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Suppose I'm trying to develop prototype for some app that encourages sustainable lifestyle in some way. And say I have a group of participants for conducting user research - asking questions, etc.

From what I know, first I have to establish the need for the solution I'm developing. Do users even want or have need for the app to fulfil any of their goals? One need based on my subjective belief is to contribute positively to environment or sustainability cause.

But what's the best way to get users to affirm or refute that need? My confusion is, if I ask a question like, "Would you like to contribute to a sustainable cause?" or "Do you believe in promoting sustainability?" - I fear that may be a leading question. But I can't think of a way to phrase a question, by answering which I'll understand if that need is present in a user.

What's the best way to approach this?

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I would approach establishing the need like this:

  • First, I would ask my participant to define what sustainability or a sustainable lifestyle means for them. Recycling? Reduced consumption? Public transportation? Avoiding waste packaging? Veganism? etc
  • Then, I would ask them to rate on a scale how important making sustainable decisions is to them.
  • I would ask them the 3 main areas that they see as most important for living sustainable
  • Finally I would ask them to rate, on a scale how interested hey would be in a tool to help them live more sustainably.

Your post reads a bit like you were struggling to ask a question that establishes the need because you were assuming the need. Let your participants define what sustainability is to them and how much they need it/how important they see sustainable practices. Getting them to define and rank what sustainability is to them will also help you prioritize different areas/features to include in your app.

e.g. if your apps approach to a sustainable lifestyle focused a lot around reduced transportation and localized shopping experience but your users defined sustainability as recycling you might want to explore more informative and educational functionality.

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  • Thanks! That's super helpful. A follow-up query from me - how did you come up with these questions and the order to ask them in? Do you follow any framework, or principles? If you don't follow any framework and just go by your experience, then do you have any advice for a newbie UX researcher, on how to come up with the right questions? Because while I definitely will include questions you mentioned, but more important is for me to be able to come up with such questions myself, in the long run. Commented May 22 at 21:00
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    For me this definitely comes more from experience than having followed a specific framework. I was lucky in my first UXR role was with a larger a highly skilled UXR team, so I got to learn a lot from people who were highly versed in research. I can share a bit of my process and that might help you out. 1. I would write down a list of goals for the session. 2. I review those goals and then revise them e.g. you probably would have written down "establish the need for the solution" then when revising that goals it should become something like "evaluate and define the users' need for the solution"
    – It's Dylan
    Commented May 23 at 13:28
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    3. After I have all my goals revised I will write down all the questions I can come up with for each goal. 4. After I have all my questions written out in section I'll go back and review section by section. Very similar to what you're doing now, I try to remove any bias, any leading questions, and rewrite some to prompt users to explain their experience instead of just answering my questions. 5. Finally for each section/goal I'll make sure I'm including some quantitative questions. Like I did above with asking them to name their top 3 areas or ranking something on a scale.
    – It's Dylan
    Commented May 23 at 13:31
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    Thanks Dylan! Very very helpful pointers that I'll keep in mind Commented May 24 at 14:06

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