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Episode 2201:
Jenny Lee explains why she interviews five of a client's ideal customers before designing anything, and how those hourlong conversations surface wants and frustrations that a numbers-driven market research pass never reaches. She lays out how user experience research differs from market research and argues that entrepreneurs get the sharpest picture of a customer when the two are combined. The payoff is a website built on real language and real problems, which is what moves visitors toward conversions.
Read along with the original article(s) here: https://www.hellobrio.com/blog/user-experience-research
Quotes to ponder:
"User Research helps us create happier visitors, which in turn leads to more sales conversions."
"Jakob Nielsen, UX pioneer, says that research with 5 people will bring out about 80% of the issues."
"Fewer than that, and you get conflicting information. More than that, and you end up hearing the same thing over and over."
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[00:00:00] Observe, the North American Dad, 50s, great polo collection. He enters his vehicle information on Carvana, an offer appears in minutes. Remarkable. He squints, reads it again, smiles and says, dang, that's a good offer. The highest form of approval. No haggling, no hassle. No one called him boss. He's still on the couch. Astonishing. Sell your car today on Carvana.com. Pickup fees may apply.
[00:00:30] Pink Panther us here. Coach and Spotify are teaming up to bring music and style together, and they want you to be part of it. Grab your friends and head to the Tabby Tour, hitting cities around the country with live performances from special artists, exclusive experiences, and personalized products. And discover custom playlists on Spotify, built just for you based on who you are and how you listen. Live your story with Coach. Learn more at Coach.com.
[00:00:55] This is Optimal Work Daily. Why I interview five of your ideal customers to create the best website possible. By Jenny Lee of HelloBrio.com.
[00:01:09] This one woman studio conducts user research for her clients. Ooh, major cringe on the third person stuff, huh? Sorry about that. Work with me, and you'll soon realize that in creating your holistic website, I also take time in the beginning to interview five of your ideal customers to learn more about them and find out what their wants and needs are.
[00:01:28] In their own words. What? Why? Because user experience research is super valuable to entrepreneurs. In this article, I'll dive into what user research is, its benefits, how it's different from market research, and what my process involves. A quick note, I use user experience research, UX research, and user research interchangeably in this article, but note that these are quite different things when you go deeper into the topic. What is user experience research?
[00:01:58] What is user experience research? What is user experience research? UX research? Entrepreneurs, you know what market research is. Chances are you've done it several times, or you plan on doing it very soon. But user experience research? UX research, like market research, is typically done early in the game of any new project. Research can be brought into the web design process at any time, before designing and writing, after design and writing, or even right before launch to test the site.
[00:02:23] For my holistic website package, I conduct user research in the first phase of my process, the discovery phase. So what the heck is it, though? User experience research is the process of conducting interviews with or surveying your ideal customers, which will help you make informed design decisions so that you get the most impactful website experience possible.
[00:02:44] Think higher conversions and more sales. UX research helps the designer, me, to create a better, more usable website experience for everyone, you and your clients, through informed design and copywriting decisions. What are the benefits of user research? User experience design in general helps your community interact better with your brand's ecosystem, in other words, your website.
[00:03:07] It's a people-first approach that helps your site be more, one, useful and usable, so that the site isn't frustrating and people bail. Two, desirable, meaning your people will want to interact with you and your content and services more. Three, valuable and credible, putting your knowledge and offers in the spotlight to help you be seen as a subject matter expert. And four, accessible, so that anyone using your site will be able to interact with it, including those with disabilities.
[00:03:37] User research helps us create happier visitors, which in turn leads to more sales conversions. To dive a bit more into that, user experience research will give us the personal stories and deep insights from individuals, so that we can make better, research-backed decisions when it comes down to design and copy. How is market research different from user research? To give a quick overview, market research is all about sales. It helps to inform your marketing, sales, and brand strategies.
[00:04:05] It's usually a numbers game, and involves as many people as possible. User research, on the other hand, is more about deep personal insights, and it helps us to understand the relationship between your website and your ideal clients. In user experience research, us UX designers identify, 1. How people use your website. 2. What they do and say while using your site. 3. What's frustrating to them. And 4. How they would try to solve their problems.
[00:04:34] Why I combine market research and user experience research in my design process. Market research and user experience research can, and absolutely should, be combined, especially for solopreneurs. Let's face it, as an entrepreneur or freelancer, you're providing a service or product to people. In this digital world, it's essential to give your community a healthy, valuable, and seamless experience when they interact with your online ecosystem. And the bottom line for many entrepreneurs? Sales and conversions.
[00:05:04] Combine the two versions of research, and you get a deeply personal, intense picture of your ideal customer, what they like, what they don't like, what attracts them, and how they may use your new site. You will also know how to best present your offers and services to increase your sales conversion. What does user experience research involve for your project? If you become a client of mine, we locate five ideal customers that aren't already connected to you,
[00:05:30] and then I reach out to them, usually on social media, by asking for an hour of their time via video chat. I conduct the hour-long research with a set of predetermined questions based on the goals for our holistic website project. I record the interviews and then thank them for their time, usually via a gift card of your choice. Why five? Jacob Nielsen, UX pioneer, says that research with five people will bring out about 80% of the issues.
[00:05:56] He was speaking of direct website testing in general, but in my career I've found that five is the magic number. Fewer than that, and you get conflicting information. More than that, and you end up hearing the same thing over and over. Validation is good, but too much is a waste of everyone's time. You just listened to the post titled, Why I interview five of your ideal customers to create the best website possible, by Jenny Lee of HelloBrio.com.
[00:06:26] You're listening to a quick ad. You know what else is quick? Selling your car on Carvana. Just put in your vehicle information and we'll give you an offer. Done. No hassle. No negotiation. No guy from an online listing lowballing you. Which means by the time I'm done explaining this, you could have basically done it. Still haven't started? Hey, better late than never. Sell your car today on Carvana. Pickup fees may apply.
[00:06:56] Pink Panther is here. Coach and Spotify are teaming up to bring music and style together, and they want you to be part of it. Grab your friends and head to the Tabby tour, hitting cities around the country with live performances from special artists, exclusive experiences, and personalized products. And discover custom playlists on Spotify, built just for you based on who you are and how you listen. Live your story with Coach. Learn more at Coach.com.
[00:07:22] And thank you so much to Jenny for this post today and all of the insights that it contains. Now, about her site, HelloBrio isn't just another minimalism blog or an iPad blog. Jenny created it back in 2013 to be a place for her to rediscover her soul and find her true self after a personal, life-altering event. The site took many turns along the way, and these days it's a place for you to find abundant creativity through digital simplicity and mind minimalism.
[00:07:52] So come by HelloBrio.com to learn much more, get more great content. And again, a big thank you to Jenny for letting us share her work here in our network. So I think that's going to do it for today. Hope you enjoyed the post, and I will see you back here tomorrow, where your optimal life awaits. Happy Questions. Thank you.