A Field Guide To User Research

User research is an effective strategy to gain a deeper understanding of your target audience — a crucial step in order to choose efficient design solutions and build smart products. But what has to be considered when conducting user research? What methods have proven themselves in practice? And how do you finally integrate your findings into the design process? With this eBook, you will learn to take the guesswork out of your design decisions and base them on real-life experiences and user needs instead. To get you started, we’ll consider various research methods and techniques, but we will also tackle the more practical aspects (and difficulties) which face-to-face research brings along. Learning to identify potential research partners and finding the right questions to ask during an interview thus is part of this eBook — as well as presenting your findings und using them to iterate on your products’ designs. If you feel that you and your team make a lot of decisions based on assumptions, then this eBook is your jump start into a more user-centered design process. Find the techniques that fit into your workflow and start to discover the actual problems — and unmet needs — of potential users firsthand. TABLE OF CONTENTS: - A Five-Step Process For Conducting User Research - A Closer Look At Personas: What They Are And How They Work - A Closer Look At Personas: A Guide To Developing The Right Ones - All You Need To Know About Customer Journey Mapping - Facing Your Fears: Approaching People For Research - Considerations When Conducting User Research In Other Countries: A Brazilian Case Study - How To Run User Tests At A Conference

This informative Field Guide to Intercultural Research is specifically designed to be used in the field, guiding the reader away from pitfalls and towards best practice. It shares valuable fieldwork challenges and experiences, as well as insights into key methodological debates and practical recommendations relevant to both new and seasoned researchers.

Observing the User Experience: A Practitioner’s Guide to User Research aims to bridge the gap between what digital companies think they know about their users and the actual user experience. Individuals engaged in digital product and service development often fail to conduct user research. The book presents concepts and techniques to provide an understanding of how people experience products and services. The techniques are drawn from the worlds of human-computer interaction, marketing, and social sciences. The book is organized into three parts. Part I discusses the benefits of end-user research and the ways it fits into the development of useful, desirable, and successful products. Part II presents techniques for understanding people’s needs, desires, and abilities. Part III explains the communication and application of research results. It suggests ways to sell companies and explains how user-centered design can make companies more efficient and profitable. This book is meant for people involved with their products’ user experience, including program managers, designers, marketing managers, information architects, programmers, consultants, and investors. Explains how to create usable products that are still original, creative, and unique A valuable resource for designers, developers, project managers - anyone in a position where their work comes in direct contact with the end user Provides a real-world perspective on research and provides advice about how user research can be done cheaply, quickly and how results can be presented persuasively Gives readers the tools and confidence to perform user research on their own designs and tune their software user experience to the unique needs of their product and its users

This insightful book offers practical advice to fieldworkers in social research, enabling robust and judicious applications of research methods and techniques in data collection. It also outlines data collection challenges that are commonly faced when working in the field.

The HCD Toolkit was designed specifically for NGOs and social enterprises that work with impoverished communities in Africa, Asia, and Latin America.

Interviewing is easy, right? Anyone can do it… but few do it well enough to unlock the benefits and insights that interviewing users and customers can yield. In this new and updated edition of the acclaimed classic Interviewing Users, Steve Portigal quickly and effectively dispels the myth that interviewing is trivial. He shows how research studies and logistics can be used to determine concrete goals for a business and takes the reader on a detailed journey into the specifics of interviewing techniques, best practices, fieldwork, documentation, and how to make sense of uncovered data. Then Steve takes the process even further―showing the methods and details behind asking questions―from the words themselves to the interviewer’s actions and how they influence an interview. There is even a chapter on making sure that information gleaned from the research study is used by the business in such a way to make it impactful and worthwhile. Oh, and for good measure he throws in information about Research Operations. But, hey, that’s just the nuts and bolts of the book. The truly fun part is Steve’s voice and how he portrays this information through amusing anecdotes about his career, fascinating examples from other practitioners, and tips and tricks that only the most experienced UX researchers, like Steve, could come up with. As a nod to the pandemic, he offers ideas for the best way to interview someone remotely, and he also discusses personal bias―how to identify and deal with it so that it doesn’t affect interviews. Everyone will get something from this book. But beyond the requisite information, it’s simply a good read. And if you want another good read with stories galore, pick up Steve’s other book Doorbells, Danger, and Dead Batteries. "Quite simply the best book on when, why, and how you should conduct user interview studies." —Elizabeth F. Churchill, PhD, Senior Director, Google Who Should Read This Book? Anyone and everyone who is interested in finding out what makes their business tick, i.e., who their users are. Anyone and everyone who wants to learn how to interview and listen to people. Anyone and everyone, including CEOs, user researchers, designers, engineers, marketers, product managers, strategists, interviewers, and you. Takeaways User research is key for companies to include in their design and development process. The best way to do user research is through interviewing users and determining their needs. Interviewing can identify what could be designed or what is actually a problem. Teams who meet their users face-to-face will build better products. Field research takes a lot of preparation to be successful―and a solid plan in advance. There are critical techniques and frameworks for mapping human behavior. A good interviewer always puts their participants at ease. If you ask the right questions, you’ll get the right answers. A smart interviewer checks their worldview at the door. To establish a rapport with your interviewee, listen and don’t be judgmental. Research data is a combination of analysis and synthesis. The importance of research analysis must be continually highlighted and emphasized to the powers that be.