10 Misunderstandings of User Experience Research
User research is a very important part of interactive design and user experience design. It can help designers to better understand the needs of users and conduct user-centred design. In the process of doing user research, there is often such question: Is user research omnipotent? Can it solve all design problems?
For a long time, there have been some misunderstandings about how to understand users and their needs, and we accidentally go into erroneous user research. Let us count these misunderstandings below to answer the inner doubts.
Myth # 1
User Research Provides Stunning, New Revelations.
Some UX users often overestimate the impact of the user information they discover when they first touch the field, believing that user research can reveal important, hidden information. So in recommending user research to clients or project teams, we often exaggerate the benefits of user research, but in reality, often do not achieve the desired results.
Truth: User research can provide very useful information, while there may be some surprises found.
The information you get from user research can be very messy or it may well have been familiar to us. However, the purpose of user research is not to reveal the exciting discoveries that please the audience but to better understand users and their tasks, tools, technologies and more. A better understanding of the user is invaluable to the design decision-making process.
Myth # 2
User Research Tells You How to Design Your Product.
Some people think that user research can provide specific design guidance for product design and can immediately point to important innovation opportunities.
Truth: User research can provide inspiration for the design.
Users’ knowledge and needs can help designers to solve the problems faced by users and find out the unmet needs of users. This information does not explicitly guide the design. The results from user research may lead to innovation, but the solution to the problem does not come directly from it, and it requires the designer to think and iterate on.
Myth # 3
The Purpose of User Research Is to Gather General Information about Your Users.
One common mistake that beginners often make is to start a more ambiguous user study. User research results cannot be accurately predicted, the researchers do not know what they will get results, so the general user access to information at first glance makes sense.
Truth: You need to define specific research goals.
Blurred research can only get more obscure results. Theoretically, if you have time, you can collect some information about the user without considering whether the research goal is specific. However, in real life, the resources are limited, there is always the information we have not discovered. This is why we need to define specific research goals. The project team needs to work with clients and stakeholders to identify the target audience, what needs to be observed, and some key issues. Determine the specific research goals can be more effectively found.
Myth # 4
User Research Involves Asking Users What They Want.
Some people think that user research is equivalent to asking users what they want, what their problems are, how they want to fix the problem, and what they think about new features. This confuses user research with traditional information gathering and market research activities, and considers user research as a collection of user ideas and feedback about new ideas, new designs, and potential features.
Truth: User research needs to infer user needs.
User research does allow us to collect user needs, but we need to gain knowledge about users through user interviews and observing how users accomplish their tasks under typical work scenarios. From this knowledge, researchers can infer user needs and conduct usability testing to assess inferred accuracy.
User research is not about asking users what their typical behavior is, what they want, how they solve the problem, and what they expect from new features for the future. These jobs are likely to be useless for the following reasons:
- Users can not accurately describe their typical behavior. It is easier for them to demonstrate typical behaviors by actually manipulating tasks.
- Users can hardly figure out how to improve the product. They can describe their own problems and pain points, but the solution to the problem is more difficult for them.
- Users are also struggling to make suggestions about possible future functions. People can not accurately predict what they will or will not use in the future.
Users can not accurately describe their typical behavior. It is easier for them to demonstrate typical behaviors by actually manipulating tasks.
Users can hardly figure out how to improve the product. They can describe their own problems and pain points, but the solution to the problem is more difficult for them.
Users are also struggling to make suggestions about possible future functions. People can not accurately predict what they will or will not use in the future.
Myth # 5
User Research Stifles Creativity.
Some people worry that user research can stifle design ideas and innovations because they think user research is asking what the user wants. They equate user research with users who tell what needs to be created. They think the design should guide the user to follow, rather than allow users to limit their creativity.
Truth: User research provides valuable information for creative problem solving.
User research does not tell you what to design, but rather provides valuable information about users and their usage scenarios and needs. Designers take control of design decisions based on this information. As the saying goes – “Necessity is the mother of invention,” Dictionary.com defines it as “a demand or problem that stimulates creative efforts to meet a need or solve a problem.”
