True Intent Studies

User intent lies at the heart of understanding user needs and providing a seamless user experience. However, this task has its challenges:

1. Ambiguous Signals

   Users sometimes explicitly express their intent, making it harder to discover their motivations. User actions such as clicks or page visits might not clearly indicate their goals or needs. To deal with this challenge, advanced techniques like Natural Language Processing (NLP) and sentiment analysis can be used to gain deeper insights from user interactions.

2. Multi-faceted Intent

   User intent is often multi-dimensional, a mix of goals, desires, and preferences. Identifying and interpreting these layers of intent behind a user’s actions can be challenging. Machine learning algorithms, such as clustering and classification models, can help unveil the intricate web of user intent, allowing more precise understanding and prediction.

3. Evolving Intent

   User intent can change over time or within different contexts. In addition, users’ goals and motivations may shift, requiring strategies to continuously reassess and adapt. By conducting regular user research studies and monitoring user behavior patterns, you can follow user intent and proactively adjust to align with user needs.

4. Lack of Contextual Information

   Limited data about users’ demographics, previous interactions, or external factors hinder accurate intent determination. This challenge involves better data collection methods, advanced analytics tools, and leveraging user profiling techniques to gain deeper contextual insights.

5. Individual Differences

   Each user is unique, and their intent can be influenced by personal preferences, cultural backgrounds, or browsing habits. The biggest mistake of them all is to generalize user intent. Applying segmentation and personalization techniques can help categorize users into specific groups, allowing for more tailored approaches.

6. Limited Data Availability

   Acquiring complete data about user intent can be challenging due to limited access to user information, data privacy policies, or inadequate tracking and analytics tools. Investing in robust data collection mechanisms, user feedback channels, and analytics platforms to address this issue can provide a more holistic view of user intent.

7. Lack of User Input

   Users may not always want to provide explicit feedback or conduct surveys or interviews. This limits the direct feedback available to understand their intent. Relying solely on passive observation or indirect indicators can introduce uncertainty in determining user intent. To address this, employ user-centered design principles, conduct usability testing, and encourage user feedback through intuitive interfaces.

Determining user intent is a complex endeavor, but combining techniques such as analyzing user behavior patterns, user research studies, and leveraging machine learning algorithms can gain deeper insights into user intent.

To conduct a true user intent study, follow these steps:

Step 1: Seize Users

To collect data from your website visitors, it is vital to stop them with a survey invitation as they enter and leave your site. This can be achieved with pop-ups or embedding JavaScript into your web pages. The goal is to prompt users to participate in the study and gather feedback.

Step 2: Ask Questions Upon Entry

Once users agree to participate, asking them a few questions is crucial to gather information about their intentions and expectations. These questions serve as a starting point for understanding user behavior and motivations. Some examples:

• Who are you? This question helps identify the demographics and characteristics of the user.
• Where did you come from? Understanding the source of their visit provides insights into the user’s journey and referral channels.
• Why did you come to the website today? This question aims to uncover the specific goals or tasks the user wants to accomplish on the website.
• How do you value the brand in question? By assessing the user’s perception of the brand, you can measure their initial expectations and opinions.

Step 3: Ask Questions Upon Exit

After users have completed their visit, it is essential to ask them a few more questions to learn their level of satisfaction and success in achieving their goals. These exit questions help evaluate the overall user experience and identify areas for improvement. Some examples:

• Was your visit successful? This question directly assesses whether the user could accomplish their intended goals on the website.
• If not, why? Understanding the reasons for an unsuccessful visit provides valuable insights into potential pain points or barriers the user faces.
• How satisfied were you with your experience? Measuring user satisfaction helps gauge the overall impression and quality of their interaction with the website.
• How do you value the brand now? By reassessing the user’s perception of the brand after their visit, you can evaluate the impact of the user experience on their perception.

Step 4: Ask Questions Upon Entry

After collecting responses from your website visitors, it is crucial to analyze the data to identify trends, patterns, and areas of improvement. This analysis involves looking for common issues or roadblocks that hinder users from achieving their goals. Then, by prioritizing optimizations based on the identified trends, you can make targeted improvements to align with their intentions and expectations.

By following these steps, you can conduct a thorough user intent study that provides valuable insights into user behavior, motivations, and areas for improvement, ultimately helping you create a better user experience on your website.

True user intent studies can be applied in various scenarios, including:

1. Understanding user motivations: A true user intent study can help you better understand why users visit your site. By asking entry questions such as “Why did you come to the website today?” or “What are you looking to achieve?”, you can uncover the motivations and goals of your users.

2. Evaluating task success: With a user intent study, you can assess whether visitors can successfully accomplish their desired tasks on your site. By asking exit questions like “Was your visit successful?” or “Were you able to find what you were looking for?”, you can gather insights into the usability and effectiveness of your website in fulfilling user needs.

3. Prioritizing improvements: A user intent study can provide valuable input for prioritizing website improvements. By analyzing the collected data and identifying common issues or roadblocks users face, you can determine the most critical areas that need attention. For example, if many users struggle to find specific information, you can prioritize optimizing the site’s search functionality or improving the information architecture.

4. Validating design changes: If you plan to make significant design changes to your website, conducting a user intent study beforehand can help validate those changes. By gathering user feedback on their expectations and perceptions of the existing design, you can assess the potential impact of the proposed changes. This can prevent unnecessary redesigns that may not align with user preferences.

5. Optimizing conversion funnels: A user intent study can also be beneficial for optimizing conversion funnels on your website. By understanding the motivations and intentions of users at different stages of the funnel, you can identify areas where users may be dropping off or encountering difficulties. This insight allows you to refine the user journey, address friction points, and improve the conversion rate.

Here are four things to keep in mind when running user intent research:

• Tip #1: Align Google’s EAT Guidelines and User Intent

  Google’s EAT (Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness) guidelines play a significant role in understanding user intent. High-quality content that sticks to EAT guidelines will likely satisfy user needs and expectations.

  To create content that aligns with user intent, focus on the expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness of the information you provide. Ensure that your content is written by knowledgeable authors, backed by credible sources, and delivers value to your users.

• Tip #2: Customize Your True User Intent Study

  You can tailor your user intent study to suit user needs and preferences. For example, you can adjust the survey duration, target specific user segments, or display the survey only during peak traffic times.

  By customizing your study, you can gather more accurate and relevant data to help you make informed decisions about your website’s optimization.

• Tip #3: Overcome Challenges with Polysemous Words in User Intent Research

  Polysemous words, or words with multiple meanings, can pose challenges in user intent research. For instance, a search query for “apple” could refer to the fruit or the technology company, making it challenging to discern user intent.

• Individual Differences

  Each user is unique, and their intent can be influenced by personal preferences, cultural backgrounds, or browsing habits. The biggest mistake of them all is to generalize user intent. Applying segmentation and personalization techniques can help categorize users into specific groups, allowing for more tailored approaches.

  To overcome this challenge, consider the search query’s context and analyze additional data, such as user demographics and browsing behavior, to better understand the user’s true intent.

• Tip #4: Walk in the User’s Shoes

  To effectively cater to user intent, it is vital to empathize with your website visitors and see things from their perspective. Try to imagine yourself as a user navigating your site, and ask yourself:

  • Is the content engaging and user-friendly?
  • Does the website help me achieve my goals?

  Also, consider running usability tests to gather unbiased insights into your site’s user experience.

Implementing a user intent research strategy will improve your website’s performance and contribute to building a solid and loyal customer base. So, start exploring the world of true user intent and unlock the potential of your website today!