Jun 2, 2023 | UX Design, User Experience, User Testing, UX Guide, UX Strategy & Planning |
In today’s dynamic and fast-paced technology landscape, it’s exceedingly challenging to maintain UI/UX design consistency, especially with multiple teams working on the same product.
Fortunately, in a manner akin to financial audits, UX audits allow design teams to evaluate their products to identify consistency, continuity, accessibility, and usability issues.
This article aims to cover all the basics of UX audits and how they can be exploited to improve the user experience of a product.
What is a UX audit?
Sometimes referred to as a usability audit, a UX audit is a quality assurance (QA) procedure that systematically assesses a digital interface to deliver an in-depth report on potential usability limitations.
The gathered insights can be leveraged to make recommendations for enhancements based on user research and UX heuristics.
UX audits employ different empirical methods to offer heuristics-based recommendations for user-centric enhancements to boost conversions.
What is the objective of UX audit?
UX audits are typically recommended periodically whenever an organisation implements new functionality, or its users report pain points in the user experience.
UX audits help identify and fix common UX issues while measuring success metrics, like bounce rate, revenue growth and user retention.
For the most part, a UX audit helps answer the following questions:
- Where do users experience challenges in understanding navigation or a new capability?
- What does the data communicate about users’ behaviour and their needs?
- What can be potentially modified on a website or an app to improve its overall business performance?
Who should do a UX Audit, and when?
Generally speaking, organisations without a dedicated UX team should consider performing a UX audit periodically. This is because those with in-house UX teams are most likely continually evaluating their products and optimising the user experience.
In fact, companies with in-house teams usually conduct UX audits as part of their quality assurance process whenever they release a major product update or product redesign.
So, companies without dedicated UX teams should always schedule periodic UX audits to ensure their products meet business and user experience objectives. Or to uncover pain points that they might not have been aware of.
However, for the most part, conducting a UX audit largely depends on the size of the business entity and the resources that are available.
Nonetheless, it is recommended that an external team of auditors conducts the UX audit to ensure that the report is as objective as possible.
During the UX audit, the auditor will systematically measure, test, assess and analyse the following elements:
- Broken links
- Usability and accessibility
- Usability heuristics
- Design system inconsistencies—fonts, colours, patterns, etc.
- Layout and hierarchy inconsistencies
- Outdated content
- Traffic, engagement, conversion rates, retention, and sales analytics
- Customer journey bottlenecks and roadblocks
- Branding and messaging
- Review product design against business and user experience goals
Benefits of conducting UX audit
The key benefits of conducting a UX audit are:
Improved user experience
Products underpinned by a comprehensive evaluation and understanding of UX typically deliver an improved user experience.
A successful UX audit can also help companies improve their products by identifying areas where they could improve customer satisfaction and increase user adoption rates.
It’s also useful for helping them understand how different groups of people use a product differently—and what needs to change in order for everyone who uses it consistently to feel satisfied enough that they want more from it (or recommend it).
Increased engagement and retention
The insights gained from UX audits can provide an overview of challenges and pain points from a wide range of disparate user perspectives. These insights can then be used to optimise the product to improve user engagement.
Better conversion rates
Conducting a UX audit will allow you to evaluate how users interact with your product to improve conversion rates.
For example, the areas users find convoluted or confusing, and how they respond when something doesn’t work as intended. This information can be used in the design process so that future iterations are more user-friendly and intuitive for consumers, improving the conversion metrics.
Competitive advantage
UX audit findings are typically analysed and organised into a digestible report which contains key insights and recommendations based on the audit exercise.
These insights can be aligned with the company goals to gain a competitive advantage by delivering high-quality customer experiences across all touchpoints (for example, e-mail marketing campaigns, social media posts and even website content).
UX audit methods
There are several different methods to conduct a usability audit, for example:
- Observation: The most common method is observation, where the UX auditor sits down with stakeholders and watches them use the product or service in their environment. They can also use an observation checklist or questionnaire.
- UX maturity survey: A UX maturity survey involves team members across a company answering questions about their product’s UX capabilities, awareness and understanding. Consequently, the responses from the survey are employed to gauge the organisation’s level of UX maturity (i.e., capacity and desire to effectively execute user-centric design).
- Usability test: A usability test is employed to collect user feedback on what users find confusing or difficult about a product or service. A usability test involves answering questions like “How easy was it for you?” and “Was this functionality intuitive?” while using the software under test (SUT).
- Workshop: A workshop with key stakeholders is typically conducted to align business objectives and critically understand target users as well as their journeys and pain points.
- Proto-persona: Proto-personas are developed leveraging the insights from stakeholder workshops and user observations to direct user-centric outputs.
- Heatmaps: Heatmaps are typically used to visually represent users’ interaction with a company’s interface. For example, heatmaps that document the number of clicks performed on an interface, or scroll maps that record users’ movement as they scroll down a company’s digital product.
Generally, most UX audit methods involve some form of metrics and materials gathering. This helps in the validation of results, data organisation, review of trends, reporting of findings and the creation of evidence-supported recommendations.
What’s included in a UX audit?
A UX audit is a process that includes a list of questions, guidelines and tools to help you understand your website’s user experience. It can be employed by anyone who wants to improve their website’s usability and accessibility. The following are some examples of what might be included in a UX audit:
User research and feedback analysis
User observations are performed during a UX audit to gain a full understanding of how a product is being used by real users to identify user requirements and pain points. Principally, this exercise to derive user observations ensures that the UX audit is evidence-led and user-centric.
Usability testing
Usability testing in a UX audit involves iteratively examining user interaction data to determine the UX design’s impact on, for example, user flows and navigation.
