Research on a budget

Most lone developers don’t have a separate research division they can turn to get answers to the questions in my previous post. You already know that you’re head of development, head of sales and head of marketing, but guess what: now you’re also head of R&D.

Congratulations on your new role! Here’s a way of collecting the audience data you need as quickly and cheaply as possible.

Phase 1

Download and open this worksheet. (At the moment, you’ll just use the first page.)

Here’s what you need to do: complete as much information in the boxes as you can. If you’re not sure what to write, you might find it useful to look back at the questions above. You’ll also notice a box for a quotation. What you should write there is a description of the user’s key goal written the way the user would express it. For example, don’t write: “User wants to find location of nearest metro station” (for your ‘Metro Finder’ app).  Instead write: “I’m lost and I want step-by-step directions to the nearest tube stop”. This is a good first step for putting you in the shoes of your user.

If you find the form a little difficult to complete, that’s OK. You’re now about to do some research to add some flesh to the skeleton.

Phase 2

Print out a copy of the form you just filled out and also print half-a-dozen blank copies of the second page of the worksheet (the page titled ‘Interview Highlights’).

Now go to a place where your users congregate. This could be a mobile phone shop at a shopping centre, an Apple Store, or a Starbucks. Take a deep breath and stop someone as they leave the store.

“Wait!” I hear you say. “You want me to speak to a stranger? How am I meant to do that?” Here’s some suggestions for interviewing like a pro

First up, you need to look the part. Print put one of those little conference badges with your name on and “Head of User Research” printed underneath. Get yourself a clip board so that you look like a proper researcher.

Then tell your potential participant that you’re doing research into the development of a new mobile phone app and you want to get a better understanding of the people that will use it. Say that you need just 5 minutes of their time. Pique their interest by telling them — in one sentence — the problem your app will solve.

If your potential participant doesn’t want to take part, that’s fine. They probably aren’t your user anyway. If they were, they would have paid attention when you told them about the problem that your app will solve. So now move onto someone else.

Once you have someone on the hook, ask him or her to look over the page you’ve printed out and tell you the specific parts you got right and the bits you got wrong. Does this sound like a good description of the participant? What’s missing?

Immediately you’ve finished your interview, complete one of the ‘Interview Highlights’ forms. Then go back and repeat the exercise until you’ve interviewed around 6 people.

Phase 3

Once you’ve completed your interviews, look over your findings and work to how to change your user description so that it’s more authentic. What do you need to add, delete or revise? If your new user description ends up being very different from the one you started with, you might want to go back and try the exercise again. You should be able to complete one round of 6 interviews in a morning, so you could then use the afternoon to test out your revised description.

Using your research data

At the end of this 1-day exercise, you’ll have a data-driven description of your users that you’ll be able to use to steer design decisions. You’ll find yourself continually thinking back to these interviews whenever you’re thinking about the design of your app. Instead of wondering about what an “average” user would want, you’ll find yourself recalling the specific users you interviewed — and that will make many of your design decisions easy.

You’ll find that the data you’ve collected becomes less important than the change in mindset. Involving users is addictive. Once you take that leap and do it the first time, you’ll find it much easier to do the second time. And before you know it, involving users will become the natural way for you to do design.

But I promise you that you’ll have one extra thing too.

You’ll have a successful app.