There is an assumption in User Experience work that you are building, devising, and designing products and experiences for other people.

It naturally follows that starting your UX educational journey by understanding people, and placing them at the center of all that you do, is critical.

If you are serious about learning User Experience (UX) design, you first need to understand the basics of design thinking.

Design thinking, as I have written about in freeCodeCamp before, is a holistic way of applying critical thinking to solving design related problems that matter to people.

Specifically, design thinking is a way to learn about, gain insight into, and deeply understand human beings.

Before learning UX, and learning to speak the language of this discipline, you need to learn about people and understand what they care about, who they are, and how they will use your solutions.

An introduction to UX therefore starts by placing the human experience – what people want, need, and value – at the center of your world view and all that you do.

How to Understand People

In order to learn UX design you must learn how to ask questions, and the right ones.

You might find this overly simplistic. Nevertheless, question asking is where your self-taught user experience skills will first develop.

We ask questions every day. But how often do we ask follow-up questions? How often do we practice active listening to help guide further questioning of others and ourselves?

The process of becoming a self-taught UX designer is multi-faceted.

But above all else the process starts with placing humans at the center of how you ask questions and listen to answers.

Here is a UX experiment that you should try. Ask a friend or peer “5 Follow-up Questions” to more deeply probe their behavior and uncover interesting revelations.

Adam Question #1 to Interview Subject: “What was the last thing you purchased online?”

Answer: “The last thing I purchased online was a Gorilla Grip Anti Fatigue Comfort Mat.”

Adam Question #2: “Why did you buy this product?”

Answer: “I purchased this product to protect my ankles and knees and to feel comfortable while working from home and standing at my desk.”

Adam Question #3: “Why do you want to protect your ankles and knees?”

Answer: “I love to play sports and want to ensure that my body remains healthy.”

Adam Question #4: “Why do you love playing sports?”

Answer: “Playing tennis enables me to release tension.”

Adam Question #5: “Why are you tense?”

Answer: “I find my job stressful and too demanding.”

In this real example we can see how one set of questions led us down an interesting and unforeseen path.

By asking my friend about his online purchase history I gained new insights into his work and life. Probing questions (and follow up questions) enabled me to glean a deeper and better understanding of this person.

If I were doing user experience design for the Gorilla Grip company perhaps I would include messaging that suggests that the mat helps reduce work stress as well.

If you want to understand people you need to understand a person’s motivations, fears, and key personal drivers.

Only by asking why repeatedly (or some variation of why) can you truly understand the customer. Start with humans and work backwards.

Before Asking Questions of Others, Ask A Few of Yourself

Before asking questions of others you must ask and answer some questions about yourself.

Are you good at asking questions? If so, why? If not, why not?

Are you good at actively listening to answers?

Do you pay close attention to words, body language, and feedback?

Do you have a strong memory for detail recollection? Do you take notes or memorize answers?

You need to hone in on these answers. User experience designers need to pay close attention to details.

How can you improve your detail oriented capabilities?

Here is a fun and low cost way to practice. Watch a TV show or movie or read a long and informative article.

After consuming the content, try to answer the following:

1. List a few names mentioned in the show/article
2. If a show: what outfits were some of the characters wearing?
3. If an article: who was the author?
4. What was the main point of the show/article?

If you are like most people, answering question #1 was moderately difficult for you. Questions #2 and #3 were very challenging. And question #4 was straightforward.

Think about these questions.

Why are some so hard and others easy? These questions trigger different aspects of our memory and how we categorize and store information.

When starting to engage with users you need to be mindful of the questions you ask and the answers you get back. Answers have implicit and explicit connotations and biases.

It is not enough to hear what users are saying.

You need to understand what is being communicated, remember it correctly, and use that input as a guide.

When starting on your self-taught user experience journey remember that your users are your guides.

But you are a guide as well. The types of questions you ask of others are critically important.

Sample Questions: Self-Taught UX Sessions

I want to now provide UX questions you should read though and incorporate in order to conduct your first UX study or research session with real users.

Here are UX questions I deployed to friends and colleagues when I started building a website to help people work remotely.

Try using the questions as a script or guide. Feel free to amend as you see fit.

