Let's take a birds-eye view of why HCI should care about a user insight in the first place. We discussed how our user research, both qualitative and quantitative, gets analyzed and synthesized, but a broader question remains: does researching our user really create better software solutions?
User research for HCI designers is not an easy task. Not only are the skills we discussed nuanced and somewhat time-consuming, but the real challenge comes when trying to justify the need for user research in the first place. The skills of executing qualitative and quantitive research together have the opportunity to paint an accurate picture of your user and, if done thoroughly, they can have a lasting impact on software decisions and, ultimately, the success or failure of software solutions. For HCI designers, we need the research to understand our process, and some of you may focus solely on the research path. If you are so lucky, great for you. The rest...