A fundamental understanding of the user in context is key to good design. It is dangerous to assume that you know what users want. The argument, “I’m an expert user, so if the system is designed for me it will work for everyone” is a telltale sign that you have introduced unnecessary risk into your design process. Design research is a way of understanding the users’ behaviors, goals, and expectations beyond simple demographics or statistics. Studying your users closely helps you identify customer needs and expectations in order to satisfy them in your design and translate them into competitive advantage.
What to expect
Whether conducting user research in our own lab, your location, or in the user’s natural environment, we use a combination of the following approaches in our research process:
- Shadowing/Naturalistic Observation
We observe and gather information about users by shadowing them in their own environment. - Interviews
We conduct extensive interviews to understand the specific activities, responsibilities ,and tasks of each user. - Diary/Day-in-the-Life Studies
We acquire real-life data on the activities users engage in—including the frequency, duration, and difficulty of tasks—along with the methods and technologies they employ. - Questionnaires
We create carefully tailored questionnaires to gather information on factors such as
demographics, activities, equipment, and systems that may inform the design. - Card Sorting
We learn how people categorize the tasks and concepts at play in a given process or
procedure. - Competitive Analysis
We compare competitors’ products to yours and discover the features people value, reject, and prefer.
Delivering insights can take many forms. Depending on what is appropriate for you, MAYA can deliver simple reports, story boards, photo-journals, ethnographic studies, and videos that document user experiences. While design research can seem messy and non-linear, when done effectively, it is foundational work that will not only inform the direction of your design, but also may suggest ways to refine your business model to more effectively target your products and services.