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Introduction Why is user research so important? What is user research? As you’re here, reading this, you probably have a fair idea of what user research is, even if you don’t know how it’s done, but it’s worth making sure we have a shared understanding before we continue. User research is the study of people’s (users’) behaviour, motivations and needs in a particular context, which affect how people understand and use things in their daily lives. It can include thinking about how these factors change over time. Market research is something different: it aims to find out what consumer preferences and wants are. Market and user research have different sets of objectives and outcomes. Who is this book for? The job title ‘user researcher’ is becoming increasingly common in the digital and service industries, even in policy making. User researchers tend be found in organizations that have, to a certain extent, bought into the concept of user experience or a ‘user first’ way of working. User research is relevant anywhere people are interacting with products and services. The first thing you need to know is that you don’t have to have the title ‘user researcher’ to do user research. The second thing is that you can teach yourself how to do good quality user research. I did. And this book is going to show you how. 01 1 2 Introduction There are many reasons why you may be reading this book, including: ● You may want or need to do user research yourself, as there is no one else going to champion a user-centric approach. ● You may be a new user researcher looking for good practice tips. ● You may be one of the lucky ones who get to work with a user researcher and want to understand more about what user research is and how it is done; this would improve your own working practices in collaborating with the team. ● You want to be an intelligent customer when buying in outside help from specialist agencies. ● You may already be user researcher, wanting to refresh or to get a different perspective. There are several groups of people who would benefit from diversifying their skillset with user research, such as: ● web managers and developers; ● visual and interaction designers; ● experience and service designers; ● copywriters and content designers; ● information architects; ● social media/digital communication specialists; ● digital marketing and campaign specialists; ● marketing managers; ● market researchers; ● communication officers; ● business analysts; ● digital/transformation/IT specialists; ● policy analysts; ● business development managers; ● teachers; ● gallery and museum curators; ● politicians. Introduction 3 Everyone is welcome here. This book is particularly useful for people who are not necessarily user research professionals; they already have a busy day job, need some user research done and are facing the prospect of having to do it themselves. This book will help them avoid common mistakes by identifying the kind of situation they find themselves in and guiding them through the process. It will explain in plain English how to: ● understand the fundamentals of research; ● choose and use the right method; ● analyse the data; and ● make practical use of the findings. Why do user research? Many businesses and organizations are based on creating desirable experiences for users, yet many fail to fully acknowledge users in their development processes. They do not understand: ● who their users are; ● what their users’ needs are/what they’re trying to do; ● how their users are currently trying to do things; ● how their users would like to do these things. Without user input, organizations risk spending huge amounts of money creating products and services that will fail. Leaders in some organizations may think they don’t need to involve users, or that they can’t afford the time or money to involve users on a regular basis. This is fallacy. You cannot presume to know what your users need: you need to really get to know them, how they think and behave. Understanding your users’ circumstances, influences and expectations will help you to: ● design better products, services and experiences; ● improve your existing offerings; ● adapt to changing behaviours and expectations; 4 Introduction ● save money by getting your offering right first time; ● make an impact by giving users what they need and want – and much more; ● influence users’ behaviour by allowing them to do what they want to do and getting them to do what you want; ● influence stakeholders’ decisions with options and solutions based on evidence, not opinion; ● challenge internal assumptions about the direction the organization should take. You can use user research to achieve all of these things. You don’t need to be a user research professional to take control of the situation. By following my simple rules for good research, you can truly understand your customer or audience, whoever you are. You don’t need a degree in computer science, psychology or human–computer interaction; I was an environmental geologist when I started doing user research. I just happened to spend four years working out what defines good user research, and what defines bad. I taught myself these skills by reading textbooks and practising; the fact that I did it during doctoral research is beside the point. If I can do it, you can. After getting my PhD, I left academia and started using these methods, in earnest, in anger, in the real world. I have worked for companies that are ‘user research evangelists’ and others that don’t have a clue. In some cases I’ve had to build understanding and advocacy from the ground up, at the same time as delivering results. I am now 14 years into my user research career, but only once have I had a job title that references user research. I have been a Usability Analyst, a User Experience Manager/Consultant/Lead, and the Head of Digital Strategy. The thing that got me all these jobs? My user research skills. User research is about putting your natural skills of observation and conversation to use in a specific way, perhaps in a way that you haven’t knowingly done before. In reality, we’ve all tested an idea on people, seen how they react to it, improved the idea and tried it again. This is user research. This book will show you how to put your existing skills together to use them in a more structured way. Introduction 5 What will you learn in this book? This book is divided into three parts. The first part outlines the essential rules for success, including making sure you are talking to the right people. I will explain how to get them and how to avoid gathering biased and inaccurate data by asking the right questions and observing people. Part One, Chapters 2 and 3, will help you gain a better understanding of what good research looks like, no matter the methodology you might be using. This includes: ● When you should do your research: it’s all in the timing. ● The kinds of ethical elements you need to consider: so everything is above board and the people you choose to take part in your research will have a good understanding of what is going to happen and how you will use the data. ● Planning your research: choosing a location, identifying internal people who should be involved. ● Who you should recruit to participate in your research: we’ll look at how to get this right and why this is crucial for getting good data. ● You’ll learn about observing participants: what they do and what they say can be two different things. We’ll look at the difference between behaviour and opinion, and why it is important to your research and the number of people you recruit to take part. ● You’ll understand how to ask the right questions avoiding bias in your data and helping you get to the truth. Part One also covers logistics (Chapter 4): hiring agencies, choosing facilities and signing contracts. Part Two will help you identify the type of situation you find yourself in and offer advice on the methods to use. There certainly isn’t one method to rule them all. In fact, there isn’t always one preferred method for each situation. If this book were just a list of methods, it wouldn’t necessarily be clear which was the best one to use or when. As a taster, below is a quick overview of the methods to consider. You probably have lots of questions about these 6 Introduction methods and the various options and parameters; we’ll go into each method in detail and I’ll explain: ● what the method is; ● what it’s good for; ● what it’s not good for; ● the effort required to do it; ● how to do it; ● tools of the trade; and ● further reading (should you want to know more). Usability testing – gaining insights through observation (Chapter 5)