What are the important points to consider in user research?

Collecting the data about user behavior and preferences via diverse methods and techniques, the designer has to take into account the following factors:

• the environment of use (the factors of using the product indoors or outdoors, the level of light, noise, available time and tons of other things can have an impact on design solutions)
• factors of intrinsic motivation (the internal personal stimuli moving the person to act)
• factors of extrinsic motivation (the outer factors of getting a reward or avoiding punishment that encourage people’s behavior)
• longevity of the product (based on the period for which the product is planned for use: if it grows together with the user or is applicable only in a particular age).

It’s should be remembered that removing the mistakes in design, even if its already high-fidelity level, is faster, cheaper and less painful for users than fixing negative issues with already launched and operating product.

The bottom line is simple. Don’t be lazy to research vital points of the project before you start designing. Don’t fancy doing the research? No problem, go to duck and dive in loads of baseless concepts instead of going along the solid path of understanding the user’s needs and wishes. Just don’t forget: it’s not you who decides that the product is successful, it’s not even other designers or stakeholders. It’s users. So, empathy is the best policy.

What are the methods of user research?

Today, user experience design has already grown into a sphere with the considerable background of project and research cases, which have resulted in the extensive set of different research methods. Some methods are used on a regular basis, some are more rare and specific, yet it’s good for designers to be aware of a variety of them. Let’s briefly review the popular ones.

Interviews: Perhaps the most widely spread method when, having set the target audience of the product, people involved into the creative process interact directly with potential users and ask them questions to collect information. The quality of questions is the issue of high importance here. It’s effective to apply both close (yes/no) and open (giving the detailed answer) questions to let users provide diverse information.

Personas: The technique which has been applied in marketing and sales for a long time with client/buyer personas and now has transformed into a new perspective of user personas. With this technique, designer collects the data about the potential target audience, its psychological and behavioral preferences and habits and creates a bunch of imaginary users with these characteristic. On the ground of this data, the designer models users’ interactions with the product and possible issues that can arise in the process.

Sorting cards: This technique is effectively applied in cases when designers deal with the products presenting complex interfaces and variety of diverse content. The users are asked to categorize the content and set the hierarchies. In this way, the designers obtain the data showing how users see this sort of content and what way of its organization would be efficient for quick and easy navigation around the app or website.

Surveys: Another traditional method of scientific and social explorations when users are offered the set of questions. Answering them, users give the actual information enabling designers to understand their preferences and wishes deeper.

Focus group: Popular method presenting the moderated discussion of the product, its features, benefits and drawbacks within the group of people potentially close to the target audience. Altering some characteristics of the group, for example, age, gender, education level, tech literacy, researchers can receive the variety of data and see how these features can influence user behavior.

Task analysis: The method exploring the tasks and goals which users have interacting with the product. Understanding what users want to do enables designer to consider the fast and effective ways to achieve these goals.

Eyetracking: Special devices enable the designer to review which zones of the website or app users interact with more actively and use these zones in the most efficient and informative way.

Participatory design: Users are offered the set of elements for the layout and can suggest their own vision of the construction.

Clickstream testing: The analysis of the most clickable parts of the layout with the aim of designing clear interactions and reveal the problems.

A/B Testing: The users deal with one variant of design (version A) for some time and then another variant (version B) while the researcher collects the information along the necessary metrics and makes the conclusion about the efficiency of the versions.

Daily Reports: The user is asked to interact with a product for a particular period providing the reports on a daily basis. This helps to check the usability of the product in the perspective of long-term use.

Desirability testing: The users are usually offered visually and stylistically different versions and provide the feedback which version they would prefer and why.

5 Steps to a User-Centered Design Your Shoppers Will Adore

It doesn’t matter how amazing your design skills. It doesn’t matter how phenomenal the products you’re selling. If you’re not designing for the actual people using the site, those same people aren’t going to care.

Web design has always been about the user. A site’s UX, whether eCommerce or not, is determined by how comfortably the interface fits into specific user preferences and how well the design anticipates what the user needs. However, both of these are highly variable — a site that’s absolutely perfect for one user may be annoying to another.

That’s why the heart of good UX, and eCommerce design in general, is knowing your customers. Your customers. These change from site to site, project to project, so designers can’t apply the same rules over and over. When it comes to understanding the people in your target market, each new design means starting over from scratch.

