Triangulating User Intent Using Mixed Methods

Truly understanding your user’s needs lies at the heart of designing successful products and services. When a researcher relies on on only one data source, they can fail to comprehensively understand their user’s motivations, preferences and pain points. Instead, rely on using mixed research methods so that you can paint the fullest picture of your customers. 

Combining Qualitative and Quantitative data

Qualitative research methods like user task testing or interviews are a great way to understand user motivations and beliefs. Reviewing quantitative data like surveys or analytics experiments can back up these insights with statistical significance. When conducting user task testing, I often work with a small sample size (10-20 users) to look for pain points across the site. If users are struggling to find information, I’ll compare my findings with a survey, A/B test or Heatmapping to back up these insights. 

Avoiding Research Bias

One issue with mixed method research is it can lead to research bias where learnings from qualitative data lead the researcher to only look for insights that back this up in quantitative data. To minimize bias, clearly define research objectives at the onset of the project. Secondly, use randomized sampling techniques to ensure a representative user sample. Thirdly, be neutral during data collection and analysis to avoid a subjective interpretation. Lastly, consider diverse perspectives and actively seek contrary evidence to challenge your assumption. 

Mixed Method Research Processes

1. Convergent Parallel - In this method data collection for both methods occur simultaneously and are analyzed separately. This aims to have two separate sets of data that help inform each other

2. Embedded Design - Here, both data sets are collected simultaneously, but the qual data is embedded within the quant data. This method is good when your focus in on the quant data but you need additional qual insights to explain it

3. Explanatory Sequential - This design involves collecting quant data first, followed by qual. It helps when you want to better explain your quant data set with additional qual insights

4. Exploratory Sequential - Here the researcher gathers qual data first, then quant data. This method helps when the researcher needs to explore a topic before backing it up with quant data.

How to Implement Mixed Methods in User Research

1. Define Learning Objective - Before you begin, define what it is you hope to learn then base the research methods around that learning objective

2. Choose Research Techniques - Select which qualitative and quantitative data collection techniques that will best help you meet your learning objectives. 

3. Conduct Research - Implement the chosen research methods, ensuring that they are aligned with your objectives. Use qualitative data to understand user motivations and behaviors and quantitative data to measure preferences.

4. Analyze Data Separately - Code qualitative data to look for themes and patterns and analyze quantitative data to look for statistical significance 

5. Compare and Triangulate Data - Compare both data sets to see where they converge or diverge from each other. Validate your insights using triangulation

6. Communicate Results to Stakeholders - Use strong presentation and storytelling skills to paint the fullest picture of your users to help sell stakeholders on your findings and the best path to move forward. 

When trying to understand user behavior, needs and preferences try combining qualitative and quantitative methods to effectively triangulate data. This use of mixed methods will lead to more comprehensive and reliable insights. This will help validate your research to stakeholders in leadership, product and development. 

Embracing Inclusive Design: Designing for All Users

Designers have the ability to foster a sense of belonging when creating digital experiences by prioritizing inclusive design. An inclusive design philosophy goes beyond aesthetics and functionality. Inclusive design is a method to create products that understand and enable people of all backgrounds and abilities.

Inclusive Research & Design

Inclusive design puts users at the center of the design process, emphasizing empathy and understanding. It begins by involving users from diverse backgrounds and abilities in the discovery and testing phases. By including representative users in user research, usability testing, and feedback loops, designers gain valuable insights into the challenges faced by different user groups. 

When prototyping design ideas, consider if you are representing historically marginalized groups in an authentic way through usage of images, graphics, avatars and language. Make sure that copy can be clearly understood by audiences of varying education and literacy levels. When designing for an international audience, consider how cultural factors could effect usage. Lastly, build diverse research and design teams with underrepresented talent so that ideas can benefit from a variety of perspectives.

When performing user research, it is important to our team to hear from a diverse audience

This human-centric approach allows designers to create intuitive and user-friendly interfaces, prioritize essential features, and ensure that the overall experience meets the needs of all users. Moreover, this inclusive research and design process helps challenge biases and assumptions, leading to more authentically inclusive solutions.

Accessible Design

Accessible design aims to create experiences and products that cater to individuals with varying abilities, disabilities, and diverse needs. By embracing inclusive design principles, designers can make their websites and applications accessible to a broader audience, including those with visual, auditory, cognitive, or motor impairments.

