User research: the difference between guesswork and growth

What are the best practices for data visualization UI?

This is the article I have written with Transcenda and you can read it in full here. I will highlight some of my favorite points here:

1. When we focus heavily on user experience research, we might design the perfect login interface – a gorgeous contextual overlay – but if we miss the broader context of the user's real-life experience beyond the screen, we risk losing perspective. Even the most seamless interface can lead to customer support issues if it doesn't align with what happens to users outside of the particular screen we’ve designed.

2. The longer designers work on a project, the greater the potential for biases to seep into their work. They become super users with deep institutional knowledge. Valuable experience, yes, but it’s not always reflective of the ordinary user’s needs. 

3. User research goes beyond feelings and sentiment. It’s not just, Okay, you opened a webpage, now what? It’s, Why did you open this webpage in the first place? One of the primary goals of user research should be to ensure that product teams are solving problems that their user base actually has.