7.3: Strategies for User Research

7.3
Strategies for User Research
The designer needs to understand the reasons behind the behaviours, wants and needs of the user. (Potentially through research)

     User population

• group of people that are expected to use your product (could be a very wide margin or it could be narrow, depending on the functions of the product)
• BROAD RANGING USER POPULATION - there are many who can use/operate the product, easy to use

  

  People of all ages can use the iPhone

• NARROW USER POPULATION - aimed at a group of people, may be difficult to use such as the aircraft cockpit (only pilots may fly it)

  

  Only a select group of people are able to operate CCTV rooms

     Classification of user

• User populations can be classified into groups depending on age, gender, and physical condition. 
• Criteria for user population classifications include interests, habits, nuances, emotional responses to specific stimuli, physical conditions, age, etc.
• creating design development that are specific to each group and their respective needs

  

  The OBaby support stroller is designed for the elderly (possibly grandparents) who need to use a walker whilst pushing the stroller.

     Personae

• is a fictional person who represents a major user group and is behaviour-based
• each personae has different needs, different attributes (is a guiding criteria when designing a product to fulfil the personae's needs.)



Example personae

• supports the design process by identifying and prioritising the roles and user characteristics of key audiences for a product

Personae help develop specifications in the researching processes.

• PRIMARY PERSONAE - typical stakeholders and needs must be satified
• SECONDARY PERSONAE - not the primary target audience, but the product should meet their needs; alternative insights
• ANTI PERSONAE - for whom the product is not designed for
• The reasons why a personae is created is to; 
• Understand the customer in detail
• identify which group of customers need to be valued
• improve the quality of products and services across a wide spectrum of design

     Use case

• use case is a written document that describes the interaction from the user experience.
• working out how your persona is using your product
• will provide information about usability and over experience whilst the user interacts with the design solution
• should depict all possible interactions 

  

  ATM use case diagram

  
  

  

  Restaurant service use case diagram

• can be depicted like above diagrams or in step form

     Scenario

• real-life scenarios that stimulate actual user experiences can generate new findings
• using persona in a scenario to figure how they might use your product
• an imagined sequence of events in the daily life of a persona based on assumptions by researches and designers