Usability testing, for the most part, ensures that UI components and design patterns meet user experience objectives and branding guidelines.
Heuristic evaluation
A heuristic evaluation methodically compares a digital product to industry usability standards to identify areas for improvement. During a heuristic evaluation, UX auditors evaluate a product whilst looking out for any heuristic issues using Nielsen’s usability heuristics as a benchmark.
Accessibility evaluation
Accessibility evaluation exercises revolve around ensuring a digital product is inclusive for all users. During an accessibility evaluation, auditors evaluate whether the colour palette, fonts, and components inclusively serve users with visual impairments. Or even whether the product enables users to flexibly switch between dark/light modes to accommodate users with sensitive eyesight.
Performance evaluation
This type of evaluation aims to identify any performance issues whilst customers interact with your products, and then make changes accordingly. You should also be able to determine whether or not these performance issues are affecting satisfaction or adoption rates for key features within the products.
How do you conduct a UX audit?
There is no standardised UX audit methodology, as most companies and UX professionals might approach it differently. However, the most common, depending on the product’s complexity, goals and scope, are:
Setting business goals and objectives
The first UX audit step is usually understanding the organisation’s motivation and goal for its digital product being audited.
This stage involves conducting stakeholder interviews with individuals at the organisation with a vested interest in the product. For example, product managers, software developers, marketers, and/or customer service representatives, etc.
Define user personas
The next step is to get to know your users by creating user personas. In practice, user personas are essentially fictional users created by UX teams to better understand their customers.
Fortunately, some organisations may already have user personas informed by data gathered through surveys or other customer touchpoints.
Understand user objectives
The next stage is typically turning the user personas and insights into user flows. These user flows will help establish the user’s objectives across different parts of the product whilst describing their steps to get there. This process will consequently help to identify where a user might encounter usability challenges.
Collect and analyse data
This stage typically involves tracking the product’s performance to provide indisputable, quantitative data about users interacting with the product, and even understanding what they’re doing while using the product.
Complete a heuristic evaluation
UX auditors take insights garnered whilst creating user personas and assessing user objectives to try to accomplish a series of tasks to meet their objectives. Throughout the heuristic evaluation process, they take notes and screenshots detailing each user challenge or pain point encountered.
Document findings
After heuristic evaluation, UX auditors compile the findings and make recommendations to the organisation or broader team. This single UX audit report should possess insightful analysis and practical recommendations to guide the future development of the digital product.
Make recommendations
As already mentioned, UX audit findings are usually condensed into a technical document that concisely relays results to the client as well as a series of actionable recommendations, with detail on how each recommendation can be implemented to meet business objectives.
UX Audit checklist
To have an effective UX audit exercise, your UX audit checklist should tick some of the following boxes:
- The business should have both long-term and short-term UX goals.
- Have a clearly defined, regularly reviewed UX strategy with goals, a vision and a plan.
- The organisation should have a high level of understanding of UX.
- The organisation’s leadership team should have a high level of understanding and support of UX.
- The business’ key values should be consistently communicated across user touchpoints.
Conclusion
UX audits are a great way to improve your product or service.
UX audits should be treated as health checks that help you identify areas that need improvement and ensure they are addressed before they become a problem for your users.
A good UX audit will also help you get feedback on the design of your app from real users, which is an invaluable resource for any business owner or designer.
If you’re serious about improving your product or are planning to introduce new functionality, we recommend conducting user research or hiring a third party to thoroughly evaluate your product or application. However, if you decide to conduct a UX audit yourself, consider the following:
- Using a questionnaire to gather information from your users.
- Using a checklist to gauge the usability of your product or service.
- Checking customer satisfaction with the product or service, and making changes if necessary
- Not reinventing the wheel but focusing on the most important usability elements.
Reach out to us at Netizen Experience for UX audits for your next project!
May 23, 2023 | UX Design, User Experience, User Research, UX Strategy & Planning |
Creating user-centred design is vital in UX/UI development because it ensures that the end product is intuitive, and meets the needs and expectations of the target audience.
In practice, a user-centred design approach revolves around iteratively gathering feedback and insights from users throughout the design process to inform design decisions.
And thus, increase customer satisfaction, loyalty, and engagement.
One critical component central to delivering effective user-centred design (UX design) is a user needs assessment.
In this article, we shall delve into user needs assessments and the role they play in gathering information about users’ needs, preferences, and pain points.
We shall also unpack how they help UX designers to inform design decisions and help devise designs that meet the user’s expectations and ultimately increase their satisfaction.
What is a user needs assessment?
User needs assessment is the process of gathering and analysing data to comprehend the end-user’s requirements, preferences, and pain points. Subsequently, this information is utilised to inform design decisions and produce user-centred designs that meet the user’s expectations.
In practice, a user requirements assessment can be conducted throughout the design process, from concept to launch. In fact, assessment of user requirements can take many forms, including surveys, focus groups, interviews, card sorting, and A/B testing. The choice of method depends on the project’s objectives, timeline, and budget.
For instance, a user needs assessment is particularly useful when redesigning an existing product or developing a new one. In such cases, user needs analysis helps identify the gaps in the current product, understand what the users want from the product, and design features that meet their needs.
What is user-centred design?
User-centred design is a design approach that places the preferences, needs, and pain points of the end-users (and their context) at the centre of the design process.
It involves gathering data on the above needs through a user needs assessment and using that data to inform design decisions, in the most effective and efficient way possible.
Fundamentally, the ultimate goal of user-centred design is to create a product that meets the user’s expectations, increases their satisfaction, and provides a positive user experience.
Benefits of conducting a user need assessment
- Increased user satisfaction: UX designers improve user satisfaction and outcomes by employing insights derived from a user needs assessment into how users interact with the product in order to create products best suited to them.
