Insights are like a fine brandy.
It's the end of a research project, and the presentation is tomorrow.
You've heard that insights should be inspiring, but your insights look like trash. Here is your first one:
1: "Users are complaining about the new UI update"
?????? While it might be true, it doesn't feel like an "Aha!" moment. It feels more like an "Mmhmm" moment.
What's missing:
"Users are complaining about the new UI update" is more of a finding than an insight. What's the difference?
Findings vs. Insights
Oxford defines insight as an accurate and deep understanding. Wikipedia defines it as the understanding of a specific cause and effect within a particular context.
One of the most common mistakes of novice researchers is thinking a finding is an insight. Here's a handy breakdown from my course on UX research:
It's hard to tell when something is a finding vs. an insight. Hopefully, that chart helps. Let's revisit the example:
"Users are complaining about the new UI update."
To take it to the insight level, we need to do more digging. Users seemed confused about our tool's UI, so let's look into the research to see if we can figure out "why." You know that Google's material design system heavily influenced the result of your UI update. Looking back at the interviews, you realize something startling: users actually think your tool is from Google! Hmmm, does the similarity to Google's UI cause users to have certain expectations about price? Many users expressed concern about the payment. After reviewing the data, you realize the similarity to Google in the users' eyes contains a real insight.
Let's put all of that new thinking together:
Finding: "Users are complaining about the new UI update."
Finding: "Users think our tool is from Google."
Finding: "Users don't expect to pay for Google tools."
Insight: "Users think our new UI is a Google tool because it looks so similar, causing them to complain when the tool isn't free."
What's different between our original finding and the new insight? We figured out "why" the finding was happening and looked deeper to find patterns of findings that might be transformational.
You need to "distill" your findings and research data to get to the insight.
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How to Distill UX Insights
Brandy starts its life as wine, but after a special distillation process, you're left with a purified version of wine we call Brandy. Insights should go through a similar process.
You might need a lot of findings to end up with those precious few insights. It's a process that goes from quantity to quality.
When you're trying to force a 3-month research project into 3-5 final insights overnight, you really need to crank up the heat.
The magic in forming insights lies in what happens in the distillation activities.
Some distilling activities:
Pick three from the list above and get started. The important is to start because no insights is worse than underwhelming insights. There's nothing worse than staring at a blank page when you need insights fast.
Hopefully, you see how your findings can become insights with a little work.
A Template for Writing Insights
If you want a head start with your insights, check out the template I made called the Insight Card. It's very pink and very useful.
It includes the findings vs. insights breakdown and a handy checklist to help you improve your insights. Once you download, drop the template in Miro or Figjam and start distilling those insights!
In no time, your insights will taste like an aged French cognac on a cold autumn night. Mmmmmm...
Enjoy!
-Jeff Humble
P.S. I re-named the newsletter from Beyond Aesthetics to Jeff's Newsletter. I'm going to start writing this newsletter monthly, so subscribe to get an article like this every few weeks. 5,000 designers have already done it! ??