User Needs Research Reaches the Mainstream
Posted by Jack Harkins on Thu, Feb 18, 2010
Have you seen the recent Verizon FiOS ad on television? The one where a focus group is being conducted on high-speed fiber optic service? After the users weigh in, the technician (cable guy) asks why they are talking to users anyway. The Verizon tech (smart guy) only needs to say "oh boy" to make the point that the competition just doesn't get it.
I've been in the product development business for forty years and the industry has come a long way since the early '90s. Back then there was marketing and there was engineering. One was focused on the competition and the other was focused on the technology. We in the design community talked about the importance of user needs research, but it was serious missionary work back then.
Today companies are acutely aware of the importance in understanding the end-consumer's needs but have been slow to adopt a rigorous process to meet those needs, even those companies in the medical device industry. Over the last five years, the FDA has strengthened its emphasis on usability and human factors guidelines. This requires companies to demonstrate best practices, including field research to learn user needs, preference testing of early concepts with customers, and usability testing of both prototypes and pre-production units for verification and validation. Rather than testing individual devices for safety and efficacy, there is a renewed focus basically saying- there's a right way to do this and we will evaluate your process to make sure you did it that way.
This is a blessing in disguise for device manufacturers due to the fact that it can provide many competitive advantages such as significant cost reductions, including the prevention of expensive device modifications. Medical device manufacturers are also able to minimize risk on liability and recall expenses. User research and validation ultimately yields a product that is easier to use, quicker to adopt, and improves patient treatment.
With user needs research lives have been saved and accidents associated with improper usage are now being avoided. With all of these positive aspects, it's still confusing to me why companies don't leverage the user research benefit earlier into the development process. Why do you think companies are so reluctant?