UX 101: User Research methods to kickstart your project
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The document provides an overview of user research methods valuable for enhancing user experience (UX) in product design. It emphasizes the significance of understanding user needs through various research methods, including qualitative interviews, the Job-to-be-Done approach, and usability tests, to inform design decisions and improve service offerings. Additionally, it outlines practical tips for conducting effective user research, ensuring unbiased feedback, and fostering a collaborative environment.
UX 101: User Research methods to kickstart your project
- 1. User Research methods to kickstart your projects UX 101 Charlotte Breton Schreiner
- 3. Who are you? • Developer • Entrepreneur • Visual Designer • UX Designer/Researcher • Student at Le Wagon
- 4. What is user experience? INTRODUCTION
- 5. Donald Norman, the father of « user experience » « I invented the term because I thought human interface and usability were too narrow. I wanted to cover all aspects of the person's experience with the system. »
- 6. Definition by Nielsen Norman Group « User experience » encompasses all aspects of the end- user's interaction with the company, its services, and its products.
- 7. User experience is a team effort. • Everyone impacts the user experience. For example: • If a developer introduces a bug, it impacts the user experience. • If a product manager don’t take into consideration users needs, features user don’t need might be prioritised.
- 8. Top 20 reasons why startups fail http://bit.ly/Top20ReasonsWhyStartupsFail by Vic Lance for Forbes No market need42% Get outcompeted19% Poor product17% Ignore customers14%
- 9. User research doesn’t have to be expensive or time-consuming. • Building a product or service people don’t want or can’t use is expensive and time-consuming. • Anyone can practice user research.
- 10. What is user research? INTRODUCTION
- 11. UX without user research is not UX • A great user experience is an experience which meets your users’ needs and expectations. • User research provides you with methods to find out those needs. • Designs are assumptions until validated with end users.
- 12. User experience activities in the product and service design cycle https://www.nngroup.com/articles/ux-research-cheat-sheet/ by Susan Farrell from Nielsen Norman Group
- 13. A landscape of user research methods https://www.nngroup.com/articles/which-ux-research-methods/ by Christian Rohrer from Nielsen Norman Group
- 14. Qualitative Interviews, usability studies, focus groups… Why. Minimum 5 users. https://www.nngroup.com/articles/why-you-only-need-to- test-with-5-users/
- 15. Quantitative Email surveys, intercept surveys, analytics… Minimum 80 users. https://help.surveymonkey.com/articles/en_US/kb/How- many-respondents-do-I-need How many.
- 16. Job to be done METHOD 1
- 17. • McDonald’s wanted to increase the sales of their milkshake. • Ask demographic profile types what is the best flavour, no sales increase. • People hire milkshakes to fill their stomach and keep them alert on the road. The story behind the job to be done method http://bit.ly/JobsToBeDoneVideo by Prof. Clayton Christensen
- 18. How does the job to be done method works? Late stage (ideal) or early stage on competitors From 20 minutes per participant Recently activated user Interview with a pre- defined set of questions
- 19. What will you learn with the job to be done method? User frustrations User motivations Competition User journeys
- 21. 1. When did you purchase the product? 2. Where were you? 3. What time of day was it? (daytime/ nighttime?) 4. What was the weather like? 5. Was anyone else with you at the time? 6. How did you purchase the product? 7. Did you buy anything at the same time?
- 22. 7. When did you first realise you needed something to solve your problem? 8. Where were you? 9. Were you with someone? 10.What were you doing, or trying to do when this happened?
- 23. 7. Tell me about how you looked for a product to solve your problem. 8. What kind of solutions did you try? Or not try? Why?
- 24. 13.Did you ask anyone else about what they thought about the purchase you were about to make? 14.What was the conversation like when you talked about purchasing the product with your spouse/friend/parents? 15.Before you purchased did you imagine what using the product would be like? Where were you when you were thinking this? 16.Did you have any anxiety about the purchase? Did you hear something about the product that made you nervous? What was it? Why did it make you nervous?
- 25. Additional questions 1. What was the problem you were trying to solve when you purchased the product? 2. Do you feel that the product solved your problem? Why?
