A need defines the survival element for life.

Defining ‘Needs’ in your UX questions

Not ‘Wants’

What is a ‘Need’? A need is something necessary for an organism to live a healthy life.

A need is not a want, rather, it is something required for a safe, stable and robust life while a want is a desire, wish or aspiration.

Example #1: Water

Need as necessity

Water is needed for life

Water makes up 60–75% of human body weight. A loss of just 4% of total body water leads to dehydration, and a loss of 15% can be fatal.[1]

Thus, if we were to conduct research on life sustainability in a desert environment, we’d have to address the need of such life first, which means, we’ll have to identify possible water sources that enable life forms to survive.

Research addressing water sources will have to be set as a priority, a primary need before anything else can get examined.

A baseline research question might be formulated as such:

A three-question overview to establish the presence of water which is needed for sustainable desert life. The more droplets are clicked on the right of the water column, the greater the chances for life to occur in this desert space.

These three basic questions about the desert’s water conditions show an important aspect of need-based…