User research and psychology
I’ve just joined the team as a senior user researcher and my first week at Made Tech has gone already! There are a lot of takeaways from a first week in a new job, but my main one is how pleased I am to see companies – and especially tech ones – investing in the user-centred design discipline.
As a psychologist and brain and behaviour specialist, I always value bringing the human element into whatever we create for a group of people. I love many aspects of user research, as they align with some of the principles of psychology and neuroscience – topics that I studied for several years and which keep on filling part of my free time. Among those elements are:
Listening as the basis for understanding motivations: This is a fundamental skill, although difficult nowadays. As Kate Murphy highlights in her book You are not Listening: “Modern life is noisy and frenetic and usually leads us to listen selectively. Listening is about curiosity and patience– about asking the right questions in the right way.” User research brings this skill so that we can understand what matters to people and what motivates them.
Going beyond the description of behaviours: There’s a lot of factors affecting the way we behave, such as emotions, cognitive functions or personal environment. I love to see how user research explores behaviours so that it helps acknowledge things like neurodiversity when designing and creating solutions.
Providing meaningful support: Active listening and deep evaluation of people’s behaviours help to build empathy. It’s essential to create solutions that cover people’s pains, problems and needs. User research contributes to this by ensuring that any product or service that is being created provides real value to the user.
It’s been just one week at Made Tech, but I’m so excited to be part of a team that brings human awareness to the creation of services – demonstrating that successful technologies are those built under the basis of active listening, a good understanding of people’s minds and behaviours, and empathy when designing.