Lesson video

Hi, my name's Mr. Brown and today I'm going to be going through this lesson on user research with you.

We are going to be thinking about what users are with regards to research, why it's really important to think about the user when we're researching and when we're designing, and we'll be having a lot of practical activity.

So I hope you're going to enjoy today's session, and let's get on.

First thing we're gonna be talking about is thinking about what our lesson outcome is going to be today.

And our lesson outcome today is about undertaking research to influence design specifications.

Now there's quite a few tricky words there, but we're gonna go through step by step and think about what those are and how that affects us with the actual activities and tasks that we are going to do.

It's all gonna be related to the learning.

So first things first, let's go through the keywords.

So the keywords today, we've got five keywords.

The first one is user.

Now user means the who you are actually designing for.

Needs, so the needs means the requirements of a person or the requirements of the user.

Research, research is about the findings that you gather from discussions with maybe the user or evidence from looking at different projects that are already out there.

But it's basically the research that you do before you start doing the designing.

Open questions, open questions are types of questions that have lots of different answers and we'll be going into detail exactly about what open questions are a little bit later on.

And lastly, design specification.

Now, a design specification describes what a product has to do.

It's like a list of requirements for the product and which has come from the user.

So you can see how the user research can influence a design specification.

Again, we're gonna go into lots more detail about that later on today.

There are gonna be just two learning cycles today.

The first one is about user research and the second one is about creating a design specification.

So we'll be starting with doing a user research.

So what is user research? So, what we tend to do is when a product is being designed, it's important about who it's actually designed for.

Now, the person that we are designing for, we call the user.

And designers need to think about what the needs of a user are.

So it could be that a user requires something and they want it a certain colour, or they want a certain material, or they want it to actually do something, they want it to act in a certain way, they want a certain mechanism.

There's so many different things that a user might actually require for their product.

Check for understanding now so that we understand who or what is a user.

So, which of these options describes the user? Is it the person who makes the product, the person who designs the product, or the person who interacts with the product? Which of those three options do you think is the correct one? That's correct, it's the person who interacts with the product.

We specifically try not to use the word use to actually really give away the answer, but it's the person who uses the actual product.

It's not the person who necessarily makes it or designs it, but it's actually the person who's going to be using it.

Now, when we are doing to find out what the user needs are, we quite often use research to actually find out these answers.

Now, that can include a whole variety of different ways that we can find things out, but it could be that we do interviews where we talk to the user.

It could be questionnaires where we ask questions to lots of different users and we get lots of information back in return.

Could be that actually we look at products that are already out there.

So we consider the products that users already have and that they're already using.

Now, today, as part of our user research, we're gonna be interviewing our users, and research interviews can have open or closed questions.

So we're gonna talk about the difference between the two.

Open questions can have many different answers.

An example of this might be what is your favourite colour? So if I asked you what your favourite colour was, some people might choose red, or green, or yellow, or blue, but some others might go much, much wider and consider all the different colours that we could possibly have.

There are so many different colours that we could choose from, it's a very open question.

However, if we asked a closed question, we'd limit the number of answers that could possibly be available.

So for example, if I asked you what is your favourite colour out of red, yellow, blue, or green? And we're really directing the answers to four specific answers.

Sometimes it's useful to have open questions, sometimes it's useful to have closed questions.

We are gonna be using open questions today to help us get information from the user.

Now the reason that we are using open questions is because it becomes quite personal that their personal views may offer ideas to the designer that maybe they haven't actually thought of before.

But the user needs to understand the questions that are being asked.

And so that's why the questions that you create, the questions that you phrase have to be really incredibly clear so that the user is able to understand them and provide some really useful ideas back so that when you are actually designing, it's going to be really clear what the user needs are.

Here is an example of two pupils communicating and talking about research interviews.

So Laura has said that she wants to have a new football and whether Jacob could design and make one.

Jacob is asking what specific needs Laura has.

Now, Jacob has asked quite an open question there, and Laura's needs might be quite wide.

