As UX designers, we only know our users as much as the knowledge and data that we have available to us. Which really isn’t that much. Companies are constantly striving to improve their data infrastructure and their research processes in order to better understand their users and make their users happy. As UX practitioners, this should also be our quest.

How can UX designers leverage UX research to craft high-performing, user-centric designs?

“Supposing is good, but finding out is better.”

‍- Mark Twain

Research got your back

Specifically as designers of digital products, for better or for worse, we often make assumptions and decisions on behalf of our users. This is quite common. It is within our comfort zone to utilize our own experiences, understanding, and perception in order to comprehend or make an assessment of something. However, when it comes to the practice of UX, this occurrence usually means there’s a knowledge gap. The beauty of UX research is that it fills those gaps.

When it comes to UX research, there are generally two types of research that show up in the UX field. Generative research and evaluative research. For the purposes of this read, I will be discussing how UX designers can collaborate with UX researchers, utilize generative research findings to understand our users on a deeper level, and craft high-performing designs.

What is generative research?

“Generative research is all about developing a deeper understanding of your users and defining the problem that you’ll address later on in the design thinking process…As the name suggests, generative research helps generate insights that inform the rest of your work.” (Codeacademy)

This can also be considered the discovery phase of a project. Typically, generative research is conducted by a UX researcher. They are tasked with gathering insights on a specific subject that a company may not have enough insights about. As a designer, you may find yourself working closely with the researcher during this phase to incorporate any open-ended questions you may have into the research that will help drive your design decisions.

Explore the problem space

Once generative findings are shared out, there are key takeaways that you, as the UX designer can draw from, that will set the landscape for your design exploration. Depending on how the generative research was conducted, you’ll be able to conclude some level of user pain points and sentiment regarding that subject as well as opportunity areas.

“Even the best designers produce successful products only if their designs solve the right problems. A wonderful interface to the wrong features will fail.”

— Jakob Nielsen

Sometimes with broader, more open-ended research, it can be easy to fall into the feeling of needing to solve and address every problem that comes up in the findings. During this stage, you may find value in conducting a scoping workshop with stakeholders in order to unpack the findings and the problem space a bit more.

It’s important to align on the right problems to solve as that will ultimately determine the success of your designs and your impact on the company goals.

Turn your problems into action

You have identified your priority problems. Now what? You’re now at the stage where you’ll want to get a sense of the design challenge that lies ahead for each of the problems your team has solidified. How-Might-We (HMWs) questions can generate tons of creative ideas and are commonly used to unpack problems and turn them into actionable design challenges.

Example 1

• Problem: New buyers feel intimidated and discouraged by the bidding process.
• How might we help new buyers feel more comfortable negotiating with a seller on a listing price?

Example 2

• Problem: Sellers are frustrated and offended when a buyer asks for too low below the listing price which results in ghosting the buyer.
• How might we help sellers and buyers meet at a fair and reasonable price?

You’ll want to avoid suggesting solutions in the HMWs as that can restrict your design exploration.

Example

• Problem: Sellers are frustrated and offended when a buyer asks for more than 20% below the listing price which results in ghosting the buyer.
• Weak HMW: How might we restrict buyers from offering lower than 20% of the listing price?
• Strong HMW: How might we help sellers and buyers meet at a fair and reasonable price?

Get to the drawing board

Once you’ve mapped out your various problem statements, you’re now set up to tackle the design challenge. This is where your creative and strategic UX thinking comes in. I personally make it a goal to arrive at 2–3 different design solutions per HMW. The more the merrier of course, but generally, you don’t want to limit yourself to just one design solution as that can leave you with potential blindspots.

This stage is an iterative process and can usually be the most time-consuming, but the payoff is well worth it. By coming up with multiple design solutions from different angles, you’re maximizing your opportunities and setting your designs up for success. At the minimum, you’ll set yourself up to yield impactful learnings.

Thanks for reading!

🤝🏼You can learn more about my UX work here and connect with me on LinkedIn.

💬 Always welcome your thoughts or a conversation below!