Guerilla Human Research

17 May 2010 by céline

Here are a few tips, or ideas that I use to help me understand people’s behavior towards a product that I happen to redesign, or towards a service that needs better strategy. The word: “user research”, or the expression doesn’t represent people. Users are not people. Post internet, the word user represented mostly drug addicts. It involved mostly people who were addicted.
I like using the expression human research, and my techniques are very much inspired of classic anthropology techniques. For example, to conduct a human research, go to people’s homes, and observe the way they behave with products, or services. Depending on what is the object of your research. I find it odd, and unnatural to bring people in, to a white antiseptic room with a computer that is not theirs, with a camera in front of their faces, in a way it reminds me of rat laboratories. It artificial.

Here are some tips you can do from home (or from the office place). When you find yourself you need to understand people’s behaviors, to identify behavior types in order to design for them.

Monitor all current social media outlets to find out what people are saying about the product

Listening to people’s observation and experience around a product or service, can be very useful if quoted in a right way. I screen grab some of the quotes, and group them together around archetypal characteristics. This helps both the client, and the designer feeling for, and helps understand more what this people say, think about. It’s like radio people, it’s a great way to actually listen to their thoughts.

Use common SEO tools to see how people search, and what do they search for and in what volume

What is the taxonomy commonly used to find things they are looking for. Reading the meta-data behind people’s actions can help a lot pull out good keywords that would help the client describe its services, or describe itself. Sometimes, these words are very surprising, as some clients have their own personal mythology, and come up with words and descriptions that are very far from the reality of everyday folks.

Quantcast Gather as much demographic data as possible

Quantcast is great when in the design process, you are about to use visualization to show the different behavior characteristic, and identify patterns while justifying them. This mind sound easier on paper then in reality. But the whole process to me must be very organic. After gathering quotes, words, observing heatmaps maybe as well, and looking at demographics, it seems easier to map different behaviors, and visualize them in a convincing way.

The documentary approach: mini video camera, sometimes cell phone camera can be great, a handy sound recorder, and a visit to people’s homes

The handy self-made anthropologist with a video camera is nothing more then the good old documentary techniques. Candid-eye, and observing behaviors inside people’s real lives. Not a failed attempt to recreate their natural environment in a white room under surveillance.