User Research Strategies

Design Library Resources

These books are available in the Design Library.

Design Kit from IDEO has a number of strategies that can be used to gain insights into users and their needs:

"Human-centered design is a practical, repeatable approach to arriving at innovative solutions. Think of these Methods as a step-by-step guide to unleashing your creativity, putting the people you serve at the center of your design process to come up with new answers to difficult problems."

Tips for running a design interview from Medium and Matt Cooper-Wright

"The in-depth and quantitative approach to research is all about getting to know individuals in detail, finding nuance and ultimately getting inspired to design better things for people. "


UCD Questions

Questions start thinking about design context and user's needs

When beginning an inquiry, designers need to understand the scope of the problem and begin to empathize with the user and their needs.

They might begin their research by trying to find answers to some of these questions. These are not the only questions that need to be asked - but they can serve as a guide for developing the scope of the design inquiry.