So we’ve compiled a simple but effective 5-step process to calibrating your entire eCommerce site around your customers.

1. Identify Your Market
2. Preliminary User Testing
3. Create Personas
4. Map Your User’s Journey
5. Test Again

WHAT IS PRACTICAL PROJECT MANAGEMENT?

At the core of practical project management is an ability for keeping things simple. Not getting bogged down in lengthy and unwieldy processes. It does not mean cutting corners. Good project management practice is still necessary; it is about keeping it lean and mean. This, and getting the basics right, will help you deliver a successful project.

BEGINNING
Following these basic principles will give your project a good start:
Keep it simple!
Identify the stakeholders
Ask who benefits?
Gain agreement to proceed
Deliver the plan
Follow the project idea through to use

REQUIREMENTS GATHERING
Take a piece of paper and draw a house. Now ask five people to each draw a house and compare it with the one you have drawn. Hey, presto, five houses different from yours. You may have townhouses, family houses, bungalows, maisonettes, the list goes on. All houses, but different in style, size, layout, decor and many other ways. The same applies to project requirements. Your view of the customer's needs could be different to that of your customer. Ensure you gather a concise, accurate and signed-off set of requirements before you start building.

COMMUNICATING
Does everyone in your team understand the project well enough to give an elevator speech? If the answer is no, create a one-page executive summary of the project that contains all of the essential information. The content of your executive summary might look something like this:
Project name - give it a name that brings it to life
Start and finish date - everyone needs a target
Project leader - the right person for the job
Objective - make it clear and concise
Business potential - agreement at every level
Ideas summary - outline of what it is
Major issues - what are the stumbling blocks
Timeline - hitting the milestones
Resources and materials - everyone likes to know up front
Budget - what do you need, who signs it off
Evaluation - measurement of the project and outcome
Ideas for improvement - sets you up for your next project
Circulate this summary to all of your stakeholders before you start the project.

KICKING OFF
By now, you've now got an agreed set of requirements and have communicated the project to everyone that needs to know. It's time to begin. Arrange a project kick-off meeting:
Invite attendees. Everyone needs to be there
Send an executive summary to everyone before the meeting
Involve end-users of the project output
Stay in control of the meeting
Request feedback to identify any problem areas
At the meeting, ask attendees to explain what the project is aiming to deliver and to describe their involvement. Also, ask what they need, what the potential problems are and how they are going to manage them.

CONTROLLING
Now the project is underway you must deliver the plan; communicate progress and manage resources. Here is where you earn your money.
Stick to the plan, examine it regularly and adjust
Provide regular updates and don't let the project slip
Put people on the spot
Get work done no matter what happens
Test, test and test again
Keep the end-users involved

DELIVERING
You've created something new; now people must use it.
Make sure it works!
Create a fanfare
Choose the right person to champion it
Don't forget the training
Follow-up by having pre-arranged meetings in place to ensure everything is working as planned.

PROBLEM AREAS
Watch out for these commonplace project management gotchas:
Creating a 50-page plan you'll never carry out. Heed this advice from General George S. Patton, A good plan, violently executed now, is better than a perfect plan next week.
Filing project assets incorrectly and as a consequence wasting time looking for them
Allowing people to involve themselves in areas where they have little or no knowledge. Their involvement wastes time and money. Avoid!
Creating bottlenecks that slow your project down. Remove them!

REMINDERS
These are some of the important items you need to bear in mind before, during and after project delivery:
Create the right environment so people will take ownership of their part of the project
Baseline your project plan so you can see progress over time
Evaluate project progress continually asking, "How are we doing?"
Add some slack to your project plan because some things will take longer than you think
Create simple and easy to understand project documentation
Test using independent people
Check with the customer after delivery to make sure everything is working
Look for improvement opportunities
Check delivery of the expected benefits is on track
Document lessons learned from your projects
Kill failing projects quickly
Celebrate if the project hits its schedule
Have fun!

FINAL THOUGHT
Keep your project processes simple. Hefty project processes can be a disabler to killing projects. As English businessman, Sir John Harvey-Jones recognised, There are times when you have to kill your favourite children. He was talking about businesses, but the same applies to projects.
A successful project comes with great leadership, not lengthy and unwieldy project management processes, so keep it simple!