One way to make your designs more accessible is to consider the different lenses through which a user can experience your design. This can encompasses various perspectives, including physical, sensory and cognitive considerations. From a physical lens, it is vital to ensure that websites and apps can be accessed by individuals with different mobility levels. This involves designing intuitive navigation structures, providing keyboard alternatives to mouse interactions, and optimizing the content for assistive technologies such as screen readers.

From a sensory perspective, designers need to cater to individuals with visual and hearing impairments. This can be achieved by incorporating alternative text descriptions for images, providing captions and transcripts for multimedia content, and implementing color contrast that meets accessibility standards. Additionally, it is important to consider cognitive accessibility by presenting information in a clear and organized manner, avoiding cluttered layouts, and providing options for font sizes and reading preferences.

Inclusive Design is an Ongoing Journey

Bringing equal access to all users is an ongoing process. Many of us, myself included, are in the early stages of learning how to make our designs more inclusive. Designers can foster a sense of belonging and empowerment by including diverse perspectives throughout the design process. For businesses, inclusive design expands the potential user base, opening up new markets and opportunities. It promotes brand reputation and customer loyalty by demonstrating a commitment to diversity and accessibility. Additionally, it drives innovation, as diverse perspectives and experiences lead to fresh ideas and improved problem-solving.

How to Build Accessibility into the Foundation of Your Design

Just like a home needs a strong foundation, accessibility needs to be built into the front end code of digital products and experiences. This accessible foundation then needs to be extended into the design patterns and content that users will interact with. Overlaying an accessibility widget on a poorly coded and designed website is akin to painting over a cracked foundation. It takes a dedicated, cross-functional team to ensure proper accessibility across code, design and content.

Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG)

The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) AA 2.1 is a set of internationally recognized guidelines that outline the standards for creating accessible digital content. Accessible technology offers numerous benefits including: broadening the user base by accommodating individuals with disabilities, improving overall usability for all users and enhancing search engine optimization (SEO) through better structured content and semantic markup. Finally, it reduces the risk of potential legal action by fostering legal compliance and adhering to accessibility regulations in many countries.

The POUR Method

The POUR Method, which stands for perceivable, operable, understandable and robust, is a great way to build accessibility into your digital products. By incorporating the POUR principles into the foundation of your build process, designers and developers can effectively address accessibility concerns and enhance the overall user experience for individuals with disabilities.

Perceivable

Perceivable means ensuring that all information and content on the website can be perceived by all users, including those with visual or hearing impairments. This involves providing alternative text for images, captions for videos, proper color contrast for readability and clear text formatting and resizing. 

Operable

Operable refers to making the website easily navigable and functional for users of all abilities, including those who rely on keyboard navigation or assistive technologies. It is also important to consider how users might interact with your user interface through voice or speech commands. 

Understandable

Understandable entails presenting information and content in a clear and intuitive manner, avoiding complex jargon and providing helpful instructions. This includes clear language written for varying reading levels, strong use of visual design principles and clear and consistent use of headings and navigation.

Robust

Finally, Robust means creating a website that is compatible with a variety of assistive technologies and future-proof, ensuring that it remains accessible as technology advances.

Accessible Design Practical Tips

1. Audit the beta or live version of your website with a tool like Axe. Generally running the tool on key pages will reveal the majority of the accessibility issues.

2. Use descriptive alt text for images to ensure they are accessible to visually impaired users. Don’t include unnecessary words like ‘image of’. Want to learn more about when and how to apply alt text to images? Check out the W3C Decision Tree.

3. Optimize color contrasts to ensure readability for users with visual impairments. 3:1 contrast ratio for large text (18pt regular or 14pt bold and above) and icons and a 4.5:1 contrast ratio for small text.

4. Implement clear and consistent headings and structure for easy navigation. This includes having a Heading 1 (H1) on each page and not skipping subheadings (going from H1 to H4)

5. Provide closed captions or transcripts for multimedia content to cater to individuals with hearing impairments. Consider voice over application for video content.

6. Design forms and interactive elements with clear labels, error notifications, and logical tab order.

7. Test your design using assistive technologies (experiencing one of your designs through a screen reader can be a great learning experience) and conduct user testing with individuals who have disabilities.

Accessible design is a foundational principle that aims to create digital experiences that are accessible to all. By following the WCAG AA 2.1 guidelines, designers and developers can foster inclusivity, expand their user base, and provide an exceptional experience for all users.