1. We’re going to be looking at a webpage called WFH Adviser. And I’d just like your honest feedback about what you see. There aren’t any right or wrong answers, the goal isn’t to test you, but to test the site so that I can improve it.
2. You won’t hurt my feelings with any of your feedback (haha, smile) OK?
3. WFH Adviser is a website that helps remote workers understand how to work efficiently and effectively from home.
4. On the site you can read articles about new work from home products, how to manage your career remotely, and find remote jobs. Any questions?
5. Have you ever used a website engagement tool?
6. Let’s say you visit the home page. This is what you see. (Show a screen straight away to your product sample).
7. What do you think you are seeing here?

1. If you were interested in reading this first review of products, how would you do that? (Tap link? Yes/No)
2. If you want to see other work from home products related to what you read in the article, how would you do that? (Tap Link? Yes/No).
3. When you see a list of “Best Work From Home Products” what do you think that means?
4. What do you think about that list?
5. Do you work from home?
6. Let’s say that you wanted to buy a product, how would you do that? (Tap link? Yes/No)
7. Let’s say that you wanted to read about how to get promoted while working with a remote manager, how would do that? (Tap Search on Articles? Yes/No).
8. OK, let’s say we’ve read an article. What would you do afterwards? (Tap Next Article or Leave Site).

1. Point out that it left and went to the browser if the user doesn’t realize it.
2. What would you expect to happen now?
3. Are there any other questions or comments you have?
4. I have three final questions:
5. Based on what you saw today, how would you describe Work From Home Adviser to a friend?
6. How would you suggest I increase brand awareness?
7. And lastly, are there any workflow automation improvements on the site you would like to see?

You now have practical, tactical, and ready-to-deploy questions to ask your users.

Bringing It All Together: UX Questions, Insights, and Human Design

Before starting the UX journey, take time to practice active listening. Recall details big and small and write these details down.

Practice when the stakes are low – via a movie or article or book – and leverage your newfound skills to better interact with users.

When you are ready, start speaking with users using a standard outline or script like the one I provided.

Improvise and ask follow up questions. Probe assumptions, understand your biases (and those of your users), and dig deeper by asking the “5 Follow-up Questions.”

If you practice user experience design your career and skills can take profoundly interesting paths.

For example, my friend started Everlance, a mileage tracking app. While in graduate school he spent time both as a ride sharing passenger and as a driver to holistically understand user experiences from all angles and common pain points.

He quickly discovered that keeping track of mileage logs for federal reimbursement was too difficult and cumbersome.

This insight led him to build software to solve that problem.

He walked a mile in the shoes of his users. He asked questions. He used the answers to guide his design decisions.

That level of commitment is one we should all strive for.

Becoming a user experience designer is not a transactional skill. You don’t practice for a month or a year and then take a test.

User experience design is more akin to painting.

First you learn about colors.

Then you learn how to hold a brush.

And then you sit and practice and practice and practice.

Eventually you start to build out a portfolio of relevant high quality watercolors.

Ultimately becoming a self-taught user experience designer is a journey to celebrate people and to let people express their desires, fears, hopes, and confusions to you.

Think about all of the fields that benefit from the application of UX design.

If you are building consumer tools, like a cut and paste app, or you are an online form creator you can leverage user experience design skills to elevate your craft.

If you are building a podcast directory or coworking space management software you will need to understand what users want to listen to or how to organize internal space.

If you care about startup growth, content creation, or building ad creatives you can apply UX design questions to better guide your decisions and your copy.

The fields that benefit from UX design expertise are essentially endless. That should excite you because you can create messaging, products, and experiences that better resonates with your users.

The same is true with non-digital assets.

Think about a vertical monitor or mini projector. Only through a healthy dose of empathy, an ear and heart centered towards active listening, and a deep desire to help others could designers have built such useful physical products.

This article provides the ingredients that will enable you to start becoming a better and more holistic User Experience Designer.

You need to own the next steps.

Go forth and practice. Listen, learn, and build with humans in mind.

There is no better place to start.

Product design is the process you go through when you conceptualize and build a product.

The path to building – hardware, software, or even simple prototypes – has different steps and approaches.

I have built products at Google and advised companies who are building products in the web development and mobile app space. Through my experiences as a builder I have made many mistakes. I have also gotten a few things right.

Learning how to design products is not only useful for builders. Learning to wear a “product design hat” can help aspiring product managers, engineers, sales professionals, and managers empathize with how a product is built and why.

Product design is focused on building products to help users make sense of a confusing, complex, and contradictory world.

Through a mix of product launches, mentorship, observation, and repeated experimentation, I have learned the fundamentals of product design. Hopefully you can avoid some of the pitfalls that I experienced.

