Five UX questions to keep in mind when you start your research
1. How do you balance the end user’s goals with those of the business?
A UX designer’s role in the business is to advocate for the end user’s needs. Business goals are typically based on budget and market analysis, defining the approximate timeline and resources for a product.
To balance the two sets of goals, it is the designer’s responsibility to strategically use time in the product’s research and testing phases. The data gathered here must be translated to align with the business goals so that the key stakeholders can be informed of the design decisions along the way. It will be essential to involve both the project stakeholders and users often. This will provide ample opportunity to showcase the needs of the end users. The business will likely have a successful product by carefully hearing and solving the end user’s needs.
2. How do you know if you’re asking the right research questions for a project?
The goal of user research is to ensure there is an understanding of your users’ current goals and pain points. Assumptions can aid in creating a pilot problem statement but should be tested as soon as possible with user research to ensure you avoid making a product nobody will use. It is a skill to develop quality questions for your research.
As a designer, you will know you are asking the right questions when you:
- Ask questions that do not influence the answer: framing an inquiry is necessary and can be a subtle or not-subtle difference.
- Ask them to recall specific instances in the past and tell me how they felt then: this allows them to identify a particular occurrence instead of giving a vague or sweeping statement.
- Prioritize open-ended questions: this requires work upfront to avoid patchwork during the interview, ultimately resulting in higher-quality answers from participants.
3. What’s the most challenging part of your research projects?
What’s the most challenging part of your research projects?
The most challenging part of a design project is finding users to participate in my user research phase. This is a time-consuming effort, and to ensure that it is well-spent on my part and the interviewee’s, it is my responsibility to curate excellent interview questions.
This has proved a particular challenge for me (more on that another time), and I find that the hardest part is to get “out the door,” so to speak. Asking the right questions is undoubtedly one skill that comes with time and experience. Once I put myself out there, it becomes easier to continue asking questions.
4. What kind of research methods do you use when starting a new project?
When I begin a research project, my initial research methods involve a literature review and competitive analysis within my target product space. Here, I will find answers from what has been successful and what users report in reviews and written articles (even books, where applicable).
By studying the current market landscape and where my competitor’s strengths and weaknesses lie, I can decide where to position my product. This will help determine what features might set my product apart from the competitors and capture a market share. I can then verify these ideas through quantitative and qualitative user research methods, such as surveys and interviews.
5. What is the role of the problem statement in UX design?
A problem statement summarizes the user pain points or problems a UX designer seeks to solve in their project. Typically, this problem statement is generated following user research to guide the project toward the user’s needs.
Ultimately, the problem statement acts as a guidepost for the project and should be refined as user testing, and further research takes place. It is essential to ensure you are solving the “right” problem before designing a solution for the problem, and that is why you need a problem statement.
