A Research Guide For Beginner UX Designer
Research is essential in every industry where products such as applications and websites are developed. Why? Because those products are made based on customers’ needs. Thus, research is necessary to find out what exactly the customers expect from your products. But where do we start? Let’s find out in this article!
The Importance of Doing Research Before Making A Product
Before going further, you have to know what User Experience (UX) research is. UX research is a thorough research from users and their needs. The purpose of this research is to get some references for User Interface (UI) or User Experience itself. The aim is to identify, find out the needs, and provide a solution for difficulties the customers encountered.
Other than that, research regarding UI/UX will also help your designing process to make it more efficient and easier for the customers to use. In fact, deeper research can also make you understand your competitor’s product. You can analyse the negative of your competitors and use it as a reference to improve your own product.
So, before making a product, make sure to do some further research first and make the most of it. However, what exactly do we have to research to get the expected output?
What Do We Need to Research and How to Do It?
The purpose of research is to find and provide solutions for every problem the users have. To identify their needs, do all these steps below to make your research easier.
- Observe
Start your research with observation. For instance, observe and take notes of the information regarding patterns, characteristics, or traits of the users. By doing that, your products will be more centered on the customers. - Make A Hypothesis
Based on your observation, make a hypothesis regarding the users. For instance, what do they need? Then you can also think about how much you know about your users. - Do Your User Research
To make it easier for you to know about the users, you can do some user research. There are two types of methods for this research. First type is quantitative. This method is dealing with numbers and counts. Second type is qualitative, it is related to what the user is thinking or feeling. This research is to find out about any opinions, problems, causes, and users' motivations. - Pick Your Research
Based on the information and data you’ve collected, you can start thinking about the right research method that fits your condition and needs. There are a variety of methods you can do, for example; user interview, survey, giving questionnaire, or A/B test. You can choose which method best suits the objectives you want to achieve. - Analysis
After doing research according to the agreed method, make an analysis from the data you have collected. In this process, you can also identify problems that the customers are having, and try to find the solution. The result of this analysis can be a graphic that represents the users’ characteristics.
Overall, the goal of doing this kind of research is to make products that are focused on the users, in terms of useability and design. The steps above are just the basics you can do as a beginner in UI/UX research. Improve your skills in this field to take your first step as a UI/UX designer. If you’re interested in the world of IT, don’t hesitate to visit Radya Digital blog to get many more useful tips!