This statement comes up a lot during the initial phases of a design project. On the outside I nod my head, note down the feature or interaction that is being described, but on the inside I’m wondering, “Does your user want to do that?” Frankly, the question I’m thinking about is way more interesting than the feature being described. What people WANT to do is typically the thing that leads to a project’s success and an engaging user experience, rather that being offered features that someone thinks they want to be doing.
So how do we find out what people want to be doing with a certain site, app, or product? It’s simple, you talk to them…scary I know. My friend and co-author Russ Unger recently gave a presentation at UX Thursday in Chicago where he provided attendees with a great overview of user research and how to get started. Below are his slides for the talk and I highly recommend looking them over. After you’ve digested the wisdom presented there, start to think about how you can find, or make, the time to talk with users on a regular basis and begin to hone your site, app, or product to better align with your users needs.
