It is important to know your web site’s users really well to create great user experiences. Some well-known user research methods and some alternative ones have been used to increase our understanding of websites users.

User tests can provide insights on the website you want to improve or about a new product prototype. Surveys, on the other side, usually focus on knowing more about the demographics, usage behaviors, and opinions while analytics will give you numbers.

Research in the field

User interviews are a very interesting way to know and understand your users. Interviews give you the opportunity to talk to them, see where they work, how they think, and how they organize their daily tasks.

Techniques to know users even better

You can use various techniques to get closer to the users and consumers of your service. To create positive user experiences, you really have to understand your clients’ businesses, things that are important for them and the methods they use to achieve their goals.

For example, at amiando.com we provide a participant management and ticketing service for organizers of events like conferences. To understand event organizers, I need to:

- Read books about the event organizing business
- Listen to podcasts about meeting and event organizing
- Subscribe to blogs about conferences and events
- Read forums on the topic, for example on Linkedin
- Participate in meet-ups for organizers

Although all these activities are time consuming, you can create a good user experience and service only if you know how your users think, plan, and work.