Whenever we design or innovate something or even find out a solution for some problem it is really important to understand your user, the target audience, the customer. Observe the demographics and really see the needs of the user. User research is all about what they want, what they think they want and what we think they want.

There are different ways and techniques to find that insight out so that you can use that insight to design, and improve the products and service you are offering. For the past year I have been using some of those techniques and have found them to be quite helpful in finding the right pain points.

Persona – building or creating persona assists in making an image of the user in your mind, an image of a user you think will use your product or service. It helps in personalizing your offering according to the target segment.

Fly on the wall/Shadow – one of the easiest and most fun filled way of doing user research is to become a fly when in contact with your user. Go study your user in their surrounding without contacting them just observe. Observing them in their own element gives you a lot of insights and areas to consider and pain points which upon asking the user they might not tell because they probably are used to it that they don’t pay attention to it. But from an outsiders eye you might able to pin point it.

Customer journey/Day in a life – after being a fly on the wall it is easy to do a customer journey map or day in a life. It helps in mapping out the above the line and below the line touch points for the customer.

Scenario planning/Story boarding – this user research tool aids in actually theorizing where the customer or user will use the product or service being offered to him/her and how they will use it. Is there a way to improve that experience or is right the way it is.

Gorilla/Usability testing – it helps in understanding the loop holes in your solution. It’s always important and good to test your product with a set of customers so that you can close all the loop holes which might have been left by you undetected. It also gives a clear idea how the user is going to use our product or service in real time.

Think aloud – also while usability testing it helps if you ask the user to think aloud. It aides us in understanding as to what is going the users mind while using the service.

Last but not the least I think it is great if while doing user research we have empathy. It’s important to see it through their eyes. We always have our own perspective it’s good to see and understand their perspective also.