User feedback and learning are essential for creating and improving user experiences (UX) that meet user needs and expectations. However, getting feedback and learning from users can be challenging, especially if they are busy, reluctant, or indifferent. How do you encourage user feedback and learning in your UX projects? Here are some tips and best practices to help you.
The first step to encourage user feedback and learning is to understand who your users are, what they want, and how they behave. You can use various methods, such as user research, personas, user journeys, and analytics, to gain insights into your users' goals, motivations, pain points, and preferences. By understanding your users, you can tailor your feedback and learning strategies to their context, needs, and interests.
In my experience, the first step to understanding users is to know exactly who they are. For whom are we creating this product or feature? Collecting feedback from random users can be counterproductive, considering that the decisions we make do not necessarily work for everyone. Therefore, we should try to have the most accurate profiling possible on target users, by creating Personas, for example, so that we can then segment and classify the feedback we receive, and be able to decide which has greater impact and relevance.
Users are your stakeholders. I always start with speaking to people. Not a focus group or surveys, actually siting down (or remotely) in a 1-on-1 interview. I try to understand: ? Their needs ? Their goals ? Their vision ? Their constraints Here's my step by step: 1/ Define your research goals ? Who is the solution for? ? Why do they need it? ? What’s the riskiest assumptions? ? What are concerns or constraints? 2/ Select the stakeholders For example: ? Users ? Product managers ? Marketing ? Sales Anyone that will give you insights and context 3/ Choose the structure of your interviews 4/ Prep an interview guide, including: 1???Introduction 2???Warm-up questions 3???Project-specific questions 4???Closing remarks
One of the most important skills for any designer is the ability to cultivate a theory of mind skillset. Only when you understand what your end users know, understand, and expect can you effectively help them achieve their goals or direct them to new approaches. There are lots of ways to arrive at this knowledge, but I find that it's an ongoing effort to flesh out your understanding from all angles and keep those insights up to date.
My favourite way to understand users is by asking them about their frustrations. I usually start with, "this is a free pass to rant, rave, complain — tell me about everything that frustrates you about this topic". And then I listen for the gems that come my way.
Sometimes understanding your users can be more complicated than a mere questionnaire. In some scenarios understanding is built through silent un-participatory observation. Read: Shadowing, Hawthorne affect
The second step to encourage user feedback and learning is to involve your users in the design process. You can use various methods, such as co-design, prototyping, usability testing, and surveys, to engage your users in creating and evaluating your UX solutions. By involving your users, you can build trust, rapport, and collaboration, as well as get direct and honest feedback and learning from them.
You're creating a personal financial app and organising co-design sessions with potential users. Participants actively shape the design through hands-on prototyping, usability testing, and conversations. Post-workshop questionnaires provide further information. This collaborative method fosters trust and rapport, ensuring that the final result accurately reflects the requirements and preferences of the users. It's a true conversation between you, the UX Design Specialist, and the users that foster a customized and user-centric solution.
Users do not always know what they want, but they do know how they feel. Just "involving" them is not quite nuanced enough. Why? Because in some cases, even if users know what they want, they can find it hard to explain to a developer, designer or researcher. Regardless of if you are developing a product or service, it's key that you involve users when you can offer them some kind of experience. You can offer something that makes sense to them - this is where their insight is invaluable. This is opposed to involving them before you can offer an experience, because then you are asking them to see the process from your perspective, not theirs. Do involve, but do it right!
Don't present your designs in Figma alone. Prepare visually appealing and engaging decks to showcase your design work. Use before-and-after visuals, user feedback, and data-driven insights to support your design decisions. For eg: If you've redesigned a website, Create a deck highlighting the transformation of a website's user interface, featuring side-by-side comparisons of the old and new designs. Show the metrics that will be improved and where they're at currently. If you come across a few difficult design decisions, bring them out in the deck and walk the team through your decision-making process. Even better, if you've tested the new design with a few real users, show their feedback as well.
As a creator, you need a clear goal to work toward. However, it's rare to start off with a complete picture of each step and it's nearly impossible to get through the design process without any changes. Working macro to micro, the best process of building and testing a concept is one where assumptions are tested and iterated upon.
