3.3 Phase 1: Research & Discovery
“UX without user research is not UX.” – Nielsen Norman Group
Designing a product or system that meets the needs of its users is simply not possible without first understanding those users. This principle is core to the purpose of user experience design. The research phase, then, is critical to success and becomes the foundation upon which design decisions should be made for a user-centered product.
And while examining and understanding your users is the primary goal, comprehensive research should also include gaining a clear understanding of mission and stakeholder objectives and requirements, and in commercial settings, would also include market or landscape assessments. Successful designs bridge both user and stakeholder needs.
The crux of conducting relevant, impactful research is having clear objectives at the outset. You should be setting these research objectives by having a clear purpose for how and where you intend to turn your research findings into inputs for later activities and methods. Only then can you know which research methods to employ and how best to employ them. In other words, start with the questions you wish to have answered and select methods best suited to answering them.
Continue reading below to learn about some of the research methods most appropriate for logistics information systems and how they can be leveraged to inform subsequent work.
Direct communication in the form of interviews is a reliable way to gather user and business needs.
Surveys are an easy way to gather a large amount of information in minimal time.
Data-driven analysis of site usage and user behavior can provide important context and theory validation.
Logs of activities by users as they occur offer insights like context and environment details, real-time needs and behaviors.
Personas are realistic amalgamated representations of your key audience segments. Their humanistic details offer your team the ability to better empathize with your user types.
These narratives explore why a specific user or user group would use your system within a narrow context and purpose, focusing on their motivations, goals, and concerns.
Visualizations that depict the typical journey for users accomplishing a task or going through a scenario, including their thoughts, system interactions, and reactions along the way.
Detailed diagrams that capture key processes in service delivery across all touchpoints, including the actions of the end user and the roles and tasks of any support personnel.
As simple descriptions of a user’s intent and the system’s desired responses to satisfy, use cases help quickly catalog all of a system’s necessary features and interactions.