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User research is a central aspect of successful product development. With this series of articles, we provide an insight into the field of user research and its methods. At the same time, we would like to show how essential user-centered design of a product is, which advantages result from it and underline the importance of user analysis, user needs and so on.
Many who deal with the design of user interfaces, with usability or user experience, are familiar with the following problem: They have recognized the need for user research as part of their creative process and suggest to their client that they apply established methods, such as user analyses, interviews, personas, workshops, etc.. But many customers do not see the need and argue against it as follows:
"We don't have time for this, let's do it later"
"We don't have a budget for that right now"
"We already know our customers and the target group, don't we?"
User Research often leads to acceleration of the project process, saving time and money - Why? Empirical validation accelerates many development decisions, saving time-consuming and costly revisions. Additionally, resource-saving approaches can be used. Often, many valuable insights can be gained from the user's perspective with little effort.
"After all, we know best what our users want"
Unfortunately, this argument is used very often. In practice, one often encounters sales staff or product managers who, on the basis of competitive analyses or selective customer feedback, think they want to know exactly what users from the target group want, need, and find good and helpful.
Those responsible for the project often do not look at the situation with an open mind and view identified problems as uncritical. They often generalize the context and exclude consideration of the needs, requirements as well as capabilities of the users.
Of course, users are not the solution finders for identified usability deficits - but they themselves know best which functions and processes they need to perform their tasks efficiently. This helps the experts understand problems in detail and find a suitable solution.
You are not your user!
For this reason, user research should help us identify the real needs of users and eliminate our own prejudices and misconceptions that might otherwise have a detrimental effect on the success of the product.
Note: The more intuitive a product or software is, the more effective and efficient it is in use. User satisfaction increases and the user experience has a positive impact on the user experience. A beautiful design alone is not enough if the user encounters obstacles in fulfilling his goal. These can be avoided in advance with the help of user research - saving time and money!
