When collecting user feedback, it’s essential to be mindful of potential biases that can distort the insights you gather. By focusing on the right practices, you can obtain more accurate, actionable feedback. Here’s a guide on what to avoid and what to do when collecting feedback.
Common pitfalls to avoid
- Project insider feedback: Relying solely on feedback from the project team or internal stakeholders can be problematic. Their deep familiarity with the product and company jargon clouds their judgement, making it hard for them to view the user experience objectively.
- UX expert opinions: While knowledgeable, UX experts often focus too much on usability issues and design flaws. Their feedback tends to be more of an expert critique than a reflection of how everyday users interact with the product.
- Synthetic AI feedback: Be cautious when using AI-generated users. While useful for large-scale simulations, synthetic feedback often misses the nuances of human behaviour, making it unreliable for critical decision-making.
- Personal network bias: Avoid collecting feedback from friends, family, or acquaintances. These individuals may hesitate to give honest negative feedback, leading to overly positive or incomplete insights.
- Professional testers: Individuals who are interested in getting paid for their time may focus on finishing quickly, often neglecting the detailed tasks needed for meaningful feedback. This can result in shallow or inaccurate insights.
Best practices
- Test with real users: Focus on collecting feedback from actual users who engage with the product in their everyday lives. Real users provide authentic insights grounded in their personal experiences, capturing the full range of human behaviour that synthetic models or expert opinions might miss.
- Seek neutral sources: Engage neutral, uninvolved participants who have no personal connection to the project. Their lack of vested interest ensures they provide unbiased, honest insights into how the product performs in real-world scenarios.
- Use screeners: Employ screeners to ensure you’re getting feedback from people who match your target audience. Screening candidates based on their background, experience, and demographics helps ensure that the insights are relevant and aligned with the user base you're designing for.
- Encourage anonymous feedback: Offer users the option to provide feedback anonymously. When users know their identity is protected, they are more likely to share candid opinions, including negative feedback that might otherwise go unsaid.
- Incorporate diversity: Ensure you gather feedback from a diverse group of people, varying in age, gender, background, and abilities. This diversity broadens your understanding of how different users interact with the product and can uncover issues that might be overlooked by a more homogenous group.
Feedback methods
When seeking feedback, there are several practical ways to engage with real users:
- User interviews: Speaking directly with customers to gain qualitative insights into their experiences.
- Surveys: Using both open-ended and multiple-choice questions to gather feedback at scale.
- Usability testing: Observing how users interact with your product in real-time, either in person or remotely.
- Help desk logs: Reviewing customer service inquiries can reveal recurring pain points.
Real-life examples
An example of the importance of unbiased feedback comes from usability testing studies conducted for a few clients. The project teams believed that specific tasks were simple. However, users experienced challenges, resulting in what should have been straightforward tasks taking several minutes to complete or being completely abandoned, revealing a significant gap in understanding.
We have also observed real-life users facing challenges such as:
- Struggling to complete complex forms
- Unable to locate and download key documents
- Difficulty finding essential information within interactive maps
These experiences highlight how what seems intuitive to insiders can be confusing for actual users. They illustrate the risks of relying solely on feedback from the project team or experts, who may overlook real usability challenges.
Conclusion
It’s crucial to engage diverse, real users who represent your target audience to uncover genuine insights. By avoiding inherent biases - whether from project insiders, UX experts, or personal networks - you gain a clearer understanding of user interactions. Embracing methods that promote neutral and anonymous feedback will lead to more accurate, actionable insights, ultimately improving your product and user experience.
