User needs in content design context

In sections below you will find:

• Processes to learn about
• Templates and examples
• Tools to help

What are user needs?

User needs express a user's goals, values, and aspirations. They are requirements that add value to a product or service for a user, the right combination of which will help a user achieve the outcome they want regarding that product or service.

Capturing a user's needs is essential in order to understand their processes, problems, goals, and preferences.

How to understand user needs

Processes to learn about

• Understand user needs The Australian Digital Transformation Agency share their thinking on understanding user needs with eight key questions.

• Learning about users and their needs GOV.UK lay down the foundation on understanding user needs when designing a government service.

• We need to talk about user needs This blog post from GOV.UK explains what you need to do to understand your users' needs.

• User needs This guide shows you how to write and record a user need for GOV.UK

• How to Know Your Users' Real Needs? UX Collective share a three-step framework to understand the 'why' in user interviews.

• USERS: Understanding what users want and designing products and services to meet their needs An outline of why user needs are important to digital products and services, and the digital techniques you could use to research and define user needs.

• Understanding user needs The NSW Government share six steps on how you can understand your user needs from the product or service you are building.

• User Need Statements: The 'Define' Stage in Design Thinking The Nielsen Norman Group outline the format, benefits, the process and examples of understanding user needs.

How to conduct stakeholder interviews

What are stakeholder interviews?

Stakeholder interviews are essential for extracting information relating to, for example, the primary needs of the organization, a certain project or service, or collecting insights.

This type of interview also helps lay the foundation for open communication and trust between you and your stakeholders, so that you can all work in synergy.

Stakeholders can offer relevant information, wisdom, and suggestions that ultimately help you set the parameters of your work. Interviews can also provide an overview of the stakeholders' opinions about your work that may reveal hidden issues, concerns or ideas.

Lastly, they can largely define the success of the project, so it's important to work together towards the goals you have in mind.

Processes to learn about

• Build Empathy With Stakeholder Interviews, Part 1: Preparation Part one of a two-part series, this article from Digital.gov covers what stakeholder interviews are, why they're valuable, and how to prepare for them.

• Build Empathy With Stakeholder Interviews, Part 2: Conversation The second part of this series covers how to actually run the interviews, and includes tips for synthesizing and socializing what you learn.

• Stakeholder and user interviews 18F Methods provide a quick guide on how to do stakeholder and user interviews, as well as some additional resources.

• Tips for conducting better stakeholder interviews Christina Richardson, Product Manager at Shopify, shares her tips and tricks for successful stakeholder interviews.

• Questions to ask internal stakeholders when building your non-profit's website content strategy A guide to inform your conversation about strategic objectives — and your audiences.

• Stakeholder interviews: What & how to learn, how to share How to get the most value from stakeholder interviews, and how to document what you've learned.

• The ultimate guide to stakeholder interviews: understand your clients This UX Collective blog article lists four key steps for stakeholder interviews and understanding your clients.

• Internal Stakeholder Interviews A more formal approach that includes planning, interviewing, and documenting and analysing the results.

• The ultimate guide to conducting a stakeholder interview This post discusses the steps, structure, and 'do's and don'ts' of conducting stakeholder interviews.

• Three Fundamental Principles For Better Stakeholder Interviews Wheelhouse Digital Marketing Group share three key principles to ensure successful interviews.

• Stakeholder interviews for quality content: Why, who, and how This 'why', 'who', and 'how' of stakeholder interviews.

• Stakeholder Analysis for UX Projects The Nielsen Norman Group explores how stakeholder analysis is an important step for the success of your UX projects.

• The value of conducting user research with stakeholders GOV.UK conducts internal stakeholder research to improve understanding of the programme, and how they can work better together.

• Public Participation Guide: Stakeholder Interviews The US Environmental Protection Agency share a brief guide to obtaining project-relevant information and elicit stakeholder reactions and suggestions.

• Foster the People: Building Empathy with Stakeholder Interviews A slideshow explaining how to plan  and conduct stakeholder interviews.

• Ten Guidelines for Stakeholder Interviews In this UXmatters blog, the author focuses on interview guidelines for gaining very rich insights from internal and external stakeholders, as well as users.

• The General Stakeholder Interview Some guide questions that can be applied to most stakeholders, including marketing and sales stakeholders.

• Stakeholder interviews:What to ask and how to ask it How to ask interview questions and structure your interviews.

