Understanding how to turn UX research findings into actionable design solutions

I am fairly new to corporate product design which means there are gaps in my knowledge in how to approach synthesizing research results. I’m also very action oriented and solution driven… which tends to mean I skip a lot of steps in my process. Recently I had a 1:1 with Sean Kelly, Director of Product Design @MongoDB, about a framework to implement in future design projects. The following article is me articulating what I learned so that I can refer to it when need be.

How I (and many others) do things

Step 1: Conduct research

In this case, a usability test on a prototype designed to improve a getting started experience for new users. The test was three part 1) information gathering on their expectations and needs 2) testing the prototype out using Invision 3) feedback and survey on their emotions.

Step 2: Distill results into findings and observations.

These are generally places where the user struggled or gave feedback about confusing patterns in the interface. I took detailed notes about every hiccup along the way and put those notes into a spreadsheet broken down by task with their commentary.

Step 3: Create solutions based on the feedback

Upon reviewing my notes, I began to create a t-table with the observations I made during the research on the one side and my recommendation on how to remedy their struggles on the right. For example, one of my notes looked like this

Problems with this approach

I am jumping to conclusions about the problem a user is facing without understanding fully what is causing this problem. I’ve created a list of blanket solutions without thinking about the bigger picture and the goals about why a user is trying to complete an action.

Essentially, I am seeing a struggle — like finding a link on a page — and assuming that the solution is making it more discoverable. However, this is a very reactive approach and there could be more reasons why the person couldn’t find the link. I’m assuming that the problem is with the link itself and am not also taking into consideration the things that surround the link that may make it harder for a user to see this link.

How I will do things

In retrospect, this process is definitely not the best. Instead, I’m going to look at the full framework like this:

To break it down.

Step 1: Analyze a user struggle

During user interviews, the first task would be to click a link to create an account on our software. Users would scroll past this link and be unsure how to complete the task. They’d read the content and see that they have to create an account but get confused over how to do so. Some even commented that when the clicked the link, the action that occurred wasn’t what they had expected to.

Step 2: Understand why the user struggled

In this example, the link to create an account is integrated in the context of the page. The text is something like this “Go to X Software to create your user account.” It is at the start of a longer paragraph with further directions on how to create the account and what the account is for. The user may have skimmed past this link, despite it being blue, or been confused by the amount of links on the page. Since all the links look the same but most links refer to more information, the user could have easily assumed that this link causes a similar action to the others rather than take them to a new page.

Step 3: Think of possible strategies

Perhaps, the problem that exists is actually there is too much copy on the page and it is distracting for the user to find the link. Maybe there isn’t an icon associated with the link to imply that this link will take you to another page where you can sign in. Or maybe, there are so many links and icons on the page the user doesn’t know that this link is different and can be used to sign in.

Step 4: Actionable design tactics and solutions

This framework provides more ideas to consider approaching a problem and proves a small fix might not get at the problem we were really trying to solve. If I was reactive, I may have just bolded the link on the page and added an icon to the link in hopes that the user finds it. Instead, I will further consider the context of the page and find ways to strike a balance that will increase visual cues to the link.

My actual takeaway

Next time I’m creating a summary document to describe the results of my research, I’m going to break down the findings and observations into this framework instead of just jumping to conclusions about how to “fix” my prototype. (It’ll probably take the form of a Google spreadsheet again.)