The importance of understanding user context

What is research driven design?

• Asking what YOUR users want from YOUR website or application, at THIS point in time, in their context
• Designing a site that makes the user feel it is about them, not about your processes or structure
• Validating that the design resonates with your users
• Part of User Centered Design theory and practice

What is it not?

• Market research
• Statistics
• Surveys
• Feedback
• Usability
• Information Architecture

But it does inform all of these.

Components of research

If you don’t know what you want to achieve, you won’t achieve anything at all

Carefully structure your research

• Scoping and goal setting
• Research design
• Focus groups and/or interviews
• Heuristics
• Design
• Validation

What are we looking for?

• Content – what have you got?
• Context – what does the user feel, know or think?
• Control – how do people use it?
• Result – what does everyone gain?

Content: what does your site do? How are you trying to help the user?

Context: Why are they here? Where are they from? What do they already know about you? How did they get here?

Control: How do people want to use your website? Is it Information or an application. Users will tell you how they want things to behave.

Conclusion:  What does everyone get out of it in the end, do the users know this before starting? What is the value proposition?

Context is everything

• Every group of users is different
• The world changes quickly
• You are not a user
• Usability rules are not black and white

Case studies

• What a client discovers can be more important than what they already know
• What a client does about a discovery is more important than the problem

Who has been served a bad meal in a restaurant? How did they handle it when you complained?

Case study: DCITA website

• Goals
• Process
• Findings
• Results