Research

In the beginning of a project it is important to know what the goals for the product. Just a few of the questions that arise are:

1. Who is the audience or user of this product?
2. In what context will this product be used?
3. How will this product be used?
4. Who are the competitors for this product?
5. How will our product compete with the products of our competitors?
6. What are the cost, time, and resource limitions for developing this product?
7. How will this product be distributed?
8. How will this product be branded, marketed, and advertised?

In order to answer these questions realistically, it is crucial to collaborate the efforts of several groups responsible for the product. Depending on the type of product, these groups may include marketing, software and hardware engineering, industrial design, creative services, usability, legal, and of course, management. Although each of these groups have information to contribute, we will be concentrating on the efforts of the User Experience group, in particular.

User/Customer Research is the first important step in the process for the User Experience team. There are several usability methods and processes to facilitate this research:

1. Surveys - Analyzing the answers from a set of written questions to a large sample population of users. Usually administrated in a paper-based format, but increasingly offered online.
2. Focus group - Facilitating a cross-section of potential users in a discussion group format. Useful in early requirements gathering and also collecting feedback at a later time after release of the product.
3. Interview techniques - Expert and/or novice users are interviewed to gain understanding of the needs of the user.
4. Contextual inquiry - Enables the interviewer to observe the user in the environment in which the product, or service will be used. Closer to a disccovery, rather than evaluative, process.
5. Use Cases - Analysis of the ways that the product will be used.
6. Task analysis - Analysis of the actions and/or cognitive processes required for a user to accomplish tasks associated with the product. •