Why note-taking is the key to uncovering UX gold
Pascal Raabe
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November 12, 2024
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Even in the digital age, the humble note still holds the power to unlock game-changing insights.
In the world of modern UX research, where technology seems to be taking over every aspect of our work, one might wonder if the humble practice of note-taking has become obsolete.
After all, with session recordings, automatic transcriptions, and AI-generated insights at our fingertips, why bother jotting down observations the old-fashioned way?
As a seasoned UX researcher, I'm here to tell you that note-taking is far from dead. In fact, it's more crucial than ever in our digital age. Let's explore why and how effective note-taking can elevate your UX research game.
When I first started my UX career, conducting user interviews without a dedicated note-taker in the room was unthinkable. There were no recordings, so anything not written down risked being lost forever.
The innovation of the day was having the product team and stakeholders observe interviews behind a one-way mirror, jotting down observations on post-it notes in real-time. After each session, we'd affinity map these observations, generating preliminary insights aligned with our research objectives.
We called this ‘Live Synthesis’ and it was groundbreaking for stakeholder and team alignment around research insights. Fast forward to today, and the landscape has changed dramatically. We rarely conduct interviews in labs anymore.
Tools like Askable allow us to peek directly into our users’ contexts, wherever they may be. Session recordings and automatic transcriptions free us from the burden of capturing every word, and AI can generate insights from these transcripts almost instantaneously.
But don’t be fooled into thinking these technological advancements have rendered note-taking obsolete. On the contrary, they’ve transformed it into an even more powerful tool in the UX researcher’s arsenal.
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Let's chatContrary to popular belief, note-taking isn’t just about recording information—it’s a powerful tool for active listening.
When you're actively taking notes, you’re forced to process and synthesise information in real-time. This engagement helps you stay focused on the user’s words, tone, and body language, often leading to more insightful follow-up questions.
For example, during a recent study about a travel booking app, I jotted down a user’s offhand comment about always checking reviews on a separate website before booking.
This quick note prompted me to explore their trust issues with in-app reviews, uncovering a significant opportunity to improve the review system that might have been overlooked if I’d relied solely on recordings.
While AI and transcription tools are incredibly useful, they can’t capture everything. The slight hesitation before a user answers, the furrowed brow when they encounter a confusing feature, or the excitement in their voice when describing a favourite function—these are nuances that often don’t translate well in transcripts or AI-generated summaries.
By taking notes on these subtle cues, you’re preserving valuable context that can inform your analysis and ultimately lead to more human-centred design decisions.
Good note-taking allows you to quickly reference earlier points in the conversation, enabling you to ask more relevant and probing questions. This skill is particularly valuable when you notice patterns or inconsistencies in a user’s responses.
In a recent study for a health tracking app, my notes on a user’s described workout routine allowed me to circle back and explore an apparent contradiction between their stated fitness goals and their actual usage of the app’s features.
This led to a key insight about the gap between users’ aspirational fitness plans and their real-world behaviours—a finding that significantly influenced feature prioritisation.
While it’s true that we now have tools to search through transcripts and recordings quickly, there’s still immense value in noting key points as they happen.
These real-time notes often form the backbone of your initial analysis, allowing you to start forming hypotheses and identifying patterns even before the session ends. Askable makes it easy to highlight and tag key moments during your interviews, as they occur.
I’ve found that by the time I finish a set of user interviews, I already have a rough structure of my findings thanks to my notes. This head start not only speeds up the analysis process but also allows for quicker turnaround of insights to stakeholders.
One of the most valuable exercises I’ve incorporated into my practice is comparing my session notes with AI-generated summaries. This comparison often reveals my own biases and assumptions, showing me where I might have overemphasised certain points or overlooked others.
This practice of bias-checking has been instrumental in ensuring the objectivity of my research findings and has led to some surprising insights that I might have otherwise missed.
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Contact salesNow that we’ve established the enduring importance of note-taking, let’s explore some techniques that work well in our digital-first research environment.
If you’re taking notes by hand, divide your note-taking space into two columns: one for objective observations, and another for your interpretations. This separation helps maintain clarity between direct user input and your own analysis.
When using Askable, you can implement this method by simply prefixing your notes with ‘O:’ for observations and ‘I:’ for interpretations. For example:
O: User hesitated before clicking the ‘Submit’ button.
I: User might be unsure about committing to the action.
This method allows you to quickly distinguish between what actually happened and your interpretation of events when reviewing your notes later.
While transcripts capture spoken words, they often miss crucial non-verbal communication. Develop a shorthand for noting these cues. For example:
In Askable, you can quickly add these notations with a timestamp using the Ctrl + N (Alt + N on Windows) shortcut.
For instance:
! User’s eyebrows raised when seeing the premium plan pricing.
* Paused for 10 seconds before clicking ‘Confirm Purchase’.
These notations can provide valuable context when analysing user behaviour and emotions.
Askable automatically adds timestamps to your notes. This allows you to easily revisit specific parts of the recording during analysis and extract relevant clips for stakeholder presentations.
If you want to remember a key moment of the session to come back to without having to write anything down, you can quickly add a marker by pressing Ctrl + . (or Alt + . on Windows).
This will visually add an eye emoji (👀) to the timeline.
Maintain a running list of questions or areas you want to explore further. In your notes, you might use ‘Q:’ to denote these. For example:
Q: How often does the user actually need this feature?
Q: What’s the user’s typical process for this task outside of our app?
This technique helps ensure you don’t miss important lines of inquiry and can inform your interview guide for future sessions.
Immediately after each session, take 5 minutes to review and enhance your notes. This quick reflection allows you to clarify any ambiguous points, add any final thoughts, and start forming initial hypotheses while the session is still fresh in your mind.
Using Askable, you can do this directly in the notes section of the Playback feature, ensuring all your thoughts are captured alongside the session data.
If you’re working with a team, it’s worthwhile using a shared document for collaborative note-taking during sessions. Askable allows moderators as well as observers to add notes simultaneously.
This approach can provide diverse perspectives and can spark valuable discussions immediately after the session concludes.
Effective note-taking isn’t just about capturing information—it’s about transforming that information into actionable insights. Here’s how good note-taking practices can enhance your synthesis and stakeholder communication:
In an age where technology can transcribe every word and AI can generate insights, the art of note-taking might seem outdated. However, as we’ve explored, thoughtful, strategic note-taking remains an invaluable skill in the UX researcher’s toolkit.
By enhancing our engagement, capturing nuances, facilitating deeper questioning, speeding up analysis, and revealing our own biases, effective note-taking elevates the quality of our research.
It forms the foundation for powerful synthesis and communication of insights, ultimately leading to better design decisions and more user-centred products. As UX researchers, our role is to bridge the gap between users and product teams, translating human experiences into actionable insights.
In this role, the humble practice of note-taking—evolved for the digital age—remains one of our most powerful allies. So, the next time you’re tempted to rely solely on recordings and AI-generated summaries, remember the unique value that your own observations and real-time synthesis bring to the table.
Your notes might just hold the key to that breakthrough insight that transforms your product and delights your users.
