User Needs Assessment
User needs are the list of capabilities or expectations that users have of a product which make it useful to them. User requirements are often stated as a list of features, but in reality it is broader and should include all aspects that contribute to users using the product or system to meet their needs.
Knowing your users is a good start for establishing user requirements, but there is a difference between what customers ask for and what they are willing to pay for. Many product managers are familiar with the adage: 'Customers want everything and are willing to pay for nothing.' Often we have found that customers will trade-off much of what they have been requesting for requirements which haven't surfaced during previous conversations. What customers are requesting may be symptomatic of their problems, but does not reflect their real need. User needs assessment gets at the heart of those needs.
As part of the user needs assessment, we categorize users into groups based on commonly shared characteristics, needs or profiles. Each category is then defined as an archetypal “persona" who represents the users in that category. By using personas later in the DAViD process, we are able to conduct various usage scenarios for different personas to ensure the best possible user experience across a range of users.
Timing
User needs assessment, persona creation or design research is normally conducted as one of the last steps in the Discovery phase. The personas and needs are then used in the Assessment stage to act as the basis for judging user experience performance and again during formative testing during Visioning and iDesign.
Methodology
A research analyst observes typical users as they use the product or website noting common tasks, order of activities, related activities, problems and user solutions to obstacles encountered.
Benefits
- You can see the impact of environmental influences on users' performance.
- Good start for creating personas
- You get workflows from a user's perspective to compare to the system perspective.
- Opportunities for new features or feature enhancements are identified.
Duration
Typical observational research takes 3-4 weeks from proposal acceptance to presentation of deliverables.
Deliverables
- Detailed Report which includes: Executive Summary, Summary of observations, Common tasks list, workflow analysis and contextual factors impacting performance.