Week 2 of 5: Start the UX Design Process: Empathize, Define, and Ideate

What are *Empathy Maps?*

- *Empathy Map*: It's an easily understood chart that explains everything designers have learned about a type of user. - They consist of *four squares*, which show what the user *says*, *does*, *thinks*, and *feels*. - The word *user* goes in the *middle*, right where these squares intersect. - Keep in mind, there are *two* types of empathy maps. *1)* *Single-User Empathy Map*: It's where you record feedback from a single user. *2)* *Aggregated Empathy Map*: It's where you consolidate (combine) feedback from a group of users.

What are *Personas?*

- *Persona*: In UX Design, personas are fictional users whose goals and characteristics represent the needs of a larger group of users. - *Personas* can help us identify patterns of behavior in users. These patterns might point to a common pain point that a group of users experience. - You've got to do your research if you want a set of personas that truly represent your potential users. - As you research, you'll form images in your head about who your users are. These will become your personas. - *User Group*: A set of people who have similar interests, goals, or concerns. *Benefits of Personas* - Builds Empathy - Tell Stories - Stress-test Designs *(Accessibility)*

How to *Conduct User Interviews?*

- There are *four steps* to conducting user interviews. *Step 1: Meet Participant* - Your job as a UX professional is to make your participants feel relaxed and at ease. - You can do this by *building good rapport*. This is all about establishing a professional, but friendly interaction. You can use light conversation to start, something like, how's your day going? - You should also thank the participant for coming. Thanking users is a part of establishing a good rapport and can make them feel like their opinions and time are valued. - Take time to review legal details that your interviewees need to know before the interview starts. - This can be a good time to present any legal documents that require their consent to release audio recordings. - You could also have your participants sign a verification that they are above the age of 18 and don't need permission from a parent or guardian. - Gathering basic details as you meet users is also important. Remember to ask about any details that are relevant to the interview like their name and demographic information. - Starting with questions that are easy for the participant to answer can give them a nice boost and confidence. - Finally, let the participant know that there are no right or wrong answers. This way, they feel comfortable and are not worried about giving incorrect answers. *Step 2: Conducting Interview* - Here are a couple of things to keep in mind as you conduct interviews: *Follow Interview Etiquette*. - Speak in a clear and concise manner while asking questions. It's important to remain professional no matter how users answer a question. While interviewing, also remember to ask open-ended questions. - Asking yes or no questions doesn't allow your participant to tell their honest thoughts on your product. - Instead, try asking questions that start with *why* or *what*. For example, if you ask a question like, do you like online shopping? You'll likely get one of two responses: yes or no. - Instead, ask an *open-ended question* like, what do you like and dislike about online shopping? Asking questions in this manner will give you a more in-depth understanding of the users' feelings like their likes and dislikes. - You should also ask *follow-up questions* based on how the participant answers the initial question. *Step 3: Take Notes* - It's useful for remembering important information later on if you've forgotten. - That's why it's helpful to take notes during the interview. In the UX world, researchers who work for companies or on teams often have other members moderate or take notes during the session. - While taking notes, you'll want to highlight compelling quotes. These interesting quotes are great indicators about how users really think and feel. - They can be included in *empathy maps* and *user testimonies* later on. You should also document observations about participants. Sometimes what a participant does is equally important as what they say. - Making notes on their mood, expressions, body language, and behaviors will be important to consider when creating empathy maps. - Lastly, consider recording interviews. When you're first learning how to conduct research, recording is ideal. - It can be helpful later when you're revisiting parts of an interview or taking additional notes after the interview is over. Again, it's best practice to always ask your participants for their permission to record them before the interview begins. *Step 4: Wrap Up Interview* - *Interview Transcript*: It's a typed or written version of a conversation that's been recorded. - When you're nearing the finish line of an interview, it's important to end just as strongly as when you started. - Wrapping up an interview without showing gratitude to participants for joining the interview can leave them feeling uncomfortable or wishing they had not agreed to participate. - Instead, you want them to leave feeling like their opinions were a valuable contribution to your overall design process. - To do this, wrap up the interview by giving users a chance to share final thoughts about any items discussed during the interview. - Some participants might open up about their opinions and reveal insights that they didn't share earlier. You might try asking them if there are any new points they want to add. - Finally, you should always thank the participant again for their time. Tell them that you appreciate them participating in your interview, and give them a warm goodbye. - If you offered any incentives to your participants to interview, now is the time to share them.