Let's just take the example of size, for example.

She might need a certain size ball.

We don't know whether it's actually for her, whether it's for someone else, someone who's younger, someone who's older.

There's specific guidelines for the different size of football that children should be using at certain ages.

So that's quite key to actually understand what size the football needs to be.

Here's a check for understanding, which of these is an open question? So there's three questions there.

Which one do you think is the most open question? Is it A, what is your age? Is it B, what games do you like? Or is it C, where do you go to school? Read those through again and decide which do you think is a really good open question that you'll have lots of different answers to? Right, one of the biggest open questions from that one would be, what games do you like? And I'll explain the reasons why.

So for the first one, what is your age, if you were asking it within your class, that might be quite limited.

You might have one, two, three, possibly four different age groups within your class.

But that's still fairly limited.

Obviously if you were asking a whole variety of different people and a whole wider population, then you're gonna get a bigger number.

But you are much more likely to be asking within your classes.

If you ask, where'd you go to school? If you're asking within your school, then you are probably not gonna get many answers whatsoever.

Obviously if you asked a wider population, you are gonna get more answers.

So it depends who you are actually asking.

However, if you ask what games do you like, even if they are in the same year group, in the same school, then you are likely to have a wider variety of different games.

Obviously you could turn it into a closed question and actually ask which of the following games do you like, and then list maybe three or four or five.

But as an open question, you can ask what games do you like? And then hopefully, you'll get a big variety of games that are very personal to each of the users.

Now, we are going to be designing and making a page of an interactive book.

We won't be making a whole book, but you are going to be making a page of an interactive book.

If we are asking questions about that, we might include, what part of a book are you interested in? What would you like to move? Who is this book for? What would you like to see on the page? Now these are really important questions that we need to ask because we need to find out what the specific user actually wants.

So let's say we were going to another class and we're doing one book on the same theme for the whole class, but you're talking to one, maybe two other users about specific parts of that book that they would like to see.

Task A.

So here's your first task.

What I'd like you to do is to write down at least six questions that you would like to ask your user about an interactive book.

I've got a list here that you might think about considering.

So you might want to think about the theme of the page.

We've talked about theme of a book, but actually taking that book and narrowing it down to maybe one key theme for that page.

You might be thinking about the different linkages, all the linkages that we know of and the movements that we could actually have within an interactive moving book.

You need to be thinking about questions about the specific needs of the user.

That could be their interests or what they would like to see.

Hopefully, the user will also provide some ideas.

Now, what you need to be considering is all of these different questions.

How are you gonna phrase them? How are you going to ask them? And what I'd like you to do now is just to write down those questions and we're gonna come back 'cause there will be a second part to this.

Right.

Here's some examples of Sophia's research questions that she's actually created.

So she's talked about, have you had an interactive book before? What does it do? What do you like about these types of moving books? What would you like your page to be about? What parts of the page would you like to move, and what would make you read a moving book? And these are quite open questions.

Sophia's thought very carefully about whether they're too closed and too simple because she really wants to make sure that she's got the idea of what the user wants and what the user needs.

These sorts of questions, she's now got ready to ask her user.

Now, I said there was going to be a second part.

And the second part of Task A is to take your questions that you've carefully prepared and then to interview your user about the interactive book that they're going to have a page designed for them.

Now, when you're doing this, I want you to write down anything you think that might be useful to help you when you're designing the page.

So you've got your questions, you now need to go off and interview your user.

Remember to be very polite, be very careful with how you talk to them.

You want to try to put them at ease, it needs to be a conversation about what they like about interactive moving books and what sort of page they would really like to see.

Right, this is going to take a bit of time 'cause you'll need to be taking your questions and having a conversation with the user.

So enjoy it, and I look forward to finding out what you've actually done.

Okay, well done.

So Sophia's gone off.

She's interviewed Jacob, and here are some of his answers to the questions.