- Reduced development cost: Creating items that work for the users’ purposes lessens the necessity of making expensive UX alterations and modifications in future. Thus, reducing the overall cost of development in the long term.
- Increased market success: UX designers can maximise their market potential and differentiate themselves from other businesses by leveraging user needs assessment data to formulate goods and services that respond to users’ requirements.
- Improved user engagement: User needs assessments can enable UX designers to design products that better foster user engagement. Additionally, it can help encourage some users to become more involved in and committed to the product by letting them participate in the design process.
- Better alignment with business objectives: When UX designers comprehend user needs and preferences, they can create products that align with the broader business strategy and objectives.
- Reduced risk of product failure: By conducting user needs assessments, designers can identify potential issues early on and design products that are more likely to succeed in the market.
- Improved brand reputation: By creating products that are user-centred and meet user needs, companies can build a positive brand reputation and increase customer loyalty.
Methods of needs assessment
Here are some key methods typically employed to conduct a user needs assessment:
Surveys
Surveys are a common method of user needs assessment that involves asking a set of standardised questions to a large group of people. They can be conducted online, by mail, or in person and can be used to collect both quantitative and qualitative data on user needs, preferences, and behaviours.
Focus groups
Focus groups usually involve bringing together a small group of people to discuss a specific topic in depth. They are typically moderated by a trained facilitator and can be used to collect qualitative data on user needs, preferences, and behaviours.
Interviews
Interviews involve one-on-one conversations between a researcher and a user. They can be conducted in person or over the phone and can be used to collect qualitative data on user needs, preferences, and behaviours.
Card Sorting
Card sorting involves asking users to organise a set of cards (with each containing a piece of content or functionality) into groups that make sense to them. The results can provide insights into how users expect to find and navigate through information, which can inform the design.
Photo by Polina Zimmerman
A/B testing
A/B testing is essentially a method of comparing two different versions of a product or service to determine which one performs better. Users are randomly assigned to either Version A or Version B, and their behaviour is measured and analysed to determine which version is more effective at achieving the desired outcome.
How to conduct a user needs assessment to create user-centred designs?
To effectively conduct a user needs assessment to create user-centred designs, one can take the following steps:
Step 1: Identify the purpose and goals of the user needs assessment:
During this step, determine the objectives of the user needs assessment and the questions you intend to address.
Step 2: Identify the target user group:
Define the target user group, which could be current or potential users of the product or service.
Step 3: Choose the appropriate user needs assessment method:
During this step, ensure to choose the most appropriate user needs assessment method based on the project’s objectives, timeline, and budget.
Step 4: Recruit participants/Respondent recruitment:
Identify and recruit respondents who meet the criteria for the target user group and are willing to participate in the evaluation.
Step 5: Conduct the user needs assessment:
Administer the evaluation method, such as surveys, interviews, or focus groups, and collect data on user needs, preferences, and pain points.
Step 6: Analyse and interpret the data:
During this step, extensively analyse and interpret the user data collected during the user needs assessment to identify patterns, trends, and key insights.
Step 7: Develop user personas:
In this step, build user personas based on the data collected during the assessment, which represent typical users and their needs, goals, and behaviour.
Step 8: Use the findings to inform design decisions:
Apply the knowledge gained from the user needs assessment to inform design decisions and create a user-centred design that precisely meets the needs of the target users.
Best practices for effective user needs assessment to create user-centred designs.
Best practices for user needs assessment ensure that the design process is focused on meeting the needs of the target audience.
In essence, best practices help to establish a framework for the user-centred design process that is based on research, data, and user feedback, whilst taking into account the needs and preferences of the target audience.
Some of the best practices we recommend to achieve effective user need assessments when creating user-centred design are:
- Engage users as early as possible in the design process to ensure that their requirements are considered throughout the process.
- Avoid leading questions: Ask users neutral queries that do not elicit a specific response. This ensures that the responses are objective and precise.
- Select appropriate evaluation methods: Select the method or combination of methods that best fit the project’s objectives, timeline, and budget. Consider employing a combination of techniques to obtain a deeper understanding of user requirements.
- Recruit a sample of representative users: Ensure that the user group is representative of the intended user group and that the sample size is sufficient to yield insightful results.
- Use open-ended questions: Utilise open-ended queries to elicit detailed and sincere user feedback that can inform design decisions.
- Provide a relaxed and comfortable environment: Create an environment conducive to comfort and relaxation during user requirements assessment to encourage users’ candour and openness.
- Conduct ongoing assessments: Conduct ongoing user requirements assessments throughout the UX/UI design process to ensure that the design satisfies the changing needs of the intended audience.
- Collaborate with stakeholders: Include all relevant stakeholders, including designers, developers, marketers, and product managers, in the user requirements assessment process.
- Use data visualisation tools: Use data visualisation tools to help make sense of the data acquired during the assessment and to clearly and concisely present the findings to stakeholders.
- Validate findings: Validate the user needs assessment findings by verifying design decisions with users throughout the design process. This ensures that the final design meets the requirements of the intended audience.
By leveraging the above best practices, UX designers can ensure that they’re using proven methods and techniques to gather user feedback and analyse and interpret this feedback effectively.
Thus, ensuring that the design process is collaborative and inclusive for all stakeholders involved in the user-centred design process.
Read and explore more on UX Design insights.
Conclusion
In summary, user needs assessments play a critical role in creating user-centred designs. By iteratively engaging with users to gather their feedback, UX designers can create products that meet the needs of the target audience and can be adopted and deployed effectively.
As we also noted, this process may help to improve product usability, functionality, and overall user experience, leading to augmented customer satisfaction and loyalty.
