What is UX Research? Definition & methodologies
There are a number of skills you need to know to become a good UX Designer. You need to know Design Principles, UX Laws, User Testing, Data Analysis, and most importantly, UX Research Methods.
- “What is UX research?”
- “Why is UX research necessary?”
- “When do I UX research?”
- “What are the different UX research methods?”
- “Which method do I use and When?”
As a newbie UX designer, I struggled a lot with these questions, so today I’ll briefly answer them for you as simply as I can. Make sure you check out the listed sources for additional information.
What is UX research?
If you are a designer, you’ll know it’s something about designing with the end user in mind bla bla.. right?
“User research is how you will know your product or service will work in the real world, with real people. It’s where you will uncover or validate the user needs which should form the basis of what you are designing.” – Chris Mears
UX research is getting to know the end user of your product, their personalities, attitudes, behaviours, needs, motivations, and pain points. It’s a systematic investigation/observation of the product users to gather the information that will help guide the UX design process.
Why is UX research necessary?
Before you can start designing anything, you first need to suss out what user problem you’re trying to solve.
Any UX solution requires deep knowledge of the problem. Only then can a UX professional solve the problem. UX research is necessary because it–
- Helps identify the user demographic, market size & competition.
- Helps understand the user problems to solve.
- Helps systemise the design process.
- Helps decide features/ideas to be prioritised.
- Helps articulate user stories.
- Helps prove/disprove assumptions and ideas before and during design.
When do I UX research?
Although it is best to conduct UX research right at the beginning of the project, UX research is essential at every stage. However, it’s most impactful when done in the early stages. This way you can reduce the need to go back and make changes while the end product is user-focused from day one.
What are the different UX research methods?
Quantitative vs Qualitative Research Methods
Quantitative research is any research with measurable outputs — for example: What percentage of users speak Spanish? or How many users use the filter button? Quantitative research looks at the “what”.
Qualitative research is research that cannot be measured, counted or plotted on any chart — for example: While interviewing, the user might express the inconvenience faced while booking a cab. Feelings, reasons, and motivations behind certain actions are very valuable in UX, and these stories/feedback can be gathered using Qualitative research. Qualitative research looks at the “why”.
Behavioural vs Attitudinal Research Methods
There’s a big difference between what people think vs what people say. Attitudinal research is used to understand or measure attitudes and beliefs, whereas behavioural research is used to measure behaviours. For example, usability testing is a behavioural user research method that focuses on action and performance. By contrast, user research methods like user groups, interviews, and persona creation focus on how people think about a product.
Here’s a chart that plots some of the common research methods accordingly.
1. User Interviews
User interviews (also called in-depth interviews) are 30-60 minute one-on-one conversations with participants, in which a moderator asks questions about a topic of interest to gain a deeper understanding of the user’s attitudes, beliefs, desires and experiences.
User Interviews tend to be a quick and easy way to provide a good amount of qualitative data. However, the moderator must conduct it systematically and ask the right open-ended questions. Click below to read in-depth about User Interviews.
2. Focus Groups
A focus group is a research method where a small group of people (usually 6–9) is gathered to answer questions face-to-face, in a moderated meeting.
It is a qualitative method that helps understand users’ beliefs and opinions, usually for market research or gathering feedback on products, messaging, etc. The group is chosen due to predefined demographic traits, and the questions are designed to shed light on a topic of interest.
Focus groups can be a powerful tool in system development, but they should not be the only source of information about user behaviour. Click below to read in-depth about Focus Groups.
3. Diary Studies
In Diary Studies, researchers record the thoughts, feelings and behaviours of the user, over a period of time. It collects qualitative data by logging specific information about activities regarding the product being studied.
Diary research allows researchers to check in multiple times, record how their thoughts and feelings change over time and reflect on their answers. It encourages self-discovery, providing the participant with a different lens of insight to consider. Click below to read in-depth about Diary Studies.
4. Field Studies
Research that takes place in the environment of the user rather than from the researcher’s office or lab is known as Field Studies. The participant observes the user while they are working on their own activities, being uninterrupted. It’s a great method for uncovering context, unknown motivations, or constraints that affect the user experience.
The main advantage of conducting field studies is that the participant gets to fully immerse themselves in the shoes of the user and get a glimpse of the problem first-hand. This helps the participant to collect in-depth user stories. Click below to read in-depth about Field Studies.
5. Usability Testing
The phrase “usability testing” is often used interchangeably with “user testing.”
Usability testing is practically testing the users by letting them interact with the product, at the same time, taking notes and making observations about the users’ behaviour and interactions.
