General Assembly

STUDY GUIDE

CONDUCTING USER RESEARCH

Conducting User Research 101
Understanding user motivations helps you as a UX design professional to create the best experiences possible. Interviewing and contextual
inquiry are two common methods of conducting user research.

Contextual Inquiry
» Also known as "field studies".
» Use this method to observe how someone acts in their natural environment.
» Allows you to understand how people actually use something, as opposed to making assumptions about how it could be done better.
» Identifies users’ behaviors in action—captures their natural reactions and frustrations.
» Provides an uncompromised understanding of a real-world user interaction.
» Limits your ability to ask direct questions to users.

Guiding Observation Questions for Contextual Inquiry

» How are they currently dealing with the problem?
» Are they hacking their own solutions?
» Do those solutions give you insight into how they’d like issues to be resolved?

User Interviews
» Can come after contextual inquiry but can also stand on their own.
» Use this method to get a deeper, more intimate look into the minds of users.
» Prompts users to discuss their experiences with a product.
» Direct questions focus on particular things not surfaced through contextual inquiry.

Verbal and Nonverbal Communication

» Pay attention to these cues to avoid assumptions and confirmation biases.
» Conducting interviews in-person or via video will capture nonverbal cues.
» Facial expressions and body language can help you to tailor questions.

Surveys
» Not a substitute for user interviews.
» Should be used as a supplemental research method.
» Difficult to write, limits response types, easy to misinterpret, and misleading without the presence of data from contextual inquiry and
interviews.
Four Steps to User Interviews
» Write a research plan.
» Create a discussion guide.
» Recruit users for interviews.
» Conduct and document interviews.

Research Plans
» Focus on what you want to learn, your target audience, and key areas of inquiry.
» Should contain the following:
Research goals
Target audience
Discussion Guide
Research and user recruitment methods
Timeline and budget

Discussion Guides
» Establishes interview topics and questions.
» To generate discussion guide questions, create a topic map.

User Recruitment
» Prioritize acquaintances and friends of friends from your network.
» Ask potential participants if they are older than 18.
» Always inform them that you’re doing research for a specific topic.
» Offer an incentive in the form of compensation if possible.

Ask the Right Questions

» Questions should be open ended (not geared towards "yes" or "no" answers).
» Aim for questions that target specific instances; for example, "What did you order the last time you went to the cafeteria?"
» Avoid leading questions that assume what the user thinks or feels.

Conduct and Document Interviews

» Record interviews with participants permission. Clear any required consent or release forms.
» Start with small talk; be aware of sending open and relaxed body language signals.
» Always inform them that you’re doing research for a specific topic.
» Offer an incentive in the form of compensation if possible.
» Use 5 Whys methodology—asking "why" five times.
» Don’t be afraid to improvise
» Be mindful of your cognitive biases.