Overall, conducting a user needs assessment is an essential step in creating user-centred designs that meet the needs and preferences of target users.
By doing this, you can ensure that your designs are truly user-centered. This will not only lead to a more successful product but also a more positive user experience. For companies that may not have the internal resources to conduct a comprehensive user needs assessment, partnering with a UI/UX design agency can be a valuable solution. Agencies have the expertise and experience to guide you through this crucial stage of the design process.
By religiously following the few steps outlined in this article, designers can gather valuable insights into user needs and preferences, which can inform design decisions and improve product satisfaction, market success, and brand reputation.
From card sorting to A/B testing, there are various methods to choose from depending on the project goals, timeline, and budget.
In conclusion, by investing in user needs assessment, designers can reduce the risk of product failure and gain a competitive edge in the market.
For companies without the internal resources, partnering with a UI/UX design agency or utilizing our user research services can be a valuable solution to guide you through this crucial design stage.
Reach out to us at Netizen Experience for user needs assessment for your next project!
May 21, 2023 | UX Strategy & Planning, Case Studies |
In today’s digital age, user experience (UX) plays a pivotal role in shaping the success of products and services.
To create exceptional user experiences, businesses must gain deep insights into their target audience’s needs, preferences, and behaviours.
UX design is crucial to creating products that are user-centred, intuitive and enjoyable to use. As such, it’s important for businesses to understand their customer’s problems and expectations, and then tweak their products to optimise the user experience.
This is where UX research strategies come into play, allowing companies to uncover invaluable user insights that drive informed decisions.
The blog aims to emphasise the importance of UX research strategies with the help of two case studies from South East Asia (Neitzen’s clients).
What is UX research?
UX research, or user experience research, is a process of understanding user behaviour, and motivations in order to design and improve products, services, or systems so that they meet user needs and expectations.
This means the goal of UX research is to provide insights into how users interact with products, services, or systems and to identify opportunities for improvement.
UX research can take two forms, including qualitative research methods such as:
- Contextual inquiries
- User interviews
- Card sorting
- Usability testing
- Field studies/diary studies
- Focus groups
- User persona creation
- Tree testing
- Heuristic evaluation/UX audit
The second form involves, quantitative research methods, such as:
- A/B testing
- Surveys and questionnaires
- Digital analytics
- First click testing
- Website intercepts
All these methods are used, sometimes in tandem, to gather data and feedback from users throughout the design and development process. This can further be analysed to identify patterns and trends in user behaviour, needs, and motivations.
For more details on UX research and methods, read here.
The importance of UX research
User research is a systematic approach to understanding users, their behaviours, needs, and preferences.
By delving deep into it, businesses can gain valuable insights that drive the design and development of products and services that truly resonate with their target audience.
UX research ensures that user needs are at the forefront. This, in turn, leads to intuitive, user-friendly interfaces, enhanced satisfaction, increased customer loyalty, and, ultimately, business success!
Here are some key reasons highlighting the importance of UX research:
Understanding user needs
By conducting user interviews, surveys, and usability testing, UX researchers can uncover user pain points, preferences, and goals. This knowledge feeds the design process and ensures that the final product or service meets user expectations.
Designing user-centred experiences
By involving users in UX research early on and throughout the development cycle, designers can incorporate their feedback and insights to create user-centred experiences. This will help you create products and services that are more intuitive, easy to use, and relevant to the target audience.
Identifying usability issues
By observing how users interact with a product or service, UX researchers can pinpoint areas of confusion, usability issues and bottlenecks. This way, designers and developers can make iterative improvements and create a more seamless and enjoyable user experience.
Validating design decisions
UX research provides a data-driven approach to design decision-making. By testing design concepts, prototypes, or wireframes with real users, researchers can gather feedback and validate design decisions. This reduces the risk of making assumptions and ensures that design choices are grounded in user insights.
Enhancing conversion and engagement
A well-designed user experience can significantly impact conversion rates and user engagement. UX research helps in identifying barriers to conversion, optimising user flows, and improving user engagement so that researchers can make informed recommendations to enhance key interactions and drive desired user actions.
Mitigating risk and reducing costs
Investing in UX research early in the design process helps identify issues and nip them in the bud. This allows organisations to mitigate risks, reduce costly redesigns, and avoid negative user experiences that could harm their reputation and business outcomes.
UX Research Tools
To create exceptional user experiences, UX researchers rely on a variety of powerful tools to gather data, analyse interactions, and make informed design decisions. The insights they gain regarding user behaviour, preferences, and needs are a great asset in optimising their designs accordingly.
In general, these tools can be broadly sorted into the following categories:
- Active Research (Ex. Usability testing, specialised testing, surveys)
- Passive Insights (Ex. Analytics, A/B testing, automated feedback)
- Insights Management (Transcription, research repository, note-taking)
- Design (Wireframing, brainstorming, prototyping)
- Research Ops (Scheduling, recruiting, payment)
Check out our list of UX research tools and their benefits.
What is a UX research strategy?
Even the best team needs a plan that funnels their efforts into the right places.
A UX research strategy outlines the goals, methods, and approach for conducting user research and provides a framework for systematically gathering insights, including checkpoints, objectives and best practices.
Let’s look at a step-by-step plan for developing your own UX research strategy.
Step 1: Define research objectives
Clearly articulate the goals and objectives of your research. Involve any stakeholders and organisational leaders in the discussion so that you can identify what specific insights you aim to gain from the research, and how they align with the project or business goals.
Ensure that your objectives are specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART).
Step 2: Conduct market research
Apart from finding out the target audience and market demand for your product, the most important element of UX research is cataloguing the field’s best practices. Not only will a well-defined set of principles keep your team’s progress consistent and on track, but it will also ensure that the data collected follows an approved ethical and methodological standard.
