User Research

The key to success on the web is understanding customers and how they use — or want to use — your site or application. It sounds deceptively simple, but requires a deep knowledge of what guides user behavior. It's all about creating an interface that matches the user's mental model. In other words, putting the "user" in user-centered design.

At Mile7, we have a vast arsenal of user research strategies to help uncover how users think: field studies such as ethnographic research and observational interviews; facilitated workshops and focus groups; card sort activities; surveys; prototype testing, and web log analysis.

It's all about determining the best research methodologies for the situation, then translating the results into meaningful information that can inform design, from task and workflow analysis to user profiles and personas.

All in a day's work for our usability engineers.