Nadia's Journal

As a web designer and/or developer, creating a website is not just about the aesthetics or its functions – it is about designing for the end users. During my workshops with Steph Troeth and Chris How on user research, this concept became quite clear. These two sessions introduced me to user research and concepts that have given me a good understanding of user-centred design. From this, I am now able to explore and apply research methods to my major project.

So, what is the point?

To conduct good user research, you must understand what it is and why it is even necessary.

What is user research?

In short, it’s understanding your audience!!

The aim of user research is to understand the relationship between users and a product or service in real situations or circumstances that it would be used in. I understand this to be where you begin to consider more specific uses of the product/service and why certain aspects may or may not work; ultimately determining ‘what makes this successful?’  To fully grasp this, you need to dig deep into your users and find out their:

• Needs – what problem are users trying to solve?
• Behaviours / habits – how do users engage / use similar products currently?
• Motivations – what makes users look for the solution?
• Pain points – what frustrates users about their experience?

Why is this important?

Even the most beautifully designed website, without sufficient user research, could be an example of a ‘bad website’. But why? The website may not get the right traction or fail to engage users, all because user research can influence design choices. Effective research allows designers to make informed decisions to tailor the website content/layout etc. resulting in a website that works for its users. Conducting user research can help keep me on track and ensure that I am ‘building the right thing’.

User research allows me to:

• Understand my users – step into their world and begin to relate to their experience
• Identify and differentiate assumptions and hypothesises – challenge preconceptions and use evidence-based insights
• Reduce the risk of creating an ineffective product

Users, users, users!

As Steph introduced user research to us in our first workshop, a key takeaway was that effective and successful web design starts with the users and understanding the target audience. Therefore, effective user research is a synergy of considering my objectives and the user’s needs. This was explored in the workshop with drafting research objectives and creating job stories/user need statements. 

Preparing for research

A simple but very useful tool Steph introduced was a research canvas. It breaks down the user research process into manageable sections and provides a clear and focused approach to the steps of producing and conducting research.

Preparing for my research involves:

• Setting research goals and objectives
• Defining audience
• Choosing appropriate method/s

Our case study during the workshop was minimising single-use plastic bottles. During the workshop, we used the research canvas to navigate the different steps we need to go through to work through the research process.

This process was very effective in getting me to think outside of my own perspective and consider other users. I will use the research canvas to clearly map out my approach to interviewing hip hop enthusiasts, testing my prototypes for my major project. This is how I have begun to structure my research using the research canvas:

Research objectives

When setting my research objectives, there will be a few questions I will ask myself to ensure I take my research in the right direction.

• What do I want to get out of this research?
• Who does the research outcome affect?

By using the research canvas and setting my objectives, I will be able to determine which research methods I should use. For my major project, I have begun defining research objectives that will help to guide my investigation to find out the needs of hip hop enthusiasts. Some of these include understanding their preferred learning methods and what type of resources they find most helpful. Looking into this will help direct my content for my website.

Research methods

There are various types of research methods available to use, that can be categorised into qualitative and quantitative research. Qualitative research focuses more on numerical data whereas quantitative research is more subjective and can be used to understand an individual’s perspective and begins to provide context to qualitative data. For my project, I will use a blend of both approaches. The methods will vary from formative & generative which will help to direct initial design directions and decisions, to summative & evaluative which will be more focused on refining already formed ideas and evaluating how effective they are. Some of the key methods I will use are:

• Surveys & interviews
• Usability testing – drafting up rapid, low fidelity prototypes to high fidelity prototypes to test various aspects/features

Interviews

In our first workshop with Steph, we generated some research questions to interview some users. Some vital learning points from composing these questions was about the structure. Through writing these questions, I learned:

• Not to write leading questions

I want to get genuine and honest personalised answers. It’s important that there is no bias in the way the question is written for example, ‘tell me about your lifestyle’ rather than ‘do you consider yourself to have an active lifestyle?’. The latter question is close-ended and prompts the user to only think about their activity in the lifestyle whereas the first question is open ended and encourages the user to openly speak about their lifestyle – where you may even get to find out if they live an active lifestyle.

• Be unambiguous

Usability testing & prototyping

We learned that prototyping doesn’t have to be this super refined and polished

Visualising research

Collating research to keep it in a manageable format where I can use the initial findings to further refine and develop ideas.

User persona

A very key takeaway from the workshop with Chris How was the use of user personas. This is a fictional character based on the research I conduct, and they would therefore represent a part of my target audience – possibly relating to their types of behaviours and attitudes. During the workshop, my group created a user persona ‘Stevie’, an international journalist who lives a busy, on-the-go lifestyle. In the exercise, we had to think about his pain points, feelings, goals and tasks.

For my major project, I have begun to think about some user personas:

User need statements and job stories

Another way I can represent my findings is by creating user need statements and job stories. These are outcome-based statements that can direct the progress of your product or service.

