Answer the public series: Which UX Research method to use (cheatsheet)

A one page cheat sheet summary for how to approach popular research requests

UX Research can be a complicated area to work in. There are so many many layers to what you are working on when you really drill in to a particular study. Whether it is the methods you could be using, the biases you need to try and avoid, the UX principles/laws you should be considering or the mapping techniques you could be implementing. This only scratches the surface, and can go a lot deeper.

As part of my answer the public series and in order to make the process more digestible, I have put together a UX Research cheat sheet which can be used as a starting point for anyone being faced with some of the most common research questions. While it is a very simplified view, hopefully it can offer some form of guidance around how to conduct your research, as well as what additional elements you could introduce into it to enhance the findings.

The important thing to remember is that each research request will be have its own unique variables so this cheat sheet shouldn’t be treated as a fixed plan but as a reference guide.

There are also useful guides by Nielsen Norman who compile which method to use based on whether you are after attitudinal or behavioral research or wanting qual or quat insights which can be found here.