Convert Research Participants into Brand Evangelists

A defining moment in any user research study is when a participant reacts positively, and finds utility, in proposed client ideas. To an Information Architect, when that moment happens, it can be magic. Maybe the concept and execution of the idea really will resonate with "real world users." Suddenly, there is excitement surrounding the study.

Too often, however, the potential for that user's adoption and evangelism is left untapped, when the research study ends. Why? Many usability professionals create artificial barriers between their "research microcosm" and "the real world." For example, participants are usually recruited for research studies from a market research database or panel. The goal of a research study, including the study population, should be to get as close to "reality" as possible.  In the case of recruitment, this could mean soliciting "active information seekers," or actual users, for the study. In relation to the actual study methodology, it generally means performing ethnography "in context," versus research performed in a laboratory.

It seems bizarre to me, that a researcher wouldn't follow through when a participant says, "Wow. This idea is really cool. When will it become a reality?" These words, or ones like it, should set off an alarm in the researcher's head, that the participant is a potential end-user. Further, the participant has the potential to evangelize the client's idea to his/her social network. There is a huge potential to build a bridge between the world of research and reality, to have a meaningful impact on the adoption of a client's idea.

Try a different research incentive - Usability professionals generally pay honoraria in exchange for participation in a research study. There may be a way to capitalize on a participant's enthusiasm, however, via the study incentive. To help build awareness for a new client application, a researcher may consider using a special invitation, or sneak peak to a beta version of the client application, as a research study incentive. Make the participant feel like "one of the cool kids," by giving exclusive access to an early, working prototype.

Continue the dialogue after the study ends - Now that the participant has exclusive access, build an interface to continue soliciting input from the participant. Publish the reviews, ratings, and comments from the participant. Allow the participant to begin a public dialogue, using the client's application as the platform.

Integrate Social Media Early - Social media tactics are often thought of as "future phase functionality." It makes more sense to build the infrastructure for dialogue early, when ideas can begin to shape the application. When a business listens to “the voice of its customers,” and enhances an application based on actual recommendations from its customers, the brand is more likely to encourage loyalty and adoption from its customers.

Let's revisit our research participant. He/she has been given special access and privilege, empowered, and given a platform to be an influence of change for the application. Given the right social media hooks, it is possible to convert the participant into a brand evangelist to his/her own social graph. In this manner, the special access to the consumer that user research provides, gives the business the potential to build a community of early adopters and brand evangelists.

5 Ways to Inform Your Design When End-User Research Isn't in the Budget

Information Architects follow a rigorous user-centered-design methodology that, ideally, begins with upfront, end-user, behavioral research. It is our job to make a business case for this type of research by clearly illustrating its ability to achieve real business benefits. Sometimes, however, clients will not pay for this upfront research. Some projects begin with trust in the expertise of the IA and Design team.

As an Information Architect, I cannot rely on my own assumptions of what is the best taxonomy and content prioritization for clients' end-users. When upfront research is out-of-the-question, I must look for other ways to make more informed assumptions. Here are 5 ways to informally gather information about end-users:

1. Analyze the most popular keywords related to the topic of your design - Thanks to Google, businesses are eager to understand how to optimize their digital content to be findable by search engines. Because Google has a paid advertisement service that is based on top keyword searches related to various businesses, they offer a free keyword tool to help businesses identify the top keyword queries related to their business. Assume that these top queries represent the highest priority information sought, and facilitate access to relevant content through your design and taxonomy.

2. Look at competitor experiences - Your client's competitors may not have "best-of-breed" digital experiences in terms of how these experiences service customers, however, major trends in taxonomy and information design represent industry conventions and design patterns that customers will be used to. General adherance to common design patterns in a given industry will provide a foundation for best practices for that industry.

3. Develop provisional personas based on previously conducted research - Prior to beginning any project, an information architect must synthesize all existing knowledge about a client's end-user. Often, this knowledge comes from previously conducted market research. The best way to absorb this knowledge, is to develop provisional personas which take existing market research and extrapolate behaviors from the research findings. These behaviors need to be accommodated by the design and taxonomy of the experience.

4. Lurk on social networks, groups, and discussion forums related to the topic of your design - A good way to conduct research is to passively observe the conversations that take place on social networks and communities that are relevant to the topic of your Design. The most vocal participants in these conversations will be individuals that have strong opinions. Designing to meet their needs will ensure that they become vocal supporters of your client's tactics.

5. Plan for design validation as part of a "test-and-learn" plan - If upfront end-user research isn't being planned for, make a strong proposal to conduct usability or design validation testing early and often in the project lifecycle. Paper and low fidelity prototyping can be tested quickly and cheaply with small groups of target end-user segments. Once design moves into development, functional prototype testing should be considered.

How to measure the success of digital design

Art may be subjective, but there are definite objective measures for digital design. As is the case with any type of success criteria for digital tactics, goals must be set prior to measurement. Defining benchmarks and projections are paramount to evaluating success.

Success Metrics - Defining key performance indicators for a business is a most important first step in projecting the growth of the business. Success means different things to different types of businesses and across various industries. Of course, most businesses set out to make money; however, the pathway to profit isn't always a straight line. That means there are other measures to consider other than direct revenue from a digital platform. A fledgling business may consider traffic growth, repeat visits, or membership over time to be key performance indicators of success. Success may mean duration of visit or engagement with interactive content.

Video platforms - Advertising-based revenue on a broadband video platform requires video ad views. In general, on an advertising-supported digital experience, the longer users stay engaged, the more likely they are to be exposed to advertisements.

Ecommerce - Even on an ecommerce experience, not all success can be directly measured from sales. Conversion percentage from the shopping cart is an extremely important metric, and one that can be optimized through design enhancements to increase the likelihood that end-users can easily checkout their purchases. Additional measurements include average order value (the total average value of all items in the cart prior to checkout). Similar to an advertising-supported platform, however, engagement with an ecommerce platform often translates into increased sales because the longer the end-user stays engaged, the greater the likelihood that the user will make a purchase.

Qualitative Measures of Design- The success measurements above are quantitative analyses of data collected over time. Some of the most important measurements, however, are qualitative. While quantitative data can reveal what is happening on a digital platform, qualitative data can reveal why its happening. Collecting qualitative measurements of a digital design is a matter of interacting and asking questions with end-users as they experience the design itself. Moderated interviews enable facilitators to probe end-users after they make decisions and engage in specific behaviors.

Design Enhancements- The key to optimizing design for success requires an in-depth understanding of what success means, and measuring from baseline to projections over time. As outlined above, these measures should be both quantitative and qualitative to reveal the complete picture of the impact of the design to the end-user. Evaluation should be the starting point to understanding how to increase the effectiveness of design.