• Job stories explore the job the user wants to get done by using the product or service.
• User need statements explore the need of a user in order for them to accomplish a specific goal

As we worked on our case studies in our workshop, we created some user need statements and job stories. This part of the session really reminded me that, while I have some ideas about my website, what I want it to do, and how I want it to look, my perspective alone is not enough. It’s clear that I need to put myself in the user’s shoes and engage with them to properly understand and explore their habits, their preferences and their pain points. Doing this will really help to focus on the problem at hand and influence my design decisions to ensure that they are solution and user focused.

What does this look like?

User need statement

As a (user role / persona)

I need to (what/do what I need to do)

In order to (accomplish goal)

These were really effective at

Job stories

When (situation or context)

I want to (aim/ do what)

Empathy maps

We explored creating an empathy map for our character Stevie. This is a visualisation that depicts the things we know about the type of user that Stevie is as a result of the interviews we conducted. The empathy map captured his feelings, pain points, goals and tasks giving us a clear understanding of him as out target audience.

The empathy map can be extremely useful because it helps me as a designer to step into the shoes of my target audience.

This is how I plan to use empathy maps in my major project:

• Identifying audience – having completed my initial research, I will focus on the key user personas such as the die hard hip hop fans, casual listeners etc.
• Sort and gather results – Using the information I collect from my user interviews, surveys, I will create the empathy map filled with the target audiences feelings, pain points, tasks and goals. For example:
  • Pain point: “I don’t always understand the slang in lyrics and I sometimes feel like I’m missing the message the artist is saying”
• Design  iterations – From my insights, I will develop designs or expand on ideas so that the outcome of my project will be well suited for my target audience. For example, to address the pain point above, this may include adding a filter in the glossary for slang from certain areas.

How might we statements

With some of my research in place,  I can begin to create some statements that address the pain points and goals for my users. This is something we explored in the workshop by quickly drafting some ‘how might we (HMW)’ questions on post-it notes. These were quickly formed questions that directly address the issue at hand and therefore prompt us to think of how we can solve them creatively.  This is something that can also be applied to my major project to quickly generate some ideas of how to address issues that my website will be solving.

This exercise can be a very useful way to quickly generate ideas directly based on the problem that my website is trying to solve. Some initial HMW questions are:

• How might we make complex hip hop lyrics easier for casual listeners to understand?
• How might we make learning about the complexities of hip hop lyrics fun and engaging?
• How might we allow users to validate their learning?

By generating these questions, I can maintain the focus on finding solutions to the real user problems. The statements will act as a guide for exploring designs and design features that align with the needs of my target audience.  

Prototyping

Another topic we covered in the workshop was the prototyping which highlighted the process of transforming ideas to concepts that can be tested and refined. From ideation and sketching to rapid prototyping we quickly bought to life some concept generated from our research.

UI Flows

Starting with UI flows where we are able to map out the process of what the user sees and what the user does as a flow in each stage of interacting with the website. This will allow me to map out features such as how users navigate through quizzes or identify crucial points in user interaction like navigating from the homepage to the learning areas.

Sketching

Next, we explored sketching variations of certain screens or features in our product solution. As a group we would draft, discuss, then refine ideas until we concluded on an idea that is successful in solving our issues at hand.  

For my major project, I will sketch rapid variations of aspects like:

• Interactive exercise pages
• Lyric break down interface

This step can prove to be invaluable in finding a blend between user-friendly and aesthetic designs as I can quickly identify what works versus what doesn’t.

Research design cycle

Overall, research is an ongoing and iterative process that through continuous exploration, development and refinement allows designers to produce a final product that is tailored to the needs of its users.

Throughout the workshops, I gained a deep understanding of research and design to create user-centred solutions. The sessions equipped me with the tools and methodology I need to conduct effective research.

By applying the research methods like interviews, surveys, user personas, empathy maps, I will really be able to resonate with my target audience. The continuous development and iterative nature of the research process will allow me to refine my features such as a glossary filter or learning exercises so that they are effective for my audience.

In conclusion, this article explores my journey through understanding user research and its link to design. I can now confidently apply methods and develop my project concepts knowing and understanding the importance of user-centred design.

References:

Portigal, S. (2023) Sample chapter: Interviewing users (2nd edition), Rosenfeld Media. Available at: https://rosenfeldmedia.com/interviewing-users-second-edition-sample-chapter/ (Accessed: 09 January 2025).
Gibbons, S. (2024) User need statements, Nielsen Norman Group. Available at: https://www.nngroup.com/articles/user-need-statements/ (Accessed: 09 January 2025).
Gibbons, S. (2024) User need statements, Nielsen Norman Group. Available at: https://www.nngroup.com/articles/user-need-statements/ (Accessed: 09 January 2025).
Troeth, S. (2024) ‘User research fundamentals’.
How, C. (2024) ‘UX Design Workshop’.
Gibbons, S. (2024a) Empathy mapping: The first step in design thinking, Nielsen Norman Group. Available at: https://www.nngroup.com/articles/empathy-mapping/ (Accessed: 09 January 2025).

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