Why design research?
To a certain extent, the work of user experience designers is to understand users and their needs, so as to plan and design to help achieve users' goals; in design, the pursuit is to make users feel pleasant experience and friendly operation, whether they can smoothly Accomplish what you want to do; and design research allows us to explore the root of the problem and solve the biggest pain point of the problem by understanding the needs and goals of users.
What we know, we don't necessarily understand.
Design research can help us understand the reasons behind it and fully understand the problem. This will allow us to understand the nature of things more thoroughly and provide a basis for us to make design decisions.
1. Implementation Model and Mental Model
"Implementation model" refers to the usage method presented by the designer to the user, also known as the "designer model"; and the way the user thinks it should be done is called the user's "mental model".
If the implementation model is closer to the user's mental model, the user will feel that the product is easier to use and understand; the reason why the product feels difficult to use or feel confused during use is because of the designer's "implementation model" There is a big gap with the user's "mental model".
For example, when a designer uses drawing software to select a color, the corresponding color can be obtained by adjusting the RGB value in the left picture, which is close to the realization model; while the presentation of the right picture will be more suitable for the user Mental models are easier for users to accept and understand.
Therefore, designers need to fully understand the user's mental model before designing. Design research can help designers jump out of the limitations of self-centered design concepts, and gradually shift from personal thinking to user thinking.
2. Use different research methods according to different research purposes
One is to improve the existing products through design research to improve the product experience.
The other is a brand-new product. Through research, a design prototype is put forward for users to experience it, and it is continuously improved and perfected to guide and meet user needs.
Research methods
In actual work, we will not conduct research in all design stages, but will choose the appropriate method in some key design stages according to the specific status of the product.
1) Data Collection
Observation method, single interview method, focus group, questionnaire method, brainstorm method, self-statement method, experiment method-field test.
2) Research and analysis
Quantitative comparative analysis, perception map & fishbone diagram, card induction analysis, scenario analysis, persona method, storyboard, usability test, ABtest, user click behavior, traffic conversion and bounce rate, website data analysis.
Research process
1. Determine the objectives and methods of the research
The first and most important step in research is to clarify the research objectives and choose the correct research method according to the objectives.
In this process, we need to analyze the research needs, clarify the stage of the product, the problems we want to solve and the specific content, and initially determine the methods to be used in the research.
1. Choose the appropriate qualitative or quantitative method
The purpose of qualitative research is to discover problems, understand time phenomena and analyze human behavior and opinions, and explore the question of "why". Quantitative research solves the question of "what" and is often used to discover general laws of behavior or things.
Divide different survey methods into the following four quadrants. The horizontal axis distinguishes whether the data obtained by the method is objective (people's behavior) or subjective (people's goals and opinions), and the vertical axis distinguishes the type of the method as qualitative is still quantitative.
At different stages of the product, we need to solve different problems, and the types of methods we choose are also different.
2. Research methods corresponding to the product cycle
Divide the complete product life cycle into four stages, and face different problems at different stages, and you can choose different types of research methods.
Product development period: There are no users at this stage, and the problem to be solved is "how to meet the needs of target users?" This can be done through qualitative methods such as user interviews (competitive product analysis, expert users) and secondary data research. solve.
Product growth stage: At this stage, we need to ensure and improve product quality and maintain a high growth rate; the accumulation of user data can help us better segment people, and combine qualitative methods to obtain product usage by specific types of users Feedback to ensure product quality and improve competitiveness.
Product maturity stage: At this stage, the product tends to be stable and requires innovation to maintain competitiveness. Therefore, we need to discover new user groups, add new features to open up the market, and re-enter the growth stage.
Product decline period: If the product cannot successfully extend the maturity period or enter the growth period again, it may gradually die out, that is, enter the product decline period; if we choose to adjust the product to adapt to the new user group, then we will return to the "development period".
3. Research methods corresponding to the product design stage
Scrutinize the environment: We need to know whether there are similar products on the market at present. The goal is to explore the objective environment, define and describe the practical problems that our design needs to solve, and monitor existing similar products——competitive product research, understand the existence of competing products What are the pros and cons? Where are our opportunities? How to do differentiated design?
Form a solution: explore various solutions to problems, consider feasibility issues; use simple prototypes for quick testing and feedback, avoiding costly modifications in the later stages of product development.
Select a plan: test, evaluate and verify the plan, select the best plan, and continuously optimize the plan through user feedback; small-scale gray scale releases can be carried out, user behavior data can be obtained through usability testing or background data analysis, and combined with questionnaires Survey to do quantitative verification.
Evaluation results: Collect user feedback through questionnaire surveys, background data analysis, etc., and establish various indicators to measure and track product satisfaction.
Develop a research plan
After clarifying the research objectives and methods, it is necessary to formulate a detailed research plan to help us clarify the direction and focus during the research process:
Research background: the stage of the product, the problems that the research hopes to solve;
Survey purpose: the specific content answered or completed in the survey;
Research plan: research method, research plan, research object, schedule arrangement;
According to the plan, formulate a research plan, including the arrangement of the order of the research; some research needs to conduct quantitative verification based on the problems found qualitatively, while some research needs to conduct a quantitative survey of the overall situation first, and then focus on a certain type of users Qualitative analysis to discover the reasons behind specific behaviors.
Start research
1) Invite research users:
Determine the conditions and methods of recruiting users;
Compiling user screening questionnaires and screening qualified users;
2) Execute the research process.
Output research results
Visualize the output results, organize the collected information to make it systematic and organized, usually use various charts to display the research results, and finally draw meaningful conclusions from them.
In qualitative research reports, you should give corresponding analysis conclusions and present evidence according to the research objectives; while in quantitative research reports, the most important thing is to choose appropriate charts to express the information you want to present.
Propose a solution
According to the research results, corresponding design suggestions are given.
Four, finally
Design research can provide a large amount of rich data and theoretical basis for our design decision-making, and the design scheme transforms the conclusion of design research into a possible bridge for design.
Therefore, when conducting design research, we must learn to observe, question and ask questions, and verify through research and data, so that the data collected by design research can help us make design decisions and make a plan that can withstand scrutiny.
On the other hand, design research can help us understand users better, understand user behavior and needs during the research process, and help us build empathy, transforming from designer's self-centered thinking to user thinking.
From design research to design insights, there are both perceptual insights and rational research results.