Who are the User’s and What is their problem ?
By: Enos Jeba
Tags: User Interface, User Experience Design, User Testing, User Experience, User Research

Guide to User Research.

For things to improve you need the understanding of it’s working and the correct idea of the attributes involved. Maybe you have a better ideas to replace the existing system. But let's start with Why?

Why ?

Why does you idea matter ? Why is your point valid ? When there is currently a well-known process flowing perfectly.

No matter whatever domain you consider there is already a method being followed by the People.

The Method may be Old, Traditional, New too but it doesn't matter as long as it works.

To find answer to “Why ?” we need to understand the current process followed by the Users of the Domain and find the Loophole (From the perspective of the Idea)/ Problem of the User. Only if your Idea or Solution to Improve or to Replace the current flow, aligns with the problem and resolves it without creating much new problem will it be acceptable. In this Case, how do you understand the User and the problem associated with him / her ?

Research

Research can be done in many ways. It is all about know more of the Domain we are interested in. From scientists testing his theory to Ux Designer trying to figure out his user, Research plays a important role.

The main goal or the outcome of this research would be

Identify Ideal User

Understand Users

Develop strategies

Figure out business challenges

Identify new business opportunities

Predominantly Research is classified into two categories

Qualitative

Quantitative

Qualitative Methods

The questions asked in Qualitative interviews are mostly Open Ended. This helps in figuring out What a User thinks? or Why would he think in such a way ?

One-to-one Interview

The interviewer would be talking with the one user face to face. The interview would be recorded and there also may be a person to take notes as the interview proceeds. Most of the time, Interviewer also notes down the points but having someone else take notes ease’s the work.

Focus Groups

There is a group of people who is best suited for the problem or the Domain you are trying to understand. These people are carefully selected as per the requirements of the data you are in hunt for. Tasha Eurich called them Unicorns in her research on Self Awareness. See her TedX Talks about her Self Awareness Research here

These groups are mostly filtered out of a larger group of people and very much though is also put into it also viewing the finest possible detail to fetch the desired results.

Ethnographic studies

In this research, Researchers involve with the Participants / Users in realtime environment. This method is widely used in Social Studies.

Text Analysis

also known as Text Mining or Content Analysis

In Text Analysis, Researches usually go with the help of developers. With the huge amount of Text data, Developers are supposed to organise the unstructured data into a structured form. Once the data is structured, the relevant Sentences and Words are extracted and the integral sections such as the proper nouns are branched off using the list of words in the dictionary

Case Study

Case Study is a in-depth study of one person, group, or event. In a case study, nearly every aspect of the subject’s life and history is analyzed to seek patterns and causes of behavior.

Quantitative methods

Quantitative method deals with numbers or measurable forms.

Survey research

The survey is one of the common statistic methods. It is used for different types of quantitative research. The aim of this is to provide a description of the characteristics of the specific population or group.

Descriptive research

It describes the current status of the identified variables. This research is used to describe the status of people’s present status or conditions.

Experimental research

As the name suggests, This research is based on Single or Multiple theories. Mostly used to detect the Cause and Effect relationship among a given variable.

Correlational research

Used to establish a relationship among two close entities and determining the Impact they have on each other.

Causal-comparative research

It’s a scientific approach for summarizing cause-and-effect relationships among many variables. The complementary experimental variable is used to base a single variable in causal connections.

The independent variable is not manipulated by the researchers. In causal-comparative research, however, the influence of independent factors on dependent variables may be assessed.

Out of all these methods, Survey is the most common starting method of the Research process. It kind of all provides a overall idea of what exactly is going on and with whom.

To conduct a survey, Traditional methods included sending out a sheet to the group of audience and asking them to fill it as per their terms. Due to the evolvement of technology, The same can be re-created with the help of a Digital Form. As there is involvement of Technology here, We can concentrate more on the work as the Basic Graphs and Metrics will be Auto-generated by the Digital Form platform thus reducing a drastic amount of time to sit and plot or analyze the data as done in traditional methods.

Here are the Tools you can use for Online Survey’s

Adam Enfroy Made a detailed blog on all the available platforms. You can read it here

If you are in a hurry some of the tools are

Survey Monkey

Check Survey Monkey here

Best Overall Platform

Pre-built 230 templates for different types of survey

Pre-Built Questions

Good Ui

SoGo Survey

Check SoGo Survey here

Real-Time Analytics

Extensive CRM Integration

More Distribution Options

Survey AnyPlace

Check Survey AnyPlace here

Pre-designed Templates with Images, Videos and Animations.

Personal Branding

Interactive Quiz

Zoho Survey

Check Zoho Survey here

Auto Emails

Powerful Reports

Buy Response (If you don’t have any audience)

Google Forms

Check Google Forms here

Extensive Collaboration

Data Analysis

Simple User Interface

It’s Free

How to Survey?

Here, you would be asking a series of questions to your User. With the help of these question you will be able to understand the current scenario the user currently is present in, Thus should your questions be crafted in such a method that all the required details you need to advance in your process must be answered by the user in the correct and precise way as possible.

The questionnaire should be easy to understand for the user. The questionnaire should enquire about the ongoing methods / situation / process flow. It should also be formed in such a manner that the pain point of the people is clearly detectable within the answers.