What is UX research?

UX research encompasses a variety of investigative methods used to add context and insight to the design process. Unlike other sub-fields of UX, research did not develop out of some other field or fields. It merely translated from other forms of research. In other words, UX practitioners have borrowed many techniques from academics, scientists, market researchers, and others. However, there are still types of research that are fairly unique to the UX world.

The main goal of design research is to inform the design process from the perspective of the end user. It is research that prevents us from designing for one user: ourselves. It’s fairly well accepted that the purpose of UX or user-centered design is to design with the end-user in mind, and it’s research that tells us who that person is, in what context they’ll use this product or service, and what they need from us.

With that in mind, research has two parts: gathering data, and synthesizing that data in order to improve usability. At the start of the project, design research is focused on learning about project requirements from stakeholders, and learning about the needs and goals of the end users. Researchers will conduct interviews, collect surveys, observe prospects or current users, and review existing literature, data, or analytics. Then, iteratively throughout the design process, the research focus shifts to usability and sentiment. Researchers may conduct usability tests or A/B tests, interview users about the process, and generally test assumptions that will improve the designs.

We can also divide UX research methods into two camps: quantitative and qualitative.

• Quantitative research is any research that can be measured numerically. It answers questions such as “how many people clicked here” or “what percentage of users are able to find the call to action?” It’s valuable in understanding statistical likelihoods and what is happening on a site or in an app.
• Qualitative research is sometimes called “soft” research. It helps us understand why people do the things they do, and often takes the form of interviews or conversations. Common questions include “why didn’t people see the call to action” and “what else did people notice on the page?”

Though researchers may specialize in specific types of interviews or tests, most are capable of conducting a wide variety of techniques. All researchers collect the valuable information that allows us to design in an informed, contextual, user-centered manner.

Some of my Latest Online

----- General Web Sites ----- 

http://infinitywebsolutions.biz/
http://commercepromote.com/

http://property2match.com/

https://smecentre-smcci.sg/

https://thepolliwogs.com/

http://www.jfortesports.com.sg/

http://transinextravel.com/

http://www.bigbernstimbreplus.com/

http://www.absolutesrilanka.asia/

http://www.srilankanexpeditions.com/

http://www.cineworldwide.com/

http://www.suneru.com/

http://technosysint.com/

http://www.manthiriliveaboard.com/

http://www.senit.lk/

https://www.serendibleisure.com/

-----  eCommerce Web Sites -----

https://ichef.com.sg/

http://www.next.com.au/

http://www.sugarpopbakery.com.au/

https://www.theiconic.com.au/

https://www.coles.com.au/

https://www.bonds.com.au/

http://www.factorie.com.au/

http://www.cranfordvilladiyatalawa.com/

-----  Mobile Apps -----

Srilankan Air Lines

serendibleisure

Houseplus

theiconic
australian food Recepy

CSS for Shapes

Square -
#square { width: 100px; height: 100px; background: red; } 

Rectangle -
#rectangle { width: 200px; height: 100px; background: red; }

Circle -
#circle { width: 100px; height: 100px; background: red; -moz-border-radius: 50px; -webkit-border-radius: 50px; border-radius: 50px; } 

Oval -
#oval { width: 200px; height: 100px; background: red; -moz-border-radius: 100px / 50px; -webkit-border-radius: 100px / 50px; border-radius: 100px / 50px; }

Triangle -
#triangle { width: 0; height: 0; border-left: 50px solid transparent; border-right: 50px solid transparent; border-bottom: 100px solid red; }

Curved Tail Arrow -
#curvedarrow { position: relative; width: 0; height: 0; border-top: 9px solid transparent; border-right: 9px solid red; -webkit-transform: rotate(10deg); -moz-transform: rotate(10deg); -ms-transform: rotate(10deg); -o-transform: rotate(10deg); } 

#curvedarrow:after { content: ""; position: absolute; border: 0 solid transparent; border-top: 3px solid red; border-radius: 20px 0 0 0; top: -12px; left: -9px; width: 12px; height: 12px; -webkit-transform: rotate(45deg); -moz-transform: rotate(45deg); -ms-transform: rotate(45deg); -o-transform: rotate(45deg); }

Trapezoid -
#trapezoid { border-bottom: 100px solid red; border-left: 50px solid transparent; border-right: 50px solid transparent; height: 0; width: 100px; }

