\u201cI don\u2019t want to waste time doing user research because that will only give us something trivial.\u201d That was one of the many reasons I heard from other designers about why we shouldn\u2019t do user research.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cResearch\u201d seems to be a dry word, something in stark contrast with the beautiful colors, the nice-looking visuals that some of us are so obsessed with. Combined with the fact that poorly planned and conducted research reveals only answers that we already kind of knew, no wonder some of us embrace the kind of misconception that doing research is not helpful at all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Knowing the right way to research is hugely important in product design. To have deep and meaningful insights, it\u2019s best to shut up, observe and analyze. That\u2019s, in my opinion, how the best research happens.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Actions speak louder than words. What the users do is more important than what they say because users don\u2019t always know what they want, or sometimes their words contradict their actions for various reasons without them being aware of it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So don\u2019t just interview users, ask them what they want or need and take their answers at face value. It\u2019s possible that they\u2019ll tell you something superficial. Better to observe what they do and how they actually do it silently without interfering or interrupting them, and then figure out what they actually want or need.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That\u2019s why contextual inquiry, when done properly, can offer richer, more valuable and more accurate insights than just talking to the users.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Being a UX researcher is like being a detective. The goal is to understand the users better than they understand themselves so as to uncover their hidden needs and goals. When we think this way, we open up to all the possibilities of doing research.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Besides directly observing and talking to users, we can indirectly infer their behaviors from various sources, such as the heat map of a web page.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
These data and records serve as solid evidence on how users actually interact with our product, and could lead us to very useful insights when we become sensitive to them and put in the work to analyze them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n