Module 2: UX Research
UX Research and Context of Use
Understanding Context of Use
ISO 9241-11: Provides guidance on usability, and focuses on human-centered design and ergonomics of human-system interaction.
Situations to Consider:
Natural Use: How the product is utilized in everyday life.
Scripted Use: Use following specific guidelines or procedures.
Not in Use: Assessing the product's consideration when it's idle.
Key Concepts of ISO 9241-11
Usability Definition: Extent to which a product can be used.
Effectiveness: Achieving goals accurately and completely.
Efficiency: Resource expenditure in relation to task completion.
Satisfaction: Comfort and acceptability in a specific context of use.
Context of Use: The environment in which the product is used.
Users: Attributes of the target audience (skills, experience).
Tasks: Goals users intend to achieve with the product.
Equipment: Tools or interfaces involved.
Environment: Social and physical settings of use (e.g., mobile vs. desktop).
Application:
Framework for evaluating usability during various product stages.
Aids in setting usability objectives and performance measuring.
UX Research: When is this done?
Phases of Development
Strategize: Start of product development, focus on generative research to decide product direction.
Execute: Design phase, utilizing formative methods to refine outcomes.
Assess: Post-development measurement against prior versions or competitors with summative methods.
Product & Service Design Cycle
Research and Discovery: Identify user needs and viable product sources through surveys, interviews, focus groups, and competitor analysis.
Ideation and Concept Development: Collaborate on solutions and evaluate against business goals with stakeholders, designers, and product teams - as well as creating concept sketches, mind maps, or low-fidelity wireframes.
Design and Prototyping: Generate wireframes, mockups, interactive prototypes, and apply usability principles.
Validation and Testing: Perform user testing to identify usability issues and iterate on designs with tools like A/B testing and user feedback.
Development and Implementation: Work with developers to align implementations with designs.
Launch and Delivery: Monitor user adoption, satisfaction, and performance metrics post-launch.
Post-launch Evaluation: Collect feedback for future enhancements.
UX Research Methods
Focus Groups
Provides valuable qualitative insights into user behavior, preferences, and challenges.
Should be used during the discovery phase, ideation phase, prototyping phase, and post-launch evaluation.
Group of 6-9 users discussing product features.
Benefits include revealing user needs and perspectives through dialogue.
Should be complemented with usability testing for effectiveness.
Affinity Diagram/Map
Organizing information into grouped patterns and trends using post-it notes.
Steps include:
Go through all your research by pulling out quotes and observations of interest.
Write each on a sticky note.
Choose one sticky note as your starting point.
Go with the next set of sticky notes by creating a cluster of notes.
Identify the theme and stick a label on top of it. Themes can be used to draw meaningful insights from your data.
Synthesize data by creating spontaneous concepts and ideas based on the facts you’re analyzing.
Findings vs Insights
Findings: Fact or statement that tells us what is happening - not why.
Insight: Describes an aspect of human behavior or user motivation and how we might go about solving a particular user problem.
UX Design Tools
Journey Maps
Visualization of a user’s steps to achieve a goal.
Elements include actor, goals, phases, actions, emotions, and opportunities.
Benefits:
Comprehensive understanding of user experience.
Highlights pain points and areas for improvement.
Fosters team alignment around user experiences.
Key Elements of a Journey Map
Stages or Phases: Steps users take from discovery to post-purchase.
Touchpoints: Points of interaction throughout the journey.
User Actions: Tasks completed during each stage.
Thoughts and Emotions: User feelings at stages.
Pain Points: Challenges or frustrations encountered.
Opportunities: Areas for enhancing user experience.
How Journey Maps Are Used in UX Design
Understanding the User’s Experience Holistically: Helps identify gaps in the experience and ensure a consistent, seamless interaction across all touchpoints.
Identifying User Pain Points and Frustrations: Helps prioritize problem areas to improve usability and streamline the user flow.
Designing User-Centered Solutions: Helps create intuitive workflows that align with user behavior and increase satisfaction.
Aligning Teams and Stakeholders Around the User Experience: Helps reduce miscommunication and ensures the entire team stays focused on user outcomes.
Tracking Emotions and Moments of Delight or Frustration: Enables UX teams to design moments of delight and address negative experiences, boosting customer satisfaction and loyalty.
Supporting Ideation and Prototyping: Provides actionable insights to prototype solutions that directly address user pain points.
Monitoring User Journeys Across Channels and Touchpoints: Ensures consistent experiences across channels, building trust and engagement with users.
Evaluating and Improving the Product or Service: Helps prioritize future updates to optimize the product or service based on real user insights.
Creating Personas and Tailored Journeys: Supports the design of personalized experiences that cater to diverse user segments.
