User research is full of dangerous misconceptions and half-truths. Although they are, at best, funny for seasoned researchers, they can bring a lot of confusion to less experienced UX folks.
Let’s debunk a few common misconceptions that can hold us back from designing better UX.
One of the most common arguments against user research is the cost — many believe it’s expensive.
And it can be.
More mature product organizations often have whole user research departments, work with external agencies to recruit perfect participants, and offer high incentives to minimize no-shows that could slow the research down.
But that’s not the only way to do research.
Small startups thrive by having founders and designers regularly talk to their customers without offering any incentives. What’s the cost of one interview like that? One man-hour?
User research can be as simple and cheap as just talking to random people in your target group and as sophisticated and expensive as eye-tracking studies with hundreds of participants.
The key is adapting research to your budget and resources. No excuses.
Taking users’ comments at face value is the most dangerous thing you can do during user research. You must treat everything with a grain of salt and ask the right questions.
There are many reasons why not to fully trust what users say, such as:
Instead of just listening, ask users to describe their last experience with your product. Stories are grounded in real behavior, making insights more credible.
We tend to overestimate how much we understand our users.
Yes, you might have quite a solid understanding of your audience, but it’s not 90% of the knowledge about the users you need. It’s this remaining 10%.
Great products win the market because they can solve a problem no one else noticed and solve or cater to a specific persona in a particular way.
If you rely on general knowledge, you won’t be able to differentiate from competitors.
Even with strong fundamental knowledge, always chase these very hard-to-find specific insights. They are what you truly need to win.
Yes, professional researchers bring depth and rigor to user research. But that doesn’t mean research is exclusively their domain.
A Michelin-level cook will almost always come up with a better meal than a hotel cook, but it doesn’t mean the latter can’t come up with a tasty meal.
UX designers, PMs, and developers can uncover valuable insights through simple research exercises. You don’t need a PhD in research — just a curiosity for how users interact with your product.
Although a skilled researcher is not required to conduct research, this does not necessarily mean anyone can do it. Some fundamental knowledge is needed.
Research requires the ability to
and much more.
You don’t need to be an expert, but without first investing in developing some core skills, you can do more harm than good doing the research.
It doesn’t have to.
Many people equate user research to long research projects which involve:
That’s one way to do research.
The other way is to simply talk to someone in your target group and ask them a few questions. It takes thirty minutes.
No matter how limited your timeline is, there’s always a way to fit in some user interactions to build a better solution.
Continuous discovery — regular, small-scale research — is fantastic. It helps validate assumptions and refine knowledge incrementally.
But it’s not a replacement for structured research projects.
Continuous discovery is great at quickly validating assumptions and expanding existing knowledge about users.
Research projects, however, can equip us with a megadose of knowledge, which is helpful when learning about new user problems or making business-critical decisions.
They both have their place in the world of UX design.
“We already know that” is the most dangerous thing you can say regarding user research.
The harsh truth is that insights have expiration dates.
Even if you validate a specific hypothesis with top-notch research and perfect analysis, after a couple of months, you might need to re-validate that insight with another round of research.
In a few months
Something that was true half a year ago isn’t necessarily true today.
That’s why acting on insights fast is essential. Otherwise, you are just wasting time collecting insights that expire before you even act.
User research is an extensive term.
The con of that is that there’s a lot of conflicting information and definitions. The pro, however, is that you can tailor user research to meet your specific needs.
User research can be expensive — if you need it and can afford it. However, it can also be very cheap and fast.
Remember:
The broadness of possibilities in user research can be a challenge if you focus on “how to do it right.” Instead, stop worrying about what user research is or isn’t and just do whatever is needed in your specific context.
As long as you are gaining valuable insights about your users, continue doing what you are doing, even if some gurus tell you that it is not “proper user research.”
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