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Lead from the fields: who and how applied qualitative methods in UX Research to develop IT products. Part 6 of 6

All parts of the article: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6

“To move on, we need to understand what people need”: the development of a new service


So, we come to the last life situation - the development of a new service. The use of qualitative methodology for the development of a new service covers all the issues that we considered earlier:


The development of a new service is one of the most difficult tasks: the risk of making a mistake here is very great. A study conducted using qualitative methods at the product development stage reduces these risks, but does not completely exclude. The qualification requirements for researchers in the project team are extremely high here. The collected data greatly affect the result.

However, in some situations related to the development of new services, the task that the project team faces is not so difficult: less information about users is required, so the research process is simplified. As a rule, these are situations when a similar online or offline service already exists. Consider a few such cases.

Case 22. The Understanding Group: a donation service for the university

Case 22. The Understanding Group: a donation service for the university


The development department of a large university is doing a very good job: it attracts funds to support students, research, sports, various new initiatives and jobs, as well as the current activities of the university. He does this not through a donation box, but through a special website. Recently, the server was completely changed for this site: now users can make several donations for one visit - just like shopping with a basket.
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The development department wanted to give users the opportunity to make donations in unlimited amounts - to save donor time and meet the university’s need for additional funding. They did not want ingenious design or one-sided strategy. They needed a good information structure, which takes into account the needs of the organization and donors. This is the maximum program that is impossible without the understanding of both customers and users. To solve this problem turned to the services of The Understanding Group.

The Understanding Group team began work - conducted a series of interviews with customer representatives and users, as well as a heuristic analysis of the site interface. The results were disappointing: the site did not contain the necessary information about donations and did not provide adequate feedback. People were not sure that they give money for good purposes, and their contribution will be confirmed and evaluated. The site was cold and inhospitable. This greatly hindered the attraction of funds.

Based on the interview results, key characters were created:

  • recent university graduate;
  • a giver with extensive experience;
  • passionate sports fan;
  • a donor who donates to the memory of a family member;
  • university employee.

Created characters and scenarios for using the site identified priorities and opportunities for discussion at two joint design sessions with the participation of customer representatives. According to the results of the study, the team prepared sketches of the pages of the future site, which were the subject of discussion. During the first session, alternatives were sketched on the blackboard. At the second design session, the Understanding Group team and customer representatives discussed and approved the final options - they became the starting point for the rest of the workflow sketches. Work on the sessions influenced the final design of the site, in particular, helped to cope with technical and administrative constraints.

Improvements in the study have significantly increased the flow of donations. Since the launch of the site:

  • donations to several funds immediately increased by 100%;
  • unlimited donations increased fivefold;
  • the number of positive feedbacks from users and university staff has increased;
  • The number of calls to customer service with complaints and wishes decreased by 57%.

By all indicators - analytics, user reviews and donations - changes on the site helped the development department to achieve the goal.


Case 23. Prime Motive: site for the insurance company CGU Insurance

Case 23. Prime Motive: site for the insurance company CGU Insurance


CGU Insurance is one of the most reputable insurance companies in Australia. Traditionally, this business has developed with the active participation of insurance brokers, but the company saw that times change. Internet and mobile devices allow consumers from all over the country to buy insurance directly. The insurance market has become a client market, and the understanding of this fact was a start for radical changes. CGU Insurance turned to Prime Motive to develop a website for selling insurance policies online to small businesses.

Prime Motive employees, along with their colleagues from Deloitt, conducted a series of interviews with small business owners directly in the workplace. The interview topics were not limited to insurance: they talked about business, its development, problems and risks. Business owners shared positive and negative experiences, told about their difficulties and fears, including the fear of being left unprotected. Each company had its own characteristics, but all the owners were unanimous in the opinion that business is their life and way of survival at the same time.

According to the results of the study, they conducted master classes in design thinking for the customer in order to inculcate a client-oriented approach in him. After working on hundreds of prototypes and at the end of discussions with all participants in the process, a block of questions was prepared, which allows the client to find out about insurance everything that is needed in a few minutes: how much it costs, where to purchase the policy and how to manage your insurance program. You can connect to the system from anywhere in the country. A new site was built, built from scratch on the basis of a responsive and flexible CMS, which required less management effort and could quickly adapt to changing needs. Additionally, a new website design was developed, which corresponded to the changed priorities in the company's work and the capabilities of various devices.


