7.3 Strategies for User Research

7.3 Strategies for user research

Essential idea here is that designer needs to understand the reasons behind the behaviour, wants and needs of the user.

User population 

• Group of people expected to make use of or use an item, product etc.
• It is the range of users for a particular product or system. There may be particular user populations a product is designed for; however, many products are designed for use by different or multiple populations.
• iPhone has a broad ranging user population. Therefore this product is universally successful.
• Universally successful means that the product can be successful to a group of users with wide ranging cognitive and physical quantities
• However, some products aimed at a narrow user population such as cockpit of A380 aircraft.

Classification of users

• User populations can be classified into groups depending on age, gender and physical condition, allowing designer to gather detailed feedback to generate insights for design development for each group.
• Designers use user groups data to represent a personae or profile that is representative of the user group.
• Physical condition:                                                                                                                                -Blindness                                                                                                                                        -Hearing                                                                                                                                            -Reduced sense of feeling                                                                                                                -Repetitive strain injury
• Designers can also classify users into groups by considering criteria such as interests, habits, nuances or emotional. The criteria about which a product will be designed will be defined by the classification of the user population.

Personae

• Personae are fictional constructs derived from ethnographic
• Persona is a fictional person who represents a major user group and is behaviour-based, user archetype and used to make decisions about a product's features, use and design. It is presented to the design team as a single human with a name, face, attitude and goals.
• Personae development helps the design process by identifying and prioritising the roles and user characteristics of key audiences for a product.
• 3 main personae: primary, secondary personae and also anti-personae.
• Primary personae - A fictional character created to represent the user of a product. (stakeholder)
• Secondary personae - A fictional character created to represent the audience that is not the target audience but potential users of the product.
• Anti-personae - A fictional character created to represent a non-user of a product. 

• Scenario - A series of events.

Reasons of personae 

• understand customer profoundly and in detail as if you knew them fully. 
• identify which group of customers need to be valued. 
• discover the needs of the customer which the actual customer may not have recognised themselves. 
• improving the quality of products across a wide spectrum of design.

Scenarios provide physical and social context for different personae

• A scenario is an imagined sequence of events in the daily life of a persona based on assumptions by researchers and designers. 
• Scenarios are based on best, worst and average case. Imagining any conceivable situation.

Use case

• A set of possible sequences of interactions or event steps between a user and a product to achieve a particular action.
• It depicts all possible interactions
• https://youtu.be/tLJXJLfLCCM