What is user experience?
This is a question I come across a lot when telling people about my job. User experience (or UX for short) is about discovery and making sure that the people using a product (aka the users) I am designing and building are put first. Their needs have to be met best for them to use what I am putting together – otherwise, why would they?
How do I meet user needs?
This is the crucial part – by speaking to them! The easiest way to do this is one on one, the most common and effective forms of which are:
- user interviews – either face to face or over the phone. The idea is to give someone the product/prototype and set them some goals, without any instructions, to see how they get on with completing them.
- focus groups – this is similar but en masse. I might set the group goals, have them designing, split them up, get them to talk individually or as a group. All of these options are useful depending on what I am trying to achieve.
How do I make sure I get what I am looking for?
Both types of session will usually be recorded through video or audio as keeping notes isn’t always easy or possible! It is infinitely easier to watch/listen back for comments, it also makes validation easier with stakeholders. My role in all of this is to facilitate but not interfere – being free of an ego is key here – because what I want to get is the feedback: what is missing, what isn’t easy to use, what labelling is wrong, etc.
Don’t have an ego
This can be tricky if we don’t remember what the aim is, it can sometimes be hard for the designer to hear criticism on something that has taken so long to put together. Equally, the users can be apprehensive about saying something negative to a designer! Just remember that criticism is a good thing as it helps the evolution! Make sure to watch as most of the useful will be observations as oppose to the comments, but keep a note of everything – what users say and do often don’t match!
Of course, conducting user testing face-to-face is not the only method of gathering user feedback but I will go into that in more detail as part of another post.
Why talk about this?
I listened to a fantastic episode of The Stack Overflow Podcast with Chinedu Echeruo, who I hadn’t heard of before, talking about his latest venture Love and Magic – an organisation that co-build companies with innovative organisations. The way they go about it is very similar to the UX model, whereby they speak to individuals and groups about how best to accomplish their goals. They call this having empathy and that by having the most empathy for users you can built the best product that caters for everything that they need.
Have a listen, it’s great!
