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Reflection on the class - I really enjoyed this class about research techniques. I think in previous classes we have covered lots of these techniques but I thought it was really interesting to compare them and how the type of testing affects the results and the accuracy of them.

The main takeaway I took from this lecture was that user research is done to tell what we are building, who it is for, and if it is worth creating or not. User research is the foundation of anything we design because it's always for the user. The other thing I took away is people can't always help themselves most of the time they can't ask for it, so with user research, you can discover what they need.

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Importance of Research

This article by Emily Stevens called The Importance of User Research in UX Design on ****UX Design Institute breaks down what User Research is. She defines user research as an integral part of designing and it allows you to understand who you are designing for and why, and the problems the users are facing, what they need, and what from your designs.

She breaks it down into 5 key benefits

1. User research helps you cultivate empathy for your users - It's about putting yourself in their shoes to understand them you can create something to help them.
2. User research identifies the exact user problem you need to solve - User research discovers the problems so that you can understand the issues and how to fix them.
3. User research empowers you to make data-driven design decisions - Using different user research methods you can get precise results to help solve issues.
4. User research is a time and money saver - ****It helps put you on the right path and reduce the amount of time that is wasted.
5. User research = a better user experience - Putting in the time and effort into fully understanding the problem helps create something that really works for people.

She then breaks down how to get stakeholders to buy in for user research.

1. Dig deeper to understand why there’s resistance to user research in the first place - Have an open & honest conversation to find the issues to then come up with solutions.
2. Get good at demonstrating and communicating the importance of user research - Being able to explain why it's so important and the risks of not doing it.
3. Create a minimum viable research plan - Be prepared and aware that you might be really limited so have a plan ready if that's the case.

https://www.uxdesigninstitute.com/blog/user-research-in-ux-design/

Failed Product

During class there was an example of a product that failed due to no user research being done, it reminds me of the case studies that are talked about in the book ‘The Design of Everyday Things’. It was the Three Mile Island example which was an American nuclear power plant accident. It started as as a simple mechanical failure but in the days following it caused difficulties and confusion, the destruction of the reactor, and an almost severe radiation leak.

When they began to explore the cause of the issue, they assumed it was human error but after further investigation, it was actually caused by the plant control rooms being so poorly designed that the error was inevitable because of the design. This is a really interesting case study as it proves how important user research is and the dangerous impact that can have with a lack of knowledge.

The Design of Everyday Things by Don Norman page 7