It is increasingly assumed in the design circles that good design satisfies the users’ needs and thereby makes their lives a little easier and more pleasant. In order to achieve such an effect, you need to learn about the needs, habits and emotions of people you design for – and this is the purpose of user research. This article presents user research as a process which does not aim to come up with a complete and precise image of the users’ world, but to direct the creative work. In other words, research is not only about the “accuracy” of results, but also (and maybe more so) about facilitating design and increasing the chances of achieving the intended results. Moreover, the suggested approach assumes that research needs to be neither costly, time-consuming nor carried out by professional scholars in order to reasonably support creative work.
Keywords: user research, user interview, user-centred design, design methods, users’ needs
