The big idea: The guide names six research methods: field research, task analysis, user observation, interviews, surveys and focus groups.
Listing them is one mark. Choosing the right one for a stated purpose is the rest.
The six plotted by how many users they reach against how deep an understanding they give. Position on this chart is what decides which to use.
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Field research
Study the product where it is actually used. Best when the environment is the problem — a workshop, a ward, a kitchen. It is the only method that shows you the things nobody thought to mention.
Task analysis
Break a task into its steps and find where users struggle. Best when you know the task is hard and need to know which step to redesign.
User observation
Watch users work without interrupting. Best when what users do differs from what they say they do — which is most of the time, because habits are invisible to the person with them.
Interviews
Open questions with one user at a time, following where they lead. Best for motives and frustrations you did not know to ask about.
Focus groups
A small group reacting to each other. Best for surfacing disagreement — and prone to one confident voice pulling the whole room.
Surveys
Many users, the same fixed questions. Best for measuring how common something is — once a deeper method has told you what to ask.
Researchers also use shadowing (following a user through their day), diary studies (users record their own use over weeks), benchmarking (comparing rival products), usability testing (users try a prototype on set tasks) and participatory design (users help design the product alongside the team).
Watching people use a design
User trial
Real users try the product while designers record what happens and how they feel. The way to collect psychological data such as comfort or stress.
Usability laboratory
A room with cameras and one-way glass. Users complete tasks; the recordings can be replayed and analysed later. Downside: users may act differently when watched.
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The distinction that decides everything: Asking methods tell you what users say. Watching methods tell you what users do.
The gap between the two is where most design opportunities live — and users are not lying, they simply cannot see their own habits.
Watching — field, observation, task analysis
- Reveals workarounds users never mention
- Shows the environment doing its damage
- Few users, so it cannot tell you how common it is
- Slow and needs access to the real setting
Asking — interviews, focus groups, surveys
- Reaches more users, faster and cheaper
- Gets at motives and preferences you cannot observe
- Limited to the questions you already thought to ask
- Filtered through what users choose to report
Triangulate: The strongest research pairs them: observe a handful of users to find out what matters, then survey many to find out how common it is.
Recording the answers: four data scales
Nominal
Names or categories with no order: favourite colour, type of phone owned.
Ordinal
Answers in a rank order, but the gaps between them are not equal: comfort rated 1 (very uncomfortable) to 5 (very comfortable).
Interval
Equal gaps between values but no true zero: temperature in °C.
Ratio
Equal gaps and a true zero, so values can be compared as ratios: mass, length, time taken to complete a task.
How this is tested — choosing research methods for a stated purpose and justifying the choice. It comes up two ways:
Paper 1 — multiple choice
- Match a described activity to one of the six methods.
- Pick the method that suits a stated purpose.
Paper 2 — analysing a product
- Explain which methods a designer should use for a named product, and why.
- Explain the limitation of relying on one method alone.
The trap: Naming a method with no reason. The mark is in why that method for that purpose — and the strongest answers pair a watching method with an asking one.
A manufacturer wants to redesign a domestic iron because customers report burning their clothes. Explain two research methods it should use and why.
Model answer plan
See the answer broken into clear points, with guidance on how each point earns marks.
Outline why users rate the comfort of a sofa on an ordinal scale.
Model answer plan
See the answer broken into clear points, with guidance on how each point earns marks.