User Research and Usability Test reports are no more, just gathering dust!!
Guest Contribution
With more and more of institutionalization of Design Thinking and User Experience into product development processes, the traditional techniques of user feedback and data gathering from users are gaining utmost relevance. One must congratulate the design community for impacting this change by persistently infusing user-centered design into their respective organizations.
Why did we have situations in the past when there were tons of usability testing and user feedback done but no one really paid head to it? Many reasons were responsible probably.
Research team working in isolation: Yes, one might say that we always invited the stakeholders to stand behind the one-way mirrors to witness the not-so-friendly episodes of usability testing. In most situations these studies were done in isolation and the software development process continued at its own free will by Researchers who are disconnected from the development process.
Waterfall development and its bad habits: Usually user research or usability testing was done with large gaps of development. So it was either too early before the actual development began or it happened too late into the process when lot of development dollars had already been invested, thus missing continuity of feedback cycles.
Not sufficient leadership buy-in: Lack of executive pressure or lack of budget outlay for research work meant that when it happened, it was seen more as a way to utilize and record the budget spent and less to really plug feedback into the development. This also lead to poor stakeholder alignment on the findings due to lack of accountability.
Really really lengthy reports: Yes, we all have worked on these at some point in time; spiral-bound heaps of reports which, though very detailed and meticulous and tapes and tapes of video recorded data and click through recordings. But they almost lost their relevance after the initial hype of the project was over and everyone eventually went back to their routine.
High quality research set-up and equipment and “Labs”: Pristine high quality lab set-ups with solid infrastructure almost created a perception that there is an investigative process that is happening, a secret activity which only the elitist can be privy of. Again that feeling of isolation vs inclusion was existent.
Exclusivity: Because special budgets were allocated to these activities and required executive sponsorships and approvals, the read-outs of the reports were also mostly confined to executives and their immediate managers. The engineers, who were actually involved in designing or building the code never got to see these reports and were secondary consumers. The engineers only got to know about the specific codes or features they had to work on but not really about the Why’s.
What has changed and for the better?
Firstly User Experience Design in its new avatar as Design Thinking has seeped in seamlessly into organization’s strategic thinking. Design is seen as a key strategic lever for the success of the organization. Roles at the leadership such as the CDOs(D for Design to D for Digital) or CXO are occupying key leadership positions in the organizations.
Organizational executives and leaders who embrace Design Thinking and push for Experience-first approach into their strategies are seen as forward thinking and disruptive. They are also hiring the best talent in design.
PM organization, the partners in crime for any good design to be embedded into a products strategy are embracing the aspects of Design Thinking, the most key being empathy towards the users and the need for understanding the users. In our organization, we have a special coaching for PMs to conduct user research. One of my all-time favorite books on research “Contextual Design by Huge Bayer and Karen Holtzblatt”, is read by all the PMs who embark on their first research projects in our organization. We have UX-PM pairs that go out and conduct all the field work and customer feedback.
Just as Market Research over the years has gained utmost relevance in defining Marketing strategies, we are seeing that User Research is seen as a key input in defining Product Strategies, although it hasn’t reached that status as yet.
We are adapting lean and rapid methods at the same time do it in a very lean manner. We need to come out of the labs and go on to the field. The Likes of Ubers invest continuously in these by shadowing Drivers and Customers and informing data.
Agile can actually be a boon in disguise for User Research proponents. Just as Customer Demos are an essential component of an Agile Definition of Done, User Research and Usability Testing need to be made essential components of a key release cycles (if not Sprint Cycles). Each Epic cycle needs to include User Research and Usability Testing as key components.
Realization that UI and UX are essentially different and that a good UI has no meaning without a good UX and good UX has no meaning without good understanding of the end users.
Customers are sensitive and therefore are appreciating the fact that their voice is being heard. In a recent User Research study conducted by one of our teams, the Customers who witnessed a session with a specific target user group actually sent a thank you note to our top executives citing the method used and the approach taken by the researchers (UX Designer and PO combined to execute this study). Involving Partners and Customers in the feedback process and keeping them constantly updated on how their feedback is actually being addressed.
It is now less about reports and more about action items. It’s no more a special activity but an essential activity. By not being considered as a special activity, the budget allocations are no more exclusive but inclusive. This is making this process more grounded and bringing it close to the engineers, involving Engineers when reading out the reports of the study as opposed to just the executives.
I wish this list grows as we move along.
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