I believe that research is the most important step in any design process. Should I stop there? Because what more is there to say?
If you have not done research with your users, all the work you will do in designing and building any tool for them will be based on guesses and intuitions and mythical tales you tell yourself about them.
I’m happy that when I was at Cars.com I worked with a usability researcher who took the time to give all of us training in ‘guerilla research methods’ and that I have built on those skills, writing test scripts, moderating usability tests and using the various tools available:
- card sorting
- tree testing
- interviews, both structured and unstructured
- paper prototyping
- Top Task analysis
- five-second ‘first impression’ test
- and others where possible and appropriate.