Step 3: Allocate resources
Consider the resources needed to execute your research strategy. Determine the required budget, form a research timeline, and start assembling a team for respondent recruitment, research activities, data analysis, and reporting. Ensure that you have the necessary tools and technology in place to support your research efforts effectively.
Step 4: Research, iterate, repeat
As you conduct research and gain new insights, iterate and refine your strategy accordingly. Incorporate feedback and learnings into future research efforts to continuously improve the effectiveness of your UX research strategy.
Netizen’s UX research case studies in SEA (South East Asia)
Case Study 1- Insurance company in SEA
An insurance company in SEA was seeking to digitise its product customer journey but faced several challenges with its mobile sales kit app. For example, policyholders and agents were unable to use the digital tools provided in that app with the ease and efficiency they’d anticipated.
As the company has recognised the need to engage with these stakeholders–including business managers, agents, and policyholders–in order to develop products that met their expectations, we were tasked to tackle these challenges.
After carrying out user research to engage with agent panels and understand their workflow, we gathered feedback to guide how the internal tools should be designed and tailored to their needs.
This approach enabled us to identify user pain points and areas for improvement in the agent experience, gaining insights to further improve the product app.
Not only that, we also conducted usability testing to consistently engage with policyholders while testing new concepts, prototypes, and service flow for the customer app.
Our user research strategy, including user testing, helped identify areas for improvement and ensured that the app is user-friendly and intuitive.
In conclusion, our approach to digital transformation for the insurance company involved a continuous process of engagement with the users and feedback gathering from all stakeholders.
By understanding the needs of agents and policyholders, we were able to create targeted UX research strategies and design digital tools that meet their needs and expectations to provide a positive user experience.
Case Study 2- Private Sector Bank in the SEA
A renowned private bank that relied on its website for banking services needed to compare the UX performance between the existing and new versions of its website’s design before launching to its large customer base of 10 million registered users.
As such, we were tasked to analyse the UX performance of the new design as well as to create UX research strategies to make any improvements that were needed.
One of the technical challenges for this project was that the new design prototype was only accessible via the bank clients’ network, making it impossible for us to test the prototype online.
To solve this issue, we shifted our user research approach and conducted it in person at clients’ offices instead. Our next UX strategy in order to better analyse UX performance, was to conduct usability testing to get insights on the new design’s usability for the customers compared to the existing website design.
Further, to further improve quality assurance and deliver a better experience for the users, we made sure to conduct usability testing on both desktop and mobile, since different platform users tend to have different user experiences.
Continuous usability tests were conducted over many weeks, and insights were fed to the design team for continuous design iteration and improvement.
Our systematic UX strategies and implementation helped manage the risk of launching a defective user interface, which could have caused major embarrassment for the bank and frustration for millions of users.
By continuously testing and iterating the design, this private bank was able to ensure that the new website design was user-friendly and met the needs of its customers before launching it to its large customer base.
Conclusion
UX research is a critical component in creating user-centred and intuitive products. By understanding user behaviour, needs, and motivations through qualitative and quantitative research methods, businesses can optimise the user experience and meet user expectations.
In the realm of user experience (UX) design, the use of effective research strategies is paramount to understanding user needs and preferences.
This blog explores the world of UX research strategies, specifically through our captivating case studies from South East Asian Countries. By delving into the proven UX methodologies, we uncover how UX research drives informed design decisions and transformed the way businesses create digital experiences.
Reach out to us at Netizen Experience for creating UX research strategies and planning for your next project!
May 16, 2023 | User Experience, UX Design, UX Review |
The impressive capabilities of ChatGPT, as detailed in our previous article, does not stop at assisting with UX research. Many UX designers have also begun to make use of ChatGPT in their daily tasks. While some view ChatGPT as a powerful tool that can enhance the efficiency of UX design, others fear that it may pose a threat to human creativity and expertise. As the debate continues, it is important to explore the benefits and limitations of ChatGPT in UX design.
In this article, we will delve into the influence of ChatGPT on UX design, along with its drawbacks and the implications of incorporating AI tools into the design process.
ChatGPT for UX design
What can ChatGPT do in UX design? Following the previous scenario:
You are a UX professional in a tech company trying to create a new hotel booking application in Malaysia. Upon learning what ChatGPT can do, you are excited to incorporate ChatGPT in your workflow to see how it boosts productivity.
UX Design Ideation
1. Design Inspirations
ChatGPT can serve as a valuable source of inspiration for UX designers. It provides helpful references for successful designs or suggestions for improvements. Although the model cannot generate readily-usable designs, wireframes or prototypes, it can guide designers in the right direction. Specifically, ChatGPT can suggest sections to include in a page or essential features for an app.
For instance, when designing a hotel-booking app, designers can turn to ChatGPT for guidance and inspiration, asking for suitable app suggestions and design references, including recommendations for typography and logo design.
Prompt
“I’m creating an app for a hotel-booking app based in Malaysia. Can you give me suggestions of any hotel-booking websites with good usability?”
2. Create Design Systems
A design system is a crucial tool that helps designers maintain brand consistency and coherence within a team. It encompasses a wide range of guidelines, components, and assets, such as typography, color schemes, user interface elements, and interaction patterns.
When designing app components, designers may encounter situations where they need more detailed guidelines or design systems to draw from. In such cases, ChatGPT can be a valuable resource, providing specific answers relating to design systems that not only offer insights on best practices and principles, but also suggest color schemes, layouts, and other design elements that are relevant to the context and needs of the product.
