Make Sure Your Source is the Right One

Proxies, advocates, and representatives are all welcome to participate, but when you want the best quality of information upon which to build the foundation of your development efforts, it’s important to go straight to the source.

Unfortunately, that source tends to have the most barriers put up in front of it. But when it comes to user experience, there's no better advocates than the users themselves.

The Ontario digital government team addressed this topic in a post yesterday, they focused on “The truth about talking to users.” In it, the writer, Dana Patton, discusses one of the challenges of user research in a public-service setting -- the idea that, “speaking directly to citizens is not allowed,” and the common belief that “public service can not speak directly to everyday people.” 

As Patton states, “The first rule of user research: talk to users. The second rule of user research: don’t believe those who say you can’t talk to users.”

It’s an experience that many of us have had -- and likely continue to have. And, generally, the barriers are not put up maliciously. In corporate settings, we often believe we know who are customers are, what their needs will be, and what’s the best way to deliver solutions that meet those needs. There’s no need to bother the user -- we know what’s best for them, after all.

And, for the most part, we have a good idea. In general, corporate culture is able to identify, resolve, and supply a market need. But often the devil is in the details -- there may be ways to do things better, or there may be processes and steps you’ve included that are impediments to your client’s satisfaction.

Now, not having a direct conduit to end users doesn’t mean your efforts are doomed to failure. After all, there’s that ever-powerful combination of experience, best practices, knowledge and training, and common sense that can combine to give you a solid solution. However, the difference between better and best is defined by getting that boots-on-the-ground experience.

The point is, you never really know until you ask. Patton brings up the oft-heard question, “Can’t we just talk to advocacy groups or stakeholders where we have pre-existing relationships?”

The thought is that those who have either been appointed or assumed leadership roles in a community should, therefore, be well enough versed in the needs of the groups they represent. But there’s a danger in that type of thinking.

I’ve been on enough advocacy groups (and followed enough politics) to know that while people try very hard and do great work, the idea that a small group of people would be able to comprehensively represent and reflect the needs, experiences, and desires of your user base just isn’t feasible. More importantly, these advocates tend to be:

• More invested in the process;
• More involved, thereby more informed; and
• More motivated with specific agendas.

I don’t want to suggest it’s a false advocacy, but it’s an advocacy biased in favour of those who are already more engaged. If you have the converted preaching to you, it can cause a false sense of how your customers interacting with your content and what their needs are.

That’s the same issue you face dealing with internal representation. Corporately, we may believe we know what’s right -- but user-directed deliverables can be influenced by internal policies, corporate structures, and silo-driven thinking.

The process is never going to be perfect. You could do user research with each and every one of your users and not be able to find a consensus. One group will want X, whilst the other group prefers the polar opposite Y. And you’re not going to get statistical significance to be 100 per cent sure of the result.

But don’t let a desire for perfect get in the way of much, much better. As long as you’ve sourced a representative cross-section of your users, a diverse pool of users that represent the vast majority of your business, then you can be fairly confident of the results you’re getting.

When it comes to answering the all-too-important question of “What do your customers want?” the best answer is always going to come straight from the source.