Understanding user needs and behaviours is the primary goal of user research and usability testing, guiding the creation of intuitive and effective digital products. With the rapid advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AI), we ask, how has AI fundamentally changed our process?
AI to replace the human being?
AI hasn’t, and will never, supplant the core principles of user research and usability testing, which are centred around qualitative observation, some empathy, and establishing a connection with the research to understand the “why” behind user activity.
Instead, AI serves as a powerful tool that enhances and expands the capabilities of researchers and testers.
The possibilities seem endless, with the promise AI can help with:
- Recruitment & screening participants
- Automating project management tasks
- Behavioural, sentiment, and data analysis
- Platform tools i.e. eye-tracking & heatmapping
- Behavioural analytics
- Unmoderated Testing
- Etc.
Augmentation, not substitution
What does this mean for a company like Experience UX, who specialise in user research and usability testing?
AI to facilitate our research?
Whether we’re referring to customers, users, audience, personas – we’re always referring to a human being who is trying to use a digital interface. The human aspect is most important – if we’re not close to the user, we lose a layer of insight and understanding.
AI can’t do this for us. The researcher must feel connected and be able to trust their intuition throughout the process.
AI to write our test plans and scripts?
In research or testing, our researchers are trained to keep the interview as natural as possible. The participant will drive as much as possible, the less the researcher intervenes, the better. To be able to do this, the researchers need an intuitive connection to the project objectives, to their script, and to what will help the most. If you rely on someone else, or AI, to write your script, you lose that connection and understanding.
AI is great to add quality assurance to our planning and scripts, to make suggestions, and to check we’ve covered all the objectives and questions needed for the project.
AI to analyse our research findings?
We need to help our clients and share the user perspective. Our researchers must not only connect to users through the research, but they also connect to the findings, the insights, and the recommendations. This allows for deeper, actionable guidance for our clients, and we’re able to respond effectively to questions and challenges.
AI is great to add to the analysis process, to review the researchers’ findings and recommendations, and to point out anything that it sees as missing, from its own interpretation of the data.
Assist, not replace
We see AI as a tool to assist, not replace, human researchers. Critical thinking, empathy, and contextual understanding remain essential. Over-reliance on automation can and will lead to superficial insights.
AI has the capability to change user research and usability testing, offering significant advancements in efficiency, data analysis, and research scope. There are many people championing AI in UX. However, the most effective approach involves harnessing AI’s capabilities to support the expertise of human researchers and designers.
By leveraging AI as a powerful tool while retaining the core principles of user-centred design, we can create digital experiences that are truly intuitive, effective, and most importantly, with the user at the heart of what we do.