It is also good to ask the user what his / her thoughts are regrading the System and what they would improve on their current system. This question will easily reveal the pain point as the User being familiar with the system and being used to it for enough period of time would know almost everything but still have a problem. Maybe the system is good and not efficient as possible. Maybe the option they want is not present on the front screen but hid inside a pool of options which needs to be traced every-time he / she wants to commit the action.

Asking open ended questions gifts us with a more detailed revelation of what is going on in the Users / Subjects mind.

Let’s try creating a Survey.

Statement

Design a service summary app for a Shipping Company that uses drones.

Understanding the Business

The statement clearly states that it is a shipping company and they are interested into the field of drones. So here the common domain is shipping. Shipping is happening from long ago. Drone is just a new entry device.

Here is what we are going to do. Everything has a problem or a loop hole (loophole if seen with the perspective of a idea) (lets refer it to as a pain point). So here we need to get two things.

How is the current situation working What is the limitations of it (also the new product should solve the limitations).

So based on these two points you can ask enough question to map out the users normal method or current lifestyle. Based on this data we need to come up with a solution which would solve the issue present in the current shipping methods. So eg if current shipping method is via road travel, the problems would be delayed, need more human resources, traffic, vehicles gas etc solution is drone which is faster, no emission of gas etc

Questionnaire

What is your Name ?

This question is a good starting point. Researchers have found out that using a persons name makes the person more interested and familiar. Our job is to make the User not feel uncomfortable. When we ask the name of the user, they become comfortable on answering the rest of the Questions. I learnt the method of using names from How to influence people and win friends book by Dale Carnegie

Where do you live ?

This questions is essential to understand the environment of the user so that we could build a service to interact properly with such kind of environment. Drone is a machine. It does not know the laws of humans or the functioning of the whole world. Drone being capable of driving itself on it’s own won’t have any human entity to guide it during it’s journey. Drone flying through the village will have different type of obstacles such as tress at the same time Drone flying on a Metropolitan city will have too many Street Lamps and Tall buildings it needs to avoid. Thus understanding the environment is crucial on this instant.

The possible answer from the user’s should be in Multiple Choice Option. As per the laws of Geography, there is just a limited possible options namely Rural, Metropolitan, Urban, Village etc. Here is there is just one right Answer. Therefore it is good to provide a Multiple Choice Option. If you are not sure if you have covered all the options be sure to add a Other’s button at the end of it.

Which is the Current Shipping method active in your Locality?

Here too, We will be using a Multiple Choice Option as there sure would be just a limited number of possible methods in shipping as convenient to their place.

Which big are your Loads / Package ?

Options would be

Kilograms

Tons

If selected Tons, you can end the Questionnaire right here as the drones capable of carrying tons of weight is huge in size and have also being renamed as a airplane and it won’t just be possible to land it anywhere.

Also if selected Kilogram, let’s make sure that it won’t exceed a limit.

How many Kilograms would your Load / Package be?

Weight that the drone can easily carry

Weight that the drone can perfectly carry

Weight that the drone can manage but there are high amount of Risk

Weight too much than the capable weight.

If chosen the Last or the Second last option, We can remove this response out of our data.

How long does it take to deliver ?

The answer can be categorized into time periods to make the analysis easy. Assuming the product to be delivered may take 1 days, 2-7 days or maybe 28 days or more, We can categorize these option into Simple Categories such as

within 1 Day

within 1 Week

within 1 Month

Here you easily understand the pain point. 1 Day!! A drone can deliver in a Hour. So this would be the main solution you would be providing to the users.

Have you ever faced Delays ? If yes, how long?

Add a no option at the end of the options. Display categories of time here similar to the previous Question.

Does it cost much too ship with your current methods ?

The options would be

Yes, It is Costly

No

Are you Happy with your Current Shipping methods?

The options to this question would be just, Yes, No and Not Sure.

If you were allowed to Change one thing, What would it be?

Even if he clicked Yes to the previous Question, He still might be after a small discomfort which might have happened with him / her during the years of his / her experience.

Make them write in a paragraph here so that we get more information onto his thoughts which will help us map out our solution.

Since we have are now aware of the pain points, Let’s offer out solution.

First Introduce the Solution and the provide the Solution.

How would you like for a Shipping System with reduced cost and Quick Delivery ?

Here, as we are aware of the problem we have a solution but it is also essential to see how people are reacting towards the solution. This is to understand the feasibility of the solution we are providing.

The options would be

Definitely Yes

I am onboard for this

I am skeptical

No

Now ask the user if he is agreeing with your method of Solution being provided.

Would you like a Drone for delivering your Products?

Yes, Excited

Skeptical

No

What problem of your would the Drone delivery solve?

Add a paragraph input. This will make sure that the User truly understands or believes on the solution you are offering.

How was the Survey?

The options would be

Good

Not Good

Could have done better

This question at the end would reflect their emotions and help us understand that the questions we asked were okay and not something the user was struggling to answer.

Make sure you send this to people who have a knowledge with shipping or maybe someone who uses the services. Avoid sending it to your friends, cousins etc. if they don’t have any idea on shipping.

These are just sample questions, Make sure you add more creative ones. And don’t forget to thank them at the end of the slides for taking out their time as filling it.

Thanks to JK for asking the question which inspired me to write this blog. Thanks for Reading. I am not sure if you have stayed until this very end!