Blink Interactive

User Research

User Research

We'll help you uncover latent needs.

Understanding your users, how they use products and services and the business opportunities they present is key to a product's success. Blink will work with you to help you answer questions such as:

  • Who is using the system and what are their needs and goals?
  • What key characteristics describe the individuals who will use a system?
  • What workflow patterns and user preference issues are important?
  • How should the context in which a system will be used impact its design?

Blink uses methods such as field studies and site visits, user surveys, contextual interviews, task and workflow analysis, ethnographic techniques, and others.

Surveys

User surveys are useful for capturing opinion and preference data from a large sample, making robust statistical analysis possible. User surveys can be administered via web site, e-mail, telephone, or postal mail.

Contextual Interviews

Site visits to homes, offices, and other places provide insights into users’ true actions and behaviors when and where they use products. Contextual interviews involve partnering with users, who instruct the observers about how they work and use products as well as answer interview questions. These methods can help identify existing and latent product needs.

Task Analysis

Task analysis is often an output of site visits and entails deconstructing tasks of interest into simpler, discrete components. Tasks are defined and lists are made of the steps involved to achieve task goals. Task analysis helps identify critical elements of a task, potential usability issues, and aspects of a user interface that may have been overlooked.

Diary Studies

In a user diary or self-reporting study, users are asked to maintain a diary or journal of their interactions with a product or system. They record any significant events, observations, or problems they experience while using the system, including external factors that impact their product use. Diaries can be text- or video-based.

Retail Experience Studies

In Retail experience studies, researchers seek to understand how consumers make decisions about their technology product purchases. Experts can be sent out to “shadow” shoppers, observe shopping behaviors, and conduct pre- or post- purchase interviews.

International User Research

Conducting user research or usability testing in international markets of interest uncovers important cultural and societal variables that impact the usability and acceptance of products by their intended users.