Determine Your Users

A key problem for many organisations is understanding not only who their potential users might be, but also who their current users are. Without knowledge of who the users of a product or service are, deciding who to recruit for user-centred design activities is often a haphazard business, based on assumptions without evidence.
Standard methods only provide limited evidence in this area. For example, web metrics may list the actions happening on a site, but they do not show who is using the site and why they are doing what they are doing. Online surveys may provide some user data; however, this is largely limited, particularly as the respondents are self-selecting. Marketing segmentation schemes may also provide an indication of whom the organisation wishes to target, but it typically doesn’t say who the actual users are and how they behave. In response to this problem, we began to develop User Type Shaping.

User Type Shaping employs a combination of techniques to identify who a product’s users are. The first part of the process involves narrowing and focussing the possible field of users by drawing on techniques from cultural studies and anthropology. These techniques illuminate both the context in which the organisation’s products exist, and who the products users may be. The study focuses on material culture such as objects, environments, visual and verbal language, media representations, as well as any existing research, and ad hoc interviews. Part of the intention is to understand where and how possible users may come into contact with the product. The research data is then represented visually and analysed until key themes and initial user types emerge.

The initial user types identified during the contextual research are then explored further through field research, using ethnographic-based observations and interviews. Once tested in the field, initial assumptions may be validated or refined, and new user types may be uncovered.

During the field study it is also possible to explore any needs the users might have, and potential opportunity areas for the product. The data from the field research is then analysed and shaped into draft user types and represented by personas. The user types may then be further shaped and refined with key stakeholders in a workshop setting.

Whilst User Type Shaping can be used to create personas, it should not be confused with standard persona development. For not much more effort than standard persona development, User Type Shaping offers an organisation that has previously had little idea of who their users are the opportunity to identify them, based on rich qualitative data which goes beyond that produced by quantitative methods. In addition, it provides the organisation with a rich picture of the cultural landscape in which their product and their users are situated, which is valuable for understanding future opportunities and how the product might be developed and presented. With a picture of who a products users are, User Type Shaping enables the recruitment of participants for future user centred design activities based on evidence that does not rely on a segmentation designed for marketing. During the User Type Shaping process, the organisation’s knowledge of who their users are, their attitudes, behaviours, and needs is increased, and since these types will be researched in future studies this knowledge will increase with each study.