The Importance of Critical Thinking in User Research

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In research, there are many skills that are helpful in sourcing information, analysing data and communicating insights to other team members, clients or stakeholders. 

These include: 

• Practicing empathy - to seek understanding and reduce judgement.
• Attention to detail - to recognise important data.
• Looking at the big picture - to connect the dots 
• Storytelling - to communicate information in a compelling and engaging way.

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In this post I want to explore one skill: Critical Thinking and its importance in User Research. 

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What is Critical Thinking

Critical thinking is a process used in decision making and problem solving. It’s a complex process that requires us to observe what is going on around us, question our own beliefs, biases and assumptions to make decisions. 

Some common strategies for critical thinking are: 

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Checking our own Confirmation Bias

Feeling like we’re right feels good so we subconsciously seek it out. This is one of the most common biases and something we’re all susceptible to at all times, without knowing it. 

It happens when we type into google a search term that points us to articles that support our own views or when we notice the thing that supports our belief and ignore everything else. 

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Eliminating Black and White thinking

Right or Wrong. All or Nothing. This type of thinking influences us to look at things in binary terms.  If it’s not this, then it must be that. 

In reality, the world is more complex. It contains nuance, context and all of the colours.

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Seeking to understand other points of view

We tend to assume that others experience the world in the same way that we do but this can lead to stereotypes.

To counter this, we should seek to understand different points of view, beliefs, values, cultures, environments or abilities. Critical thinking encourages us to expand our knowledge of what something is like for people who are not like ourselves.

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Being aware of information sources

Healthy scepticism can help us spot misinformation and ulterior motives. It’s about asking:

• Where did this information come from?
• Why was it collected?
• What might be influencing the message?

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How Critical Thinking Improves User Research

Survey and Interview questions

When writing a question, how it is asked can influence the answer you receive. Confirmation bias can lead us to ask questions that get us data that tells us we’re right. 

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Example

“When would you use this tool?” 

This type of question implies that it would be used. It’s reasonable to assume that if someone didn’t want to use it they would say so. More often than not, someone will try to answer the question with reasoning. This means the responses become speculative rather than accurate.

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Use Critical Thinking to:

Check your questions to make sure they are not leading the respondent to an answer.

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Concept testing

When concept testing, usually two or three concepts are developed and then tested against each other. This can lead us to think that one concept must be better than the other. 

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Use Critical Thinking to:

Recognise black and white thinking that wants us to decide which concept is ‘best’. Instead, what can we learn from each concept that can be used to inform another concept?

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Accessibility

By seeking to understand other points of view and other people’s experiences, we’re more likely to consider: 

• Physical accessibility
• Cognitive diversity
• Environmental and technological constraints

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Use Critical Thinking to: 

Come up with examples for the above categories and ask:

‘What happens if X is true?’ 

‘What happens if X is not true?’

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Data analysis

Both confirmation bias and ignoring the sources of information can influence analysis. We can be more likely to look for the data that confirms what we want to be right about or ignore where the data came from and what it means in context.

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Use Critical thinking to:

• Look for data that proves and/or disproves any hypotheses. 
• Ask where information has come from 
• Question if there may be any underlying context, motivation or agenda
• Determine how credible the data is

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Conclusion

Critical thinking is a complex subject and I’m sure I’ve only just scratched the surface. In my experience, critical thinking can become a superskill for researchers when planning, conducting research, analysing data and communicating findings.

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