Watching what people do and how they interact with their environment gives you clues about what they think and feel. It helps you to learn about what they need.
By watching people you can capture physical manifestations of their experiences, what they do and say. This will allow you to interpret intangible meaning of those experiences in order to uncover insights. These insights will lead you to the innovative solutions.
The best solutions come out of the best insights into human behavior. But learning to recognize those insights is harder than you might think. Why? Because our minds automatically filter out a lot of information in ways we aren’t even aware of. We need to learn to see things “with a fresh set of eyes” – tools for empathy, along with a human-centered mindset, is what gives us those new eyes.
Here are some helpful tips for observing users from the d.School Bootcamp Bootleg:
Interviewing users can be tricky!
- You need to prepare and have a plan in mind -- what do you want to know?
- But you also want to allow room for spontaneous conversations that might lead to unexpected insights...
Some useful techniques include:
- Ask "why"
- Say "tell me about the last time you..."
- Encourage stories
- Look for inconsistencies
- Don't be afraid of silence
- Don't suggest answers -- don't lead the witness!
- Ask questions neutrally:
- What do you think about..."
- Not, don't you think this is great !?!
- Don't ask "Yes/No" questions -- try to evoke a story
Check out these tips for interviewing users from the d.School Bootcamp Bootleg:
2B - Design Thinking - Empathizing Methods - Interviewing.pdf