Why designers value primary information — and how they collect and use it

In design practice, a broad idea called “user-centred design”—which places user needs and demands at the heart of product/service development—is widely accepted. However, when trying to truly understand users, relying only on secondary information such as internet content or books is insufficient. Statistical data, market reports and books are certainly useful, but what they deliver is ultimately someone else’s organised/ interpreted version of the user image. What a designer truly needs is the “raw voice” and “real action” that have not yet been processed by others. Hence, the attitude of valuing primary information is indispensable.

1-1. What is primary information?

Primary information refers to information “directly obtained from the actual site.” Specifically, examples include:

・Records of user interviews
・Observations in actual usage scenes (field-work)
・Original responses to customer questionnaires
・Data collected via behaviour logs or sensors
・Reactions or feedback when a prototype is tested

Primary information differs from secondary information in that it hasn’t been summarised or interpreted by someone else—it’s “live” data obtained when the designer goes to the site, engages with the user, and begins from their authentic voice. This becomes the starting point for deeply and accurately understanding users.

1-2. The limitations of secondary information

Although secondary information is convenient, it also has several limitations. Below are three representative reasons explaining why secondary information alone is inadequate:

1. Books/reports are based on the past

→ They reflect the user image at the time of investigation or publication, and may already be outdated—especially in our age of rapidly changing digital services and lifestyles.

2. A third-party summary/interpretation is included

→ Reports and papers always include the perspective or interpretation of the researcher or author. Even when the numbers or facts are the same, how they are summarised can change the impression. The “neutral” understanding a designer needs may thus become distorted.

3. Specific contexts or backgrounds are missing

→ Secondary information often lacks the specific situation the user is in, their emotional fluctuations, or lifestyle details. It becomes hard to see why users make certain choices or take certain actions—it remains at a surface level.

We live in an era where with one finger we can access the world’s information—but even if we access information on a smartphone in real time, that information is still someone else’s, already processed, about the past, and not information the designer has gained through their own experience.

In short: Secondary information is essentially knowing something by seeing it—and not by experiencing it. And that act of experiencing is what a designer must excel at. That is why getting one’s own primary information is so important.

1-3. Strengths of primary information

So what kind of benefits does obtaining primary information bring? For designers, primary information becomes the starting point for translating a user-centred stance into design and structure. Below are strengths that secondary information can’t deliver:

① You can observe the current reality in real time

→ Through interviews or field-work you can observe the challenges and behaviours the user is facing now. Because there is no time lag, you can directly capture the latest living conditions and social changes.

② You can sense what’s behind emotion and behaviour

→ Minor changes in expression, hesitation in gestures—things that rarely appear in numerical data or survey results—can be read. These serve as clues to user honest feelings and latent needs.

③ You can discover undiscovered problems and latent needs

→ From primary information, differences or inconveniences in daily life that haven’t been reported yet may emerge. These discoveries hold major potential for new products or services.  When you summarise the difference between primary and secondary information, it looks like the following:

Thus we can say that primary information is like “fresh produce” in information terms, and can become materials that tie more directly to the field.

That is why, rather than relying on secondary information via a “someone else’s filter,” designers going out to meet users directly and get their voices is truly where design hints are packed.

Unfortunately, although many designers understand the importance of primary information, there are still relatively few opportunities where they go to the client or user themselves and hear live voices. It is of course important to reference statistical data or market reports (secondary information), but from a user-centred design stance, neglecting to listen to actual user voices is a great pity.

So then, how should a designer actually collect primary information? Here, we introduce representative methods that even beginners can adopt, along with features and cautions for each.

2-1. User interviews

By directly speaking with target users, you can understand emotions, experiences and values that cannot be seen in numerical data—making this the most fundamental and effective method.  When conducting user interviews, keep these three points in mind:

① Ask open questions

→ Rather than questions that can be answered “yes/no,” ask things like “Why do you think so?” or “In what scenes do you usually struggle?” to allow them to speak freely.

② Create an atmosphere where the user can feel comfortable speaking

→ The interview should be a dialogue, not an interrogation. Don’t interrupt the user; be sure to listen, and respond positively.

③ Don’t lead the user

→ Avoid asking “…right?” expecting a certain answer. It’s important to draw out the user’s opinion from a neutral position.  (Practical examples)

・Before developing a new learning app, ask junior/high school students “How do you normally study?” to understand their learning environment.
・When considering a service for older adults, ask about daily living habits and shopping tips as everyday episodes.

2-2. Field work (Observation)

Field work is effective in understanding behaviours and habits that can’t be fully explained by words, and helps to discover unconscious actions and real-world inconveniences in the user’s environment.

When doing field work, the trick is to encourage natural user behaviour without making them feel observed. It’s also important not just to focus on the user’s actions—be aware of external environment factors like crowding, weather, sound or light.

It’s recommended to record what you observe in photos, videos or notes—these will help later in analysis. 

(Practical examples)

・Observe people shopping at a supermarket and check how much time they spend comparing products.
・Watch a user operating an app from beside them, observe hesitation of fingers, expression while looking at the screen, usage hesitance.

2-3. Questionnaire survey

Useful when you want to collect opinions from many people quickly. You can start easily with tools like Google FormsorTypeform

However, there are some points to keep in mind:

① Keep questions simple

→ Avoid technical terms or ambiguous expressions; use words anyone can understand.

② Combine multiple choice with free-answer

→ If you only use multiple choice, you may miss answers that don’t fit your intention—always include “Other” or a free-text field.

③ Capture respondent “attributes”

→ Knowing age, gender, occupation, usage environment, etc., helps to analyse trends in responses.

