There are quite a few really good books that talks about the nitty-gritties of user research. What I have struggled with is the first step. Coming up with the Research plan!
- Where does one start?
- How does one organise the whole thing?
- What aspects should i consider as basic for planning a user research?
- …..
Am sure we have many more questions.
What I have attempted, is to pen down what I look at when i plan for User Research. This short writeup has the list of aspects to consider before we start actual Research.
Below are few of the learnings from Brainstorming exercises and from hindsight!
The flow in my mind, before actual research starts is:
Establishing Idea consensus → Determining the sample size we want to target → Choosing the candidate → Determining Research Frequency → Basis to Interpret result. The outcome of the result will probably lead to new ideas / features which in turn takes us back to the first step of idea consensus.
Shared above is the mind map of the aspects i look at to come up with a Research plan. I will give a short note on each of the main points. Once you have a basic idea, you should be able to fit it to your context and the nuances of your organisation.
- Idea consensus: Depending on the type of organisation, We will have to have ideas listed, determine the need for those ideas, do some basic research (example: competitor analysis) to arrive at the feasibility of taking the idea forward.
- Sample Size: I have seen projects where we have had as low as 7 to 10 people as research candidates and as high as 1000+ people as research candidate. In some cases the sample size can depend on the method of research (example: a web based survey can reach to a large number of people when compared to 1:1 interviews or focus groups). However, determining this sample size is crucial. This will help us identify pitfalls of smaller sample size
- Choosing a candidate: Once we have determined the sample size, we will have to choose the candidate who will be part of our research. There are instances where we choose a specific candidate for research.
- Research Frequency: We will have to determine when all do want to do research for a single feature
- Interpretation of result: I have felt that its better if we know what is the outcome of the research we are looking for. If we know on what factors we want to interpret the result, then we can fine tune the nuances of the research
Once we have done all of the above, we can go ahead and choose the tool we want to use for the research.
Some useful books that i came across for ‘Doing’ user research
- Research design by Patricia Leavy
- Observing the User Experience by Elizabeth Goodman
- Measuring the User Experience by William Albert (gives you a range of metrics)
- And for those who want to explore — The User’s journey — story mapping products by Donna Lichaw and Eva-lotta lamm is an interesting read
