Users Are Not a Crystal Ball
UX is a set of skills, not a talent. Which means the average user can’t help you do it, and it is a terrible choice if you’re competing on X-Factor.
Therefore, your job is to listen to what the users say, not to be their design monkey. Listen to what users think, watch how they try to get things done, and understand how and why they get lost in your designs. Then go find solutions to those problems.
Don’t ask users how they want their problems solved
If users think the button should be blue, or wish they could see all the products arranged by country of origin, or want you to smash little cymbals together and wear a cute little red hat, you can make note of it. But, if it doesn’t help you achieve your UX goals, it probably isn’t valuable right now. Ideas and solutions are different things.
Consensus Is Not a ux Strategy
Many designers think that a good way to find the best solution is to ask their colleagues. It’s not. You should include colleagues in the design process to identify their requirements for the project and keep channels of communication open in general. That’s what “working together” means.
But just because people at your company really love that button that makes a fart sound when you tap it—who doesn’t?!—doesn’t mean your users need it. And that includes you. You are a person at your company whose opinion doesn’t matter. User research is not a way to confirm your beliefs; it’s a way to discover them.
Chapter 3. How Many Users Do You Need?
Should you go for the wisdom of the crowd, or should you trust your most loyal users? Should you ask the people who know the most about your designs, or the beginners who have fresh eyes?
This is a very common question, and a good one. How many users should you include in your user research to make sure that you get all the information you need? Well, it depends, actually.
The Less Obvious the Problem, the More People You Need to Find It
Let’s say there are two problems with your design:
Most people don’t notice the button that opens the menu.
Your pricing page makes it seem like your product is not free, but it is.
Both are real issues I have seen in testing.
Let’s say the menu problem affects one out of every three people. That means you need at least three users to find the problem with the menu (it’s more like four or five in real life).
And let’s say the pricing problem affects 1 out of every 20 people. That means you need at least 20 users to find the problem with the menu (again, it’s more like 30 or 40 in real life).
So if you get five test users—a common practice for user testing—you’ll probably find the menu problem and miss the pricing problem. D’oh!
Since real services often only convert a few people out of 20 anyway, that pricing issue might be a significant amount of your sales! That is why face-to-face testing is useful, but not reliable in isolation.
Get Users Who Fit the Profile and a Couple Who Don’t
In Chapter 8, Creating User Profiles, you will learn how to define the types of users who are important to you. By testing users who fit your profile in real life, you’ll see how they think differently than you, and they will find problems that affect your real users.
BUT...
If you only test a single type of user, you’ll miss any problems that are caused by other types of thinking. Throw in a few random weirdos—not your colleagues—just to see what they do. You might make some interesting discoveries.