Example uses of questionnaires: Present several design proposals for a new product package and ask which design they prefer; collect usage frequency, satisfaction, and pain-points via a survey to improve an existing service. It’s a relatively easy method to know more about user attributes.

2-4. User Testing

A method in which users actually use a prototype (or existing service) and you observe their reactions. It is widely used in everything from digital services to product design.

The characteristic of user testing is that by watching actual user operations, you can discover issues the designer did not anticipate. It offers a major opportunity for product/service development and improvement. Also, even small-scale testing can bring big effects—sometimes even testing with 5–6 users can reveal improvement points.

When conducting user tests, here are three important points:

① Prepare a scenario

→ Create a scenario that imagines a usage situation the user might actually be in, such as “Please use this screen to book a ticket.”

② Prioritise observation

→ Even if the user remains silent, hesitation or confusion in their actions is a big hint—pay attention to their gestures and motions.

③ Ask for feedback after the test

→ Ask the user to reflect not only on what they did but also on what they thought or felt during the operation.

Collecting primary information not only improves the precision of user understanding, but also becomes an important process for the design team to share the user-reality. By combining: hearing their voices in interviews, seeing behaviour in observation, grasping trends via surveys, and verifying via user testing—you can build a more reliable design foundation.

Collected primary information is comprised of “raw voices” and “raw observations”. While extremely valuable, it doesn’t directly lead to design unless you organise it, extract insights, and utilise it as a team. Here are the basic steps for utilising it:

3-1. Organising the information

Large amounts of interview records or observation notes can be difficult to handle and easily get buried. First, you need to make them more visible and easy to manage. Some representative methods include:

Write short phrases on Post-its or digital tools

→Write short phrases on Post-its or digital tools, then place them on an online whiteboard like Miro or FigJam

Group similar items

→ Group similar items based on “same dissatisfaction” “similar usage scenes”, etc., so that patterns emerge（[remark id=KJ法 offset=]KJ method[/remark]、[remark id=Affinity法 offset=200]Affinity diagram[/remark]）

Consider frequency and importance separately:

“frequent issues” = high priority for improvements; “few but important issues” = seeds for new value creation/innovation.

3-2. Extracting insights

Simply arranging user information isn’t enough—you must dig into the voices and behaviours and find the why behind them, and identify the design implications (“insights”).

The main flow is:

1. Surface facts → underlying reasons → design implication

(Example)/p>

・Fact: The user abandons the app halfway
・Reason: oo many input fields and burdensome
・Implication: User interface should be simplified and steps reduced.

2. Use “5 Whys” (from Toyota Production System)

to dig into essential motives behind simple behaviour.

3. Pay attention to emotional changes.

Emotions like “It’s troublesome”, “I feel safe”, “It’s fun” are important clues directly tied to design.

3-3. Sharing within the team

Primary information is prone to being influenced by the collector’s interpretation, and if only one person judges it, bias may occur. By sharing across the team and examining it from multiple perspectives, reliability increases and next actions become clearer. Some approaches:

・Share via workshops:

→Each member brings the collected information and together the group summarises to gain diverse perspectives.

・Present users’ voices directly:

→Play short recordings or edited videos so the whole team can feel the user’s real emotion.

・Visualise and utilise:

→Convert into personas or [remark id=Customer Journey Map offset=]customer journey maps (which visualise the user’s sequence from recognition, interest, purchase, to customer, including thoughts, feelings, actions)[/remark]This becomes a common language for the project. When summarised, the flow of utilising primary information becomes:

This becomes a common language for the project. When summarised, the flow of utilising primary information becomes:

As a practical example of obtaining and using primary information, consider the project of designing a “café mobile app”. Suppose you obtain the following primary information via interviews/field-work:

1. From interviews: “During lunch time it’s crowded and I hate lining up.”
2. From observation: “Many people sit down and then order in the app.”
3. From questionnaire: “I want to consolidate my points card inside the app.”
4.From user testing: “The feature to reorder from order history is convenient.”

Given that primary information, what kind of insight and what kind of app can be imagined? When you combine them, you see that the desired app isn’t just a simple “ordering app”, but one that helps reduce waiting time and makes it easy for regular customers to use. Just by these user voices alone, you can see real conditions that cannot be obtained from statistics or customer data alone.

However, when it comes to the importance of primary information, many designers—even if they understand it—end up succumbing to secondary information. A common case is: “Because it’s trending that ‘XX’ is popular now…”. Even in the café mobile app example, while there may be apps trending in the food & drink industry, the question remains: “Is that app truly being required by users?” It could be that an app itself is not what’s being required. You must not forget that the essence lies in “why that person is facing trouble?”.

The importance of primary information lies in the fact that it reflects user reality. Designers must rely not on their own senses or tastes, nor solely on trends—but on information gathered by their own feet. Without the user reality, you cannot build user-centred design. Keep this in mind.

The collection and utilisation of primary information as introduced above is an invaluable weapon for designers when designing and planning. Even in the expanding field of design, the stance of valuing primary information will remain universal.

Collecting primary information is a creative process of listening to the user’s voice, observing their actions, and discovering the unnoticed problems or possibilities that no one else has yet. Additionally, gathering, organising and utilising primary information gives designers the power to gain deep user understanding and to identify the essence of problem‐solving. These are the keys to producing more user-centred and innovative design.

References:
・Ikeda Takeo: “The Existence of ‘Primary Information’ That Designers Without ‘Ambiguous Abilities’ Cannot Handle” (Bizzine)
・SHOEISHA: Business & IT book “Go to the Field to Hear the Customer’s Voice – The Importance of Gathering Your Own ‘Primary Information’” (note.com)