I want to share eight practical steps with you in the hope that this framework enables you to build and design better products and more rapidly bring them to market.

Step 1: Define the vision of the product

At this earliest stage of design you should turn your computer off.

Put your pencil down. Think.

Ask yourself: “What is the purpose of this product?”

You should be able to loosely articulate what a product might be able to do, who will use it, and what problem the product solves.

Don’t drown in numbers or research. If you are intimately aware of the problem that the product will solve, great. If you are newer to the problem space, think about why the problem exists.

Define what a product will feel like, how users might interact with it, and why other products don’t adequately solve the problem you have identified today.

Step 2: Research the product space and market

In this second stage you should start to look at the market and define who is in it and why.

Answer the following: Who makes similar products, how are those products used and by whom, and what impact are these products having?

How were these existing products brought to market and distributed?

Thoughtful research starts with the end-users.

There are two types of products: those that are incremental improvements to existing products and entirely new inventions. Which one is yours?

Work backwards from customers. Although good product designers may pay attention to competitors, great researchers obsess over how people will use the product itself.

Step 3: Get Feedback and Generate More Ideas

Earn the future trust of users by practicing active listening.

Demonstrate strong judgement and good instinct by building a prototype and getting real feedback. When getting initial feedback, a strong product designer will never say “that’s not my job.”

Answer these questions: How does your product make a user’s life better? How will the product be built and in what timeframe? Who will buy the product?

Be externally aware.

Look for new ideas from everywhere. When getting feedback think about what the person is really saying. What are their words conveying? What do their actions (body language or tone of voice) imply? Most importantly, what are these prospective users not communicating?

Obtain and seek out diverse perspectives and work to accept or disconfirm feedback.

Use feedback to take curiosity – your own and that of users – and translate that into something that people can use.

Product design is about never being done.

Step 4: Ideate

During the ideation stage, insist on the highest standards.

Thinking big is a self-fulfilling prophecy. By looking around the corner, a product designer can think holistically about how a product will solve new or unforeseen problems.

A well designed product unlocks value for end-users. Don’t lose sight of this.

If a design decision is reversible and can be made quickly, show a bias towards action and ideate rapidly.

Embrace calculated risk taking.

Step 5: Build and Don’t Give Up

No task is beneath you in the building stage. Benchmark your progress against the best in your field.

As the Chief Product Officer of Pennybox, I spent two years steering the company through fundraising, development, and the product’s launch.

While I learned immensely from my experience at the helm of Pennybox, the period of time was not without its challenges — some of which, I recognize in hindsight, could have been avoided.

Pennybox, for example, let too much time elapse between product iterations. My experiences running the company have made me acutely aware that designing is hard.

If you are a builder, you can never fully insulate yourself from the inevitable setbacks that come with pushing technological boundaries or creating new products.

Building is hard. Keep bootstrapping. Keep building.

Don’t give up.

Step 6: Earn validation and examine results

Designers need conviction and back bone. They must be tenacious in the pursuit of design and product excellence.

Vic Gundotra, a former Google executive, once told a story about an interaction he had with Steve Jobs.

Gundotra noted that Steve called him and said the following:

"Vic, we have an urgent issue, one that I need addressed right away. I've already assigned someone from my team to help you, and I hope you can fix this tomorrow. I've been looking at the Google logo on the iPhone and I'm not happy with the icon. The second O in Google doesn't have the right yellow gradient. It's just wrong and I'm going to have a staff member fix it tomorrow…”

This maniacal attention to detail is one of the many reasons that Steve Jobs is remembered as a legendary figure.

You too can test and validate results post launch to improve your product and obtain better end-user results. No task is beneath the designer who is connected to, and focused on, every detail.

Remain vigilant.

Flattery from a few users does not mean the design is great. My parents loved Pennybox. Unfortunately, few other parents did.

If the user metrics and anecdotes differ, a product designer will ask why.

Step 7: Set Key Performance Metrics and Measure Them

You can’t measure what you can’t count.

Know what you care about it and measure it.

For websites, that might mean the number of monthly visitors or how long users spend on your website.

For mobile applications, that might mean downloads or active users.

Gather feedback rapidly.

Through measurement and feedback you can make further product improvements.

Closing Thoughts on Product Design

This process will increase the likelihood that your products are relevant, well thought out, and can help users. But you can follow these steps and still stray.

Following are some examples of ideas and concepts I have experienced firsthand that make me think about the principles of good and bad design.

