Understanding users from data--application of data in new product design

Usually, we can through the user interview method to understand the user needs, in fact, designers can also analyze the user survey data and Web page data, and other ways to understand the user needs and users in the use of products encountered problems.

Moreover, the direct contact with the user to understand the demand may only be a case, in order to enhance objectivity, usually through large sample survey, from the perspective of empirical data, further more accurate and objective to find the general needs of users.

In addition, by comparing and synthesizing the qualitative analysis results obtained from the data analysis result and the user interview, the designer can understand the user's real demand from different angles.

From the perspective of research, interactive design, including new product design and the existing products of the revised design of two major categories of business, the author will be divided into two times separately in these two categories of business, how to use the data to understand user needs. This paper focuses on the application of data in new product design.

Actual case

Taobao has previously provided official services to meet the basic business needs of sellers, but as the sellers of decoration, data analysis, marketing, baby management, invoicing and other types of services demand is growing, it is necessary to give sellers a focus on the selection of services platform to help them quickly find suitable for their own development services; Taobao introduced more and more third-party services, for these services, also need to have a centralized display platform. In this way, the Business Service Platform project has emerged (at present the product has been called "Taobao Seller Service" market).

At this stage, interactive design to solve the problem is mainly "how to product positioning and users of the real needs of the deep integration", the depth of integration is not blindly satisfied, mainly because sometimes a new product positioning is not theoretical and idealistic, need to consider innovation, will be affected by various factors, such as development time constraints, The underlying technology framework constraints, etc., can only meet the needs of users.

Because of the confidentiality of business information, this case used 2010 years of projects, Internet products iterative frequent, the article mentioned in the product page has been revised for many times, we only need to understand the entire article of thought can be.

1. Data obtained through questionnaires

Generally, there are two ways to collect data, the first one is to use the network questionnaire research methods, access to the user's psychological and behavioral habits of quantitative data; the second is to set up the module, picture, text and other buried points in the product page, collect the page data.

In the business service platform before the launch, the product has not been born, there is no page data, the initial use of the network Questionnaire survey to obtain the user's needs data.

2. Preparation of work before research

First of all, we must define product positioning, product planning and architecture, and have a comprehensive understanding of the product. Then, the purpose of the research is the core of the questionnaire, which determines the direction of the investigation and the application of the research results.

Then, we need to determine the content of the research and the target population according to the aim, the more detailed the research content, the clearer the target group.

For a business service platform such a new product, the design of the beginning, the purpose of the study is to understand Taobao sellers of various services (especially for shop decoration and daily operation Services), the use, demand and evaluation.

The main contents of the study are: the sellers in the shop in the difficulties encountered, the current needs of the seller's services, what the recent use of the seller services, the use of the seller service satisfaction, the most satisfied with which seller service, dissatisfied with the seller service specific reasons for what, and so on. Also need to be clear, the study of the seller services involved in the type, including Taobao services, Taobao sellers to provide services, Taobao partners to provide services.

The target crowd of the merchant service platform is related to the product positioning, which is mainly done to the sellers who need the service.

3. How to design a questionnaire?

In the questionnaire design, the wording of the topic, the logic relation and so on, will affect the user to the question understanding and the answer, thus directly decides the research result the trend, is evident its importance.

Generally speaking, the network questionnaire survey should be user-filled, therefore, it is necessary to translate the business terminology into the daily language that the research object can understand, whether the problem or the option need to be concise and clear, so that the user can not cause ambiguity; for a completely closed selection problem, the options should be mutually exclusive and exhaustive. When the election is not exhaustive, you need to use a semi-closed selection problem, set the "other" option, and ask the user to specify the content.

The logic of a questionnaire is generally from the simple to the simple, from the research subjects concerned about the issues of interest to professional issues, from the core issues to sensitive issues, from closed to open issues, the same theme together, increasing the interest of respondents to answer questions. Only by dealing with the trade-offs between these principles can we design a questionnaire that is logically coherent and cohesive.

In the case, the core part of the Merchant Service Platform questionnaire is designed as follows:

Special Note: These options are the business side planning products, based on the resources available at that time and the company's internal business division, and other factors, the final determination of the classification of services.
This is entitled multiple selection, mainly in order to get the most urgent needs of the service ordering, directly with the ranking problem in the network questionnaire is not easy to implement, the option for many users to sort operations is not convenient. In addition, if the main purpose is not to prioritize, but to understand the needs of the seller's services specific circumstances, do not have to limit the election.

Special Note: The topic is presented in the form of a questionnaire, which is actually "what type of seller service has been used in the last six months?" "and" satisfaction with the use of "two topics of the merger. The main reason is that the existing questionnaire system cannot realize the free jump of the option in the scale problem. If the questionnaire system can be achieved, it is best to split into two issues. Ask "what kind of sellers services have been used in the last six months", and then ask "How satisfied you are using" in the form of a scale based on the seller's service.

In addition, the advantages of the scale problem is to be able to focus on a number of topics together, shorten the length of the questionnaire, saving the user's fill costs. If you do not use the scale problem, you need to split into 10 separate topics.

4. How do I handle data?

Processing data is generally divided into collecting data--cleaning and processing data--analyzing data.

Data collection-Generally speaking, Taobao put the questionnaire on the way there are the following categories: You can consider the questionnaire linked to a text chain or picture chain, hanging in the target audience often browse the location of easy attention, or in the specified page, a specified period of time to surface research links, or directly in the station letter, email and so on, To the designated target population, and then there is the use of Wang Wang News, invited the designated target population to fill in questions and answers volumes.