Parallelogram -
#parallelogram { width: 150px; height: 100px; -webkit-transform: skew(20deg); -moz-transform: skew(20deg); -o-transform: skew(20deg); background: red; }

Star (6-points) -
#star-six { width: 0; height: 0; border-left: 50px solid transparent; border-right: 50px solid transparent; border-bottom: 100px solid red; position: relative; } 

#star-six:after { width: 0; height: 0; border-left: 50px solid transparent; border-right: 50px solid transparent; border-top: 100px solid red; position: absolute; content: ""; top: 30px; left: -50px; }

Star (5-points) -
#star-five { margin: 50px 0; position: relative; display: block; color: red; width: 0px; height: 0px; border-right: 100px solid transparent; border-bottom: 70px solid red; border-left: 100px solid transparent; -moz-transform: rotate(35deg); -webkit-transform: rotate(35deg); -ms-transform: rotate(35deg); -o-transform: rotate(35deg); }

 #star-five:before { border-bottom: 80px solid red; border-left: 30px solid transparent; border-right: 30px solid transparent; position: absolute; height: 0; width: 0; top: -45px; left: -65px; display: block; content: ''; -webkit-transform: rotate(-35deg); -moz-transform: rotate(-35deg); -ms-transform: rotate(-35deg); -o-transform: rotate(-35deg); }

 #star-five:after { position: absolute; display: block; color: red; top: 3px; left: -105px; width: 0px; height: 0px; border-right: 100px solid transparent; border-bottom: 70px solid red; border-left: 100px solid transparent; -webkit-transform: rotate(-70deg); -moz-transform: rotate(-70deg); -ms-transform: rotate(-70deg); -o-transform: rotate(-70deg); content: ''; }

Pentagon -
#pentagon { position: relative; width: 54px; border-width: 50px 18px 0; border-style: solid; border-color: red transparent; } 

#pentagon:before { content: ""; position: absolute; height: 0; width: 0; top: -85px; left: -18px; border-width: 0 45px 35px; border-style: solid; border-color: transparent transparent red; }

Hexagon -
#hexagon { width: 100px; height: 55px; background: red; position: relative; }

 #hexagon:before { content: ""; position: absolute; top: -25px; left: 0; width: 0; height: 0; border-left: 50px solid transparent; border-right: 50px solid transparent; border-bottom: 25px solid red; }

 #hexagon:after { content: ""; position: absolute; bottom: -25px; left: 0; width: 0; height: 0; border-left: 50px solid transparent; border-right: 50px solid transparent; border-top: 25px solid red; }

Octagon -
#octagon { width: 100px; height: 100px; background: red; position: relative; } 

#octagon:before { content: ""; position: absolute; top: 0; left: 0; border-bottom: 29px solid red; border-left: 29px solid #eee; border-right: 29px solid #eee; width: 42px; height: 0; } 

#octagon:after { content: ""; position: absolute; bottom: 0; left: 0; border-top: 29px solid red; border-left: 29px solid #eee; border-right: 29px solid #eee; width: 42px; height: 0; }

Heart -
#heart { position: relative; width: 100px; height: 90px; }

#heart:before, #heart:after { position: absolute; content: ""; left: 50px; top: 0; width: 50px; height: 80px; background: red; -moz-border-radius: 50px 50px 0 0; border-radius: 50px 50px 0 0; -webkit-transform: rotate(-45deg); -moz-transform: rotate(-45deg); -ms-transform: rotate(-45deg); -o-transform: rotate(-45deg); transform: rotate(-45deg); -webkit-transform-origin: 0 100%; -moz-transform-origin: 0 100%; -ms-transform-origin: 0 100%; -o-transform-origin: 0 100%; transform-origin: 0 100%; } 

#heart:after { left: 0; -webkit-transform: rotate(45deg); -moz-transform: rotate(45deg); -ms-transform: rotate(45deg); -o-transform: rotate(45deg); transform: rotate(45deg); -webkit-transform-origin: 100% 100%; -moz-transform-origin: 100% 100%; -ms-transform-origin: 100% 100%; -o-transform-origin: 100% 100%; transform-origin :100% 100%; }