How to *Recruit Interview Participants?*

- To really understand how users think and feel, you need to talk to them directly. One way you can learn from real people about their needs is by conducting interviews. - As you know, recruiting participants who are available to be interviewed takes time and planning. - When you're on the job in the real world, you might start with a *screener survey* to help identify the best candidates to interview for your research study. *1)* *Screener Survey* - Also known as a screener, for short, is a detailed list of questions that helps researchers determine if the potential participants meet the requirements of the research study. - You should start with one important step; *determine the interview goals*. *Questions To Ask* - What do you want to learn from the interviews? - Are there certain user problems or pain points that you need to empathize with? - Are there any characteristics of users you want to interview? Why? *Main Takeaway* - Writing a clear list of goals to explain why you are conducting interviews will help you determine the characteristics of participants who will be ideal for you to meet with. *2)* *Representative Sample* - It is a subset of the target population that seeks to accurately reflect the characteristics of the larger group. - The participants in a representative sample should include user groups that have been commonly under-represented in previous research. - This lack of representation is often the result of biases due to age, race, gender, or ability. - Having a diverse pool of participants to choose from will help you create great experiences for all users. - Once you've determined the goals of your interviews, it's time to continue the recruitment process. - To proceed, we'll explore how to search for potential interview participants. - In the real world, there are many factors that determine how and where UX Designers find potential interview participants. - Finding people to interview can depend on the company you work for, the type of product you're designing, project time constraints, project budgets, and the accessibility of the people you want to interview. *3)* *Recruitment* - To begin your search, start by creating a list of who you know personally. Once you've compiled a list of people you know, move onto people you don't know. - The easiest way to recruit interview participants outside of your network is through social networks or online platforms. You can also connect with potential interviewees from LinkedIn. - *Online Groups* based on personal interests are another great resource. - For example, you're designing an app for musicians. You might find an online group about creating music through a Google search or on social media sites like Facebook or Reddit. - One way to find interview participants in the real-world is through using a method called a *Third Party Research Recruiting Agency*. - This means the agency you hire finds people for you to interview. Recruiting agencies are useful because they save you time and can often reach a greater diversity of users than you might be capable of reaching on your own. - Hiring a recruiting agency costs money so this only applies if you're working on a project that has a budget for this service. - When you're ready, reach out to each perspective participant. The most common way to do this is via *email*. *Email Etiquette Methods* 1) Start with a greeting that introduces yourself and the project, then briefly explain why you are reaching out to them. - Also include *logistics* for the interview like: location, date, and time. 2) Explain the setup for the interview. This is a good time to ask for their consent to record audio or video. 3) Begin wrapping up your email by informing the participant how they should confirm their interview time if they're interested. - This can either be through a link to schedule their interview or through an email reply. - If you've got the budget, add a gift card. This helps to confirm the deal and makes participants excited to interview. 4) Finally, close the email with a salutation and your name. - After you confirm people to interview, it's a good idea to send email reminders the *week before* the interview and the *night before* the interview. - This will help ensure that the people you've found actually show up for their interview.