Different delivery methods in the collection of data will be different effects (such as the collection of sufficient samples of the time, the full answer rate, efficiency, etc.), the researchers need to be based on the study cycle, the scheduling of resources and other factors, comprehensive selection of appropriate ways.

Cleaning and processing of data-because the data collected from the network questionnaires may be mixed with random answers, so it cannot be analyzed directly and needs to be cleaned. The researchers generally remove the short and long samples based on the length of the answer, remove the duplicate samples based on the IP or username, and remove the mismatched samples according to the launch list. Also need to be based on the logical relationship between the topic, cleaning out the contradictory samples. Of course also have to judge is due to the confusion or errors caused by the contradictions, if it is caused by errors, you can keep this sample, as long as the data to the logic of the processing can be, such as the logical backfill or missing treatment.

Next, the researcher also needs to match the research sample with the backstage data, if discovers the research sample in the seller star, opens the shop the length, the monthly turnover number and so on key variable distribution and the whole net seller overall difference is too big, will make the research sample data result and the actual situation deviation too big. At this point, the research samples need to be weighted processing, adjust the research samples on the key variable distribution, so that it is comparable to the background data, so can be extended to the target sellers group situation. If the distribution of key variables and the total network sellers are not large, can not be weighted processing.

There are many kinds of methods for analyzing data, such as descriptive statistics, cross analysis, correlation analyses, regression analysis, factor analysis, cluster analysis, correspondence analysis, variance analysis, etc. The concrete results obtained by different methods may be different, but as long as the aim of the study is clear, the conclusions obtained can directly and indirectly guide the interactive design.

In this case, Taobao's own questionnaire system in the input of the design of Business Services Platform Survey questionnaire, the use of station letter to the user to fill out the invitation to answer the questionnaire, can more directly to get the target population response, facilitate the rapid collection of research data. After 6 days to collect 5,509 samples of data, after strict cleaning, the final effective sample of 5,219. Through descriptive statistics and cross analysis, the conclusions obtained are as follows:

In the Business Service Platform Survey questionnaire, the core topics have encountered difficulties, the need for services, used services, service satisfaction, and so on, there will be a logical relationship between them, such as: whether because of difficulties encountered in some areas and the need for such services? Is there a need for such services because they have not been used? Is there a need for such services because they are not satisfied with some of the services they have used? Have you encountered any difficulties in this area without using a certain type of service? Are there problems with the use of certain services? ...... These logical relationships can derive more variables and relationships and help deepen the analysis results.

Conclusion Shop decoration and promotion marketing are the most needed service categories for sellers.

Sellers are not satisfied with the lower the demand for the corresponding services more urgent, market sellers performance more obvious;
And the use of higher service categories, is still the seller's urgent service category, market and mall sellers have this feature, can be seen that the current service is not enough to meet the needs of sellers, or sellers have not found a suitable service.

Data source: Research data Nearly three months have successfully traded market sellers 5117, mall sellers 102*

Conclusion second, high and low level market sellers more urgent need for shop decoration and promotion of marketing services

Market sellers star higher, to Taobao data analysis of the lower satisfaction rate, the corresponding demand for such services is higher;
Market sellers with the star rise, the satisfaction rate of the various service categories generally showed a downward trend, and the service category of the need for a linear trend is not obvious, shop decoration services and shop marketing services to promote the "U" trend.

Data source: Research data nearly three months of successful trading market sellers 5117

5. Data Guidance Design

--navigation sort make full use of data results

In the case, when the product on line, the ranking of the first-order navigation weighed data results and business rules, the left side of the obvious location of shop decoration and store promotion, is the questionnaire survey sellers most urgently needed two types of services. Moreover, through qualitative research in-depth understanding of user needs, the product changed the initial planning, the day-to-day operation of the shop split into store promotion and management tools, so that the location of the management tool is also a corresponding advance.

--floor layout reference to the findings

The initial product planning is to highlight the Third-party services, but after qualitative research and quantitative data analysis, found that the Third-party services have not been formed, the impact is not large, still have to push the official tools. Therefore, in the follow-up design process, according to the findings of the design of the show floor, the official tools in the first floor, Third-party services in the second tier.

And, third party service main push service category, also referred to the data results, sorting is the store marketing promotion, shop management tools and shop decoration, here shop decoration slightly behind, mainly because the shop decoration service less, put in front will affect the overall level of visual beauty, even so, Shop decoration has been placed in many service categories in the current floor of the obvious position.

--page end design based on data

Because the support of new sellers fast growth is a business service platform, one of the important positioning of the data also shows that the new seller Taobao shop service demand is relatively strong, so at the end of the page will be the first store opening.

At the same time, considering the end of the page can also help users quickly find the entrance to the service, so the data show much-needed shop decoration services into the store management, daily operation services into marketing promotion, respectively, displayed in the obvious position.

You will notice that the navigation is different from the end of the page, there are doubts, in fact, the reason why this design, because this can meet different sellers on the service classification and find service habits of the difference, is also an attempt, through the click Effect of classification to do refactoring, reflecting the Internet product trial and error iterative advantages, after all, for a new product, It is impossible to achieve perfection at once.

This is the case, the Merchant service platform after the online, followed by daily changes, fixed some interactive design details. However, when the business transformation, it is necessary for the product to be interactive design refactoring, this situation will continue in the next post story.

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