Collecting user feedback is the key pillar to any successful product and for that you need to conduct ux research. Either you are a beginner level designer or a seasoned pro, it could be difficult at times to select the appropriate research methods. The key to conduct a successful research needs proper planning.
However, there are multiple other factors that needs to be considered while making your research plan like timeline, budget, etc. And I can bet you will not have unlimited amount of time for the same in real project.
In this article you will explore multiple ways of conducting research, checklist and step-by-step guide explaining when to use which method and how to present results with your stakeholders. So let’s get started.
Table of contents
- Introduction
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- What is UX Research?
- Benefits of UX Research?
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- Understanding the Role of a UX Researcher
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- Key responsibilities of a UX researcher.
- Differentiating UX research from UX Design
- Salary overview
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- Types of UX Research
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- Understanding different research methods
- How research methods are used in Product development
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- Planning and Conducting UX Research
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- Techniques to identify research goals
- Step-by-step guide to create a research plan
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- Analyze Research Findings
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- Types of analysis
- Importance of research findings
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- Applying UX Research to Design Decisions
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- How research findings influence design decisions
- Techniques for translating research insights into design solutions.
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Introduction
What is UX Research?
UX Research (aka User Experience Research) is a process of capturing and understanding users challenges, motivations, goals, needs, etc. while interacting with the product. The primary goal is to inform and guide the design process by uncovering valuable insights about users.
By conducting UX research, designers can make informed decisions that result in user-centric design solutions, leading to improved user satisfaction, engagement, and overall product success.
Benefits of UX Research
1. Understanding of users
You can get a deeper understanding of user needs, preferences, and pain points, etc. by doing user research. It can be difficult at times to get stakeholders support. With data-driven design it can be easier, as you will have data to back your suggestion.
2. Validating design decisions
As a designer you need to ensure that your design decisions are solving users problem and you can do that by gathering feedback and testing design concepts with real users. This process of iterative feedback will reduce the risk of developing ineffective solutions and make your design choices more data driven rather than assumptions.
3. Improving usability
As a designer you need to ensure that your design decisions are solving users problem and you can do that by gathering feedback and testing design concepts with real users. This process of iterative feedback will reduce the risk of developing ineffective solutions and make your design choices more data driven rather than assumptions.
4. Enhancing user engagement
As a designer you need to ensure that your design decisions are solving users problem and you can do that by gathering feedback and testing design concepts with real users. This process of iterative feedback will reduce the risk of developing ineffective solutions and make your design choices more data driven rather than assumptions.
5. Business success
As a designer you need to ensure that your design decisions are solving users problem and you can do that by gathering feedback and testing design concepts with real users. This process of iterative feedback will reduce the risk of developing ineffective solutions and make your design choices more data driven rather than assumptions.
Understanding the role of UX Researcher
Now that your are aware of what research is and its associated benefit, let us try to understand what a researcher does in their day-to-day work. In this section, we will try to uncover what kind of work you will be doing in this role, how this role is different from other disciplines and ofcourse 😀 the financials, how much you can make.
Key responsibilities of UX Researcher
UX Research (aka User Experience Research) is a process of capturing and understanding users challenges, motivations, goals, needs, etc. while interacting with the product. The primary goal is to inform and guide the design process by uncovering valuable insights about users.
By conducting UX research, designers can make informed decisions that result in user-centric design solutions, leading to improved user satisfaction, engagement, and overall product success.
Differentiating UX Research from UX Design
Salary overview
The insights shown below are the representation of data from Ambitionbox & Glassdoor. The actual data might vary when you’re reading due to multiple reasons. So readers should not consider this as the exact match during job search.
Types of UX Research
In this section we will learn the different research methods used in practice by UX Designers or UX Researchers and how you can implement them in your project.
Understanding different research patterns
Having good understanding on the different research methods is essential as it can help you select the appropriate method for your project. The choice of your research method depends mainly on the type of information you are trying to capture including your project goals. So let us see these research patterns and gain the knowledge needed to select the appropriate ux research method. You can also jump to learn about top 12 ux research methods or continue reading below.
Generative research
Generative research is one of easiest research method that helps you in getting better understanding of user needs, preferences, and behaviors. It helps in gathering insights and generating ideas to inform the design process.
The primary purpose is to generate ideas and concepts that drive the early stages of the design process. By using this technique and the methods associated with it, you will able to learn things as below:
- In-depth details about user’s action, thoughts and feeling
- Can provide guidance on creating the information architecture of your product.