The way in which users are involved will depend to a large extent on the type of data we expect to obtain and its depth. If we want qualitative information of high quality, the effort on the part of users to provide such information will be greater. Therefore, we must be more creative, or be willing to offer higher value incentives in exchange for the users' effort. These methods usually consist of interviews, workshops, long surveys, etc. If, on the other hand, we seek to collect quantitative data directly from users, we can obtain it with small forms or rating systems, strategically placed in the flow of our product. The key is that they require very little effort on the part of the user, to ensure higher levels of engagement.
The third step to encourage user feedback and learning is to communicate the value of your UX solutions to your users. You can use various methods, such as storytelling, demos, case studies, and testimonials, to showcase the benefits and outcomes of your UX solutions for your users. By communicating your value, you can increase your users' awareness, interest, and satisfaction, as well as motivate them to give feedback and learn more.
I don't think we should "convince" the value of UX to the user. When we show our users something, it's much more important to listen, observe, and group insights into themes. It's not our job to convince.
One question that I’ve been asking myself while providing design services How would my clients introduce me to their friends? What would they talk about? What complaints would they have? What little touches would they talk about the most?
Communicating the value of UX is not convincing a user that the product has achieved a complete and perfect state, but rather is about indicating how the user's point of view is the starting point for design decisions. We know that a user who struggles to use the product has less available cognitive energy to engage with its improvement than a customer who is generally satisfied.
I believe you can only effectively communicate your value to users to receive their feedback after you have established your value.
Users should be able to understand intuitively from the User Experience of your Product, about the value it creates for them and how it improves their lives. This should be clear to users within the first 1-2 minutes of starting to use your Product
The fourth step to encourage user feedback and learning is to reward your users for their participation and contribution. You can use various methods, such as incentives, gamification, recognition, and feedback loops, to acknowledge and appreciate your users' efforts and inputs. By rewarding your users, you can enhance your users' engagement, loyalty, and advocacy, as well as inspire them to give more feedback and learn more.
Here is an example: You're redesigning a fitness app and want user feedback on new features. To encourage participation, you create a challenge within the app, where users can earn badges for providing feedback, sharing ideas, or participating in surveys. Top contributors are recognized in the app's community section, and there's a monthly draw for free personal training sessions. This gamification and recognition strategy not only spurs more feedback but enhances user engagement and loyalty, fostering a community that's invested in the app's success.
For their involvement in the feedback process, you should continuously reward your most engaged users by the following methods - - Offer them discounts or cashback on your own Product/Service on the next purchase which encourages further usage - Offer them coupons for other prized Products/Services that they use most often - Create an inner competition between them to provide the maximum feedback by creating leaderboards or providing badges for feedbacks
Over the last 24 months, we've designed thousands of screens. At one moment, you're designing your best ideas and are in a peak flow state, and then all of a sudden - BLANK. A complete creative block. It happens to the best of us. And it's a regular part of the creative process. Here are 12 sites that we use to come out of this block???? 1) Dribbble: dribbble.com 2) Behance: behance.net 3) Awwwards: awwwards.com 4) Commece Cream: commercecream.com 5) Admire the Web: admiretheweb.com 6) CSS Nectar: cssnectar.com 7) Landbook:land-book.com 8) Best Website Gallery: bestwebsite.gallery 9) Site Inspire: siteinspire.com 10) UI Jar: uijar.com 11) CSS Winner: csswinner.com 12) CSS Design Awards: cssdesignawards.com
Incentives are a strange animal. Some users may only be incentivized to earn more incentives and not actually contribute any valuable feedback. The reward must be carefully thought out to discourage this behavior and generate authentic feedback.
The fifth step to encourage user feedback and learning is to iterate your UX solutions based on your users' feedback and learning. You can use various methods, such as agile, lean, and design thinking, to refine and improve your UX solutions according to your users' needs and expectations. By iterating your UX solutions, you can demonstrate your responsiveness, adaptability, and innovation, as well as encourage your users to give more feedback and learn more.