Use these examples to think holistically about the products you use in your everyday life and how you might change or improve them.

Case study #1: Bike paths in Munich

I used to live in Munich.

Bike riding is common in German cities. Designers built small bike paths adjacent to stairs to make it easier for riders to get their bikes up and down stairs without heavy lifting.

This is a compelling design and benefits users.

Case study #2: Train platform design

In the U.S. the space between a train and platform is regulated by the National Disability Authority to 1.5 inches. Not so in Europe.

The nearly 4-inch gap common in Europe is seemingly dangerous and difficult for many users.

Feedback from different stakeholders – like pregnant women, disabled people, and bikers – could have led to different design standards.

There is a reason “Mind the Gap” was invented in London.

Case study #3: Unidentifiable light switches

Here is a photograph of a light-switch, similar to the one in my kitchen. Which switch controls which light?

And which switch controls the drain’s garbage disposal unit? This design often leads to confusion and annoyingly (but understandably) I frequently push the wrong button.

Case study #4: Messaging matters

Sometimes good design can be as effective as clear messaging with a simple and compelling call to action. This is good design: a parking sign that is effective and memorable.

Compare the parking sign to the U.S. Customs and Border Protection pamphlet. This piece of paper is cumbersome to fill out and composed of very small print.

The sections are labeled sequentially on the front but not on the back. This is an inconsistent design.

Many travelers on long flights into the U.S. (where this form is required) take off their glasses or contact lenses. Wouldn’t it be great if this form was digital (to be completed upon arrival) or made of a larger font?

Case study #5: Game design

For those that like to play games, Solitaired is an example of great design. It is one of the only game websites that I visit and can start playing games immediately: there are no pop-ups, no logins, no distractions.

The focus is on the user’s pure interaction with the game, and their simple navigation takes relevant players to their other popular games like Freecell and Spider.

Case study #6: When design just works

Internal communications and email tracking firm Contact Monkey uses an elegant design to help their clients see pricing examples.

Sample pricing plan for Contact Monkey

The clear visual delineation between offerings, the call to action, and core benefits are examples of good product pricing.

The field of UX design has been one of the moving forces in the digital world for some time now. It's based on providing good experiences that, in turn, keep users loyal to a given brand or product.

Picture it this way: Without UX research, start-ups and founders are simply shooting without aim. They don’t know who their target audience is, and even if they have some idea, they still don’t know how to approach them.

UX research focuses on exactly that. It is the most accurate and effective way to answer the challenging questions that arise when you try to design a product. According to Paul Boag, a digital consultant, “To be a great designer, you need to look a little deeper into how people think and act.”

What Does a UX Researcher Do?

The UX designer role goes beyond just making a nice color palette for your website or app. In fact, not every UX designer can work as a UX researcher. The latter requires a certain skill set that allows the professional to perform the necessary research.

The work of a UX researcher reveals what your target user needs from your brand and your products. This can only be achieved by exploring consumer motivation and behavior, conducting deep research, and working alongside your product developers when developing new products or features.

If and when you decide to hire a UX designer and a researcher, you can expect them to use the appropriate set of research techniques based on your project’s parameters, needs, and constraints.

UXmatters distinguished between two types of research performed by a researcher: generative and competitive. Generative user research is essential and encompasses a deep phase of discovery. During this research, an expert will use various techniques to analyze the user’s needs, motivations, and behaviors — all to contribute insights and context to your product design and strategy.

The UX best practices for competitive analysis include focus groups, card sorting, journey mapping, contextual inquiry, participatory design, personas and scenarios creation, and JAD sessions. In terms of evaluative methods, experts use design critiques, A/B testing, usability testing, and eye tracking.

Importance of User Research

User research is a strong and concise foundation for the strategy upon which you build your digital product or brand. Unless you’ve spent years practicing and learning the fundamentals of UI design and UX design, you probably don’t know the ropes yet.

There’s no reason to despair.

Certain professionals have the skills, means, and experience to perform the much-needed research to improve your digital product. They’ll get you the data that will strengthen your design decisions and help you identify how to market your products.

User research can show you what groups of people would use your services and products, as well as how.

When you choose to launch a new product, you need to know who would be willing to purchase it. If there’s an improved version that you’ve been working on, you need to know who wanted those improvements in the first place, as well as how to present them to those people.

