The big idea: The guide names five methods for this statement: field research, user observation, interviews, questionnaires and focus groups.
Two halves of the knowledge: Knowing what each one GIVES you is half the knowledge. Knowing what each one cannot see is the half that decides which two you run.
Five methods, each with the data it returns and the blind spot it has. The last step is the one that turns records into a need.
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| Method | What you get | What it cannot see |
|---|---|---|
| Field research | The environment, the constraints, the workarounds | Why any of it happens |
| User observation | Hesitations, errors, features never touched | What the user was thinking |
| Interviews | Reasons, history, feelings, priorities | What the user actually did, as opposed to meant to do |
| Questionnaires | Numbers: how many, how often, how strongly | Anything you did not think to ask about |
| Focus groups | Disagreement, priorities, the users' own words | The quiet member's real opinion |
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A method is only as good as the people you run it on. Demographics are the measurable facts that define a target population — age, gender, income, education, occupation, location, household type, and any relevant ability or condition.
Using demographics properly
Define the population BEFORE you recruit
"Adults aged 65-85 living alone, who prepare their own meals" tells you who to approach and, just as usefully, who to turn away.
Record them for every participant
Without them you cannot say whether your twelve users represent the population or twelve people who happened to be in the shop on a Tuesday.
Use them to spot a gap
If every respondent is under 30 and the product is for pensioners, the data is not weak — it is about the wrong people, and no amount of analysis fixes that.
Never mistake them for the person
Demographics say who is IN the group. They do not say what any member wants. Two 70-year-old women with the same income can want opposite things.
Convenience is not a sample: Your class, your family and your friends are the easiest people to research and almost never the target population.
If you have to use them, say so and say what it costs: the findings describe them, not the users you are designing for.
Target market and user needs: two different questions
Target market: WHO
A clearly defined group chosen by demographics (age, region, income, situation), e.g. families in flood-prone villages.
User needs: WHAT
The essential requirements the product must meet for them, found by observing and asking them: buoyant, stable, easy to push.
Behaviours
What users actually DO, seen in field research and observation, often differs from what they SAY in a questionnaire.
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"Analyse the data" does not mean report it. Marks are earned by moving up four rungs: what you recorded, the theme that repeats, the statement about the user, and the want or need that follows from it.
Reporting — few marks
- "Most people said the kettle was heavy."
- "60% answered yes to question 4."
- "One user said they burnt themselves once."
- True, but nothing in the design has to change
Analysing — full marks
- 9 of 12 users set the kettle down to open the lid
- → filling needs two hands at the heaviest moment
- → users with weak grip cannot hold a full kettle one-handed
- → needs to be fillable without being lifted at all
Qualitative and quantitative, together: Questionnaires give you how many. Interviews and focus groups give you why.
A finding that carries both is much harder to argue with: "41 of 60 stopped using it within a month, and in the focus group every one of them named the same reason — the lid smells after a week."
How this is tested — applying research methods to a target population and analysing what comes back. It comes up two ways:
Paper 1 — multiple choice
- Match a method to the data it returns.
- Identify the blind spot of a stated method.
Paper 2 — analysing a product
- Apply two methods to a named product's users and justify each.
- Explain how demographic data shapes who you recruit.
The trap: Treating a list of quotations as analysis. Raw data is not a finding — group it, state what it says about the USER, and only then state the want or need. Answers that stop at "users said it was heavy" stop at one mark.
A team is designing a shopping trolley for users with limited mobility. Apply two research methods to this population and explain what each would contribute.
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