ux blog

What are the next big trends in UX? At our recent Expero Summit, we discussed many advances that promise to transform how users interact with technologies. As augmented reality and other technologies take substantive form, it’s more and more about what the user needs from these amazing technologies and less about how cool the technology actually is. It’s a given that the technology is only going to get cooler. What’s not as obvious is whether the user is ready for it.

One of the major hesitations from product stakeholders regarding end-user engagement, specifically user testing, is that they often don’t want anyone to see it till it’s “perfect” or “ready” or “MVP.” This is especially true of brand-new products or brand-new technologies. One thing we’re all on the same page about, though: It’s definitely not ready yet. But not because that bug still needs to be fixed or that color scheme should be tweaked. It’s because your target users haven’t weighed in

We all know how awesome user personas are. They help all the king’s men—designers, researchers, product owners, stakeholders, investors, on and on—understand a particular user type’s behaviors, needs, goals and motivations. Personas also focus everyone’s attention on the bigger picture rather than the minutest of edge cases. Further, they empower us to empathize with our end-users, to the point that we want to make Rob the Accountant’s life not only easier, but also happier, more successful, more exciting.

As Agile principles and Lean methodologies continue to take center stage in product management and strategy, it’s easy to get caught up in daily scrums and design iterations and shoot right past the user research (UR). Everything’s moving so fast and we’re seeing big improvements (we think) on a daily basis. Surely user research isn’t as important as full-steam-ahead?

In fact it’s more important than ever not to let user research fall by the wayside. Without understanding users from the ground floor and getting their feedback throughout the process, you could be full-steam-ahead on designing and building exactly the wrong things.