{"id":8052,"date":"2023-06-05T23:22:59","date_gmt":"2023-06-05T17:52:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/razorpay.com\/learn\/?p=8052"},"modified":"2023-06-05T23:23:23","modified_gmt":"2023-06-05T17:53:23","slug":"tech-writers-guide-to-user-research","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/razorpay.com\/learn\/tech-writers-guide-to-user-research\/","title":{"rendered":"A Technical Writer&#8217;s Guide to User Research"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Everything revolves around users, so doing user research is a must-do step in your documentation process. User research is critical to ensure your documentation is sharp, accurate, consistent and delivers what the users look for.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A document has several elements:\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Design \u2013 Format, font type, size and colour, content layout and overall presentation<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Content \u2013 Content structure, language, content quality, accuracy and simplicity<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">UX \u2013 Overall user experience, which means navigation, search, interactivity and feedback mechanism<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Each element is equally important and should be carefully considered with users in mind. Just imagine writing a 40-page guide which your users are unwilling to read, or designing a beautiful documentation website which is difficult to search or navigate! In both cases, they fail to meet the customers\u2019 expectations.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Consider the case of the 40-page-long guide. You can get answers to your questions with user research. Why are the users unwilling to read the guide?<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Is it too long?<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Is it easy to search for information?<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Is it easy to understand?<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Does it contain enough examples and illustrations that make it engaging?<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Is the document design boring?<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><b>Different methods of user research<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">There are different ways of doing User Research, such as User Interviews, Feedback Forms, Surveys and Focus Group Discussions, to name a few.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The method you should select to do user research depends on several factors:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">How fast you want to do these<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The type of inputs you want (qualitative or quantitative)<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">How much you are willing to invest<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The stage at which you are doing user research\u00a0<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"2\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Beginning of a project to understand your users before you start authoring<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"2\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">While writing a document to validate a few assumptions\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"2\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">After a new\/updated document is rolled out to understand consumption and feedback<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Feedback Forms and Surveys may be used for quick inputs from the users. It is faster, easier, inexpensive and can reach a larger audience.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Focus Group Discussions and User Interviews, on the other hand, are time-consuming, expensive and exhausting. Shortlisting users, inviting them, following up, talking to them and recording the conversations \u2013 all require intense involvement. But, if executed well, these can bring fruitful results.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><b>More about user interviews<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">User Interviews are an excellent way to understand the users\u2019 needs, wants, and behaviour. User interviews, by definition, are conducting interviews with your users and asking them questions to understand better the user persona and what they want from your offering.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><b>Conducting user interviews<\/b><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">During user interviews, you may ask your users a series of questions or ask them to perform a specific action using your product or service. What you choose depends on what stage of product development you are in. If a product demo or beta version is available, ask the users to perform a particular action using your product to learn how they use it, how easy the interface is, and user actions and behaviour. This can bring in valuable insights and help in finetuning the product. The same holds if you are doing user interviews to evaluate the usefulness of a document.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">For example, when you do user interviews before documenting a product or service, understand when the users may read your document, how they would navigate it, and what kind of information they will look for. Based on these critical data points, you will be better placed and more confident when you structure the content and its layout, design and place some aspects in your document \u2013 CTAs, hyperlinks, callouts, etc.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><b>Steps involved in a user interview<\/b><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I. Come up with a complete plan for conducting the user interview<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"list-style-type: none;\">\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">How many users<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Who will conduct the interview<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The process of connecting, shortlisting and interviewing users<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Interview framework and infrastructure &#8211; What questions to ask, test credentials and samples needed during the interview<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Budget for goodies, free samples or rewards for the participant<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">II. Identify the user group<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">III. Screen users from the user group<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">IV. Shortlist and invite users for the interviews<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">V. Talk to them, and explain why you are doing the user interview and what is expected from them.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">VI. Schedule and follow-up.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">VII. Conduct the interviews and send out goodies.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">VIII. Document the findings.