How to create *Empathy Maps?*

- Let's start by creating a single-user empathy map, then we'll move onto an aggregated empathy map. *1)* *Single-User Empathy Map* - Imagine you're on a team building an app that promises food delivery within 30 minutes or less. - You interview users about their experiences with food delivery. The *top left* of your empathy map includes *what the user says* during the interview. When you do this, use direct quotes if you can. - For example, Simone has ordered food through other delivery apps before. Simone might say something like: ''I wish food delivery apps provided more accurate time estimates''. - ''We should write this direct quote from Simone in the *says* square of our empathy map''. - Next, the *bottom left* square focuses on *what the user does*. These could be actions or behaviors the user shares in their responses or even the user's physical actions during the interview. - For example, Simone might share how they only order delivery when eating at home alone. - The *top right* square focuses on *what the user thinks*. This includes things the user doesn't actually say, but you can tell through observation. - *Facial Expressions* are a great way to understand what a user is thinking. A furrow brow might indicate that Simone is skeptical about a 30 minutes or less guarantee. - Finally, the *bottom right* square of the empathy map focuses on *what the user feels*. You could directly ask Simone what they're feeling during the interview, so long as it's done in an open-ended way. - For example, you might ask: how did you feel when you try to place delivery orders through an app? - After the interview, fill in the *feels* square with these observations and we're done with Simone's empathy map. *2)* *Aggregated Empathy Map* - Aggregated empathy maps represent a visualization of everything designers know about an entire user segment or groups of similar users, not just one user. - They appear exactly like one-user empathy maps. Breaking down the information we've learned about our user segment into *four categories*: says, does, thinks, and feels. - The difference is that aggregated empathy maps include information that is gathered from multiple users. - Let's say the day you interviewed Simone, you also interviewed Miranda and Louis. In the *says* square, Miranda mentions something similar to what Simone said about accurate estimates. - But Louis says, ''I wish I could live-track my food delivery''. We'll add that response below Simone's response in the *says* square. - For the *does* square, something that both Miranda and Louis shared was that they order delivery on *weeknights*, more often than *weekends*, so we'll add that to the *does* square. - Now, we're on the *thinks* square. During the interview, Louis shares that it would be nice if their favorite restaurants had a delivery option. Let's add this to the *thinks* square. - Next, Simone responded to the question: ''How did you feel when you try to place a delivery order through an app?''. - By expressing frustration with the lack of direction in most food delivery apps, we'll add this reply to the *feels* square first. - Louis stated feeling annoyed with trying to navigate delivery apps. We'll add that *feedback* last. Now, we have a completed aggregated empathy map that represents a *full-user* segment.

What are *Pain Points?*

- Most pain points fall into one of *four* categories. - *Pain Points*: Any UX issues that frustrate the user and block the user from getting what they need. *1)* *Financial Pain Points* - It's a user problem related to money. If you've ever gotten lost in an online article, only to be rudely interrupted by a paywall, you know all about these. *2)* *Product Pain Points* - These are usually quality issues related to the product. *Norman Doors* fall into this category. *3)* *Process Pain Points* - These are frustrations that stop the user going from point A to point B. For example, have you ever shopped online and struggled to get the item you want to check out? - That's a process pain point, and that could mean the business loses a customer. *4)* *Support Pain Points* - When users interact with your product, they might have questions. If they can't find answers to their questions, they won't feel supported. - Customer service information that's hidden on a website falls into this category.

How to *Prepare* for *User Interviews?*

- Whether you're conducting interviews in person or online, preparing ahead of time helps you make the most of your limited time together and learn as much as possible about the interviewee's unique perspective. - There are many ways to prepare for your interview. *1)* *Script Interview Questions* - It's considered a best practice to keep interview questions consistent for every user, so this list of questions will be your guide during the interview. *2)* *Collect Interview Supplies* - These can include: printed list of your questions, a computer, paper and pencil, and any recording equipment you might need. - If you're using new equipment or technology during the interview, make sure you know how it works in advance. - For example, if you're conducting an interview online, you want to make sure you're familiar with the platform you'll be using and check that the interviewee has access to it also. - Good UX Designers also comes prepared with a backup plan, in case problems with technology occur. You can do this by making sure you have a phone number to contact the participant. *3)* *Research Users* - If the users you're preparing to interview provide their personal information before the interview, be sure to take note of it. - This information might include their: name, demographic information, relevant user experience with the product you are designing, or details about how they found out about the interview. - You can also review their answers to a *screener survey*, if you've administered one before the interview. *4)* *Practice* - It's always a good idea to practice delivering the questions you'll ask users before you conduct a real interview. - Doing so will help you ensure that the interview runs smoothly later on. Once you've done all of these steps, you're finally ready to meet with your interview participants.