The emphasis on user needs and experiences in the companies we visited means that user research features heavily in the design process
User research is used to identify:
- How users are accessing current products and services
- Areas for improvements or innovation
- Opportunities for new products and services that will address a user need
Many user research methods find their roots in traditional market research methodologies, particularly when it comes to the gathering of data on customer satisfaction and trends. A significant proportion of user research is conducted through qualitative research with consumers, ranging from focus groups and depth interviews with target audience groups, to more focused and detailed ethnographic and observation based techniques.
Stimulus materials such as cartoon strips to portray service propositions, storyboarding, scenario-building, multimedia, prototypes and other tools (such as eye-tracking technology for testing user interaction with software packages) are used to illustrate present and future user scenarios involving the use of their products and services. Using images and illustrations to bring the use of complex products and services to life is a useful way of communicating during user research.
A key activity we noticed across all of the Discover methods and processes was involving designers as far as possible in conducting, analysing and understanding research.
Many of the companies in the survey found that actively encouraging - and in some cases expecting - their designers to take part in user research allowed them to gain faster, deeper insights and better product ideas. This approach ranges from general multi-disciplinary design practices (which keep designers, user researchers and product or service developers working closely throughout the design process), to methods made available for designers to view user research) in practice, either remotely or in person.
Some noteworthy examples of designer involvement in user research observed in the study include:
- Starbucks sends their designers to work as baristas in their stores for up to a month to fully immerse them in the coffee and user experience that the Starbucks brand embodies.
- Xerox sends designers out with service engineers when they visit customer sites to observe customers interacting with the product while in use.
- Microsoft live-streams user research focus groups and sessions to all of its global locations. These are accessible by all employees but of particular use to designers, developers, programmers and researchers across all business functions.
The benefits of involving the designers closely in user research are broadly that:
- Designers bring particular creative skills or idea generation to the analysis of research-based information, and these skills help to identify problems and solutions emerging from the data
- Having designers involved directly with other teams in the analysis of data and research involves multi-disciplinary working and thus gives other teams an insight into the skills that designers bring to the process
- This kind of collaboration helps to clarify project objectives at an early stage.