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">IX. Plan changes and improvements.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">X. Conduct user research again to measure the improvements.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Repeat as you build more products and features and document more articles.<\/span><\/p>\n<h1><b>Razorpay docs user interviews<\/b><\/h1>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">We at Razorpay soon realised that while we do some market and competition research before writing articles, only user interviews can provide first-hand, undiluted user inputs. If we want to build the best <a href=\"https:\/\/razorpay.com\/docs\/#home-payments\">documentation<\/a> for our users, users should participate in the process.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">We started conducting these user interviews sometime in August 2022. The process was new, and we were experimenting with many new things. The biggest challenge we had was to find users, users who were the right fit and willing to participate. Follow-ups, reschedules, and last-minute drop-outs were difficult challenges. But, the learnings we had with each such interview were worth the pain!<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">By the close of FY 22-23, we had conducted 100 user interviews. We have now made user interviews a regular process that the Technical Writing team conducts &#8211; from finding, screening and interviewing users to recording findings.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">These interviews are not only used by the <\/span><b>Technical Writing team for improving documentation<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> but also by the <\/span><b>Solutions and Integrations team to understand the integration experience and gaps<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, <\/span><b>Product Managers to understand the product and feature usability<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, <\/span><b>Product Designers to understand the user journey <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">and how the product design can be further polished.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><strong>Our Learnings<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">By overcoming each hurdle, we learnt a few basics. And if these basics are set right, the user interviews can never go wrong and bring significant value.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Screen the right candidates<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The users should be from your target audience, and the correct fitment should be evaluated before inviting them.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Do your homework well<\/b><\/p>\n<ol>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Read the user profile (name, where they work and anything significant about the user)<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Frame your questions, the flow, what actions to perform, the interview setup and the infrastructure.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Follow a template to initiate the conversation. Ask follow-up questions to validate your findings and to conclude the interview. Be natural and empathetic towards the participant.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Guide the user if they are getting lost when asked to perform an action during the interview.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p><b>Ask open-ended questions<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Ask questions that allow your user to do most of the talking. The more they talk, the better you understand the user.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Record<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Record the conversations and document your findings. These user interviews may be referred to in the future too by different groups and teams. You may also want to listen to your users repeatedly to validate certain assumptions. These recorded conversations can also be used in training.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Avoid bias and let the user express what they feel<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This is the toughest one. We all have certain biases and preferences for some colours and designs. It is not about you but the user!<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><strong>Finishing Up<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">We agree that conducting user interviews is a cumbersome task. But, if planned well and executed diligently, the findings from these interviews can be used by multiple teams and bring in 3X benefits. So go, give it a try!<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Do you want to participate in the Razorpay Docs User Research program? <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/docs.google.com\/forms\/d\/1BoXwIk08qwfWPvTMWjdkph0TTVR-Y_L8AvOYiihj2Ew\/edit?ts=63fc76e7\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Enrol<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> now!<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Everything revolves around users, so doing user research is a must-do step in your documentation process. User research is critical to ensure your documentation is sharp, accurate, consistent and delivers what the users look for.\u00a0 A document has several elements:\u00a0 Design \u2013 Format, font type, size and colour, content layout and overall presentation Content \u2013<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":151156526,"featured_media":8053,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3606],"tags":[3613,3659],"class_list":{"0":"post-8052","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tech-writing","8":"tag-technical-writing","9":"tag-user-research"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/learn.razorpay.in\/learn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8052","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/learn.razorpay.in\/learn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/learn.razorpay.in\/learn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/learn.razorpay.in\/learn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/151156526"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/learn.razorpay.in\/learn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8052"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/learn.razorpay.in\/learn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8052\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8054,"href":"https:\/\/learn.razorpay.in\/learn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8052\/revisions\/8054"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/learn.razorpay.in\/learn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8053"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/learn.razorpay.in\/learn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8052"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/learn.razorpay.in\/learn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8052"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/learn.razorpay.in\/learn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8052"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}