The Role of UX Research in Online Services: A Case Study on GrubHub
As this sentence is being typed, GrubHub, the online food ordering and delivery service, lists a job opening for a “UX Researcher”. If you’ve never heard of UX, it stands for User Experience.
Here is part of the job description:
“Grubhub Design is looking for a talented UX Researcher…You will work with a team of world-class researchers, designers, and product managers with a passion for connecting hungry bellies with local restaurants.”[1]
What qualifications are they looking for?
“Bachelor’s degree required; advanced degree preferred in research, psychology, social science, or a related field.”[2]
What would you do in this job?
“Working with collaborators in design and product, this researcher will [help identify] the underlying needs and pain points expressed by [users’] behaviors and attitudes. As a UX Researcher, you will be expected to identify best approaches to complex problems, design research plans, manage recruits, moderate studies, and generate actionable insights.”[3]
What does this mean in practical terms?
GrubHub serves approximately 750,000 customers daily. That tells you that their website must be able to be used by a broad variety of people with different preferences, personalities, skill levels using apps, and expectations. The goal is to adapt the online application to these users, not expect the users to struggle to adapt to the application. For GrubHub, the app must allow customers to find the right food at a convenient restaurant, access menus, request modifications to the menu items, check on issues related to allergies and other health concerns, find accurate pricing, make the order, pay for the product, arrange delivery, and more. If any of these steps in the process annoys the customer, both the customer and the restaurant using GrubHub may look for another way to find food online. A positive experience for each of those 750,000 customers is the goal.
The Role of Psychology in UX
UX designers must be aware of principles of psychology related to decision-making, biases, motivation, and research in order to keep customers happy and create effective user experiences. One important psychological phenomenon that UX designers consider is the halo effect, named for the glowing circle over the heads of saints in many Renaissance paintings.
The halo effect is a cognitive bias that causes people’s positive impressions of a person, company, or product in one area to positively or negatively influence their opinion or feelings in other areas. For example, this means that if users have a positive experience when they first land on the Grubhub homepage, they are more likely to view other aspects of the interface favorably as well. For example, if you find the navigation system of a website intuitive and user-friendly, you may also assume that the customer service and product quality will be equally excellent, even if you haven’t directly interacted with those aspects yet. Similarly, if you were to have a negative experience with a particular feature, it may color your overall perception of the entire app or website (this is known as the horn effect). UX designers strive to create cohesive and positive user experiences across all aspects of the interface to leverage the halo effect and enhance user satisfaction and loyalty.
UX is an example of applied psychology in the real world. And UX isn’t just about apps or websites—its principles apply broadly to any designed interaction, from airplane cockpits to traffic signals.
To learn more about what UX designers do, watch this video produced by NN/g, a consulting company that specializes in UX design and analysis. The speaker is a User Experience Specialist with NN/g. She explains one way for UX specialists to acquire data and why this approach is important.