Infinity  -
#infinity { position: relative; width: 212px; height: 100px; } 

#infinity:before, #infinity:after { content: ""; position: absolute; top: 0; left: 0; width: 60px; height: 60px; border: 20px solid red; -moz-border-radius: 50px 50px 0 50px; border-radius: 50px 50px 0 50px; -webkit-transform: rotate(-45deg); -moz-transform: rotate(-45deg); -ms-transform: rotate(-45deg); -o-transform: rotate(-45deg); transform: rotate(-45deg); } 

#infinity:after { left: auto; right: 0; -moz-border-radius: 50px 50px 50px 0; border-radius: 50px 50px 50px 0; -webkit-transform: rotate(45deg); -moz-transform: rotate(45deg); -ms-transform: rotate(45deg); -o-transform: rotate(45deg); transform: rotate(45deg); }

Diamond Square -
#diamond { width: 0; height: 0; border: 50px solid transparent; border-bottom-color: red; position: relative; top: -50px; } 

#diamond:after { content: ''; position: absolute; left: -50px; top: 50px; width: 0; height: 0; border: 50px solid transparent; border-top-color: red; }

Diamond Shield -
#diamond-shield { width: 0; height: 0; border: 50px solid transparent; border-bottom: 20px solid red; position: relative; top: -50px; } #diamond-shield:after { content: ''; position: absolute; left: -50px; top: 20px; width: 0; height: 0; border: 50px solid transparent; border-top: 70px solid red; }

Diamond Narrow -
#diamond-narrow { width: 0; height: 0; border: 50px solid transparent; border-bottom: 70px solid red; position: relative; top: -50px; } #diamond-narrow:after { content: ''; position: absolute; left: -50px; top: 70px; width: 0; height: 0; border: 50px solid transparent; border-top: 70px solid red; }

Cut Diamond  -
#cut-diamond { border-style: solid; border-color: transparent transparent red transparent; border-width: 0 25px 25px 25px; height: 0; width: 50px; position: relative; margin: 20px 0 50px 0; } 

#cut-diamond:after { content: ""; position: absolute; top: 25px; left: -25px; width: 0; height: 0; border-style: solid; border-color: red transparent transparent transparent; border-width: 70px 50px 0 50px; }

Egg -
#egg { display:block; width: 126px; height: 180px; background-color: red; -webkit-border-radius: 63px 63px 63px 63px / 108px 108px 72px 72px; border-radius: 50% 50% 50% 50% / 60% 60% 40% 40%; }

Talk Bubble -
#talkbubble { width: 120px; height: 80px; background: red; position: relative; -moz-border-radius: 10px; -webkit-border-radius: 10px; border-radius: 10px; } 

#talkbubble:before { content:""; position: absolute; right: 100%; top: 26px; width: 0; height: 0; border-top: 13px solid transparent; border-right: 26px solid red; border-bottom: 13px solid transparent; }

12 Point Burst -
#burst-12 { background: red; width: 80px; height: 80px; position: relative; text-align: center; } 

#burst-12:before, #burst-12:after { content: ""; position: absolute; top: 0; left: 0; height: 80px; width: 80px; background: red; } 

#burst-12:before { -webkit-transform: rotate(30deg); -moz-transform: rotate(30deg); -ms-transform: rotate(30deg); -o-transform: rotate(30deg); } #burst-12:after { -webkit-transform: rotate(60deg); -moz-transform: rotate(60deg); -ms-transform: rotate(60deg); -o-transform: rotate(60deg); }

8 Point Burst -
#burst-8 { background: red; width: 80px; height: 80px; position: relative; text-align: center; -webkit-transform: rotate(20deg); -moz-transform: rotate(20deg); -ms-transform: rotate(20deg); -o-transform: rotate(20eg); } 

#burst-8:before { content: ""; position: absolute; top: 0; left: 0; height: 80px; width: 80px; background: red; -webkit-transform: rotate(135deg); -moz-transform: rotate(135deg); -ms-transform: rotate(135deg); -o-transform: rotate(135deg); }

Yin Yang -
#yin-yang { width: 96px; height: 48px; background: #eee; border-color: red; border-style: solid; border-width: 2px 2px 50px 2px; border-radius: 100%; position: relative; } 

#yin-yang:before { content: ""; position: absolute; top: 50%; left: 0; background: #eee; border: 18px solid red; border-radius: 100%; width: 12px; height: 12px; } 

