained in Steve Krug’s new book Rocket Surgery Made Easy: The Do-It-Yourself Guide to Finding and Fixing Usability Problems.

The names of the various methods in which user testing is done depend largely on the relationship of the proctor to the participant:

• Lab research

  

  A modern usability lab circa 1987

  Lab research describes usability tests conducted in a highly–produced, simulated environment. Researchers typically observe the test behind a one–way mirror and employ screen–capturing software, video cameras, etc. to document the test.

• Guerrilla research

  Guerrilla research is a modern, lightweight take on lab research. Instead of renting a lab, guerrilla research is typically done on the spot; users are simply asked to complete basic tasks with a website or service, and the entire operation is recorded for later use.

  More information: Watch Steve Krug administer a simple test.

• Remote research

  On Bolt|Peters‘ website Remote Usability, they define remote research as “any kind of research where the user and research moderator aren’t interacting face–to–face.” Remote research is the answer to the increasing cost and hassle of earlier research endeavors juxtaposed with iterative, agile development. Ideally, users are both recruited online and tested online, so that the entire feedback loop is handled at both parties’ convenience.

  More information: remoteusability.com.

Design research luminaries

The following people have contributed greatly to the field of experience design research. Follow the related links to see what they’re currently up to.

ON TWITTER

Tools of the trade

Much of design research is actually done in a question-and-answer sense; researchers ask questions, record responses, and analyze the results. As a consequence, the tools they use are mostly communicative or illustrative:

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