There are various methods to conduct usability tests, such as moderated vs. unmoderated or qualitative vs. quantitative — selecting the right one depends on your research goal, resources, and timeline.
The objectives of usability testing vary by methods used, but they usually include:
- Identifying problems in the design of the product or service.
- Uncovering opportunities to improve.
- Learning about the target user’s behaviour and preferences.
Click below to read in-depth about Usability Testing.
6. Tree Testing
Sometimes described as “backwards card sorting,” also bears a certain resemblance to first-click testing.
Tree testing involves showing the tester the architecture of the website and asking them where they would click to accomplish a goal. It helps evaluate the hierarchy, discoverability and navigation of topics on the website. Tree testing can answer questions like:
- Do my labels make sense to people?
- Is my content grouped logically to people?
- Can people find the information they want easily and quickly? If not, what’s stopping them?
Click below to read in-depth about Tree Testing.
7. Eye-Tracking
Eye tracking is the process of accurately measuring where people look, and for how long. In most cases, it is recorded so it can be viewed later. Using Eye-tracking is somewhat a similar research technique to heat-mapping where cursor movements and clicks are tracked and recorded.
Click below to read in-depth about Eye-Tracking.
8. A/B Testing
Also known as split testing or bucket testing.
A/B testing is a research method where the user is shown two versions of the same product, web page, app or concept to determine and compare which performs better. It’s a quantitative way of finding the best possible version of your product.
A/B testing can help you learn how small changes influence user behaviour, decide which approach towards design to implement, and confirms that a new design is going in the right direction. Click below to read in-depth about A/B Testing.
9. Analytics
UX Analysis is the measurement and analysis of user activity on a website or application that gives an insight into how its design can be tailored.
With the help of web analytics tools such as Google Analytics and Adobe Analytics, heat-map tools such as CrazyEgg and Hotjar, and real-time analytics tools, data can be collected and then used to make data-driven design decisions. Click below to read in-depth about Analytics.
10. Five-second Testing
Five-second testing is a form of usability testing that allows you to measure how well a design quickly communicates a message. This kind of test provides both quantitative and qualitative feedback that helps you optimize a design.
A five-second test is run by showing an image to a participant for just five seconds, after which the participant answers questions based on their memory and impression of the design. Why five seconds? Studies have found that visitors only spend a few seconds assessing your website before deciding whether to stay or leave. Click below to read in-depth about Five-second Testing.
11. Surveys
UX Surveys are a tool to collect valuable information from a group of users. They can be used for both qualitative studies, such as asking people for open-ended feedback and comments, as well as collecting quantitative data by tapping into a larger volume of responses. Surveys can include both closed-ended and open-ended questions
Click below to read in-depth about Surveys.
12. Card Sorting
Card sorting is a UX research technique for discovering how people understand and categorise information. Users are left with labelled cards and asked to arrange them in the order which makes the most sense to them. This method uncovers how the target audience’s domain knowledge is structured in an information architecture that matches users’ expectations.
To conduct a card sort, you can use actual cards, pieces of paper, or one of several online card-sorting software tools. Click below to read in-depth about Card Sorting.
Other UX Research Methods
Some of the methods that I left out (will be covered in later posts, so stay tuned):
- Sitemaps
- User Flows
- Competitive/Comparative Analysis
- Heuristic Evaluation
Which method do I use and When?
To choose the right UX research method, the problem you’re trying to solve must first be defined and understood. For this, you need to come up with questions like —
- “What do the users need?”
- “What are the users struggling with?”
- “How can I help the users?”
Usually, at the early stages of the project, you’d go with methods like Field Studies. Methods like Usability Testing or Tree Testing cannot be applied in the early stages of the project when the product is far from ready.
It's also a good practice to start with what you already have, drawing information from secondary research also helps the researcher to understand and decide where they are and which research method to go with. Ask questions like —
- “What do we already know?”
- “What do we need to discover?”
- “Do we need to introduce a new feature do we want to improve on the existing ones?”
When selecting a UX research method, consider your goals, resources, and timeline. Identifying these things at the start will help you choose the right method for you.
The best UX research method is the one that provides relevant, complete answers to your research question. The ideal method to use varies depending on your research project — what stage you’re in, what goals you want to achieve, and what resources you have.
I think that covers almost everything I know so far about UX research methods. Good luck on your learning journey. Thank you for reading all the way through! See you in my next post!
Feel free to comment with your thoughts & suggestions. Do leave a clap if you enjoyed reading! You can always find more of my work at www.theskazeez.com
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