Greg Weinstein, PhD, CPACC
User Research
What is User Research?
User Research goes by many names: Design Research, User Experience (UX) Research, and Consumer Research, to name just a few. But no matter what we call it, the core principle is the same: User Research is a means of learning about your users or customers, so that you can better serve their needs with your product or service.
Who needs User Research?
Short answer: Any business that wants to remain relevant and valuable to their clients.
User Research is the best way to develop insights about what your customers need, how your users behave, or where your clients’ pain points are. Just about every User Researcher has stories of resistant clients or supervisors who say, “I know what our customers need.” The bad news is that unless you have done research to figure out what your customers need, you don’t actually know.
The good news is that User Research professionals have tools to unearth insights about your user base. User Research can help you to learn about gaps between your mission and your customers’ needs, challenges that your users face on their product journeys, and areas for growth and development. Strategically deployed early in the development process, User Research can help a company innovate and proactively meet user demands. Later in a product life cycle, it can help identify new directions and innovations to stay ahead of the curve.
In short, User Research is for everyone, because you can’t really know how well your product connects with your customers unless you do research to find out.
Research is to see what everybody has seen and think what nobody has thought.
~~Albert Szent-Györgyi
User Research Services
These are some of the User Research services I can provide:
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Human-Centered Design Consultation
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Ethnography
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Usability Testing
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Contextual Interviews
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Fly-on-the-Wall Observation
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User Surveys
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In-Depth Interviews (IDIs)
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Heuristic Assessments
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Information Architecture
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Service Design
Who benefits from User Research?
Everyone!
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With good User Research, everyone wins: companies provide better products and services, and they benefit financially. Customers benefits from the improved products and services that help them conquer challenges and achieve their goals. User Research truly is an investment in the longevity of your company.