User Research Smoke & Mirrors

When it comes to the development of a good design, the experience and instincts from a good user experience designer can prove more useful than many in depth scientific researches. Can you imagine designing a website just purely based on science? Is one completely sure that the collected data is 100% accurate? It is also very possible for the misinterpretation of these data to could cause a bad design.

The article gives an excellent example, the eye-tracker, of the use of science to assist design. Yes I agree that sometimes, all you need is the experience and suggestions of a quality user experience designer. But other times, you need science and research to use as physical proof and backing for the suggested design. The mere few words coming from the user experience designer’s mouth is insufficient, especially when one is dealing is very traditional supervisors or bosses. I also agree that reliable scientific researches can sometimes be a waste of time and resources. Most findings from these researches and studies can be easily spotted by a user experience designer. But if one conducts the research properly and correctly analyzes the results, science would definitely not become a threat to design (it is harmless!).

Design is a very subjective matter. There is no absolute right or wrong. And the amount of research and studies done might not necessarily guarantee one a good design. In fact, some researches have actually proven to be useless and only used to confuse their respective end users. However, there are also many techniques that are extremely helpful to the user experience designer. For example, card sorting, focus groups, usability testing, and user persona development. These can provide invaluable insights and useful tools for a design team.

After reading this article, I can tell that the author feels very strongly for design and has discussed many interesting issues. I feel that even if one took all the right steps, such as conducting the appropriate researches, etc, in building a good design, some targeted end users might still criticize or find your design not to their liking. Design is subjective and so are the end users. Feedbacks from these end users are very important as they assist the designer in fixing certain problems in the design. Hence, I feel that design is an endless process, it goes on forever, fixing and solving problems/ design errors one by one. A good design tries to satisfy everyone in its target group; however, this might be an impossible mission.