Thoughts on User Research Smoke & Mirrors

About Scientific Research
Some of the “advanced” technologies used are but proofs to show your superiors of your findings, or rather, designer intuitions. Like eyetracking technology, what it does is not so hard to do so with a designer’s experience and eyes. It can only show the surface of things, yet it cannot tell you the root of the design problem.

The interpretation of results for such research plays a more important role than the result itself. In the end, it is up to the designers themselves to find and point out the mistakes in the design and make the required changes. However, I do feel that a certain amount of research still has to be done to aid the designer in the re-design or design process. The product’s intended user is not the designer himself but the target audience. So getting to know the target audience’s likes and dislikes better will definitely be of some help, especially if you are designing for user experience.

Designers can sometimes overlook the simplest of problems such as the improper placements of buttons or banners, so doing a bit of user research will do much to pick out the minute problems in large projects. However small the help, a little help through research is better than none.

Non Scientific Research
I do agree that non-scientific research methods are useful in aiding the designing process through my own personal experience of designing the Kumon learning portal for primary school children. What we think appeals to them might not be exactly so. It is only through user research that we got to know them better and cater to their wants and needs with greater ease and efficiency.

Methods such as card sorting and user persona gives valuable insight into sometimes easily overlooked areas. Sometimes, no matter how hard you try to make things “obvious” to the users, they will somehow miss it. This doesn’t mean that you are wrong or the user is wrong. Everyone experiences things differently, you just have to take it that this method of design does not suit the experience that you are intending the users to have. I’ll always bear in mind the fact that user experience design isn’t all about research, but a great deal of it lies on understanding the needs of your target users and research is but one of the methods to know them better.