Researching for what people need vs what they want
“A lot of people get so hung up on what they can't have that they don't think for a second about whether they really want it.”
― Lionel Shriver, Checker and the Derailleurs
In user experience, and in life, it is difficult for users to articulate what they are trying to achieve. This article explores best practices for extrapolating what users need vs what they want.
As both a researcher and a designer, I’ve had the fortune to observe users in their element and then reflect positively on features that negatively impacted their experiences. This is a frequently observed phenomenon, eloquently articulated by Henry Ford when he said “If I asked people what they wanted, horses or cars, people would have said, faster horses,” and emphasized again by Jakob Nielsen who says, “Don’t trust what people say, watch what they do.”
1. Look at facial expressions and body language
Facial expressions and body language are such a critical part of the way humans communicate, and collecting that data is vital to extracting the meaning behind users’ behaviors. If you’re conducting moderated, remote usability sessions where it isn’t always possible to view body language, at least ask your users to turn on their cameras as they share screens. The video feed can make a difference in not only viewing facial expressions as users reflect
2. Ask your tester to reflect on a behavior
As you are observing your user, whether employing a ‘think-aloud’ technique or not, I’ve noticed that users have natural habits that they were unaware of. Pointing out these tendencies in a test kick-starts a user’s more natural behavior, enforcing your users to think a bit more critically about why they are doing certain things. I often have testers who do not scroll up and down when they are completing scenarios. They claim they are unable to complete the task as they cannot find the information they need. You can push a tester out of this mindset by observing the behavior and objectively questioning if this is a habit or if there is another reason, such as an odd button, that has pushed the user towards a certain behavior.
3. Keep scenario prompts short
Users will often tell you what is missing from their workflow without asking, but this can be missed if your scenario prompts are lengthy or if they are leading. You want to extrapolate as much data from them and want to recreate the scenario as if you were not even there.
4. Ask your tester to answer the same questions or scenarios on a competitor’s website
This actually serves many purposes, but can help you get to the root of what the users goals are without being tied down to the company or the design. You may even want to test a few competitors and detail out how their behaviors, tones of voice, and facial expressions and body language change.
