The 7 deadly sins of user research

David Travis, who holds a PhD in psychology and has published two books on usability, compares the user researcher to an investigative journalist in this talk from Northern User Experience 2014. Both look for stories that capture one person’s goals, motivations and struggles while resonating with a much larger audience. Both try to find the truth in contradictory accounts, and both deal with unreliable witnesses: people who don’t understand why they do what they do, don’t want to say, or don’t tell the whole truth.

Yet many design teams still approach user research naively. They ask people what they want and believe the answers. They start with a hidden agenda, cherry-pick findings and tell senior management what it wants to hear. Or they let one person become the sole repository of research knowledge and fail to build a user-centred culture.

David has seen these mistakes in start-ups and established firms, in public and private sector organisations, and in both waterfall and agile teams. Alongside the sins, he suggests how to avoid them on your own projects.