Conducting User Research
Estimated Time: 30 minutes
This lesson explains how to create a UX research strategy and how to conduct user interviews.
How to craft a UX research strategy
Conducting useful research requires a plan. A UX research strategy is a guiding plan that outlines the why, when, and how of your research. A well-crafted strategy helps ensure the research you conduct will actually help build a meaningful product.
A strategy should outline:
- Why the research is necessary, and the expected value to your team
- The individual research projects and techniques that will be used
- A research timeline and plan
- A plan to disseminate and share research results
Step 1: who is your research for?
All UX research should ultimately be for the benefit of the user. That said, there are likely stakeholders within the team or business who will use the research. This might be a business leader who needs to determine if a product direction is worth pursuing, a product manager who wants to decide which features should be built or discarded, or an engineer who wants to figure out where to invest in technical improvements. The first step in a well-crafted research strategy is to clearly articulate the primary stakeholder(s) for the output.
Step 2: what are you researching?
Just as there might be various stakeholders who will use the research, the what of the research might vary as well. You might be researching a feature idea, or an existing product feature. Determining what you are researching and the key questions you want answers to are critical steps.
Step 3: Gather the team
Determine who will part of conducting the research. This might include dedicated UX researchers, UX designers, product managers, engineers, and more.
Step 4: Create a research plan
A research plan outlines the entire process of research. It typically includes:
- The problem statement
- Research objectives
- Research methods
- Timeline
- Research participants
- Research materials
- Plan to share findings
Conducting user interviews
For the rest of this class, most of the research we'll conduct will be in the form of user interviews. We will conduct two types of user interviews
- Concept tests to test early feature ideas
- Usability tests to test UI functionality
As the video explains, when conducting user interviews, you should:
- Start with a friendly introduction that explains the point of the interview
- Ask context questions to get background information about the user
- Introduce the prototype, and ensure the user feels comfortable giving feedback and doesn't feel like they're being tested
- Give user some tasks, and pay attention to their feedback
- Debrief with the user, and try to get overall summary of the interview
Note: the video above works well when conducting a usability test. The general steps are the same for a concept test, but will vary as we won't be testing a specific app
Reflect: interview mistakes to avoid
Interviewing takes practice. As an interviewer, you may be more prone to certain mistakes depending on your personality. Consider the mistakes you would make, and strategies that will help you avoid them.