Concepts Rooted in Classical Rhetoric
Ethos: Focuses on how trust is built through consistent and reliable interactions. It strengthens the user’s confidence in the product or service, ensuring they feel comfortable engaging further.
Pathos: Helps users feel engaged and personally connected to the product through emotional engagement that helps create memorable experiences and builds brand loyalty.
Logos: The use of logic and reason to provide clear navigation, easy access to information, and logical user flows. It reduces friction and makes the user journey intuitive and efficient.
Kairos: Refers to timeliness - delivering the right experience at the right time in the user journey when the user is most receptive. It helps create urgency and ensures timely interactions.
Combinations of Concepts
Ethos and Pathos: For example, an authentic thank-you message after purchase not only reinforces the brand’s reliability but also builds emotional loyalty.
Logos and Kairos: For instance, a notification to renew a subscription sent before it expires aligns with the logical need and optimal time for action.
Pathos and Kairos: For example, a birthday discount offer capitalizes on the user’s emotional state at the right time, fostering positive feelings toward the brand.
Ethos and Logos: A customer support chat offering fast, clear answers helps maintain trust.
Information Architecture (IA)
Organization of Information
Establishes clarity for users when navigating content.
Steps to create an Information Architecture:
Define the company goals.
Define the user goals.
Conduct competitor analysis for context.
List and categorize content accordingly.
LATCH Principle
Proposed by Richard Saul Wurman - a pioneer in the field of information architecture and user experience - offers a framework for organizing information effectively.
Helps in crafting intuitive information architectures for websites, apps, and other digital platforms.
Allows designers to organize content in a way that aligns with user behavior and mental models, improving findability, usability, and engagement.
Ensures that users can interact with content in a way that feels natural to them.
The Five Elements:
Location: Organizing information based on geographical location or spatial proximity - which helps users connect with information that is relevant to a place or environment.
Alphabetical: Arranging information alphabetically to help users when they look for specific, known terms and need a straightforward search.
Time: Organizing content in chronological order to help users understand how events or tasks unfold over time.
Category: Grouping information based on similar types or categories. This enables users to browse through related content, enhancing discovery and exploration.
Hierarchy: Organizing information by importance, size, or value to help users prioritize information, focusing on the most important items first.
Card Sorting in UX Design
Card Sorting
A UX research technique that provides insights into the mental models of users, helping designers create more intuitive information architectures.
An affinity map intended for information architecture wherein users (individually) literally group cards and fill out an empty card for the name of the category/group, those with no names may be set aside for analysis by the research team.
Helps in looking for patterns of what common groups users come up with and which cards they usually paired together.
Implementation Method
In Person: Physical moderation and observation.
Online Implementation: Can be done through digital or automation analysis tools.
Steps in Card Sorting
Create a list of topics.
Shuffle the cards and ask the user to sort them into piles.
Ask them to name each group or pile.
Types of Card Sorting
Open Card Sorting: Participants group and name sets of cards given to them. This is useful when exploring new content or creating a structure from scratch.
Closed Card Sorting: Participants are given pre-defined categories and asked to assign cards to the appropriate category. This is ideal when testing a pre-existing structure or validating an existing navigation system.
Hybrid Card Sorting: Participants can use predefined categories but are also allowed to create their own categories if needed. This offers flexibility while maintaining some structure.
Primary Formats of Card Sorting
Moderated Card Sorting: Involves a facilitator or moderator who guides the participants through the sorting process.
Key Features:
Facilitator Presence
Real-Time Interaction
Flexibility
Benefits:
Rich Qualitative Insights
Immediate Clarification
Observation
Drawbacks:
Resource Intensive
Potential Bias
When To Use:
When qualitative insights are particularly important
For smaller groups or when testing new concepts
In scenarios where participant interaction and discussion can provide valuable context
Unmoderated Card Sorting: Participants complete the sorting task independently, typically online, using digital tools or platforms.
Key Features:
Self-Directed
Digital Tools
Asynchronous
Benefits:
Scalability
Cost-Effective
Reduced Participant Pressure
Drawbacks:
Limited Insights
Potential Confusion
No Immediate Feedback
When To Use:
When needing to gather data from a large number of participants quickly
For validating existing structures or testing well-defined content categories
In situations where quantitative data is prioritized over qualitative insights
Mental Models in UX
Mental Models
Refer to the internal representations that users develop about how a system, product, or interface works.
Based on users' experiences, knowledge, and expectations, and they significantly influence how users interact with digital products.
Importance in UX design includes:
Enhancing usability through intuitive design alignment.
Predicting user behavior for better interface decisions.
Creating effective navigation that reflects user expectations.
Reducing errors by aligning with familiar frameworks.