The 6 Essential Characteristics of a UX Researcher

People transition into UXR from a variety of roles. Most often it’s within the digital world - business analysts, product owners, front end developers and so on. However, user researchers can - and do - come from diverse backgrounds, ranging from entrepreneurs, to financial analysts and even health sciences, but it's these 6 qualities that make effective user researchers.

Empathy

It goes without saying that empathy is one of the main traits of a good practitioner. It’s a gift and a curse, because I’ve certainly had times when I’ve interviewed a user who has been in tears because of the issues she was experiencing with the interface, or another who expressed her frustration with the organisation by being angry with me!

Being able to really get the other person’s perspective - to “feel their pain”, as it were, is the top trait of the UXR, but this must be coupled with objectivity in order to be effective.

Curiosity

The other great quality to have is curiosity. Being curious to know what people will say or do is something I personally really enjoy about my work.

Users never cease to surprise, move, inspire or amaze, and I’m fascinated to get an insight into their world. This is especially true for people who are disenfranchised digital users - those with disability, the elderly, the people who aren’t native English speakers and struggle to understand copy littered with jargon.

A good researcher is a little bit nosy! They want to know everything.

Analytical Mind

Having an analytical mind - the mind of a detective - is imperative. Sometimes this means diving into 3000 pieces of data to pull out patterns. While not the most exciting part of UXR, I have found this exercise to be illuminating, potent and well worth doing.

If it’s a call centre log, or a feedback form, you can pull out verbatim quotes that illustrate a particular issue. You can start to get a sense of the scale of an issue, and whether it’s important to the business or not. You can also get a context of use from some of the data.

For example, it was through this type of exercise that I discovered that one of the users of an online form for help with paying legal fees was using a computer in a public library, and wasn’t able to retrieve the form after he submitted, as the computer wouldn’t let him. It could be that he didn’t have his own computer, or wasn’t very computer literate. Nevertheless, it gave a real insight into the different scenarios under which people were attempting to complete the form.

I also learnt that many of the users were in the middle of legal disputes that were causing them a lot of stress and the complicated form, the lack of guidance and confusing questions took their stress levels over the edge.

People bring their whole selves to any digital interaction, and this plays a part in how they perceive the product.

This type of data shows us the human face, the agony, the ecstasy, the context, and it validates the qualitative work you will be doing.

For me, it’s kind of fascinating!

Patience

Now I am definitely not the most patient person on the planet, I have to confess. I have learned to switch on my “patient persona” when I’m working, because it can be unpleasant to watch a person struggle, and not be able to guide them back or help them in the way we would naturally want to do.

It’s a bit like watching an old lady hobble across a busy road and not helping her because we want to see how traffic will respond, whether other people will help her, and to observe how she navigates her way through this situation, so that we can understand the problem from the user’s perspective, before we scratch around for a solution. When we take this approach, we let the users guide us to the solution.

It’s crucial to be calm and patient and remember that in understanding these issues for that particular user, we can remedy it for hundreds - maybe thousands or even millions - of other users going forward.

Objectivity

This is a big one. We have to be agnostic around the artefacts and organisations we are conducting research for. Our investment is in finding insights, whether they are positive or negative.

We are searching for the reality of how people are interacting or engaging with the product or service, not how the organisation behind the service or product wants or expects them to.

The biggest threat to our objectivity can often be around the politics within the organisation we are working with.

And that brings me to the last quality.

Confidence

You may find yourself being the only practitioner in an organisation. You could find yourself surrounded by people who don’t really understand the value of your work. You may find yourself in a room full of people with strong views and you will be forced to defend your findings.

Confidence comes with time and experience. It’s easy to feel intimidated as an entry level practitioner, but you must be evidence-based, rigorous in your practices and confident in your findings.

At the end of the day, evidence is your secret weapon. If you struggle to have confidence within yourself, at the very least have confidence in your findings.

Your findings will make a positive change if they are listened to and acted upon. And it’s your job to ensure this happens.

Do you have what it takes to become a user researcher? I offer mentoring services to people who wish to transition into this vibrant and fulfilling career.