User research

We help our clients better understand their key target user groups, and use that knowledge to develop website, intranet and system requirement specifications.

Methods

We use our extensive marketing experience and user centered design methods to understand your users in the context of your specific project and business needs. Our methods include:

• Focus groups - unearthing the underlying user needs that motivate behaviour.
• Interviews with users - gaining greater in-depth knowledge of representative users' needs and motivations.
• Surveys - validating requirements uncovered throughout the analysis process and/or benchmark and measure customer satisfaction.
• Web statistics and analytics - understanding the most popular pages, where customers are exiting your site or transaction and what keywords users are searching for.
• Task analysis - reviewing particular user goals in detail such as purchasing car insurance. This study extends beyond the customer’s interactions with the website, looking at the task as a whole and the website’s role in the overall task.
• Contextual enquiries - conducting interviews in the user's own environment to help understand the context and environment that users operate in, user tasks and associated needs and goals.
• User observation - understanding the user's environment, the tasks they perform and how they complete them.
• Interviews or surveys with customer facing staff - understanding of customer needs and interactions by talking to the people that speak to your customers the most.
• Call centre / customer enquiry analysis - understanding what questions are coming to your Call Centre most frequently? How can the website answer them better?
• Website feedback / email enquiry analysis - looking for patterns and common themes in the feedback your users are giving your site. Highlights what users cannot easily find and what content may be missing.

Deliverables

Findings are documented in a user research report which outlines information about your users':

• online and offline behaviours
• demographics
• psychographics
• technology usage and adoption

We also develop scenarios and personas which can be used for the Design and Test & Evaluate phases of your project.