- You can also get an insight into how your users behave and interact with their surrounding in their day-to-day life.
Generative research can be carried out in any stage of product life cycle. But ideal to use before product development as a way to capture requirements or in the early stage of the design process to evaluate an existing design.
Some of the common methods are user interviews, field studies, diary studies and stakeholder interviews.
Evaluative research
Evaluative research as the name suggest is used to evaluate a product feature or concept from usability prespective, measure the feature or product effectiveness, user satisfaction and improve the experience.
The goal of using this technique is to measure the effectiveness of your product by following an iterative design approach, where design changes and improvements are made based on user feedback and insights leading to continuous enhancement of the product. By using this technique, you will be able to learn insights as below:
- Gather quick feedbacks addressing usability issues
- Data-driven decision by reducing assumptions and relying on actual user feedback and behavior.
- Supports an iterative design approach, where design changes and improvements are made based on user feedback and insights
- Increased user satisfaction
Some of the common methods are Usability testing, Tree testing, Accessibility test, etc.
Quantitative research
Quantitative research is a method of gathering user data and measureable insights in a large quantity so that it helps researchers analyze trends, patterns, and statistical significance across a broader audience. Qualitative research often goes together with Quantitative research.
The purpose is to provide quantifiable insights that help inform design decisions, evaluate the impact of design changes, and measure user satisfaction. Some of the common types of quantitative results include:
- Time taken on task completion
- CES
- SUS
- Users choice on A/B testing
Methods used are: Usability testing, A/B testing, Surveys
Qualitative research
Qualitative user research is a method used in UX design to gather in-depth insights and understanding of user experiences, behaviors, and perceptions. The purpose of this method is to capture our users detail like pain points, goals, motivation as much as possible either either by observing them or doing interviews.
Some of the common research methods include:
- User interviews
- Focus group
- Ethnographic study
- Grounded theory
Attitudinal research
Attitudinal research is a qualitative research method that focuses on understanding people’s attitudes, beliefs, opinions, and motivations. It focuses on understanding the why behind people’s behaviors and seeks to uncover their subjective thoughts and feelings. By exploring attitudes, attitudinal research provides valuable insights into user preferences, emotions, and perceptions, which is helpful in design decisions.
Behavioral research
Behavioral research is a quantitative research method that examines and analyzes observable behaviors of individuals or groups. It aims to understand how people act, react, and make decisions in various contexts. By studying actual behaviors rather than relying solely on self-reported data, behavioral research provides valuable insights into user actions, patterns, and interactions. This empirical approach helps inform the design process by uncovering user behaviors, preferences, and usability issues, leading to the development of more effective and user-centered solutions.
How research methods are used in Product development?
The type of user research you want to do depends on the stage of your product development as each stage of your development has different research objectives and different question that needs answering.
Planning & conducting UX Research
Before you actually start conducting your research, there needs to be a good plan which should answer some of the below questions:
- What you want to learn by conducting the research? Is it about product, user, or any problem?
- For whom you want to conduct the research, like stakeholders, etc.?
- Assumptions and hypothesis that needs to be validated
Planning and understanding research goals
Before starting of your research work you should always create a research plan which generally consists of details like research goals, participant criteria, who will assist you in research, format of research insights, timeline, etc. But for doing right planning you need to understand the goals for research. Some of the goals for conducting UX research can be:
- Understanding user needs, preferences, challenges, etc.
- Trying to evaluate the usability issues of the product
- Gain insights for decision-making
- Identify areas of improvements
To understand the research goals you can follow these 3 simple steps:
- SMART – Your research goals or objectives needs to be Specific Measureable Achievable Relevant Time-based
- Keep limited number of goals, the less is always better
- Get stakeholder buy-in, approved by all stakeholders
Step-by-step guide to create a research plan
Analyze research findings
By now you already know how to create your research plan and conduct the same. In this section you will learn the different techniques to analyze your research findings.
Types of analysis
You have done all your hard work of meeting with users collecting valuable insights but its not the end. The real work actually starts now where you need to refine or convert those raw data into some actionable key findings which you would like to share with your team, stakeholders also anyone who might be interested. So to help you with the analysis of your data, I have two very interesting methods that might be helpful.
