2-2 Plan User Research

Next your team will select its final idea for what problem to solve, and conduct user research to learn more about the problem and the people affected by it.

The user research will consist of a field study to observe people experiencing the problem in a real context and interviews to ask people about their experiences with the problem. Ideally, you will both observe and interview each person.

NOTE: If it is not possible to directly observe people experiencing the problem (due to when and where it occurs), then during the interviews, ask each person to recall in detail the last time they experienced the problem.

Your observations and interviews should gather data to help your team:

1. DEFINE THE PROBLEM: What are the steps involved in the current process? When and where does it occur? Who is involved? What are their goals and needs related to this process? What works well in the current process? What are the problems?

2. MEASURE THE IMPACT: What are the effects of the problem? If possible, try to quantify the effects, such as: extra time spent, effort wasted, extra cost, errors made, level of frustration, etc.

3. ANALYZE THE CAUSE: Why does the problem occur? Keep asking “why” until you discover the root cause(s).

Your team will use the data gathered during your research to help complete the next several project deliverables, which help further define the problem your team is solving:

• Personas for Different Stakeholders

• Journey Map of Current User Experience

• Value Proposition of Solution

• Design Requirements for Solution

In particular, you should preview the examples provided for the persona and journey map.

YOUR TASK

Your team should use this template to create a user research plan to gather data about the problem and the stakeholders (people) affected by the problem.

HINT: Once completed, your team's template could be printed and used to record your research notes. Print one copy for each person that you need to observe and interview.

1. Select the final idea for what problem your team project will solve.

2. Identify 2 different groups of stakeholders affected by the problem (such as: students, teachers, administrators, staff, etc.). Even if the problem only seems to affect one group (such as: students that get food from the cafeteria), try to identify two subgroups (such as: students that only occasionally get food from the cafeteria vs. students that regularly get food from the cafeteria).

3. Identify what background information would be relevant to gather about each stakeholder (such as: gender, age, etc.).

4. Prepare list of 3-5 focus questions that your team will try to answer through the field study observations.

5. Prepare list of 3-5 open-ended questions that your team will ask people during the interviews. If helpful, here is an article on open-ended versus closed-ended questions in user research.
6. Discuss specific plans to make sure your team will observe and interview at least 3 people from each of your 2 stakeholder groups for a total of at least 6 people. Each team member should observe and interview at least 2 people (but may need to complete more).

Conduct the user research over the next couple of days. Each team member should record detailed notes for each observation and interview conducted, so that all the team's data can be compiled together.

During the next class meeting, you will have the opportunity to practice your interviews with students from other teams. This will give your team a chance to revise its questions (if necessary) before you collect data from people outside of class. Data collected in-class can be used by your team, but your team still needs data from people outside of class.