User needs
Who are your users? What questions, trigger words and needs do they have? We help you find the answers to these key questions. Usability is impossible if you don’t know who your users are or what their requirements are.
Before the development process starts, therefore, it is vital to document user needs. The customers often don’t know themselves what they need or want. As Henry Ford famously said "If I had asked my customers what they wanted, they would have said a faster horse." Understanding your customers is key to identifying new and better solutions that will revolutionise your users’ everyday digital world.
The results from user needs assessments will give you knowledge about:
• Which target groups/user groups should be prioritised?
• What information is the user interested in?
• What are the most important tasks that the user wants to perform?
• What trigger words are in the user’s head when they are looking for information?
• How well do the users know your products?
A wide range of methods is available to understand what users want from your design. The method that is most appropriate depends on the type and scope of the project.
Methods for understanding user needs
User needs workshop
We begin the process by organising a workshop with key personnel from your organisation; those who know the users best. In some projects, this may be all that’s needed before going forward with the work. The aim is to identify and prioritise the most important user groups.
In-depth interviews
Going in-depth with individual users can give you extremely valuable knowledge about their preferences and needs. Interviews are well suited for documenting individual user needs. We undertake everything from open discussions to interviews using structured interview guides to understand what your users want.
Context analysis and field studies
Observational studies of the context of a system can be very useful if the context affects the way that system is used. For example, the context in which an automatic ticket machine is used will affect the user experience. For example, the machine may be in a public place, people might be in a hurry, and there might be a long queue.
Questionnaires
Questionnaires allow you to reach a large number of users. Online questionnaires can find out who your users are, their attitudes, preferences and surfing habits; and to get user feedback on the user-friendliness of the website and input on improvements. We have extensive experience of developing effective questionnaires with both open ended questions and questions with scaled choices. We have set up surveys in several software tools, such as ConfirmIT and Refleks. We analyse the results using statistical tools such as SPSS and the reports follow the NetLife Research standard; thorough, easy to understand and fully illustrated.
Analysis of search logs and other logs
By observing what the users search for on a website/system, you can build knowledge about what they are interested in finding. Statistics showing which pages are viewed most (and least) can give suggestions as to which parts of the system should be prioritised.
Focus groups
In focus groups, several people from your target group gather to discuss and brainstorm. A focus group can be extremely useful early in the project both for establishing user needs and brainstorming about the functions that the users want. We have used focus groups for everything from evaluating printed brochures to discussions about the menu system on mobile telephones after the users have tried out the phone in a usability test. Focus groups cannot replace a usability test, where real users carry out typical tasks on your system. See our blog for more information on usability testing versus focus groups.
Personas and scenarios
This method documents user needs using a set of personas and scenarios; realistic and representative user profiles and use situations that you take further into the project. A challenge in all projects is to have a close relationship with the user. Preferably, you should have a typical user with you during the whole process. However, personas are an effective alternative to this and help us to talk about the individual ‘John’ or ‘Jane’ throughout the development and not just ‘the user’ as a large group. This method is used under a different name in areas such as industrial design, but Alan Cooper adapted it for use in developing digital interfaces. We have led this process by creating personas and scenarios in both large and small projects and have also trained others in this very effective method.