Case 24. Bowmast: Learning Habits and Behavior of Kiwibank ATM Users

Case 24. Bowmast: Learning Habits and Behavior of Kiwibank ATM Users


The Kiwibank consumer experience team needed information about the role of ATMs and cash in the lives of consumers. This information was necessary for the development of an ATM network and the development of new services — it is impossible to do this work without an understanding of users. It was necessary qualitative research. They turned to Bowmast for help, or rather to Nick Bowmast.

First, Nick conducted an interview with representatives of the customer: cashiers, marketers, productologists, call center employees and analysts. These interviews made it possible to clearly define the objectives and the object of the study, as well as the type of data that would be most useful for short-term and medium-term planning.

The design of the ethnographic research (observation and interview) was developed with the active assistance of customer representatives. The sample for the study was formed so that it was attended by representatives of different generations and socio-demographic groups with different models of using an ATM. In addition, users were divided into two categories - urban and rural population.

They organized surveillance directly at ATMs - they didn’t come close enough so as not to embarrass users. When choosing an ATM, they took into account where it is located: a street, a supermarket, a bank branch, etc. Observation allowed us to collect data on needs that determine user behavior.

Interviews with users were conducted, as a rule, in their homes, in the kitchen. It was a casual conversation about how people use the ATM: time of day, frequency, amount and place. Such conversations helped to identify the habits and behaviors of users.

The results of the study gave a clear idea of ​​how ATMs and cash are woven into the lives of various categories of users. This helped the customer to prioritize the development of an ATM network, taking into account the convenience and benefits for customers. It became clear which categories of users are interested in specific services. The study revealed new ways to inform and expand customer opportunities, including mobile applications and specialized banking services. The customer was shown how to improve the ATM to better meet the needs of users. According to the study, a video was made to illustrate the key findings. Such a format is not only extremely interesting and informative - it helped to cause empathy in relation to users with the customer.


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The project team of The Understanding Group had a serious advantage: the payment acceptance service is already a well-known thing. That is why the researchers could confine themselves to conducting an interview - in this way they obtained the necessary information about the needs, behavior and fears of users, as well as about the shortcomings of the available service (to solve this problem, they also performed a heuristic analysis). Information to create a new convenient online donation service was enough. The Prime Motive team found itself in a similar situation - it also used to study interview users. Service for the sale of insurance already existed offline. Detailed information about users collected through interviews helped translate it online.

The case of Nick Bowmaster is different in that two methods are used here: interview and observation. This is explained by the fact that Kiwibank planned to develop new services for its ATM system. This company needed more information about users, including their daily habits. It was important to identify the cultural differences between urban and rural populations and to understand whether these differences affect the use of ATMs. In fact, it was a major request for information about the environment of use. Therefore, both interviews and observation were needed.

Implementation of the project for Kiwibank did not lead to the creation of a new product - all that was needed was to collect the data necessary for its development. However, this case brings us to an important conclusion. To develop a new service, a large amount of information is needed, including data on the needs, problems and fears of people, on life situations, the environment of use and cultural characteristics. Qualitative methods do an excellent job with this task. Of course, with the appropriate qualifications of researchers in the project team. Let us consider two more cases where qualitative research methods were used to develop a new service.

Case 25. CXpartners: digital services for the Bristol Municipality

Case 25. CXpartners: digital services for the Bristol Municipality


What to do if the budget is reduced, and city residents demand to improve the quality of services provided by government agencies? Such a problem faced the municipality of Bristol in the UK. People want government services to be as affordable as ordering goods at Amazon - without unnecessary gestures and from any device. And if this is impossible, the townspeople are outraged. Can't pay taxes online? Are we in the XIX century ?! Employees of the municipality are also disappointed with the outdated organization of processes in their office, which is wasting time and money. The municipality needed to improve customer experience in terms of budget cuts and with a minimum of staff. The challenge was, frankly, not easy. But the municipality decided that serious problems help rethink the approach to work. And what if most services are digital? The idea is good, but you need to understand how people use government services and what their needs are. For this, representatives of the municipality of Bristol turned to CXpartners.

The CXpartners team knew that in order to develop new digital services, it was necessary to clearly define what was needed for city residents and employees of the municipality. You can understand this only by talking to people and seeing what they are doing. Without this in any way. The project team went to Bristol to see how people interact with various services. They asked citizens about their experiences with municipal services: in taxis, in parking lots and bus stops, in libraries, community centers and at home. They were interested in how city residents evaluate the services provided, where difficulties arise, which disturbs and upsets. How would they like to use these services in the future? The data that we were able to collect gave a vision of what is happening, which was not enough for the municipal employees and employees of many other public and private enterprises. Such is the user experience, which is often hidden from prying eyes.

