Verification

When you have created your prototype, you will need to verify it with target users. When you want to learn about target users—for example, to learn about their core tasks or pain points—you will of course need to approach them in some way. There already exists extensive literature on how to verify innovations and achieve insights from target users, but in the following sections I will briefly introduce some methods that I have myself used with success.

User Interviews

Much verification can be done by interviewing target users. You can do this on the street, in their homes via e-mail, or by phone. Face-to-face meetings in the user's natural environment usually give the best results.

If you are trying to find or verify user needs, you may use professional interviewers for your task, but with some practice you may quickly learn to do it yourself. To verify core tasks, pain points, and so on, you want to present the users with concrete examples of the tasks or pain points using prototypes.

Market Research

Market research is good for finding and verifying target users and end-user needs. Verifying core tasks and solutions may also be possible using market research, but usually interviews or usability tests are better for these.

Usability Tests

Usability tests are useful for verifying solutions and ideas that are pretty mature and for which you can present the user with paper prototypes, simulations, or similar. Usability tests may be very relevant if testing an application or technology that is almost finalized.

When performing usability tests, you will mostly focus on the new application or element that you've designed, but you can also use additional findings that the usability tests may reveal (e.g., for identifying potential future needs, overlooked core tasks, or pain points).

Lead User Workshops

Lead user workshops are ideal not only for revealing user needs, core tasks, and pain points, but also for actually innovating new user experience elements. Chapter 13 of this book goes into detail on this type of workshop.