User research makes for better design decisions

By Sarah Horton on November 9, 2009 8:26 PM | No Comments

There was a point in my career as a designer of interfaces when I realized that my role was not to divine or intuit designs that would be delightful and easy to use, and for all people. My role was to ask questions and make observations, and then, from knowledge gained from this research, derive solutions. For me this realization was liberating, as my constitution was never one that would lead me to believe that I have all the right answers.

In my experience, many of the people who are put in the position of making design decisions about websites and user interfaces feel unprepared, particularly in the area of visual design. Recently I started a series of articles geared toward this audience of accidental website designers on Peachpit.com. I call the series "research directed design," and my hope is that widespread adoption of a few, simple, low-cost research techniques will result in more confident website designers making better informed design decisions, leading to a better web experience all around.

Please have a look at my first article, Why Research-Directed Website Design Will Make Your Website Better, and share your feedback here or on the Peachpit site.