Become UX driven and reveal the right insights: a technical guide [2/3]

Introduction

This is the exploration phase. As you can see from the diagram, this stage guides you towards the problem you need to solve for your product. The main aim of this phase is to gain an in-depth understanding of users by analyzing their thoughts, emotions and behaviors. This enables you to identify opportunities for improvement and guide your design decisions.

By the end of this article, you’ll know how to synthesize your data for insights, and what kind of research is needed.

In this article:

• Understanding Cognitive-Behavioral Theory
• 3 types of measurements to assess behaviors
• Create your empathy map and gather insights
• Choose the right method for data collection

The purpose of the exploration

The exploration phase is part of the user research stage. Its ultimate goal is to extract insights from the collected information. These insights will converge toward identifying the key problem to solve. To achieve this, you need to master measurement methods in order to gather the right data—while staying within your timeline, budget, and analytical complexity.

Understanding Cognitive-Behavioral Theory

Before diving into user research methods, you need to understand your consumers’ mental processes when they interact with your product. This theory is based on the principle that each sphere influences the others through a cause-and-effect relationship.

• Our thoughts influence our behaviors and emotions.
• Our behaviors influence our thoughts and emotions.
• Our emotions influence our thoughts and behaviors.

Let’s define each component:

Thoughts: How users perceive and process information.
Emotions: How interactions make them feel.
Behaviors: How users act based on their thoughts and emotions.

Let’s take an example using an app like Uber Eats:

1. Thought: The purchase button isn’t working.
2. Emotion: The user feels uncertain about the site’s reliability to complete a transaction.
3. Behavior: Leaves the website.

It can be viewed the other way around.

1. Thought: The user sees a “split costs with friends” button and thinks, “This is easy to use.”
2. Emotion: This feeling of simplicity generates trust and satisfaction.
3. Behavior: The user invites friends, shares the cart costs, and completes the order.

Tip: Understanding the emotions your user feels isn’t just about identifying the negative aspects of your product. Also explore what triggers satisfaction (dopamine) within your product.

Few examples :

• Satisfaction after efficiently completing a task (e.g., booking a flight in just three steps).
• Enjoyment when an animation confirms a successful action (e.g., a green checkmark after sending a message).
• Pleasure when a congratulatory message appears for achieving a goal (e.g., “You just saved $20!”).

3 types of measurements to assess behaviors

01. Neurophysiological (emotion)
Neurophysiological measurement involves tracking the user’s bodily signals. The goal is to capture unconscious effects triggered by the use of the product. This method can help identify weak points in the user experience, such as increased stress or heart rate during a critical step.

Context of use:

• Identify moments of stress
• Identify cognitive load
• Check if the user is relaxed

How to measure: heart rate, breathing

Concrete examples:

• Analyze the cognitive load of a complex task, such as filling out a form.
• Observe the physiological reaction to an animation or a long loading time.

Limitations of the neurophysiological method:
– Suitable for lab studies or advanced prototypes.
– Costly and often limited in fast-paced industrial settings.

02. Perceptual (thought)
Perceptual measurement involves directly interacting with the user to gather their opinions and thoughts. The goal is to access much richer insights about the user journey.

Context of use:

• Explore users’ expectations, frustrations, and satisfactions directly.

How to measure: questionnaires, interviews, focus groups

Concrete examples:

• Post-session questionnaires to evaluate user satisfaction after a prototype test.
• Interviews to understand motivations and barriers to using an app.
• Focus groups to explore ideas or gather feedback on potential features.

Advantages :

• Low-cost and quick to implement in a business context.
• Provide rich qualitative data to guide ideation.

03. Observational (action)
Observational measurement involves analyzing user behavior without intervening. This method can be used outside of a formal protocol and allows for the capture of natural behaviors. It eliminates the risk of behavior being altered due to a formal context, such as an interview.

Context of use:

• Observe and analyze actual user behaviors in their natural environment or through existing data (secondary data).

How to measure: user journey, conversion rate, number of clicks, navigation path analysis, task completion time

Concrete examples:

• Analyze user journeys on a website to identify drop-off points.
• Study the conversion rate to assess the effectiveness of a product page.
• Observe users in a real-world context (e.g., self-service kiosk in a restaurant).

Advantages :

• Data directly applicable to interface improvement.
• Suitable for quick analyses in industrial environments.

Create your empathy map and gather insights

Once your data is collected, you can organize it into an empathy map to synthesize the information and uncover key insights.

Uncover insights from the empathy map
Insights from your data will emerge through the technique of data triangulation. This method involves cross-referencing multiple types of collected sources (neurophysiological, perceptual, observational) to examine the user experience from different perspectives.

This allows for more reliable and comprehensive results by offsetting the limitations of each method when used alone.

For example
During a user test, a participant claims to appreciate the app’s interface, describing it as clear and pleasant to use. However, when observing their behavior, we notice they hesitate for a long time before clicking certain buttons, as if they’re looking for guidance. Neurophysiological analysis confirms this difficulty: stress signals increase as they attempt to interact with the interface, revealing underlying frustration.

Find possible solutions to your problems
To turn identified challenges into opportunities, you can use the “How Might We” technique. This method involves framing possible solutions as open-ended questions, without being biased by an immediate answer.

Choose the right method for data collection

Once your data is collected, you can organize it into an empathy map to synthesize the information and uncover key insights.

Outside of theory, it is difficult—if not impossible—to collect all three types of measurements to achieve the desired outcome. Numerous constraints can hinder a complete and high-quality data collection process during the exploration phase.

Here are the various factors:

• Time: The duration needed to plan, execute, and analyze.
• Money: Budget required for tools, software, and specialists.
• Resources: Need for specific equipment or qualified personnel.
• Project objectives: What level of precision is required?
• Type of data needed: quantitative or qualitative? (Observational measures offer quick, descriptive data, while neurophysiological measures provide deep insights—but at a higher cost.)

Conclusion

The exploration phase allows you to gather various types of information to better understand and pinpoint the real problem. This way, the entire development process won’t be based on a simple “I think.” The data collected becomes a tool to support your actions and clarify the project’s mission.
In the next chapter, we’ll begin to explore the ideation phase—how to generate great ideas, whether individually or as a team.

Source : Lallemand, C. (2015) Méthodes de design UX (2° Édition)