it’s not always easy.”- Sofia Quintero
Conducting User Research during Covid-19
The crisis indefinitely affected the way design
teams work, especially for researchers but it is
not impossible to adapt to the situation. The
world is changing and the responsibility of a
user researcher is to observe, unwind,
understand, and translate these changes,
needs, and pain points into curating appropriate
the user researchers, in this case, is to figure
out the common pattern among them. It is likely
that the user needs of today might vary from the
needs of next week.
The need for higher-order empathic skills is also
due to the limitation/low possibility of on-ground
and in-person research, which means we may
miss out on observing non-verbal cues (“UX
research during crisis”, 2020). Empathy tools
like Personas, Empathy Maps, and User
Journey Maps may have to be refined and
redefined constantly in different phases as the
pandemic’s consequences keep unfolding in the
coming months.
Going Digital, Going Remote
Digitisation and digital experiences are not
novel to the 21st century. Every business,
organisation, and individual is significantly
connected through digital mediums and
platforms- IoT and Artificial intelligence-based
designs, Mobile Applications, Websites, Social
Media are a few. The pandemic has created a
situation where the dependency on these digital
mediums is at a hike as working environments
have turned remote and the interactions have
become more on-screen, than in-person. This
seems to be a case applied to user research as
well.
With all social distancing, hygiene/sanitisation
protocols, and work-from-home lifestyle, user
researchers are also obligated to accommodate
themselves to remote research. Remote
research tools and methods were indeed used
by a lot of designers prior to the pandemic, but
there are many who have mostly preferred a
traditional approach of user research until now
like personal interviews and contextual inquiries,
card sorting etc. The pandemic opened a new
scope to explore and familiarise oneself with the
digital tools like Figma, Miro, Slack, and Zoom.
However, there are many other effective
qualitative interactions and research methods
that are available for remote studies are:
- Remote interviews and focus group
discussions. The researcher and the
participants can interact through video call
platforms like Skype, Zoom, hangouts which
could be recorded for further references and
analysis.
- Diary studies- Users can introspect and enter
personal accounts of their day to day more
freely, especially because the vast majority is at
home. The participant may also attach personal
vlogs or voice recordings if they don’t feel
comfortable writing.
- Open-ended surveys- Open-ended surveys
can pose specific questions followed by a space
to write their answers, thoughts and
experiences with no limitations.
- Desk research- A very important, and effective
method of observing measurable data patterns,
existing case studies, reports and publications,
trade reports, customer feedback scores that
help identify and map various frameworks and
contextual information to create validated, yet
deeper insights.
- Online co-design workshops for stakeholders
and other collaborative groups can be
connected for further understanding different
perspectives and brainstorm user needs and
design solutions, using collaborative tools like
Figma, Slack, and Miro. In these online
platforms, there is a transparency of what
participants and designers have contributed to
the collaborations, also allowing the possibility
of screen and navigation control.
- Usability testing and product evaluationresearch
for product evaluation has also been
made possible through tools like Crazy Egg,
Userzoom, Validately. Remote moderated and
unmoderated usability testing can also be
carried out, where the users are given the
freedom to participate from their natural
environment, and the respective product is
evaluated by the users, with or without the
guidance of the researcher (“Going Remote
User Research During COVID-19”, 2020).
- Web-based intercepts- The viewers of the
organisations’ websites could be provided with a
pop-up asking if they would like to participate in
the user research. The users who are willing
15