Development

User Research [Discovery + Wireframing]

User experience (UX) research is the process of discovering the behaviours, motivations and needs of your customers through observation, task analysis and other types of authentic user feedback.

As a website design company, we know that in carrying out this research, you can understand the user experience for new products and services, which is imperative in developing the functionality of your website. Once all of the discovery has been complete, it is then time to develop the wireframes, which sits as an essential step in the website build process.

WHAT’S INVOLVED WITH UX RESEARCH?

Research into user experience (UX) is imperative in developing the content, design layout and functionality of your website with your target audience in mind. Valuable for all areas of your business, good UX research will yield core information about the satisfying the needs of your audience along with relevant promotion of the benefits of your products and services. This in turn shall increase visitors, conversion rates and ultimately, your bottom line.

Once the user research has been carried out, the next steps are to finalise your sitemap, listing of the website pages you will require. This is devised through the design of wireframes – the blueprint of your website whether a brochure site, a website redesign or an eCommerce development this process remains the same.

HOW DO EDGE APPROACH UX RESEARCH?

When wireframing and designing your new website or redesigning an existing website, carrying out effective user experience is a vital first step. We will consider the type of product or service your business offers as well as your target audience, location and competition, but our 15 years of experience in website design and development means that EDGE Creative can support you with the following steps.

Our multi-step process to user research

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STEP ONE: ATTITUDINAL VS BEHAVIOURAL RESEARCH

Attitudinal refers to what people say while behavioural refers to what people do. What people say and do are often different. Firstly, we will research into your target audience to see what they say about your products or services. We will of course, analyse their behaviours too through thorough user testing to see what your audience are doing on your website. For example, A/B testing will show your visitors different versions of your site to track the effect of site design on conversion.
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STEP TWO: QUALITATIVE AND QUANTITATIVE DATA

Using qualitative and quantitative data will allow us to research into what currently works and what does not for your website. Using measurement tools such as surveys or analytics will allow us as your website design company, to gather data about how subjects use a product or service. We will also use qualitative research methods such as focus groups and field studies in order to understand the human side of data by gaining a sense of the underlying motivations and reasons surrounding your audience’s behaviour. Once gathered, we can reflect this behaviour on your website and get your target audience exactly where we want them – converting!
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STEP THREE: SUMMARISING RESEARCH FINDINGS

By collecting and analysing this user research we can build information about your audiences. For example, how they use your website and what tasks they wish website to perform. From this data we can identify the most active elements and beneficial functionality. This research will be carried out early in the design process laying the foundations for a website that focuses upon user experience and visitor satisfaction.
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STEP FOUR: WIREFRAMING

Now we understanding how your target audience will want to interact on your website we can apply this to the wireframing process, the next stage in your website development. A wireframe is a structural visual representation of a user interface, stripped of any visual design or branding elements to aid decision making and focus. It communicates what elements should be featured on each page. As a reference point for functional specifications, your wireframes will also give visual designers the building blocks to creating your website design. The user journey flows through the wireframes connecting the pages via internal links. They will also be imperative in laying out the website design, planning exactly where images, content and call to actions will sit. This also aids positioning to meet the needs of responsive web design and development.