User research provides designers with information about user needs and issues. It does not stifle the creativity of any design solution.
Myth # 6
Don’t Listen to Users.
Since people do not easily know what they need and it is hard to come up with the best solution to a problem, some people claim that “do not listen to the user.” It became the slogan of some people who used it for those based on personal ideas Non-user designers to defend, they also quote Ford’s famous quote: “If I ask people what they want, they will only say that they are faster horses.” This arrogance is a bad idea, and certainly No respect for the user.
Truth: Listening to users is a key part of user research.
You can change “Do not listen to users” to”. Do not just listen to users, or act critically as they say.” While observing users to perform tasks, we want users to explain what they are doing and will Ask them questions for more in-depth information. When users talk about problems and propose solutions, do not easily deny what they think. Instead, learn more about their problems and show them to dig deeper into why they think the solution they are working on will solve the problem. User research can lead to deeper insights, but if you do not listen from the start, it does not bring anything.
Therefore, to observe the user to perform the task, ask the right questions, listen to the user, explain the user’s answers, and thus infer their needs. If this view is applied to Henry Ford’s famous phrase, he should take the time to observe people driving a car or asking people why they want a faster horse.
Myth # 7
User Research Is Expensive and Time Consuming.
When user research is expensive and time-consuming, when user research is not an established part of the project, some people may think it adds extra time and expense.
Truth: do not understand the user will pay a higher cost.
User research is really time-consuming, but we need to see if these times and costs are worth the effort. While it is easy to see how much time and money the project team has invested in researching users, the consequences of not doing user research are unpredictable. Without designing user research, product design and development can pose a significant risk. An improperly designed solution can eventually lead to higher costs and, in some cases, negative impact.
Myth # 8
User Research Is Usability Testing.
Usability testing is the best-known method of user research. As the importance of user experience and user engagement increases, more and more people come into contact with user research methods, and usability testing is often the first method they hear and learn. So when it comes to user research, the first thing they think of is usability testing.
Truth: Usability testing is just one-way users research.
We need to tell the difference between stakeholders’ usability testing and other user research methods, and which ones to apply to which design process. Without correcting this misconception, stakeholders may question why they did user research at the start of the project and usability tests during the design process.
Myth # 9
Field Studies Let You Observe People’s Natural Behavior.
One of the main reasons for conducting fieldwork to observe users is based on the assumption that fieldwork allows us to observe the user’s real behavior. Some people think field research is better able to observe the user’s real behavior than taking users to usability labs, conducting focus group interviews, or interviewing in conference rooms.
Truth: Your presence affects the behavior of the observed person.
Observing users in natural scenes is more realistic than bringing them to an artificial environment like a lab, but the presence of observers and investigators does affect the user’s behavior. Although people tend to feel more comfortable in their familiar environment, it is not entirely natural for researchers to observe and ask on the spot. However, this does not mean that the information you obtain is invalid or unrealistic, but that you should consider the impact of your presence on users, minimize their impact, and explain these effects in your observations.
Myth # 10
Some User Research Is Better Than None.
Do some user research at least do better than nothing? When there is not enough time, money or ability to recruit the right user, there is no problem using some shortcuts? For example, you can interview employees in the company that are similar to real users, make phone calls, or do questionnaires. It’s better than no, is not it?
Truth: Half-user research is better than not doing it.
User research is not always ideal, so sometimes it’s understandable to take some shortcuts. But if you can not convince stakeholders to do the right user research, it’s best not to do any user research, instead of having the project team pitifully study user alternatives.
We need to make stakeholders aware of the risks of not doing user research instead of blindly trusting them in the “user research” of the task list. Of course, stakeholders may need to suffer some setbacks before they can understand that they need to be serious about investing time and energy in user research.
Now for the user experience is indeed a very good opportunity. More and more people are beginning to understand the importance of user experience, recognizing the need to support design through user research. By clearly conveying the value of user research and setting rational expectations about the research findings, we can help clients and project teams understand the value of user research more deeply and practically. The value of user research can be better seen when they understand what user research will gain.
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