The Controversy

The debate over whether you should use a UX researcher for your product and brand is argued by many. In fact, just deciding whether to hire a research specialist or a UX generalist has become controversial.

Many startups and small businesses that function on a limited budget choose to hire a single UX person, or someone who knows a bit of everything. Due to financial constraints, chances are that you’ve been tempted to find a jack-of-all-trades, a person who will conduct your research, code, design, and write copy.

If this is what you’re thinking, it is the wrong approach.

It’s often difficult for people to understand the effect that UX research has on a new business’s strategy. Will hiring a UX researcher even pay off? Can’t anyone else do this?

These are just a few of the questions that start-ups and developers may ask. They show that many people believe that UX research is a waste of money and time.

What you probably don’t know is that investing in UX research will actually save you money in the long run.

Based on everything you’ve learned about UX research, can you afford not to have a professional on your team? Research has a tremendous impact on product strategy, starting from the very beginning. The work of a UX researcher is evident in the conception of the product idea and moves to the delivery of that same product.

If you want your developers to create an attractive product, they need to present value. That can only be accomplished with research.

What Happens If You Skip UX Research

Think of user research as the starting point, the initial stage of the product design cycle. None of the things you invested in your business will pay off if you make something that people don’t want to use. Your investments, time, and team’s work will be for naught or yield very little.

User research is what precedes the strategy of your business. It helps you eliminate assumptions from the process. With that kind of data ready and in front of you, your business can move the new products to the market, make changes if necessary, and iterate on the design.

If you choose to skip this stage because of financial constraints, time restrictions, or any other reason, it will probably have bad repercussions for your start-up. How do you expect to create and market a product if you don’t know what type of problem it will solve for those who buy it?

Here is what this means in layman’s terms:

A company that doesn’t invest money or time in user research starts with an idea and a goal, just like any other company. But because they didn’t take the time to realize what problems their users might face when they use the product, the company eventually fails.

It doesn’t matter how great their idea was or how qualified their developers were. By avoiding UX research as part of the process, you’re depriving the company of the following benefits:

• Enabling your developers to create valuable and easy-to-use designs.
• Making it easy for the users to learn how your product works.
• Helping you understand the ROI.
• Ensuring smooth functioning of the product, eliminating errors for your users.
• Validating the hypotheses you’ve previously set.
• Allowing you to learn about your competition’s strategies, products, and design.

Why You Need a Trained UX Researcher

We all want our business to grow. To make this happen, you need to hire a formally trained UX researcher. To the casual observer, this is a task that anyone can complete, as long as they have basic research skills. But the role of a UX researcher goes beyond just performing basic research.

Essentially, research is more than just finding the answers to questions or asking the questions of people.

A researcher will meet with product owners, stakeholders, and others to find out certain objectives and goals. Then, they’ll craft the right research questions that will uncover the needs, demands, motivations, and pain points of users. While asking those questions, the researcher will read the user’s behavior, subtle expressions, body language, and actions. This goes beyond just listening or taking notes.

The next phase will comprise of analysis of the same data. This goes deep in order to determine patterns and trends. It all comes down to observation, phrasing, and nuance.

To possess this skill, one must have training and experience. You can only find this in a professional UX researcher.

Here are characteristics that qualified UX researchers possess:

1. Understanding of the research methods

Once faced with your project and your goals, the researcher will decide what research method to use. Will they go with qualitative or quantitative methods? Will they combine the two?

Different research methods have different pros and cons. There isn’t a combination of methods that is universal to all start-ups and companies. It’s the job of the UX researcher to determine the best research methods for your business.

To know this, the expert needs formal research training, which goes beyond knowing UX design fundamentals.

2. Knowing how to uncover pain points, motivations, and needs

Asking people what they want and need works — but only in some cases. You can’t just rush over to people and ask them to tell you their underlying needs. In many cases, they don’t even realize what they need themselves.

This is why a UX researcher is well versed in the process of forming a series of questions that uncover pain points, needs, and motivations. It’s similar to the work of doctors. You don’t give the patient the task of diagnosing themselves. You ask them questions and make the diagnosis by using your expertise.

3. Having an unbiased point of view

An expert researcher is neutral and unbiased. Unlike developers and business owners, researchers aren’t familiar with the designs on an intimate level. These people are trained listeners that will fill in the gaps and ask the right questions. They avoid assumptions and uncover underlying needs, something that’s hard to achieve if you’re attached to the product.

UX Researcher and Developers: How Can They Work Together?

