Are We Overdoing User Research?

For example, is 150+ too many interviews?

Listening is a big part of a designer’s job. We’re supposed to explore, listen, accept criticism, and keep iterating. So design research is a foundational part of the job. The better you listen, the better you design.

But there is such a thing as too much. There are plenty of things you can’t know from interviews alone. Sometimes you do need to take a leap of faith. Sometimes you do need to ship something to see a real world reaction instead of trying to read the tea leaves from user interviews.

When I tell my fellow designers that we’ve interviewed 150 and counting, they look at me like I’ve grown a second head. And this morning I was asked about it by a beta tester:

I’m so glad he asked, because it made me realise how unique our situation is. In my opinion, 150+ interviews in a few months is too much for many kinds of apps, most websites, and entire categories of products. But there’s one big exception, in my mind: professional-grade tools that people use to do their jobs. Especially when it’s their job to design, build, and debug software. Software is hard!

I hadn’t thought of it that way, but that’s exactly right. We need to understand everyone’s unique struggles with their software development process. We need to learn how to work with a vast array of different configurations, runtimes, states, and scenarios. The design research methodologies I typically use don’t scale to this level of complexity.

It’s a huge design and engineering challenge. And really fun!

Related posts:

Rahul always believed in whatever society has told him ever. He firmly believed that he could do anything only because he heard every where in social medias that Engineers could do anything and…

Today finished my 2D game and I was on the section where you save to github and share but due to time constraints there was a notice from on of our leaders to skip that part and too learn as much as…

Has llorado todo el día sin parar Plañidera sobre el suelo de las calles Frases racheadas por el viento Con sollozos emitidos en silencio Es el sol engalanado de nubes lacrimosas Es un gris perla y…