Moreover, if the response generated by ChatGPT is too general or does not meet the designers’ needs, they can prompt for more specific adjustments to any design element. By leveraging ChatGPT’s capabilities, designers can save time and improve their design quality.
Prompt
“Are there any recommended design systems that I can follow while designing my hotel-booking app?”
3. Visualize User Flow
User flow comprises information of how a typical user navigates through a website or an app to complete a given task. This is important for UX designers to visualize how a product is used, hence creating a more intuitive and user-friendly design. Designers can consider using ChatGPT to help create a user flow to better visualize how a typical user would navigate an app.
By providing suitable prompts, ChatGPT can generate user flows on how a typical user navigates an app as well as suggest placement of features and content based on the context provided. This helps designers to streamline their design decisions and ensure their decisions align with the user flow, resulting in a better user experience.
Prompt
“Create a user flow for a hotel-booking app, outlining the steps a user takes to search and book a room.”
“What are the usual issues faced by users when using a hotel-booking app that I should take note of when designing a hotel-booking app?”
4. Generate Prompts for AI Image Generator
For anyone curious in trying out AI image generators such as DALL-E, Stable Diffusion and Midjourney, ChatGPT can be a valuable tool for generating prompts. By providing specific and detailed instructions on what kind of image you require, ChatGPT can generate a clear and concise prompt that can be easily understood by an AI image generator.
Be it the landing page, profile page or even icons for buttons for an app, ChatGPT can generate a prompt that captures the key features that can then be used to guide an image generator to create sample images that can inspire you.
Prompt
“Make a simple prompt for an AI image generator to generate the profile page of a hotel-booking app”
Limitations
ChatGPT can indeed offer valuable insights and recommendations for design ideation. However, the model’s suggestions rely on existing data and patterns, which can limit the potential for creative, innovative solutions. Despite its ability to generate ideas quickly, its suggestions may not always be unique or groundbreaking. Additionally, ChatGPT may not accurately comprehend the intent or context behind a designer’s request, leading to responses that do not align with the designer’s creative vision. As a result, designers may still need to supplement with their own creativity to achieve a truly unique and innovative design.
The model is also not able to generate directly usable designs. Being a text-based AI, it can only provide suggestions for prompts to be used on other platforms. While these prompts can be helpful for inspiring designers, images generated by AI image generators are often generic and lack the depth and complexity that designers require.
ChatGPT for UX Writing
1. Generate Copywriting
In addition to designing the layout of a platform, it is also important for designers to craft compelling UX copies that effectively convey the intended message and align with the overall brand strategy. With its advanced language-processing capabilities, ChatGPT can help create UX copies that are both engaging and informative, whether it is for writing product descriptions, blog posts or other types of content. By inputting the suitable prompts, the model can help you overcome writer’s block and generate fresh ideas that may not have been considered otherwise.
Additionally, you could also use ChatGPT to scan your writings and request for suggestions for improvement. Using ChatGPT to generate UX copies can save you time and effort, allowing you to focus on other aspects of your app design or development.
Prompt
“Give me 5 suggestions of a welcome text description for a landing page of a hotel-booking app.”
“Help me scan this copywriting and give suggestions to improve it:
Looking for your next adventure? Our hotel booking app has got you covered with top-rated hotels and resorts in Malaysia.”
Limitations
However, as advanced technology as ChatGPT, its accuracy in understanding and generating emotional content may be limited. As an AI model, ChatGPT lacks the ability to truly empathize with human emotions and may not be able to capture the subtle nuances of emotional language that a human copywriter would. In addition, ChatGPT’s reliance on past data means that it may not be able to respond appropriately to new or unique emotional contexts.
While ChatGPT can be a useful tool in generating copywriting, it is important to use it with caution and supplement its output with human input to ensure that the emotional content is accurate and resonates with the intended audience.
Design Review
1. Review Design Ideas
ChatGPT can also be an incredibly valuable tool for UX designers when they are formulating ideas or reviewing a finished product. It offers suggestions, feedback, and asks relevant questions that help designers refine and improve their design ideas. With ChatGPT, designers can easily test different design elements, gain insights to common usability issues, and receive helpful suggestions for improving their designs.
For instance, you can provide the URL to a website or even a prototype and request ChatGPT to review and provide critiques related to design flaws. This helps you steer clear of any major usability issues and allow iterations during the design process. Interestingly, you can even prompt ChatGPT to voice their critiques in the style of a certain person or character.
Prompt
“Imagine yourself as a UX specialist. Give critiques on the design of this app: MakeMyTrip.”
Limitations
Although ChatGPT is a powerful tool for reviewing UX design products and ideas, it may not be able to fully grasp the artistic aspects of a design. Visual elements such as color, typography, and layout play a crucial role in how design is perceived by users. It is important to note that while the model can provide high-level feedback on these visual elements, a human designer’s understanding of these elements may still be necessary to provide more comprehensive and detailed feedback that can assist designers in refining and improving their designs. Despite its advanced capabilities, ChatGPT’s feedback should be considered as an additional tool for designers rather than a substitute for human expertise.
The Big Picture: Nothing Beats Human Touch
All things considered, ChatGPT can be an invaluable tool in enhancing the UX design workflow. However, similar to its limited capabilities to understand emotions and filter out biased data, the model also has its limitations when it comes to the design process.
1. Design recommendations lack specificity
ChatGPT’s responses are often broad and generic, which can limit its usefulness to the design workflow. UX designers often require precise and specific guidance on design elements such as placement and color codes, which may be beyond the scope of ChatGPT’s capabilities. Besides, the model may not take into account important design factors such as branding guidelines, accessibility requirements, or user testing results, all of which are crucial elements when designing user-friendly products.