Here is an example: You've launched the beta version of a travel booking app. By employing agile methodologies, you actively seek user feedback and quickly realize the search functionality needs improvement. You iterate the design, making it more intuitive, and release an update within weeks. Users see their feedback in action, feel valued, and continue to provide insights. Your responsiveness not only improves the app but fosters a community of engaged users who know their voice impacts the product's evolution.
User Experience iteration can be thought of in the following structural forms - - User Flow Feedback - If the users weren't able to intuitively navigate your user experience in terms of its flow, then you'd need changes to the user flow - User Interaction Feedback - If the users weren't able to understand or interact with your interaction widgets and cues, then you need to iterate on the interaction widgets you've chosen - Information Hierarchy Feedback - If the users are able to operate your product but aren't able to understand the information provided on the screen, then you need to iterate on your information and its hierarchy
How to improve text readability? When it comes to long-form content, using a mid-shade of gray may seem trendy, but it can hinder legibility, especially with lighter font weights. Use darker shades, esp for smaller devices (Mobiles, watches, etc.) to improve legibility.
Gathering information from users can be a lengthy process in some cases, and there is definitely no point in investing resources in it if the learnings are not implemented later. Therefore, the best course of action after completing the analysis of the feedback received is to create a list of actions, classify it and prioritize it according to severity, value, and effort criteria. A plan to implement the selected improvements requires planning among all the profiles involved, so it must be done very carefully.
Conduct regular user testing sessions with real users to observe their interactions and gather valuable insights. Provide a comfortable and non-judgmental environment where users feel free to share their thoughts and frustrations. Record and analyze these sessions to identify areas for improvement.
The sixth step to encourage user feedback and learning is to learn from your users. You can use various methods, such as analysis, synthesis, and evaluation, to extract and apply the insights and lessons from your users' feedback and learning. By learning from your users, you can enhance your own UX skills, knowledge, and performance, as well as foster a culture of user feedback and learning in your organization.
Data is essential for understanding why people choose A, B, or C, primarily through studying user behavior. Avoiding assumptions is crucial, as diverse age groups and backgrounds bring varied perspectives.
Use telemetry. Analyse through metrics what your users actually use, trace paths in user interaction to see where they err, how often they click on something, hover over items to find out what they do, etc.
Learning from your users is not just a step in the UX process; it's the heartbeat of raw, unfiltered experiences of the people you're designing for. Many users (especially coworkers) abide by the "if you can't say anything nice, don't say it at all". Invite casual, informal, less productive feedback. While candid criticism may not always be constructive, its unfiltered honesty can prove to be an exceedingly potent asset in UX design.
The best thing about gathering user feedback is that even if the improvements identified are not implemented in the current product, our perspective as designers can be radically changed. Every day we make thousands of decisions based on design principles and best practices. However, design involves so many variables when applied to different industries, user types, technologies, functionalities and perceptions that it is impossible to guarantee that everything will work as we expect. Learning from users, and doing so proactively, is the only effective way to understand which decisions have a greater or lesser impact on the experience our product delivers, both for users and for business objectives.
The combination of active and passive testing methods is crucial for achieving the purest and most valuable user feedback. Active testing, like usability testing, gives us immediate, detailed insights, like having a direct conversation with users. On the other hand, passive testing, such as screen recordings, provides a broader, long-term perspective by capturing natural user interactions. When we analyze these two together, we get a comprehensive view of user behavior and preferences. This synergy ensures that our feedback is not only pure but also well-rounded. As a UX manager, I've seen firsthand how this approach elevates the quality of insights and helps us make more informed decisions to improve digital products effectively.
I believe that the key to encourage valuable user feedback lies in fostering a sense of community, demonstrating the impact of their input, offering meaningful incentives, and maintaining open, two-way communication. It's not just about rewards and coupons; it's about building a feedback ecosystem where users are enthusiastic partners in the journey of the product improvement.
Show users that their feedback matters by communicating how it has been implemented. When you make updates or changes based on user input, inform them about the improvements you've made and how it directly addresses their concerns. This reinforces the idea that their feedback contributes to a better user experience.