#yin-yang:after { content: ""; position: absolute; top: 50%; left: 50%; background: red; border: 18px solid #eee; border-radius:100%; width: 12px; height: 12px; }

Badge Ribbon -
#badge-ribbon { position: relative; background: red; height: 100px; width: 100px; -moz-border-radius: 50px; -webkit-border-radius: 50px; border-radius: 50px; } 

#badge-ribbon:before, #badge-ribbon:after { content: ''; position: absolute; border-bottom: 70px solid red; border-left: 40px solid transparent; border-right: 40px solid transparent; top: 70px; left: -10px; -webkit-transform: rotate(-140deg); -moz-transform: rotate(-140deg); -ms-transform: rotate(-140deg); -o-transform: rotate(-140deg); } 

#badge-ribbon:after { left: auto; right: -10px; -webkit-transform: rotate(140deg); -moz-transform: rotate(140deg); -ms-transform: rotate(140deg); -o-transform: rotate(140deg); }

TV Screen -
#tv { position: relative; width: 200px; height: 150px; margin: 20px 0; background: red; border-radius: 50% / 10%; color: white; text-align: center; text-indent: .1em; } 

#tv:before { content: ''; position: absolute; top: 10%; bottom: 10%; right: -5%; left: -5%; background: inherit; border-radius: 5% / 50%; }

Chevron -
#chevron { position: relative; text-align: center; padding: 12px; margin-bottom: 6px; height: 60px; width: 200px; } 

#chevron:before { content: ''; position: absolute; top: 0; left: 0; height: 100%; width: 51%; background: red; -webkit-transform: skew(0deg, 6deg); -moz-transform: skew(0deg, 6deg); -ms-transform: skew(0deg, 6deg); -o-transform: skew(0deg, 6deg); transform: skew(0deg, 6deg); } 

#chevron:after { content: ''; position: absolute; top: 0; right: 0; height: 100%; width: 50%; background: red; -webkit-transform: skew(0deg, -6deg); -moz-transform: skew(0deg, -6deg); -ms-transform: skew(0deg, -6deg); -o-transform: skew(0deg, -6deg); transform: skew(0deg, -6deg); }​

Magnifying Glass -
 #magnifying-glass { font-size: 10em; /* This controls the size. */ display: inline-block; width: 0.4em; height: 0.4em; border: 0.1em solid red; position: relative; border-radius: 0.35em; } 

#magnifying-glass::before { content: ""; display: inline-block; position: absolute; right: -0.25em; bottom: -0.1em; border-width: 0; background: red; width: 0.35em; height: 0.08em; -webkit-transform: rotate(45deg); -moz-transform: rotate(45deg); -ms-transform: rotate(45deg); -o-transform: rotate(45deg); }

Facebook Icon -
#facebook-icon { background: red; text-indent: -999em; width: 100px; height: 110px; border-radius: 5px; position: relative; overflow: hidden; border: 15px solid red; border-bottom: 0; } 

#facebook-icon::before { content: "/20"; position: absolute; background: red; width: 40px; height: 90px; bottom: -30px; right: -37px; border: 20px solid #eee; border-radius: 25px; } 

#facebook-icon::after { content: "/20"; position: absolute; width: 55px; top: 50px; height: 20px; background: #eee; right: 5px; }

Cone -
#cone { width: 0; height: 0; border-left: 70px solid transparent; border-right: 70px solid transparent; border-top: 100px solid red; -moz-border-radius: 50%; -webkit-border-radius: 50%; border-radius: 50%; }

Moon -
#moon { width: 80px; height: 80px; border-radius: 50%; box-shadow: 15px 15px 0 0 red; }

Flag -
#flag { width: 110px; height: 56px; padding-top: 15px; position: relative; background: red; color: white; font-size: 11px; letter-spacing: 0.2em; text-align: center; text-transform: uppercase; } 

#flag:after { content: ""; position: absolute; left: 0; bottom: 0; width: 0; height: 0; border-bottom: 13px solid #eee; border-left: 55px solid transparent; border-right: 55px solid transparent; }

Cross -
 #cross { background: red; height: 100px; position: relative; width: 20px; } 

#cross:after { background: red; content: ""; height: 20px; left: -40px; position: absolute; top: 40px; width: 100px; }