Improve decision-making and design products that exceed user expectations with research (#8)

Motivation

Without comprehensive research, designers cannot effectively influence key decisions, such as which features to prioritize or how much effort is needed for successful delivery. A lack of research typically delays reaching the desired outcome because teams risk investing in solutions that may not work.

Although designers cannot predict the future, research empowers them to guide the team toward better decisions. Beyond verifying usability, research helps designers grasp the full context of the user experience.

Challenge

Every organization makes decisions that shape the user experience, whether it’s how a product or feature is built.

Many of these decisions occur without UX input, even though they significantly affect how customers and users feel about the product. What many fail to realize is that design is rooted in a capitalistic mindset - solving problems and optimizing solutions to drive profitability (Article: Design became disconnected from it’s capitalistic frame). Regardless of how your organization operates, some form of design process is always in place (for better or worse). Understanding how decisions are made is essential.

Many of these decisions occur without UX input, even though they significantly affect how customers and users feel about the product. What many fail to realize is that design is rooted in a capitalistic mindset—solving problems and optimizing solutions to drive profitability. Regardless of how your organization operates, some form of design process is always in place (for better or worse). Understanding how decisions are made is essential.

We can categorize design decisions into five types:

Unintentional design – No user consideration; focuses solely on technology and business objectives.
Self design – The designer bases decisions primarily on personal preferences, ignoring broader user needs.
Genius design – The designer believes they inherently understand users, foregoing additional research.
Activity-focused design – Decisions rely on research into specific user tasks and workflows.
Experience-focused design – Decisions come from comprehensive insights into the user’s overall experience.

As organizations grow, stakeholders often become increasingly disconnected from real user needs. Consequently, the gap between user experiences and stakeholder understanding widens, leading to a decline in awareness of user requirements at higher hierarchical levels.

Solution approach

To facilitate good decisions, every decision-maker must be exposed to reliable data. We will know we have succeeded when:

Measuring outcomes becomes simpler.
People move away from guesswork and assumptions.
Research findings directly inform every major decision.
Leaders throughout the company make well-informed choices—even without our direct involvement.

Designers should position themselves as the foremost experts on user needs, ensuring everyone in the organization can benefit from this knowledge—especially for decisions that most significantly affect the user experience. Moving from “design research” (building it right) to “experience research” (building the right thing) requires gradually increasing research maturity. Steadily push the organization beyond its comfort zone to foster continuous improvement.