1. Atomic research model
Atomic research developed by Daniel Pidcock is the most simple method of analyzing your research data in just four simple steps. This method follows a linear process breaking down information and insights into smaller bite sized information which contains more useful information. Long story short, atomic research follows the concept of breaking knowledge down into its constituent parts as below:
- Experiments: What types of studies has been carried out which can be like user interviews, usability testing, surveys, etc.
- Facts: What you found out or facts gained from experiments like any quote, observation or statistic.
- Insights: What you learned or why you think you found this, which could be either of cause, context or effect or could be a combination of all
- Opportunities: How you can improve the experience and come to conclusive statements to provide actionable recommendations.
Additional resources, to learn more about Atomic Research model.
Talk: “Atomic UX Research for agencies” with Daniel Pidcock
Atomic UX Research – Considerly
2. Thematic analysis
Thematic analysis is a method in UX research to analyze and interpret data. It involves identifying patterns, themes, and key insights within the collected data to gain a deeper understanding of user experiences and perceptions. It is a powerful method for uncovering rich insights and patterns within qualitative data in UX research. Below is a five step guide to use in your project.
- Get yourself acquinted with your research data
- Look for codes to group data into themes
- Create themes across all research experiments or user interviews
- Create a story against all themes
- Report the findings
Importance of research findings
The ultimate goal of conducting any research is to have key findings that could shape your design project into context. Also it helps stakeholder prioritize the feature development keeping both user and business context. Below are some of the importance research findings:
- Increased conversion rates: UX research findings help optimize the user experience, leading to improved conversion rates. For example, implementing design changes based on research insights may result in a 20% increase in conversion rates on a website or app.
- Reduced user errors: Helps in identification of usability issues and pain points, leading to a reduction in user errors. For example: a product may experience a 30% decrease in user errors, resulting in a smoother and more efficient user experience.
- Increase in customer satisfaction: Inform design decisions that prioritize user satisfaction. For example: implementing changes based on user feedback may lead to a 40% increase in customer satisfaction ratings.
P.S. The specific metrics mentioned above are hypothetical and can vary based on the nature of the product, target audience, and research findings.
Applying UX research to design decisions
In this section you will learn how research findings are implemented in actual design.
How research findings influence design decisions
The research findings play a crucial role in influencing design decisions by providing valuable insights into user needs, preferences, and behaviors. Here are some ways research findings influence design decisions:
- Identifying pain points and usability issues
- Helps in feature prioritization
- Allows iterative design process
- Supports with quantitative data
Techniques for translating research insights into design solutions
After all UX is all about providing great experience to your users. To provide such experience you need to conduct good research. And good research means getting actionable insights which is then prioritized by your stakeholders for actual implementation. Here are three ways that can help you translate your research insights into design solutions.
- Focused research goals so that when the insights are presented it can be prioritized for development
- Have the stakeholders engaged all times through out the research process
- Align with your team ideate or do brainstorming on specific findings for next steps.
Download your research toolkit
Use this free toolkit in your next project to plan your research, select the right method by framing great research questions.
Conclusion
UX Research is a very interesting domain. If done right can have tremendous benefits for your product or service. There is not set rules as to how and what research methods to follow. It depends on your project requirements and also what you want to learn and why.
Download the free toolkit which can act as a started guide in your next project and don’t forget to like, share and subscribe.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is UX Research?
UX Design is an iterative method of solving users problems. The ultimate goal of UX is to make products functionable and enjoyable to end users.
What is the difference between UX Research vs User Research?
Both the process needs interacting with users or people. However, UX Research tries to understand how users interact with the product like any Usability Issues. While user research tries to understand behaviours, goals, challenges, etc. of user
Can I become a UX Researcher without a design degree?
While certification can provide a bonus in your resume and good to have a structured learning, but it’s not mandatory.
How much does a UX Researcher make in salary?
When it comes to salary, there are multiple factors to consider like job level, role that your hired, organization, etc. According to Ambitionbox review, an average salary of 10 LPA is paid out for an entry level candidate.
P.S This number might differ when you are actually viewing the article based on market situations.
Can I become a UX Researcher without a design degree?
UX Design is an iterative method of solving users problems. The ultimate goal of UX is to make products functionable and enjoyable to end users.
What you can do next?
- Download my free UX Research toolkit for your next project
- Download the UX roadmap to get started in UX Design
- Join my free upcoming short course in UX Design
- Visit my Youtube channel to learn more on UX Design
- Schedule a 1-1 call for mentorship in UX Design