- 26. Adapt the method to your own scenario • Purchase/buy can be replaced by download, sign-up, or first-encounter. • The product can be replaced by service or a company name.
- 27. Use case: Enki
- 28. Meet Jane
- 29. What was the problem you were trying to solve when you downloaded our app?
- 30. I was looking for something to do during my commute. Something useful. I tried a lot of things. After reading for a long time, I got tired. Plus it’s hard to read on the train when it’s busy because there is no physical space. Then I used my phone to go on Facebook and Instagram but it’s not useful. Then I downloaded Duolingo to learn languages but the lessons were too long to complete. And finally, I found Enki, the 5 minutes workouts. It fitted perfectly because it’s short and doesn’t use as much data as Codecademy.
- 31. Learn something useful Low network data consumption Short amount of time Takeaways
- 32. When did you first realise you needed something to solve your problem?
- 33. When I changed my job and the commute went from 20min to 1h. I left my job which I was trained for to do something else. I am now a community manager for a tech startup. People say that Singapore is the new silicon valley, I want to be part of it. I want to learn something new. Code is my first choice because there is a lot of jobs out there and it pays well.
- 34. New job Long commute From 20 min to 1h New industry Takeaways
- 35. Do you feel that our app solved your problem? Why?
- 36. At first, I thought it would. But it took me 20 minutes to understand, not 5 minutes! It’s not basic enough. There is a lot of jargon I cannot understand. I found myself constantly confused. It’s so abstract! If you didn’t contact me, I would have dropped completely but your email made me think twice. I deleted your app because my phone was running out of space. I had to clear stuff. I uninstalled a lot of apps at the same time. I thought about re-downloading but maybe it was just not suitable.
- 37. Too hard… 20 minutes instead of 5 minutes Phone running out of space Takeaways
- 38. How could we use these learnings to improve Enki? • Complete beginner content • Glossary to reference technical terms • Offline mode to reduce data consumption • Reduce app size
- 39. Survey
- 41. • Invented by Tim Mott. • What would be a word processing program? Didn’t exist at the time. • Letters with blinking background. • Insert something between two letters. • Invention of the cursor. The story behind the guided fantasy method
- 42. How does the guided fantasy method works? Any stage but ideal for early stage From 15 minutes per participant Prospective user Interview with one key question
- 43. What will you learn with the guided fantasy method? User mental model Machine versus human Wow effect
- 44. Script
- 45. Put users in front of a black screen. 1. Imagine that you have a tool to assist you in code reviews. How does it work? 2. What do you see? What can you do? 3. What else do you see? What else can you do?
- 47. Meet Alex
- 48. Imagine that you have a tool to assist you when you review the code people add to your open source project. How does it work?
- 49. The tool works like GitHub because GitHub is cool. In the pull request, I can see the changes that were made to the code. I can approve or disapprove it. I can see an overview page where the contributor explain what he changed, why and how. I like the side by side comparison and the syntax colouring. Code reviews are important because I cannot let unknown contributors add things to my projects without validating. I don’t trust them enough. If people can write whatever they want it’s impossible to follow the code. Furthermore, no one writes perfect code for the first time.
- 50. Affection for current tools Perfection doesn’t exist Approve or reject Takeaways
- 51. Imagine that you have a tool to assist you when you review the code people add to your open source project. What do you see? What can you do?
- 52. In my dreams… I can see a section somewhere where I can see the list of all the problems with the code. All the errors I would have to look for, myself. They are already highlighted. For example: « It’s not going to work because it’s in conflict with another file. » or « There is a security problem there. ». And maybe the contributor can see all of that before committing. It saves my time. I would still need to review the code. Even in my dream, it’s not perfect. Nothing can be perfect. I won’t trust an algorithm enough to just merge without reading! There is too much at stake. Merging a bug wastes everyone’s time.
- 53. Find bugs as soon as possible Empower to find complex issues Automated system cannot be fully trusted Takeaways
- 54. Imagine that you have a tool to assist you when you review the code people add to your open source project. What else do you see? What else can you do?