The user experience expert, designer, or researcher and the developers see things differently. There’s nothing odd or unexpected about this.

According to Dzone, it’s a result of a cultural shift in how we interface. The earlier term known as “usability engineer” turned into “UX designer”, but it also indicated a shift from science based on engineering to the art of design. This brought different specializations, which now moves developers and designers further apart, even when they work on the same project.

But the two aren’t that separate. Developers and UX experts each have their own “role in the game.” When a UX designer, UX researcher, and developer work together, they can do wonders to enrich the customer experience.

It’s somewhat of a codependent relationship. The UX designer first needs the research from the UX researcher to be able to plan and predict the project and enrich the user experience. Similarly, the developer doesn’t have access to the designs, wireframes, and prototypes that they need to implement in the creation of the app. Finally, without the work of a developer, a UX expert can’t know the results of their research and designs, predict accurate timelines, or define realistic expectations about the product.

In other words, these forces joined together can eliminate hiccups in the project.

Let me explain why: Communication between UX experts and developers is crucial in order to find a solution to an idea that’s not easy to implement.

To understand their user’s behavior, developers have to implement a series of code and event trackers. If this is communicated in a clear manner, it makes the job meaningful and interesting. Developers’ feedback often yields alternative options that the researchers might not have thought of.

When they join forces, you don’t have to worry that the design won’t work with the target audience. The UX researcher gives the direction and provides a base adapted to the user. Then, the UX designer comes up with the features that will make for a clean and attractive design. Thanks to the skills of the developer, they’ll put this into action and make it real. Working together is not only time-efficient, but it also prevents any backtracking.

Conclusion

UX researchers are an indispensable component of any product team. A skilled professional will allow you to gather valuable insight into your customers’ pain points, motivations, and needs.

As a result, this will enable you to make informed decisions about your product’s features. This is important because it provides you with a more definite action plan, rather than simply guessing, which often results in more time and money spent on addressing issues that could have been avoided.

Qualitative testing—which can take the form of interviews or other directly-observed usability tests—tends to be exploratory and with the goal of gaining a more in-depth understanding of the user’s experience. It can be in-person or via video-conferencing tools like Skype or Google Hangouts.

Qualitative testing aims to gather information on a user or group’s everyday life experiences and motivations to see how these details might affect their use of the product or tool.

Results

When using qualitative research methods, it is important for the researcher to recognize that they may have an effect on the research results. Since it is the human experience that is being researched instead of hard data (number of clicks, login location trends, etc.), it is difficult to remain completely objective during testing or when assessing results.

The results also won’t necessarily be reproducible. This is because the factors that affect a user’s experience are varied and can change from day to day.

These factors can take the form of a user being more stressed one day than another due to new events in their life or having more responsibilities that day, users having completely different life experiences than one another, bad weather affecting the user’s mood, and anything else that affects a person’s personal or emotional life.

Results of qualitative testing are typically shown as themes or categories instead of numbers.

Example

Here’s a great example from The Interaction Design Foundation on the difference between quantitative research and qualitative research:

To illustrate the difference, let’s say you want to study a user group’s exercise habits. You can choose to study these using either quantitative or qualitative research methods.

If you use a quantitative method, you could create an online survey and distribute it to a large number of participants. Participants must answer predefined questions about their exercise habits such as “How many hours per week do you exercise?”

If you do your job dutifully, the survey answers can be numerically summarized without bias from your own opinion or personal experience with exercise.

If you use a qualitative method, you could choose to do interviews with a limited number of participants, where you talk to the participants about when, where, and how they exercise.

Because the interview is similar to a conversation, your results will depend on how you ask follow-up questions to the participants’ answers – and how you do that will to some extent depend on your personality and your own experience with exercise. Similarly, the results of the interview also, to some extent, depend on a subjective interpretation of what the participant has told you.

Testing Methods

From ”12 UX Research Techniques (Quantitative and Qualitative)” by Kevin Dalvi:

Interviews

Typically covers three types of interviews:

1. directed interviews where the researcher asks specific questions to the users and attempts to compare responses with other users
2. non-directed interviews where the researcher attempts to have more of a general discussion with the user(s)
3. ethnographic interviews where the researcher observes the user(s) in their own environment to understand how they approach certain aspects, accomplish certain tasks.

Surveys and Questionnaires

A quick way to collect information from a large number of users but their obvious limitation is lack of any interaction between the researcher and the users.

