After Research, What Next?
I can’t count the number of times I’ve been told research is very important in my design process. “You should conduct research to understand the needs of your users, “If you don’t conduct research, how do you know how to solve the problems of your users?”
I am not disputing the power of research in user experience but, after research what comes next? How do I go from there? How do I convert my research findings to actionable insights?
If you’re like me, wondering what to do after conducting your research, and trying to figure out what’s next, this article is for you.
What kind of research are you talking about?
User research. That’s what I’m referring to.
User research is the cornerstone of product development. It provides valuable insights into the needs, preferences, and behaviors of your potential users. This can be conducted through surveys and questionnaires, interviews, contextual inquiries, etc.
However, conducting user research is just the first step in creating successful products or services. What comes next is also important for turning those insights into actionable strategies.
So, after conducting user research, what should I do next?
Like I mentioned earlier, user research is simply the beginning of your design process. You’ll need to interpret your findings, and decide what would be the best solution to the problem you’re trying to solve.
Here are some steps you can follow to translate your findings into potential solutions:
- Data Interpretation: One crucial step after conducting user research is interpreting the data you got. This is especially for people who conducted quantitative research. You’ll need to break those numbers down into easy-to-understand sentences or images. Tools like affinity diagrams or journey maps can assist in organizing & visualizing this data.
- Identifying Pain Points: Next, pinpoint areas where users encounter challenges with existing products or services. These pain points gives you the opportunity to create solutions that addresses user needs more effectively.
- Persona Creation: The next step would be to build on the above points to refine existing personas or create new ones. Personas serve as a representation of real users, guiding design decisions and building empathy.
- Design exploration: Armed with your personas and insights, you can now explore different design solutions to find out which one works best. You can start by creating low-fidelity wireframes to quickly test and iterate on different design concepts.
- Prototyping & Usability Testing: Utilize prototyping tools to explore different design solutions and iterate based on user feedback. Usability tests would give you the opportunity to observe how users interact with your prototype, and gather quality feedback.
Conclusion
As a UX designer, you do more than just research. You use what you learn from talking to people to make designs that are intuitive and easy to use. It’s all about working together, trying different ideas, and understanding how people feel.
Your goal is to make products that not only do what people want but also give them a good experience when they use them. So, keep talking, keep trying new things, and always put yourself in the user’s shoes.
