Don’t build Normal Door, do research for better design

No matter which field of design you’re in, research plays a heavy role in designing the final product. Without research, you can never come up with a good solution to a problem.

Recently, a friend told me about her friend whose facebook memory was of his wife who passed away last year. A hurtful reminder, right? A simple google search showed many articles on this issue, and one article said facebook has installed an option which prevents resurfacing of memories on your homepage. But how many of us knows of this option? I’m sure not many.

“original ideas are the easy part. Actually producing the idea as a successful product is what is hard.” Donald A. Norman, The Design of Everyday Things

Research should be done at each and every part of the design process for a successful user journey. Neglecting the research stage and relying only on creative intuition, experience and talent will lead to designers failing in their task as they will not know the conditions of the app functioning and will not be able to make it efficient, user-friendly and original. They’ll end up creating ‘The Norman door’, where any button, menu, or other digital object doesn’t give any hint on how to use it.

There are different methods of user research, depending on the type of project you’re working on. Out of all the techniques, I enjoy taking interviews of users and asking open ended questions. I feel when users are allowed to speak their mind, they become comfortable and open up. They start telling you a story which ends up giving you a lot of important insights: people may share motivations that you didn’t expect and mention behaviours and concerns that you knew nothing about. I feel more than quantitative, qualitative research gives you richer data. Even the smallest action they do can speak volumes than the things they say.

At the end, it’s import to remember that removing mistakes in design, even if it’s already in the high-fidelity stage, is faster, cheaper and less painful for users than fixing issues with already launched and operating product.

The bottom line is simple. Don’t be lazy to research vital points of the project before you start designing. Don’t forget that it’s not you who decides that the product is successful, it’s not even other designers or stakeholders. It’s users. So, empathy is the best policy.