Observation and interviews

One of the simplest and most effective ways to learn about the processes our future users perform is to observe them doing these tasks and let them explain how and why they are doing each of the actions they perform. This can be really interesting and fun if we get the user to feel comfortable with us.

Before starting a research session, you should identify the key questions you need answered. It is very important to think about the decisions that each piece of information will help you make and how it is connected to the overall project goals. Human curiosity is unlimited but resources are not, so you'll have to prioritize the questions you ask, to pick the most useful ones. For example, knowing whether users frequently travel to the same destinations or not can inform many decisions in the way we help users find and suggest destinations. However, knowing the user's favorite hairstyle may not be the most relevant information for a travel app.

Once you know what you need to learn, you can talk with your participants. Observing user activities in their own environment is a big learning experience. To maximize the benefits, act as an apprentice who is trying to understand how your users do their tasks. Ask questions as you observe anything that requires further details, but ensure that the user feels as if they are the expert.

One of the first things we should do is to explain the purpose of our experiment, and ensure that the participants understand that we are not evaluating their ability or whether they are doing the task right or wrong. We simply want to collect information about how they are doing the task in the moment of the experiment, and to find points where technology, or our application, can help make their life easier.

It is important that we try to collect data from people who exercise different roles in the organization. Each position in the organization has different priorities and objectives, and therefore the people who work on each position develop their daily tasks differently. By understanding these differences, we can adapt our solutions to each of the profiles, improving the user experience for all of them.

Before making an interview, and especially if you will record a user, ensure that the user understands the purpose of that recording. Explain that the recording will be used only inside your team. Try to keep only the information you need for the study and ensure that you delete all files when they are no longer needed. Each country has its own laws about personal data protection, so ensure that you meet all the legal requirements of the country you are developing the experiment in.