How can you avoid designer bias in user feedback?

1 Define your goals

Before you ask for user feedback, you need to have a clear idea of what you want to learn from it. What are the main questions or hypotheses you want to test? What are the success criteria or metrics you want to measure? How will you use the feedback to improve your design? Having specific and measurable goals will help you focus your feedback process and avoid asking irrelevant or leading questions.

2 Choose the right methods

Depending on your goals, you may need to use different methods to collect user feedback. For example, you may use surveys, interviews, focus groups, usability tests, or prototypes. Each method has its own advantages and disadvantages, and you need to consider factors such as the sample size, the type of data, the level of detail, and the cost. You also need to ensure that your methods are reliable, valid, and consistent, and that you follow ethical guidelines and respect user privacy.

3 Recruit a diverse sample

One of the most common sources of designer bias is the selection of users who participate in the feedback process. If you only recruit users who are similar to you, who already like your product, or who are easy to access, you may end up with a skewed or unrepresentative sample. To avoid this, you need to recruit a diverse and representative sample of users who match your target audience and reflect their characteristics, needs, preferences, and behaviors.

4 Ask open-ended questions

Another way to avoid designer bias is to ask open-ended questions that allow users to express their opinions, feelings, and experiences in their own words. Open-ended questions are more likely to elicit honest and detailed feedback than closed-ended questions that limit users to predefined options or yes/no answers. For example, instead of asking "Do you like this feature?", you can ask "How do you feel about this feature?" or "What do you use this feature for?".

5 Avoid leading or suggestive questions

Leading or suggestive questions are questions that imply a desired answer or influence the user's response. They can introduce designer bias by making users agree with your assumptions, expectations, or preferences, or by making them feel pressured or influenced. For example, instead of asking "Don't you think this design is better than the previous one?", you can ask "How does this design compare to the previous one?" or "What are the pros and cons of this design?".

6 Listen and observe carefully

Finally, to avoid designer bias, you need to listen and observe carefully to what your users say and do. You need to pay attention to their verbal and non-verbal cues, such as their tone of voice, facial expressions, body language, and gestures. You also need to avoid interrupting, judging, or correcting them, and instead, encourage them to elaborate, clarify, or exemplify their feedback. You can use techniques such as paraphrasing, summarizing, or probing to confirm your understanding and show your interest.

7 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?