How Do You Handle Conflicting User Feedback as a UX Designer?
When UX designers encounter conflicting feedback, it's crucial to navigate these waters with care. Drawing from the expertise of UX designers, we've compiled four insightful responses. From considering majority feedback and context to evaluating feedback and testing solutions, discover how these professionals tackle one of the trickiest aspects of the design process.
- Consider Majority Feedback and Context
- Balance Client Desires with User Needs
- Prioritize Primary User Needs
- Evaluate Feedback and Test Solutions
Consider Majority Feedback and Context
When there is conflicting user feedback, it's best to take the 80% response into consideration. As designers, it is second nature to connect human actions to human experience, behavior, and biases. This is useful in calling out why certain users might go against the grain from others.
For example, we were testing our design for an app meant for nurses in India. Our target audience had a basic proficiency in English and used smartphones for simple tasks like social media and entertainment, but not for banking or insurance - relatively complex processes. Knowing this, we had limited the use of icon buttons (only to edit, delete, and search) and instead used text buttons wherever necessary. This tested well except for 1/4 of the nurses who could not identify how to edit something using the pencil icon. In this case, we went ahead without changing the pencil to text saying 'edit' because
- The majority were able to complete the task,
- We know for a fact that these icons are mostly universally identified, but there may be a learning curve for some users.
- While it is important to design for the lowest common denominator, designers must find the right balance so as not to frustrate the majority.
If users are completely divided in their feedback, it's best to test more until you can identify a pattern. In the unlikely event that you never arrive at a majority, chances are that the design is outlandish and needs going back to the drawing board. The key here is to stay humble, detach, and be open to starting over.
Balance Client Desires with User Needs
This is a common challenge we encounter daily. When a client first approaches us, we inquire about their requirements and design preferences. Often, they express a desire for a design based on our expertise. However, upon receiving the initial draft, they may realize it's not what they envisioned, leading to a barrage of critiques and requests for changes. Some clients diverge from their business objectives, bringing forth design preferences that may not align with their niche. Thus, our challenge lies in striking a perfect balance between accommodating the client's feedback while adhering to user needs, business objectives, and design principles. Ultimately, our aim is to meet both the business objectives and the requirements of the target audience.
Prioritize Primary User Needs
Conflicting user feedback is very common in UX, especially at my company. We are an e-commerce platform that services a wide range of users with different personas, goals, behaviors, motivations, and contexts. Making one product to please every user persona is impossible. Sometimes conflicting user feedback is because the problem and the user it will affect is not clearly defined.
I rely on data to find which user is most likely to use and benefit from a feature—this user becomes my primary focus, whose needs I prioritize. This does not mean to ignore your other users; it just means there might need to be compromises in their needs for this specific task. If conflicting user feedback persists once the problem and user are explicitly defined, I will build a hypothesis based on patterns in my user research and use other research methods like surveys, competitive analysis, A/B testing, etc., to further understand a solution.
Evaluate Feedback and Test Solutions
Handling conflicting user feedback as a UX designer involves first gathering insights from various sources. Then, identify common areas and prioritize based on their impact on the user experience and project goals. Evaluate each piece of feedback fairly, considering factors like frequency and severity. Test step-by-step solutions based on this feedback, using both qualitative and quantitative data to shape decisions. Evolve designs continuously, involving stakeholders in the process to ensure alignment with user needs and project objectives.