- 55. Maybe it can also tell me who should review the pull request. This already exists for the last person who wrote the code. But it could be based on who is going to work on this part of the code, who should learn about this part of the code… It could force people to review as soon as possible. Display a notification « Hey! John is waiting for a code review, please go and review it now » because people are not on the tool when the notification comes in. It needs to be reviewed ASAP because that’s value in the process of being created but it’s blocked because we are waiting for something.
- 56. As soon as possible Create value Takeaways
- 57. • Ready for an assisted code review. • Create a trust relationship. • Validate code before review request is sent to save time to reviewers. • Tool to assist, not replace. How could we use these learnings to build Prodo.ai?
- 59. The story behind the pop quiz method • Take advantage of the events organised by the company to do user research. • 30 minutes before the event start. • Involve team members in the activity to gather more feedback.
- 60. How does the pop quiz method works? Mid or late stage From 5 minutes per participant Prospective users or existing users Simple questions for usability tests
- 61. What will you learn with the pop quiz method? User mental model Usability issues Interface predictability and user expectations
- 62. Script
- 63. Show users a piece of paper with your interface. 1. What do you understand from this page? 2. Imagine that you are looking for a flat to rent. What would you do? 3. What do you expect would happen if you did this?
- 64. Adapt the method to your own scenario • Page can be replaced by text or picture. • Looking for a flat to rent can be replaced by any task. • Did this can be replaced by any action.
- 66. Meet Laura
- 67. What do you understand from this page?
- 69. Imagine that you are on vacation in Paris and want to book a wine tasting activity. What would you do?
- 71. What do you expect would happen if you clicked on « Find activities »?
- 73. Takeaways Expects to see activities after clicking on « find activities ». Type « Paris » in the field and click on « find activities ». Homepage of a marketplace to find activities.
- 74. FIND ACTIVITIES CREATE AN ACCOUNT CREATE ACCOUNT ACTIVITIES HOME PAGE
- 75. • Frustrates users who then leave the website and never come back which lead to a low sign up conversion rate and few returning visitors. • Users sign up without knowing if the service is for them which leads to a high percentage of inactive users. How could it impact LuneTravel?
- 76. • Remove the sign up page from this flow. • Show a glimpse of the activities on the sign up page. • Explain the benefits of signing up. How could we use these learnings to improve LuneTravel?
- 77. What do you understand from this page?
- 79. Imagine that you found this activity and want to book it. What would you do?
- 81. What do you expect would happen if you did this?
- 83. Takeaways Expects to see a form with some fields to fill and a confirmation. Enter the number of people and a date. Then click on « enquire now ». It’s the page of an activity.
- 84. ENQUIRE NOW MY ACTIVITY LIST ENQUIRE NOW ENQUIRY FORM ACTIVITY
- 85. • Frustrates users who are less likely to complete the enquiry process which leads to a low booking conversion. • Users think their enquiry is sent and never actually send it which leads to a low booking conversion and bad reviews. How could it impact LuneTravel?
- 86. • Change the wording of the « enquire now » button to « add to my activity list ». • Change the wording of « my activity list » to « my basket » and the name of the button to « add to my basket ». • Skip the « activity list » step and create another button to allow this step. How could we use these learnings to improve LuneTravel?
- 87. How to succeed TIPS AND ADVICE
- 88. Create a friendly and open-minded atmosphere • « I haven’t been involved in the design. » • Provide food and drinks for long sessions. • This is not a test, no right no wrong answers. • Introduce yourself and start by asking contextual questions.
- 89. Avoid bias • Select participants in your target audience. • Be aware of the emotions situations can create. • Use neutral words. • Don’t ask leading questions or influence participants’ answers.
- 90. Ask why, why, why • Because I needed one and didn’t have any. • Because I needed to carry water and food during the day on the slopes. • Why did you buy a backpack? • Because I was going skying and needed it.
- 91. Thank you! Thanks to Sylvie Daumal and Jonathan Baker-Bates for their precious insights on user research. Icons from Gregor Cresnar, Vladimir Belochkin, Alex Furgiuele, Icondesk, iconsphere, artworkbean, Adiyogi, Kimmi Studio, Edwin Prayogi M, Landan Lloyd and Numero Uno.