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What Users Don't Say: Uncovering Latent Needs Through Design Research

What Users Don't Say: Uncovering Latent Needs Through Design Research

Watching real people doing real things in the real world helps us understanding them better than bringing them into an artificial usability lab environment. That deeper understanding undoubtedly helps us to design with empathy but more importantly it enables us to identify their latent needs. In doing so, it provides opportunities for us to create breakthrough products and services.

Through a collection of case studies this presentation explored diary studies, shadowing, contextual interviews, some informal contextual research techniques and some crowdsourced research techniques that have helped to inspire my design teams by immersing them in their users' world.

Case studies include mapping the customer experience of buying and using a new kitchen appliance, inventing a machine that means you never order the wrong size shoes online, concepting an app to support cancer patients and designing travel services for backpackers (and there's a few others thrown in too).

This talk was first presented at Cambridge University to their academic library community.

Paul Jervis Heath

August 20, 2013
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  1. Uncovering Latent Needs Through Design Research What users don’t say

    @PaulJervisHeath  [email protected] ✉ Uncovering Latent Needs Through Design Research. What Users Don’t Say. Photo credit Flickr user G8lite - http://bit.ly/151fWVN © ModernHuman. MH Presented by Paul-Jervis Heath on Friday 30 August 2013.
  2. I’m not an anthropologist, ethnographer or even a user experience

    researcher Photo credit Flickr user Lewaedd-Q - http://bit.ly/1cTyhdm
  3. I’m just a designer who wants to create better products

    and services Photo credit by Head London - http://headlondon.com ©
  4. Early Adopter Early Majority Late Majority Laggards Adapted from: Diffusion

    of Innovations, Everett M Rogers. (1962). Crossing the Chasm, Geoffrey Moore. (1991).
  5. • the context • the physical environment • decor and

    atmosphere • the other people present • how people are acting • unspoken cues between people • how people react to one another • inherent nomenclature and terminology • other artefacts or objects present • the situation and position of those artefacts • how your presence has affected the situation Recognise what you’re witnessing
  6. • Contextual design research is an important tool for going

    beyond expressed needs and finding implied needs and latent needs. • Focus groups and usability tests are not design research. • Formal design research can be hugely beneficial. It’s rigorous and leads to insights, behavioural patterns, indications and predictors. • Casual design research shouldn’t be underestimated. Immersion and experience lead to ideas. Wait. What was that again?
  7. • These slides are available on Speaker Deck at http://bit.ly/13CAENI

    • You can also follow the design team @camdesignspark • You can follow me on Twitter @pauljervisheath Thanks.
  8. Paul-Jervis Heath [email protected] @pauljervisheath ModernHuman. We use human-centred design to

    help businesses invent their future. We’re a design practice & innovation consultancy. Find out more at http://modernhuman.co Photo credit Flickr user andreaskopp - http://bit.ly/12yywna We love our ideas to spread. That’s why this presentation is released under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial- ShareAlike (CC-BY-NC-SA) license. This license allows you and others to remix, tweak, and build upon this work non- commercially. When you do you must acknowledge us, Modern Human and license any new creations under the identical terms. When in doubt, just ask us. We won’t bite.