2. Incapable of creative thoughts
As an AI model, ChatGPT relies on analyzing logic and patterns from the data in its database. While it can produce responses that seem intriguing, it lacks the capacity to generate fresh and innovative ideas. In essence, ChatGPT analyzes “how things were done,” but does not explore alternative approaches to problem-solving. This limitation hinders its effectiveness in product design, where creativity is often necessary to deliver unique and engaging user experiences.
Final thoughts
Once again, will ChatGPT fully replace human UX researchers and designers?
The answer is NO.
Although ChatGPT is an effective tool, the model is by no means a replacement for human researchers and designers who possess a deep understanding of human behaviors and can provide nuanced insights machines cannot.
Nevertheless, this does not mean that we should stop using ChatGPT prompts for UX design altogether. Instead, integrating AI tools into UX workflows, researchers and designers alike can create better user experiences, which in turn can enhance business value and user satisfaction.
May 16, 2023 | User Experience, UX Review |
User experience (UX) research is an essential part of creating products that are intuitive, user-friendly, and meet the needs of target users. To this end, UX researchers strive to understand user behaviors and needs by conducting research through various methods such as surveys, user testing, and data analysis. UX designers, on the other hand, incorporate research findings into the design processes to create products that satisfy the target users’ needs.
However, the release of ChatGPT has impacted the UX research and design landscape by automating and boosting productivity in UX-related tasks. As a result, this has sparked the debate of whether UX researchers and designers will be replaced by AI tools such as ChatGPT.
This review will be divided into two parts: UX research and UX design. In this article, we will discuss how ChatGPT revolutionizes the UX research landscape, where it falls short, as well as the implications of AI tools in the field of UX.
ChatGPT for UX research
To better understand how ChatGPT helps UX researchers at work, let’s assume the following scenario:
You are a UX professional in a tech company trying to create a new hotel booking application in Malaysia. Upon learning what ChatGPT can do, you are excited to incorporate ChatGPT in your workflow to see how it boosts productivity.
Ideation
1. Competitor Analysis/Benchmarking
Competitor analysis involves studying the user experience of competing products and is a crucial component of UX research. Both researchers and designers benefit from this process by studying the task flows, features, or app architectures of other similar apps, obtaining valuable insights pertaining to product strengths and shortfalls. This helps identify UX trends, design gaps and opportunities, as well as inform better design decisions.
As an AI language model, ChatGPT is capable of boosting this lengthy process by generating a summary of the competitive landscape within seconds. The model does this by analyzing its training data to identify common user feedbacks, pain points, and areas for improvement. All that is needed is a prompt to conduct the analysis, and ChatGPT can do the rest. However, for a more in-depth analysis or if you lack the resources to conduct competitor research internally, consider outsourcing this task to a UI/UX design agency in Malaysia. Many Malaysian agencies offer competitive rates and expertise in UX research, allowing you to gain valuable insights without the time commitment.
Prompt
“I want to create a hotel-booking app in Malaysia. Conduct a UX competitive analysis using Agoda’s app.”
2. Suggest User Profiles for Research
Selecting the right users for UX research ensures the insights obtained represent the target audience of a product. This enables the development of user-centered designs and products that meet target users’ needs and expectations.
ChatGPT can be helpful in this process to identify the potential user groups of a product by analyzing its training data about user preferences, behaviors, and demographics. Additionally, ChatGPT has the capability to offer recommendations on how to break down user groups when specific requirements need to be met and multiple user groups are involved. These help UX researchers to better target and understand the selected user groups of a new product, enabling them to conduct more effective research.
Prompt
“Imagine yourself as a UX specialist. I want to conduct a user research on a new hotel booking app in Malaysia. What kind of users should I recruit?”
3. Generate Product Use Cases
Understanding the target users’ behaviors and motivations is crucial to design user-centered products. Identifying the user personas and journeys reveal valuable information about users’ usual concerns, needs, and motivations when using a particular product. This also fosters a shared understanding of the user base and enables more effective communication among researchers, designers, and cross-functional teams.
ChatGPT’s extensive database empowers it to generate realistic user scenarios and provide insights into how users may interact with a product or its features. For instance, UX researchers can leverage ChatGPT to create user personas and analyze user journeys and pain points in competing products. This can be particularly valuable in the research preparation phase, as it helps identify research directions and generate ideas.
Prompt
“Create 2 personas of people who use hotel-booking apps in Malaysia.”
“What would be the key information Sarah (Persona 1) needs in each stage of the user journey? List down in point form.”
4. Suggest Research Methodologies
Due to the myriad of available methods that address different problems, choosing the right research approach can be daunting even for experienced UX researchers. Selecting the wrong research method can lead to wasted resources and expenses. What’s worse – using the wrong approach may yield biased findings, leading to flawed design decisions that negatively impact user experience.
This is where ChatGPT comes in handy – it is capable of identifying the ideal research methodology based on the objectives defined. This provides valuable guidance for UX researchers in choosing the most appropriate approach. For instance, you can define the objectives of your research and request ChatGPT to suggest an ideal research methodology that answers the objective.
Prompt
“My research objective will be to understand the users’ current experiences using other hotel booking apps, and also generate ideas on what kind of information is needed in my new app. What kind of user research method should I go for? List only the best one.”
Limitations
While ChatGPT can provide great assistance for UX research, its data may be unreliable due to biased and unvalidated information within its database. Additionally, the suggested research method and user group may not be the only solution to the research objectives.
Therefore, it is important for UX researchers to fact-check ChatGPT-generated information and not solely rely on them during the research planning phase. Project or product requirements must also be considered when selecting target user groups and research methods. While ChatGPT can be used as a reference, talking to real users remains a necessary part of the research to obtain relevant feedback and make better design decisions.
