The Best Tool To Discover User Needs

The most valuable asset of a successful design team is theinformation they have about their users. When teams have the rightinformation, the job of designing a powerful, intuitive, easy-to-useinterface becomes tremendously easier. When they don't, every littledesign decision becomes a struggle.

While techniques, such as focus groups, usability tests, andsurveys, can lead to valuable insights, the most powerful tool in thetoolbox is the 'field study'. Field studies get the team immersed inthe environment of their users and allow them to observe criticaldetails for which there is no other way of discovering.

Field Studies in Action

Over the years, we've conducted many field studies for ourclients. In each study, we've learned amazing things about how peoplebehave, giving us incredible insight into how we should designinterfaces for use.

We've watched people shopping in malls, giving us insightinto how they manage shopping lists and purchase items on impulse. Fromthis we've learned a lot to guide successful e-commerce designs.

We've spent weeks sitting alongside systemadministrators, watching how they interact with software documentationas they solve problems and maintain systems. We garnered newperspectives on the roles of printed and online documentation, helpingus understand the unique problems that each medium favors.

We've followed paperwork through large manufacturingfacilities, seeing who touched it and what they needed from it. Fromthis, we learned the subtleties of the manufacturing information andhow the seemingly minor actions of one person in the factory (such asleaving an 'unimportant' field blank) can have dramatic affects on theefficiency of other people later on. Seeing how people interacted witheach other using the paperwork gave us a greater understanding of theintricacies of implementing enterprise-wide information systems.

While field studies are one of the most expensive techniquesto implement, the value they return is tremendous. We've never comeback from a study thinking we've wasted our time and resources. Aquality 6-day study can produce enough information to keep a team busyfor months.

The Power of Field Studies

Even a short field study, such as two or three half-day visits, can yield tremendous value. From these we can learn:

Terminology and processes: What do users do and howdo they talk about it? While users can describe a process or shareterms in an interview format, watching them work points out subtletiesthat they are unaware of.

Context: What are the external forces that willimpact the design? Do the user's requirements change when they arerushed or up against a deadline? People have trouble describing thecontext of their work, however it's easy for outsiders to observe.

Similarities and differences: Visiting multiplesites can allow the team to collect a rich amount of information aboutthe commonalities that appear across environments, along with thevariations that will impact design decisions (such as providingswitches, options, and optional features). Just compiling a list ofsimilarities and differences observed in 4 separate visits can reallyhelp a team focus on the critical functionality and requirements for aproject.

Field studies give the advantage of delivering the team information they just can't get in any other way:

Users can't describe activities that they don't focuson. When you have an audience that is experienced at what they do, theyoften don't pay attention to the small steps involved. An outsideobserver will see these "unspeakables" and can document them in waysthat the participants can't. It's these details that will make the userexperience feel natural and well considered.

Innovation happens when the designers get directexposure to the users' entire context and its subtle variations andaccidental similarities. Some of the most innovative designs in thelast 5 years are the result of paying attention to the little detailsin the user's context.

'Intuitive' interfaces are easier to build whendesigners have a deep understanding of the users' context, terminology,and processes. It's the combination of these three elements that makean interface seem intuitive, because the familiarity to users isalready built in.

The biggest downside to field studies is the cost to theorganization. Scheduling the visits, taking team members out of theoffice for several days, and finishing the analysis can have a hugeimpact on a project's resources.

The most successful organizations look beyond the currentproject, realizing that the value from the information learned willfeed into future projects for years to come. Using this perspective,they amortize the costs across many development projects and it becomesan extremely cost effective method for gathering critical information.

When we look at teams that are struggling to produce qualitydesigns, almost always it is the result of spending time guessing andestimating user needs instead of working with actual data. Fieldstudies can eliminate 'opinion wars' by replacing the strongly-heldhunches of the team members with real information that describes whatis happening. This is probably the biggest benefit that teams see.

Some organizations go so far as to ensure that every designteam member visits at least one user every 4 months. This constantexposure to the users' context changes the way teams interact, makingthe focus less on validation of information and more on creativity andsolving users' problems.

The results from a successful set of visits will feed directlyinto persona development, information architecture, workflows, usecases, and requirements for the project. Teams that conduct visits findthat they use these results consistently through many differentprojects.

When we've look at how the most usable designs were developed,we see one commonality across all the teams involved: they all had thecritical information they needed to create these incredible results.Field studies are the most effective technique we've found at gettingthat critical information.

The Best Tool To Discover User Needs
The most valuable asset of a successful design team is the information they have about their users. When teams have the right information, the job of designing a powerful, intuitive, easy-to-use interface becomes tremendously easier.
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