Doing
UX Research? Blow are tips to help you improve the process.
What You Need to Keep
in Mind
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Team diversity is important. Not just in terms
of ethnics, but also in terms of background, academics, and career. A more
diverse team means that more problems can be spotted, more solutions reached. A
diverse team is also effective in seeing things from new and different ways.
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Relation building is important. The more your
users are comfortable talking to you, the more they can contribute to your
research. Once they feel comfortable in your presence, they can also focus more
on the topic at hand.
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Ask more questions. Oftentimes people assume
that others know what they are feeling. Asking more questions, even a simple “why?”,
can help you discover something new that might be obvious to the users.
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Using videos can be more effective. It’s hard to
notice what is happening, focus on the users, and take notes at the same time.
Through taking videos, you can focus more on the users during the experiment
and even have something you can consult again and again, rather than relying on
our faulty memories.
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Don’t come in with pre-supposed solutions. You are
not looking for users’ agreement or approval or admiration—you are looking for their ideas. Keeping things open and
unbiased can lead to more improvement for your project and lead you to some
unexpected inspiration.
During the Test
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Check your wording. Double-check. Triple-check.
Ask yourself, how might somebody misinterpret this? Misinterpretation of the
question at hand can lead to results that you are not quite looking for.
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Ask one question at the time. This way, you will
get a more complete and thoughtful question.
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Don’t ask leading questions. You want your users
to lead you in new direction, not to follow a path you already walk.
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Clarify key concepts before starting the test.
What is the task at hand? What counts as finishing the task? Defining these key
ideas before the test will help you get a more consistent and reliable answer.
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Use simple language. Don’t allow your users
creativity in terms of interpreting the questions. Have multiple people read it
over before you start the test.
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This one is tied to the previous one. Have one
user look it over before you mass-distribute the test/survey. This way you will
catch some mistakes before you distribute it to a larger sample size.
