From A List Apart: –User Research When You Can't Talk to Your Users:
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It's not breaking news to say that the core of UX, in a vacuum, is talking to your users to gather insights and then applying that information to your designs. But it's equally true that UX does not happen in a vacuum. So what happens when you don't have the budget or the timeline to run user tests, card sorts, or stakeholder interviews? What should you do when your company doesn't want you bothering the paying customers who use their software? In short, how do you do UX research when you can't get direct access to your users? While the best methods for gathering user insights entail first-hand research, there are other ways to quickly glean qualitative data about your users 'wants and needs' beyond the usual lightweight guerrilla user testing options. For a start, companies that are new or have a smaller digital footprint can benefit from things like forums or even competitor reviews to get a better sense of the users in their industry vertical. And for more established companies, customer service logs and app reviews can be invaluable for learning what users think about specific products. Let’s check out a few techniques I like to recommend…”