Usability Tests

Involves asking user(s) to use the app/product to accomplish certain goals. There are three variations of such tests:

1. moderated testing—where the users are brought into the lab and given specific tasks or tests to perform.
2. unmoderated testing—where the users complete the test on their own time typically remotely.
3. guerrilla testing—a more casual form of testing where random users at a social or community location are asked to use the app/product and provide informal feedback.

Card Sorts

The primary goal of a card sort test is to understand how users perceive relationships and hierarchy between various content, categories and other information. This is typically used to generate appropriate information architecture or site maps.

Tree Tests

Similar to card sort, the primary goal is to test whether the product/app has the appropriate level of information hierarchy is being designed within the product.

A/B Tests

Focuses on providing the user with two or more options and documenting the user’s preferences amongst the options. There are also advanced or focused A/B tests tests on specific aspect of the product such as the Design Elements, Information Hierarchy, Navigation and more.

Persona Development

This is essentially a representation of a group of a user who exhibit a very similar pattern in terms of behavior of using the application regardless of age, gender, location, education and profession.

Sources

1. Mortensen, Ditte. “Best Practices for Qualitative User Research.” Interaction Design Foundation. January, 2018. Accessed: February 13, 2018.

Airbnb recently came out with Experiences, which are activities designed and led by hosts. I encountered some problems when using the newly redesigned app, so I conducted a usability test to:

1. See if other users were experiencing similar issues
2. Identify user pain points / priorities and
3. Make the user experience more frictionless and intuitive.

The current layout is great for when a user first heads to a new city — the variety of options are all laid out. But it’s not as great for when users want to search for something more specific.

Note that I conducted this usability test in early January of 2017, so it doesn’t reflect changes introduced after that.

Objective

To run a guerrilla usability test to answer the question: Can users easily search for and book a specific experience (non-random browsing) through Airbnb’s mobile app?

Target Users

I interviewed both high-frequency and low-frequency travelers to get a sense of the behavioral differences between each group. How would a traveler who is more familiar with a range of spontaneous, exploratory experiences act compared to a low-frequency traveler whose idea of experiences might consist of booking traditional tour guides for mainstream sightseeing? I also made sure interviewees had a range of technical experience, from basic to advanced proficiency.

Although travelers aged 25 to 34 are the largest demographic of Airbnb’s users, senior women are Airbnb’s largest growing segment of hosts. Including those that can be considered extreme users into the usability test helped me design for their amplified needs, which often include the needs of average users.

I tested 7 users that I approached in coffee shops and public parks. The focused scope of the study allowed me to iterate through the design cycle with a small sample size.

Tasks

I gave the users contextual scenarios and asked them to think-aloud* while they completed four tasks:

1. Scenario: Let’s say you just landed in Los Angeles for the week and you wanted to book a yoga class for tomorrow. What would you do now?
2. Scenario: You’re planning a trip to Tokyo the 2nd week of October. How would you book a cooking class experience over a couple of days?
3. Task: Look for reviews.

4. Task: Book an experience.

5. I demonstrated a quick think-aloud session to show participants what was expected of them. I tried to incorporate instances in which I would be confused while using my chosen app to encourage users to share their unfiltered thought process.

Synthesizing Notes

To synthesize my research, I wrote the key points from the interviews onto post-its and grouped them together by themes. Using Stanford d.school’s sense-making framework, I noted tensions and relevant design principles, then derived insights using the “I noticed, I wonder” structure to brainstorm ideas to combat these pain points.

Key Findings

My research revealed 3 key findings:

1. Search bar confusion & overlooked filter button

“Where do I search?”

All the users I interviewed attempted to use the top search bar to look for a specific experience.

“Am I just going to have to scroll through everything?”

After users tried to search for an experience by typing a specific word or phrase into the search bar where the location & date are usually inputted, they wouldn’t know how to narrow down the results further because they often overlooked the filter button. Even users who had prior experience with Airbnb’s app didn’t see it when they were directly looking for a filter option.

When I asked users to filter down according to how long an experience would last, the majority scrolled past the time filter in the filter options.

2. Reviews

“Is clicking this supposed to work?”

Users intuitively tried to click the bottom bar where the stars are to access reviews.

“What did each person rate?”

3. Booking

“Oh no!!! Did I book it?”

From the time users click ‘Book,’ users must click a minimum of 5 times to finalize booking. Users thought that clicking ACCEPT meant that they booked the experience.