So he answered that there were flaps on an interactive book he had once and there was a lever that made his dragon's eyes move side to side, and he found that really good.

And he likes moving books 'cause they're fun, they're a bit different to many other books.

And he likes guessing and finding out what might happen if he pulls a tab or a lever.

Right, that's the end of learning cycle one.

And we move on to learning cycle two, creating a design specification.

When we're thinking about a design specification, we are talking about a list of the user's needs and wants.

Designers will look back at the design specification all the way through the manufacturing and designing process to make sure that the ideas that they're coming up with meet the user's needs.

And the user research interviews can actually help create the design specification by finding out exactly what the user wants, what the user needs within their design.

And this helps create the design specification.

Here's a check for understanding now.

So true or false question, a design specification is a list of the user's needs.

Is that true or false? Correct, it's true.

But why? Well, it's actually a design specification helps designers make sure that their design meets the needs of the user.

So it's really important that we consider the user whenever we're trying to design something.

So what purpose is it? Why are we doing it? And these are the designer's thoughts all the time.

And they've also got to consider they're not just designing it for themselves, they need to have a specific user in mind.

Okay.

So the design specification can include information about various different things.

It could be, thinking about the function, that's what it should do.

Could be the users which we've spoken about already.

And that's who it is for.

It could be the performance, about how it will work.

There's a clear correlation between function and performance, but they are also separate, they are slightly different.

A function is what it should do, and then the performance is how that will work.

So they are interlinked, but you've got to think about the performance being how it will work.

Appearance, and that's what it will look like, materials, what it is made from.

And lastly, the environment.

So designers and design specifications should be thinking about the environment and how to reduce the impact, how to reduce the amount of resources that are being used.

Check for understanding.

Which of the following refers to how a mechanism in a page will work? Is it performance, appearance, or materials? Let me repeat the question again.

Which of the following refers to how a mechanism in a page will work? So it's how a mechanism will work.

Is it performance, appearance, or materials? You decide.

Good.

It's the performance.

Remember, performance means how.

Okay, and when we are writing a design specification, we could use a table that looks a little bit like this, and what I've taken is I've taken the six different areas and put them into this table.

So hopefully it will make it nice and clear about the sorts of things that you are trying to write.

So it could be, we're thinking about the function, so what it should do, the user, who it is for, performance, how it'll work, the appearance, what it will look like, materials, what it's made from, and also environment, so how are you going to not waste any materials? Now, the best thing to do is to look back at the user research that you've already done.

The user research will hopefully give you some really good ideas about how to complete this design specification.

Okay, this is Task B.

What I would like you to do is to consider the user research, consider your design skills, and try to complete this table with as much information as you possibly can think of.

Okay, off you go.

Well done.

Okay, here's an example on our feedback slide about Sophie's design specification.

So the function, she's going to be designing a page about how a bee pollinates a flower.

That's what her user has asked her to do.

The user is our year one pupils and they want to see a bee flying from one flower to another to show the pollination.

Performance, a linkage will move the bee from one flower to another.

The appearance is gonna be two flowers and there's gonna be some writing as well on the page, which will explain what is actually happening.

The materials that she's going to use, she's put down she's gonna use black and green and yellow card and she's gonna use scissors to cut the card, and a glue stick to join some of the materials.

The environment, she's going to try to reduce and reuse card that she chooses.

So for example, she might be choosing to use a bit of black card, but she might not need a lot 'cause it might just be stripes on the bee.

So therefore, she's going to try and seek some little off cuts instead of using a brand new piece of card.

And that is the end of the session.

So let's go through the summary on user research.

So user research requires preparation.

You really do need to consider what you're going to ask before you go ahead and ask it.

User research can include open questions and we've used open questions quite a lot today.

And user research can help us create a design specification.

That's great.

Thank you very much for being with me today, I hope you've had an enjoyable time and you've learned a lot about what your user wants to incorporate within the designs you're going to be completing.

And I look forward to working with you next time.

Thank you very much for being with me today.