After collecting the data, the team thought about which services can be transferred to the online mode, and for which you need personal communication. Users are grouped using the "vulnerability scale". At one end there were people who solve such tasks as paying taxes — they want to get rid of this responsibility as quickly as possible, without resorting to outside help. At the other end, those who need advice from the staff of the committee on housing and care issues: such citizens need support throughout the whole way of solving the problem. Employees of the municipality could vary the mode of communication depending on the specifics of the service and the "vulnerability" of its customers.

The client-oriented approach was tested on two services - waste disposal and parking. These pilot programs allowed to study the needs and experience of users and to formulate the basic principles of the transformation of municipal services. As a result of the work, the customer received:

  • a convenient data bank created on the basis of the analysis of the collected information - it gave a holistic view of the inhabitants of Bristol;
  • library of reusable templates for user interaction design;
  • practical skills in the design of services that have been trained by municipality representatives.

Now any change in public services takes into account the needs of citizens. Now the municipality of Bristol can make informed decisions that allow us to improve customer experience with minimal cost - and it has recently seemed that this is impossible. Since the launch of the program in 2013, 15 new online services have been launched. In the first six months, about 5,000 people paid taxes online. Over the year, the number of users who used online booking time for registering newborns increased from 18 to 50%.


Case 26. Answer Lab: PayPal Digital Wallet

Case 26. Answer Lab: PayPal Digital Wallet


Shopping on the Internet has long been a familiar affair for many, and you won’t surprise anyone with electronic money. The company PayPal thought: what if you create a mobile application "electronic wallet" for purchases in regular offline stores. Thought and ... went to develop? No, let's go do the research. Not independently, but with the help of Answer Lab. PayPal understood that in order to develop such an application, you must first study the offline shopping experience in detail.

Answer Lab had to solve four problems:

  • find out what the pain and pleasant side when shopping in an offline store;
  • evaluate the digital wallet concept itself;
  • determine the capabilities of the future application;
  • understand what can be a short-term and long-term multichannel strategy.

The tasks were not easy, and the Answer Lab team approached the task creatively: in addition to ethnographic methods, they used games. The company’s laboratory created a prototype of a coffee shop to test the new mobile payment system in practice.

Classical ethnography consisted of visiting stores in cooperation with research participants — to see the difficulties people face. In addition, they investigated the real content of the wallets of the research participants: it was necessary to understand how the approach to their organization would change when the wallets become digital. Study participants were asked to keep diaries of purchases and events, in order to design a personal assistant who provides support to users when making purchases — not only in the payment process.

The data collected showed the customer how consumers use ordinary wallets. This information is necessary if you plan to replace them with digital counterparts. In addition, the study provided a lot of information about the shopping process, in particular about shopping lists and the use of loyalty cards. It became clear what points of communication should be included in the new service.


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In these two cases, project teams recognized the need for quality data to develop new services. Both cases illustrate the main advantage of a qualitative methodology: it allows you to collect deep and very detailed data on how the daily lives of users are organized. Successful digital services are always designed to meet user needs that exist in everyday life.

Both Answer Lab and CXpartners to solve the problem of developing a new service went to the “field” to understand the problems of people. And this is a very important point. High-quality digital service originates in the daily life of users, and to study it requires quality methods.

Summarizing what has been said: in the situation of developing a new service, project teams face the problem of a lack of knowledge about users and their daily life. If a similar service already exists, to collect detailed information about users and their problems with the existing service, you can limit yourself to conducting an interview. If you have to develop a service that has no analogues, you must additionally use observation. Interviews and observations provide information on the needs, behavior, fears and problems of users, their life situations, the environment of use of the product, everyday life and cultural characteristics. These data help to develop the necessary and convenient service that will organically fit into the daily life of people and will solve real problems.

Conclusion: qualitative methods and development of IT products in Russia


We analyzed the experience of foreign companies in the use of qualitative methods for solving UX-problems. Case analysis showed that there are six life situations when a qualitative methodology is applied:


The use of qualitative methods in each situation has its own specifics: different combinations of methods, different complexity of research organization, different goals and results. The main reason for the use of qualitative methods by project teams is their potential in obtaining data on:


Qualitative methodology is widespread abroad. In Russia, the situation is somewhat different: neither customers, nor project teams do not represent the possibilities of qualitative methods. This situation can change the study of the experience of using qualitative methods for solving product problems. We have tried to highlight this experience in this article.

All parts of the article: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6

Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/307444/


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