It goes without saying that research summary writing is a great skill that everybody should master.
For sure, no one wants to reread the entire content of a very specific report they can’t understand at all to decide whether the information is useful or not.
Along with that, conveying user research findings can be really challenging even for the experienced speaker.
But, if you manage to catch the main idea of your research, by adding some intrigue and impressive insights, interesting or funny facts, you will be able to present the value of your analysis and come up with brilliant discoveries in the results.
So, what does a good user research summary should look like? In this article, we will cover this and many other aspects of how you can make your user research summary both informative and appealing for your audience.
Steps for Creating a Good User Research Summary
To make a user research summary clear, creative, and really useful, here are the main steps to follow:
#1 Review Your Research Finding Materials
To make your research summary more appealing, with some interesting data included, review the entire research content once again. Therefore, you’ll be able to focus on critical elements only.
#2 Create an Outline
It’s much better to write the summary after you planned its structure, which should cover the goals, the most important findings, and their details, methods, and participants, issues, and recommendations.
#3 Provide a Background of Your Research
It’s also good to describe the objectives using bullet points, as well as how they were achieved with your research. It will help readers understand the value of your research.
#4 List the Most Important Findings
Describe what readers need to know about your research, including numbers and findings that have the highest priority.
Remember, a clear summary makes it more useful and easy to learn.
#5 Include the Project Details
Test findings, methodology, and participants listed in a way that is easy to remember is going to be helpful.
#6 Issues You’ve Discovered During the Research
Explain the list of issues found during your research by clarifying details on each of them.
This will help you introduce the list of problems and provide some helpful information to the readers of your summary, or get them interested in a certain part of your report.
#7 Cover the List of Recommendations
This means what the report has shown, and what the next ideas for your research are. Feel free to use different structures (themes, bullets, fonts, and categories) for data visualization.
That trick will help you deliver the message clearly and concisely.
Tips for Making an Extraordinary User Research Summary
One of the critical things you should keep in mind while brainstorming the concept of your research is how you plan to present it.
Here, we would like to share some helpful tips to follow to make the most of your research summary.
Keep It Short and Simple
One of the best principles you should consider is to keep your content short and simple, which is also known as the KISS rule.
By avoiding complexity, you are more likely to deliver the right message to your audience, and also provide them only with the key information instead of tons of useless words.
This principle is now used everywhere: in architecture, art, technology, and more.
One of the most famous quotes of Leonardo da Vinci is: “Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.”
Break a Summary Into Different Sections
If your goal is information delivery, then you should avoid huge explanations and running into too many details in your user research summary.
This is also known as a ‘wall of text’ – content that contains tons of non-formatted text, so it’s difficult to understand it clearly.
The research summary should be separated into different sections for a better introduction of the goals, some important findings, and the issues you’ve encountered while conducting your research.
Write the Reports Consciously
A lot of reports are usually written in an over-optimistic tone instead of focusing on the information delivery, as most specialists from Essay Writing Service have said.
However, to help to deliver valuable data to users, it’s critical to explain all the data honestly so readers can make an informed decision and be aware of all the pitfalls that they can expect.
Attach a Presentation to Your User Research Summary
Needless to say, information visualization can greatly enhance the way consumers learn the research summary.
Applications like Canva can significantly drive people’s attention to the most important findings, which consequently boosts your research value.
Keep Focusing On the Core Idea of Research
You don’t need to share all the details.
In fact, it helps to better understand the research content and focus on presenting the results of the research goals achieved if you keep irrelevant details away.
By constantly referring to the most important data in your report, you’re less likely to lose your main findings.
Use Quotations
To make your user research summary more catching and original, you can also find some meaningful quotations related to the research topic.
This will help you steer discussions on the subject and allow for a better understanding of the subject of your analysis.
Format the Summary Content
To deliver your findings, it is also critical to format the research summary to include different format features, such as portioning the information into different H2s and H3s, adding some bullet points, numeral lists, bold fonts, and different styles.
However, this should be also used wisely so that it doesn’t override the information itself.
These methods will help identify the main research findings and decide whether the project is worth paying attention to.
Conclusion
In summary, user research summary should not only list the findings of your research but also make the data clear and informative.
To create an actionable user research summary, pay attention to the structure of your research, and visualize it with different headings, bullets, and portioning.
It will be easier for readers who don’t understand a certain topic.