User research: a key UX design phase for getting to know your users

User research is a phase or discipline that forms part of a UX approach to optimizing or creating a digital product. UX research enables us to learn more about different users, and to draw on a maximum amount of field data in order to make decisions at the conception, design and even development stages.

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What are the objectives of user research?

User research consists of collecting all user-related data. Different types of data are involved:

• Browsing habits
• Specific expectations (according to age group for a product, for example, or according to profession for an internal company tool).
• Everyone's objectives (buying, achieving, etc.)

The objectives of UX research are therefore to understand the context in which the product is or will be developed, so as to be as close as possible to user needs when developing or optimizing it.

AtLe Backyard , we bring together business objectives and user needs or expectations. User research is therefore part of our response to your problem. 

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How do you do User Research?

User research is based on a number of Backyard-specific methodologies, built around two main principles: quantitative and qualitative.

Quantitative user research

Quantitative data research methods are used in particular when it's necessary to identify who the users are. These include surveys, IFOP studies (or other institutes), to gather data and define user patterns.

Qualitative UX research methods

Qualitative user research involves applying the user research methodologies of Le BackyardUX agency to a small panel of users.

• User testing

They consist in submitting a product design to users. The concept will be tested through missions given to the users. Our team's role is to observe whether or not these missions are solved, and to take a critical look at the test process. By analyzing screencasts and audio sequences in particular, our UX experts make initial hypotheses and optimization suggestions about the concept that has been submitted to users.

• Interviews

Conducted at a very early stage of a UX project, especially when no product has yet been tested, interviews help us to understand the different professions and the context in which they operate (for an internal tool), or to understand user expectations in a specific market (for pure BtoC). These are series of questions addressed to each persona, each series generally lasting around 30 minutes. Several rounds of interviews are organized with 2, 3 or 4 personas, depending on the project.

• Look-alike instruction

A methodology derived from psychology, lookalike instruction involves putting ourselves 100% in the place of the user, with the aim of detecting weak UX research signals, and thus refining our analysis and optimization proposals.

• Fly on the wall

A phygital methodology applied to a digital product intrinsically linked to a physical environment, Fly on the Wall consists in adopting the omniscient position of the fly on the wall, to observe users throughout their working day. This method can be applied to the transport sector, for example, to follow the flow of information from the warehouse to the drivers, via the administrative departments. It enables us to better understand the real, on-the-ground process, and to distinguish between what works and what can be optimized. The agency's expert eye is essential, as it provides a critical view of processes that have long been integrated by users.

Contact your Le Backyard UX expert to better understand your targets and their expectations thanks to user research!