Research
1. Generate Interview Questions
ChatGPT’s capabilities are not limited to assisting with research planning and it is surprisingly useful during research execution too. ChatGPT helps brainstorm and generate interview questions for the researchers. This can be done by providing ChatGPT with some prompts along with the objectives for the interview questions, easy as that!
Back to our scenario of creating a hotel-booking app in Malaysia. During the preliminary rounds of research, you might be interested in users’ current experiences, pain points, and information needs while booking a room using hotel-booking apps. ChatGPT can assist by suggesting potential questions and even help with structuring the question flow.
Prompt
“I would like to draft some questions for a user interview session. The questions should start with generic questions like their current experiences using hotel-booking apps, then narrow down to specific questions about their pain points and content requirements. Draft in total 10 questions.”
2. Translate Test Scripts
As UX researchers conduct studies in countries that speak different languages, translation becomes an inevitable aspect of research. Properly translated test scripts (such as interview questions) are essential to help local users understand the questions asked and provide better feedback.
Translation tasks can be daunting as the traditional translation process can take hours, if not days to complete. However, with ChatGPT’s instantaneous translation capabilities, the process can be completed in seconds. This not only saves time and resources but also ensures that research questions are accurately translated, thus enabling researchers to obtain accurate and meaningful data.
Prompts
“Help me translate the questions above to Chinese.”
3. Suggest Information Architecture
Information architecture helps organize and structure information on a website or app in a logical manner that enables users to easily find the information they need. This reduces the chance of users becoming frustrated and abandoning their tasks, resulting in bad user experience.
When designing a new app or incorporating new information into existing websites or apps, ChatGPT has the capability to suggest the optimal structure of how information should be arranged. This is made possible by its vast database of patterns and information structures collected from numerous sources. By utilizing ChatGPT’s suggestions, UX researchers can further validate these structures with methods like card sorting or tree tests to ensure the best possible user experience.
Prompt
“I want to create a hotel-booking app for local Malaysians. Assume yourself as one and tell me what is the ideal information architecture for the following information: (About Us, promotions, search bar for hotel booking, customer reviews, profile settings, terms and conditions, chat support, information for specific hotels, hotel pricing)
Arrange them into at least 2 levels of information, where Level 1 are information users must see upfront, and level 2 refers to information users will see after clicking into certain sections or buttons.”
Limitations
ChatGPT suggests interview questions and information architecture structures based on common patterns observed from its database rather than analyzing the “best” solution for each inquiry. Therefore, UX researchers should only use them as a reference and not rely on them completely.
Besides, the model may not capture the cultural nuance and understanding that a human translator can bring to the table. As a result, the translations produced by ChatGPT may not have the necessary cultural sensitivity required for effective communication in some situations.
Reporting
Summarize Data and Create Stories
Research findings become nothing more than a bunch of meaningless data if they are not presented in ways that resonate with the target audience. Storytelling is a necessary skill to UX researchers as it allows the audience to empathize with the users, thereby communicating research findings to team members and stakeholders effectively.
ChatGPT is capable of summarizing lengthy texts into easily comprehensible points and creating user stories that cater to various audiences based on the tone and context set. With this, UX researchers can now seamlessly craft user stories that strike a balance between quantitative and qualitative aspects.
For example, you would like to share your findings with cross-functional teams and stakeholders after a research project. To make it easier for the audience to understand, you can summarize the details into a short paragraph instead of a lengthy report by requesting a quick summary from ChatGPT using simple prompts as shown below.
Prompt
“Summarize the findings above to 1 paragraph.”
Once you have extracted the key information, you can also prompt ChatGPT to create stories that suit different audiences based on different requirements.
Prompt
“Create a story out of this data and tell it to a group of audience who are insensitive to numbers.”
“Now tell the same story to a group of stakeholders. Numerical data is fine.”
Limitations
ChatGPT is capable of condensing lengthy texts into summarized points and creating stories out of basic data. However, unlike human researchers, it falls short in considering contextual factors of the data, which are important for precise analyses.
The model focuses on the literal meaning of the content and does not have the ability to accurately capture contextual cues and information (such as users’ prior experiences and emotions). This may result in inaccurate conclusions of users’ feedback.
The Big Picture: UX Researchers Remain Unrivaled
Without a doubt, ChatGPT is a remarkable productivity tool even in the field of User Experience where human interaction is paramount. UX researchers can leverage it to boost productivity, streamline workflows and generate useful research insights for designing user-centric products. Various ChatGPT prompts for user research can help support the process.
However, while ChatGPT serves as a promising tool for UX researchers, here are some limitations of the model that we must not overlook.
1. Lacks understanding of human emotions and contexts
One major limitation of ChatGPT is its lack of sensitivity to human emotions and contexts. While the model is claimed to be well-versed in analyzing user sentiments from text-based input, it lacks accuracy when it comes to ambiguous situations such as when users provide mixed or subtle feedback. This is because the model was not trained to understand different contextual and cultural knowledge. As a result, it can only offer generic responses instead of context-specific answers, which can pose a challenge in the field of UX where customized experiences are vital to enhance user experience.
2. Uncontrolled sources and biased suggestions
Besides, another limitation of ChatGPT lies in its limited knowledge and potential to generate biased responses. The model’s data only goes up to year 2021, which prevents it from providing responses that incorporate the latest developments and changes in specific fields. Besides, it is also incapable of deliberately filtering biased data, resulting in the possibility of generating biased responses.
Our Verdict?
ChatGPT as it is currently, has noteworthy flaws and shortcomings which stand in stark contrast to the contributions UX researchers can bring to table.
In our next article, we will explore the role of ChatGPT in UX design, and the challenges UX designers may face with the rise of AI tools.
