In her “Why and How of User Research for Global Audiences” presentation at 24 Hours of UX 2022, Rüya Ince shared insights, tips, and resources for designing better global products and services by localizing user research.
Rüya Ince is a quantitative and mixed methods UX researcher and co-organizer of Ladies that UX Utrecht in The Netherlands.
Here are my notes.
Why and How of User Research for Global Audiences
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How can we avoid design fails? What can we do to better understand the culture of our users? Localize our user research; it’s the first step to successful global products
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When Amazon launched in India in 2008, rural customers didn’t know the magnifying glass was a symbol for search. They called it the “ping-pong paddle.” The shopping cart symbol meant nothing to them, they had never seen a physical shopping cart.
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For user research, we need to think about creating local user research experiences for our research participants.
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Localization starts with user research
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Involve your global users. Recruit users from all of your markets. Start with the most valuable markets and then expand.
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Understand your global users. Which involves:
- Culture: cultural differences that shape research goals and designs
- Language: identify linguistic differences
- Behavior: how cultural norms and behavior impact design
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Involve local experts. Work with local recruiters, translators, and researchers to help your user research run more smoothly
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Smooth out translations. Avoid word-for-word translations. Make sure your research plan, design, execution, and analysis transmits intended meaning and values.
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Advocate internally for localization. You can’t do it alone.
Resources
- Handbook of Global User Research by Robert Schumacher
- The Art of the Global Gateway: Strategies for Successful Multilingual Navigation by John Yunker
- Cross-Cultural Design for IT Products and Services by Pei-Luen Rau, Tom Plocher, Yee-Yin Choong
- Cross-cultural UX Research and Design Resources by Elena Glebkovskaya
- Proz can help you find local/regional professional translators