• How to Interview Stakeholders When Developing a Content Strategy A comprehensive list of questions you can ask on content inventory, processes, roles, experience, and performance.

Templates and examples

• Portigal Consulting - Debriefing Worksheet 2 An example debriefing worksheet that can serve as a key resource for the collaborative debrief and analysis.

• Stakeholder Interviews This document from the Northwest Center for Public Health Practice (NWCPHP) outlines the process of stakeholder interviews, and includes suggested questions.

• "Good Questions for Stakeholder Interviews" This incredibly practical template on what topics to cover in stakeholder interviews is created by the Interaction Design Foundation.

• Stakeholder Interview Guide A downloadable guide from Content Company regarding how to conduct stakeholder interviews.

• Stakeholders Interview: The 10 Crucial Questions Questions deemed crucial to creating clarity and constructive relationships (they are subjective and can be changed according to the project).

• Example Interview Debrief Worksheet Questions are provided in this checklist as useful starting points for facilitating post-moderated research conversation.

• Interview checklist 18F Methods outline a checklist for five key moments during interviews.

• Stakeholder Interview Template: 120+ Questions Pick and choose questions from this list depending on which are most relevant to your project.

• Stakeholder Mapping Template An example template for stakeholder mapping by The Nielsen Norman Group.

Tools to help

• Stakeholder Interview Matrix This tool from Gather Content helps you understand what to ask and how to ask it. It also includes suggested questions to help you get to know your stakeholders and what's important to them.

• User Centered Design Canvas UCDC is an easy and effective tool to help facilitate the user experience design process. It enables a comprehensive analysis of the user and the organization's main goals.

• Stakeholder Interviews This handy tool from Concordia University, Canada, focuses on the principles, setup, and sequence of stakeholder interviews.

• Stakeholder In-Depth Interview Guide This guide will help you to ask key stakeholders to evaluate what has been achieved in a scale-up process, and more.

• A Stakeholder Interview Checklist An excerpt from Kim Goodwin's book, Designing for the Digital Age, this checklist contains questions that you can ask different types of stakeholders and other product team members.

• User Interview Launch Kit This launch kit outlines three steps to help you launch an amazing user interview study. includes templates.

How to conduct user research

What is user research?

User research is about learning and understanding user needs, behaviours, and thought processes by using a broad range of methodologies that are either quantitative or qualitative.

The types of user research to perform would depend on the site, app, or system, your timeline, and the environment. Some methods of user research include task analysis, observation techniques, or other data-driven strategies.

Importantly, conducting user research can expose potential problems, and find crucial information and opportunities to use in the design process.

Processes to learn about

• Planning a Usability Test Usability.gov share how to plan for a usability test. Includes information on its elements, and some test metrics.

• Running a Usability Test Different moderating techniques, pilot testing, best practices and an example test session are all in detailed here by Usability.gov.

• User Research: Best Practices and Methodologies This article covers the importance of user research and explores the two main categories of user research methods - and techniques you can use for each.

• 7 Great, Tried and Tested UX Research Techniques The Interaction Design Foundation share 7 tried and tested user research techniques.

• When to Use Which User-Experience Research Methods The Nielsen Norman Group presents 20 research methods and when to use them.

• The Complete Guide to UX Research Methods Top UX research methods and when to use them, according to Digital Product Designer, Miklos Philips.

• User research The Digital Transformation Agency provides a set of best-practice principles for designing and delivering government services.

• User Research Basics Usability.gov provide examples of the types of research you could perform at each phase of your project.

• The importance of user research in your information architecture strategy GatherContent delves into two user experience research techniques you can use at different stages — and according to your organization's budget.

• Plan your user research approach The NSW Government's three stage approach to planning your research.

• The Basics of Recruiting Participants for User Research Interaction Design Foundation run through the considerations to make.

• How to successfully recruit the right user research participants GatherContent shares insight on how to overcome the recurring problems that can occur during the user research recruitment phase.

• Recruiting User Research Participants by Email This blog post details best practices and tips for successfully recruiting participants by email.

• User Interviews: How, When, and Why to Conduct Them The Nielsen Norman Group's advice on conducting user interviews — including methods and what questions to ask.

• UX Research Cheat Sheet The Nielsen Norman Group share how to determine which user research methods to use in various project stages.

Tools to help

• User Research Methods: From Strategy to Requirements to Design An interactive course by The Nielsen Norman Group, with in-depth exercises on how to pick the best UX research methods.