Contextual research gives us a way of developing a deeper understanding of our users. This enables us to not only design with empathy but to identify latent needs that provide opportunities to create breakthrough products and services. Through a collection of case studies we'll explore diary studies, shadowing, contextual interviews plus some informal contextual research techniques. The case studies include mapping the customer journey of buying and using a new kitchen appliance, inventing a machine that means you never order the wrong size shoes online and navigating the future of Open Access publishing (and there's a few others thrown in too). This talk was first presented at UX Scotland to an audience of researchers, designers and UX people. It has since been presented at J.Boye Aarhus 2013 and UCD 2013 in London.

1. What Users
Don’t Say.
What users don’t say
Uncovering Latent Needs Through Design Research
Uncovering Latent Needs
Through Design Research.
Presented by Paul-Jervis Heath on Saturday 9 November 2013
@PaulJervisHeath
✉ paul@modernhuman.co
©
Photo credit
Flickr user G8lite - http://bit.ly/151fWVN
MH ModernHuman.

2. I’m not an anthropologist,
ethnographer or even a user
experience researcher
🕅🕆🕋
Photo credit
Flickr user Lewaedd-Q - http://bit.ly/1cTyhdm

3. I’m just a designer who wants
to create better products and
services
©
Photo credit
by Head London - http://headlondon.com

4. Indifference
Understandable
Compelling
Indispensable
Advocacy
Differentiation
(Experience)
Useful
Hygiene Factors
(Usability)
Interesting

5. Pe
rfo
rm
an
ce
m
ite
xc
E
t
en
Low Investment
High Investment
Basic
Dissatisfied
Source:
Attractive quality and must-be quality - Journal of the Japanese Society for
Quality Control (in Japanese), Noriaki Kano, (1984)

8. Getting inside peoples’ heads is
the only way to uncover their
latent needs.

9. Early Adopter
Early Majority
Late Majority
Laggards
©
Adapted from:
Diffusion of Innovations, Everett M Rogers. (1962).
Photo credit
Flickr user evan.chakroff - http://bit.ly/1ak8HMs
Crossing the Chasm, Geoffrey Moore. (1991).

10. Colour Palette.
Primary
#4cb015
Secondary
#d7267d
#b8c01f
#2d7faf
#82219b
#dAe0e7
#bec7cf
#505d65
Focus groups are not
design research.
Neutrals
#edf2f5
#1f3342
#142630

11. Usability testing is vital but it
will not uncover users’ needs.

13. Formal
Casual

14. Colour Palette.
Primary
#4cb015
Secondary
#d7267d
#b8c01f
#2d7faf
#82219b
#dAe0e7
#bec7cf
#505d65
Neutrals
#edf2f5
#1f3342
#142630

15. Meet & Brief
1:1 Interview
Diary
Study
Diary
Analysis

16. Shadowing

17. Analysis Methods
image of mental model

20. Go where your users go

21. Immersion

22. Do what your users do

23. Recognise what you’re witnessing
• the context
• the physical environment
• inherent nomenclature and
terminology
• decor and atmosphere
• other artefacts or objects present
• the other people present
• the situation and position of
those artefacts
• how people are acting
• unspoken cues between people
• how people react to one another
• how your presence has affected
the situation

24. Capture the seeds of ideas
• your own visceral and instinctive reactions
• immediate associations with other things

25. The hurdles and challenges

26. Wait. What was that again?
• Contextual design research is an important tool for going beyond
expressed needs and finding implied needs and latent needs.
• Focus groups and usability tests are not design research.
• Formal design research can be hugely beneficial. It’s rigorous and leads
to insights, behavioural patterns, indications and predictors.
• Casual design research shouldn’t be underestimated. Immersion and
experience lead to ideas.

27. Thanks.
• These slides are available on Speaker Deck at bit.ly/17svuoV
• You can follow me on Twitter @pauljervisheath
• You can find me on Linkedin at uk.linkedin.com/in/pauljervisheath
• You can email me at paul@modernhuman.co
• You can call me at +44 79 74 56 78 23

28. ModernHuman.
🕅🕆🕇🕊
We love our ideas to spread. That’s why this
presentation is released under a Creative
Commons Attribution-NonCommercialShareAlike (CC-BY-NC-SA) license.
This license allows you and others to remix,
tweak, and build upon this work noncommercially. When you do you must
acknowledge us, Modern Human, and license
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When in doubt, just ask us. We won’t bite.
We use human-centred design to help
businesses invent their future. We’re a
design practice & innovation consultancy.
Find out more at http://modernhuman.co
Paul-Jervis Heath
paul@modernhuman.co
@pauljervisheath
🕅🕆
Photo credit
Flickr user andreaskopp - http://bit.ly/12yywna