Why UX Needs To Partner With User Research
As a UX designer, you sort of have to operate like an octopus — the network you impact is very extensive because you influence so many different parts of the product experience. This includes staying in sync across various disciplines, including research, visual design, development, product management, and more. UX designers are essentially the individuals who take the first step in translating problems into tangible solutions through artifacts like wireframes, journey maps, information architecture, and many more; and in order to do so successfully, having context is key. Context reassures the designer who it is he or she is designing for and the areas of opportunity the designer can impact — hence the octopus metaphor. I would credit a large part of the context and insights that inform my work as a UX designer at IBM to user research. Without user research, I would have no visibility to my users, and therefore no insights in creating a solution that reflects the users’ needs.
As soon as I acknowledged the importance of the relationship between user research and design, I have made it a mission of mine to engage and learn more about this discipline, and therefore provide support wherever I can. In doing so, I have made some observations that UX designers should keep in mind when contributing to user research:
1. Why User Research Matters To UX
Many designers may already be aware of the value that user research brings to the success of a product because of its focus and emphasis on the user. However, how does user research directly impact and benefit UX design itself? When it comes to design, function takes priority over form, and this rule still applies to UX. Intent drives a lot of what I need to consider when designing a user flow or a specific layout on a screen. In order to accomplish the deliverables that are assigned to me, I need to be able to understand the data I will be representing to users in a clear, hierarchical, scannable, and scalable way. Therefore, the path to gaining a better understanding of the data and domain UX designers will be working with is through user research. User interactions provide the opportunity for UX designers to get one step closer in thinking about the tools and data they can use to design products like information architecture, wireframes, prototypes, etc.
Participating in this research effort empowers UX designers to be proactive in assessing what problem they are trying to solve and constructing questions to better understand areas that need further investigation. Additionally, for domain spaces that are particularly technically complex, it helps to be involved in these conversations because it gives the UX designer more insight to the user’s current workflow. As the designer creates low to high fidelity wireframes, research will also progressively inform the complexity, depth, and scale of the data that needs to be represented through the designs. Having insight into the type of content or data that will dictate the design of your product is crucial and must be carefully considered so that the designs can embrace the full extent of the user experience.
But keep in mind that there is a balance when gauging how much impact user research should have on UX. One misconception or “bad” practice designers and non-designers are guilty of is the notion that design changes are to be made instantaneously whenever users express unfavorably to a specific part of a design. I would recommend that changes should only be made once the design team has identified patterns or quantitative data that suggests the UX designer should make the appropriate fixes to the design. For example, if 30% of your users are unable to perform a task successfully, this part of the experience will need to be re-evaluated. Changes can be prioritized by both the researcher and UX designer, which the UX designer can take to make design changes in the next sprint.
2. User Research Is Not A Lone Effort
For designers, users are our “North Star”, and we are ensured that the users’ needs are always kept in mind with the help of user research. That being said, most designers understand the value that research brings to the table, especially because it gives us access to user insights we could never obtain otherwise. However, from my experience working with developers and stakeholders, many are unaware of the logistics that need to happen before we reach that point. There is a great level of time and effort required that simply cannot be achieved by a single individual, like:
- Gaining a baseline of knowledge about the business direction and the domain space
- Devising a research plan that outlines the necessary steps to gain a better understanding of the problem space
- Identifying roles that best represent the target users
- Preparing questions and guidelines to assist in conducting user interviews
- Documenting user feedback
- Synthesizing user research to make actionable insights and identify areas of opportunity
The surprising part of it all is that there are designers who are under the same assumption that any research regarding the user has to be completed solely by the user researcher in the design team, which is wrong. When analyzing and synthesizing research, one individual’s opinion cannot be the driving voice to unveiling an insight. With any job, creativity is achieved through collaboration. By collaborating with other individuals, you give yourself the opportunity to inspire one another and create more diverse ideas. For my very first project at IBM, my team and I had the opportunity to heavily inform the direction of the product, with it being an entirely new product and having no precedence other than a prototype that had been built through the studio’s Incubator program. Therefore, being a new designer and having the chance to play a major role in the beginning phase of the research journey, I was able to contribute a good majority of my time to being physically present during most (if not all) weekly user interviews over a span of 4 months, while actively taking notes and sometimes directly speaking to customers during calls. My involvement during the research phase contributed significantly when it came to synthesizing the findings with my researcher because I was able to not only remember data that the researcher may have missed (and vice versa), but we were able to share and communicate on our different interpretations around a specific set of data or findings.
I would also go so far as to say that user research should include not only the help of UX, but other disciplines like visual design and development as well. Having more people engaged in the process not only lends to more variety and a wider lens to the problem that’s given, but having individuals who represent other disciplines could also provide a different way of interpreting data and presenting creative solutions because they can leverage their expertise. Additionally, having more people (this can include non-designers like development or product management) involved in the synthesizing phase enables them to internalize the data and gain a deeper understanding of their users and pain points. Staying connected to the research will help these individuals become advocates for the users, and ensure that the entire team stays focused and aligned on the users’ needs throughout the production process.
3. Balancing Research And UX
At big organizations like IBM, we are responsible to focus and produce based on the discipline and/or role we are assigned to, but this doesn’t mean we should silo ourselves to do solely just that. Having more awareness and gaining influence from areas that can better inform your work and deliverables are things you should feel empowered to partake in. If you can make a solid argument explaining the benefits that come with contributing to research or visual, etc., your leadership would be more inclined to encourage your decisions.
Obviously, participating in user research conversations can take up a lot of time out of your hands, especially if you have specific discipline-related tasks that need to be completed. In the case you are struggling to balance your responsibilities between research and UX, it is crucial that you articulate to your team why it is valuable for you to prioritize your tasks so that you are focused on the higher priority at hand — whether those tasks be research or UX-related. Therefore, you should feel empowered to voice your preference to be a part of research, especially during the beginning stages of UX research, but also make sure to check in and articulate to your team when your priorities have shifted to creating wireframes. This further supports the recommendation that teams be delegated to help out with research and synthesize the data together instead of putting those responsibilities onto a single individual.
Conclusion
I recognize other UX designers might think differently, but given my experience, I wholeheartedly believe that UX and user research are co-dependent of one another. And like an octopus, user research both influences and is influenced by other parts of the product experience. The more user insights I can gain, the more they will inform and aid in my process to create solutions that are relevant and useful to my users. And if you can’t tell already, my close relationship with my researcher opened opportunities for our product team to arrive at more creative and insightful solutions for our users. Now that you have read my views regarding the importance of UX’s partnership with user research, how do you think UX designers can contribute to research?