Ideate & Prototype Solutions

After highlighting the primary pain points, I began brainstorming possible solutions through sketching before I moved on to wireframing and creating high-res mockups.

1. Search and filter

Upon reviewing my findings, the lack of a search bar was the most common friction point that also induced the most negative emotional feedback. 100% of users looking for a specific experience in a new city intuitively looked for a search bar to type into.

Instead of creating an independent search bar, the search + filter button was modeled after the Airbnb Home’s filter + map button to keep the two-function consistency.

Although the second and third options would minimize user clicks by letting them automatically type in the search bar, I wanted the button to be secondary to the input bar at the top to prioritize the entry for location, date, and the number of guests.

After creating a mock-up based on the wireframe, which has the search+filter button at the top, I realized that placing the search + filter at the top blocked the add-to-wishlist heart icon for the first experience. The proposed solution below moves the button back down to where it originally was but still emphasizes it through color. My suggestions can be expanded across the mobile app for a consistent experience.

1b. Filter for duration

The time filters were often overlooked. The whole host-guided experiences are all categorized under the tab “Experiences.” Understandably, users did not immediately discern that there was another category of guided tours (Immersions). To combat the ambiguity of the first terms that users see in the filters (Immersion vs. Experience), the proposed solution:

1. …forgoes the vague terms altogether for clearer distinctions between experiences that span hours vs. days.
2. …replaces the word “Types” with “Duration” to clarify that this filter is about time / how long the experience will last.

2. Reviews

Users wanted to know what each specific person rated the experience.

Users have both ratings as a guest and host (if they are a host). Given that there has been confusion in the Airbnb community about the separation of guest / host ratings in Homes, I wanted to make sure that the confusion didn’t carry over to the experience / host / guest ratings. In my design, I had to be careful to clarify that the rating left by each guest who went through the experience was for the experience and NOT the overall rating of the guests themselves.

All users tested expected to click the stars on the bottom to read reviews so the flow should meet user expectations:

Users were also confused when looking at new experiences because it wasn’t explicitly mentioned that there were 0 reviews. However, they would still try to look for a review section.

3. Booking

I noticed that the booking process for experiences vs. homes are different. Compared to the 5 step minimum booking process for experiences, home booking shows all the steps on one page, as seen below:

To clarify the current experience booking process, I took a page from the ‘steps left’ indicator in homes. Because the experience booking isn’t all on one page, users don’t really know when it stops. The words ‘next’ or ‘accept’ led users to believe that they had falsely confirmed the booking.

1. Changed the word from “book” to “select” because the word “book” makes people think of the last step
2. Changed “next” to “2 steps left” so users know where they are in the process
3. Originally, the word “accept” made users think that clicking it would finalize their booking. It was changed to ‘1 step left’ to remove user apprehension of clicking to the next page

Edit: A suggestion in the comments makes a very valid point: the 2 steps left doesn’t look like a clickable button, so users might get confused about what to do next. My improvement would be to use a button to indicate the next action item, either with the words ‘2 steps left’ or ‘next,’ although 2 steps left would give users a better marker for where they are in the booking process.

Validating Solutions

To validate my solutions, I printed out paper prototypes and asked 7 users (4 from initial study) to complete the tasks again, this time with much less friction. Although I couldn’t actually see how a search bar would actually work within Airbnb’s system, users experienced much less confusion.

A comment below from Bac Le suggested that my solution in the booking process could create confusion because the ‘2 steps left’ doesn’t look like a clickable button. This just goes to show that I need to validate with more users.

However, during my validation process, I noticed that there was an unconscious friction point while navigating through the whole app. By that, I mean that users experienced difficulty but remained neutral and disregarded the pain point. First, the app uses both left-right and up-down scrolling. For example, when browsing homes, users scroll by up-down but in Experiences, if users don’t input a location, the scrolling is both right-left AND up-down which turns into ONLY up-down once a location is inputted. Second, the image sizes for homes, experiences, and places are all different, making the experience inconsistent. This issue was also present in my original study, but was outside the scope of non-random browsing in Experiences. This could be another study in the future.

Conclusion

Thanks for reading! This is a self-initiated UX Research and Design project and I am in no way affiliated with Airbnb. I wanted to solve problems that I was running in to when I browsed their new Experiences section. I would LOVE x 10000 to hear your feedback!

I’m currently studying Design Leadership MA/MBA at Johns Hopkins University and the Maryland Institute College of Art. Find me at irenekuo.com