How to Understand Your Users Better

Hello Indiana, In my last email, I introduced you to the Boagworld community and promised you we would take a deep dive into some of the key topics we cover. ​ I want to start that journey by looking at better understanding our users, a crucial component in everything from user experience design to conversion rate optimisation and even digital transformation. ​ However, before we dive in, I promised you a copy of the User Experience Revolution, a book that will help you build a more user-centric culture in your company. ​ ​YOU CAN DOWNLOAD THE BOOK AND CARDS HERE​ ​ Improve Your Projects With User Research We all know we should do user research, but making it happen can be hard. This post will show you ten ways you can do user research and suggest where you should focus. ​HOW TO IMPROVE YOUR PROJECTS WITH LEAN USER RESEARCH​ ​ Use a Discovery Phase to Do User Research It is tempting to dive straight into a project without doing your research, especially when time and budget are limited. However, doing so will prove costly in the end, and that is why you should always start with some form of a discovery phase. ​WHAT IS A DISCOVERY PHASE AND WHY SHOULD YOU CARE?​ ​ Visualise Your User Research Doing your research is pointless if it just stays in your head. Yes, it might help the current project, but then that knowledge is lost, and others never get to benefit from it. That is why visualising what you learn is so important. But how? ​VISUALISING YOUR USER RESEARCH – ARE PERSONAS THE ANSWER?​ ​ Start With Customer Journey Mapping One of the best ways of visualising user research is in the form of a customer journey map. That shows the user's experience over time and is excellent for identifying areas of improvement both in your digital channels, but also organisationally. ​WHAT IS CUSTOMER JOURNEY MAPPING AND HOW TO START?​ ​ Use Empathy Maps as a Quick Alternative The downside of customer journey maps is that they can be time-consuming to create. So if you are looking for a quick alternative, I recommend checking out empathy maps. Although they don't show the journey over time, they do focus on the questions, and tasks users are trying to complete. ​ADAPTING EMPATHY MAPS FOR UX DESIGN​ ​ Beyond the Blog Okay, that is enough of my words of wisdom. There is also a load of great content elsewhere on user research that you should check out. ​ Why Bother With User Research? If you still aren't convinced by the need to do user research or need more evidence to present to clients, then check out this post by the Interaction Design Foundation. ​USER RESEARCH: WHAT IT IS AND WHY YOU SHOULD DO IT​ ​ How to Start Out Doing User Research The UK Government offer some superb advice to those starting out in user research. If this is all new to you, I recommend you start there. I promise you won't regret it. ​UK GOVERNMENTS USER RESEARCH ADVICE​ ​ A Beginner's Guide to User Research If you would like something a bit more concise than the advice given by the UK Government, then check out this article by UX Pin. It is an excellent starting point and provides a superb summary of the fundamental techniques. ​THE PRACTICAL BEGINNER'S GUIDE TO USER RESEARCH​ ​ Carry Out Top Task Analysis One of the best user research techniques out there is something called Top Task Analysis. It is a technique that seeks to understand what users want to know or do on your website. It is something you should consider using. ​WHAT REALLY MATTERS: FOCUSING ON TOP TASKS​ ​ Consolidate What You Know Before you rush out to do any user research, start by consolidating what you know. You will be surprised how much knowledge exists in your company. You can take that and turn it into a customer journey map. ​ And remember, if you need help making user research happen, drop me an email. I would love to be involved. ​ Thanks, ​ ​ ​ If you no longer want to hear from me, I completely understand and you can unsubscribe from all emails here. Alternatively, if you need to update any of the information about yourself you can edit your profile here.