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UX Research

What is ux research.

UX (user experience) research is the systematic study of target users and their requirements, to add realistic contexts and insights to design processes. UX researchers adopt various methods to uncover problems and design opportunities. Doing so, they reveal valuable information which can be fed into the design process.

See why UX research is a critical part of the UX design process.

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UX Research is about Finding Insights to Guide Successful Designs

When you do UX research, you’ll be better able to give users the best solutions—because you can discover exactly what they need. You can apply UX research at any stage of the design process. UX researchers often begin with qualitative measures, to determine users’ motivations and needs . Later, they might use quantitative measures to test their results . To do UX research well, you must take a structured approach when you gather data from your users. It’s vital to use methods that 1) are right for the purpose of your research and 2) will give you the clearest information. Then, you can interpret your findings so you can build valuable insights into your design .

“I get very uncomfortable when someone makes a design decision without customer contact.” – Dan Ritzenthaler, Senior Product Designer at HubSpot

We can divide UX research into two subsets:

Qualitative research – Using methods such as interviews and ethnographic field studies, you work to get an in-depth understanding of why users do what they do (e.g., why they missed a call to action, why they feel how they do about a website). For example, you can do user interviews with a small number of users and ask open-ended questions to get personal insights into their exercise habits. Another aspect of qualitative research is usability testing , to monitor (e.g.) users’ stress responses. You should do qualitative research carefully. As it involves collecting non-numerical data (e.g., opinions, motivations), there’s a risk that your personal opinions will influence findings.

Quantitative research – Using more-structured methods (e.g., surveys, analytics), you gather measurable data about what users do and test assumptions you drew from qualitative research. For example, you can give users an online survey to answer questions about their exercise habits (e.g., “How many hours do you work out per week?”). With this data, you can discover patterns among a large user group. If you have a large enough sample of representative test users, you’ll have a more statistically reliable way of assessing the population of target users. Whatever the method, with careful research design you can gather objective data that’s unbiased by your presence, personality or assumptions. However, quantitative data alone can’t reveal deeper human insights.

We can additionally divide UX research into two approaches:

Attitudinal – you listen to what users say—e.g., in interviews.

Behavioral – you see what users do through observational studies.

When you use a mix of both quantitative and qualitative research as well as a mix of attitudinal and behavioral approaches, you can usually get the clearest view of a design problem.

© Interaction Design Foundation, CC BY-SA 4.0

Use UX Research Methods throughout Development

The Nielsen Norman Group—an industry-leading UX consulting organization—identifies appropriate UX research methods which you can use during a project’s four stages . Key methods are:

Discover – Determine what is relevant for users.

Contextual inquiries – Interview suitable users in their own environment to see how they perform the task/s in question.

Diary studies – Have users record their daily interactions with a design or log their performance of activities.

Explore – Examine how to address all users’ needs.

Card sorting – Write words and phrases on cards; then let participants organize them in the most meaningful way and label categories to ensure that your design is structured in a logical way.

Customer journey maps – Create user journeys to expose potential pitfalls and crucial moments.

Test – Evaluate your designs.

Usability testing – Ensure your design is easy to use.

Accessibility evaluations – Test your design to ensure it’s accessible to everyone.

Listen – Put issues in perspective, find any new problems and notice trends.

Surveys/Questionnaires – Use these to track how users’ feel about your product.

Analytics – Collect analytics/metrics to chart (e.g.) website traffic and build reports.

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Whichever UX research method you choose, you need to consider the pros and cons of the different techniques . For instance, card sorting is cheap and easy, but you may find it time-consuming when it comes to analysis. Also, it might not give you in-depth contextual meaning. Another constraint is your available resources , which will dictate when, how much and which type of UX research you can do. So, decide carefully on the most relevant method/s for your research . Moreover, involve stakeholders from your organization early on . They can reveal valuable UX insights and help keep your research in line with business goals. Remember, a design team values UX research as a way to validate its assumptions about users in the field , slash the cost of the best deliverables and keep products in high demand —ahead of competitors’.

User research methods have different pros and cons,and vary from observations of users in context to controlled experiments in lab settings.

Learn More about UX Research

For a thorough grasp of UX research, take our course here: User Research – Methods and Best Practices

Read an extensive range of UX research considerations, discussed in Smashing Magazine: A Comprehensive Guide To UX Research

See the Nielsen Norman Group’s list of UX research tips: UX Research Cheat Sheet

Here’s a handy, example-rich catalog of UX research tools: 43 UX research tools for optimizing your product

Questions related to UX Research

UX research is a good career for those who enjoy working with a team and have strong communication skills. As a researcher, you play a crucial role in helping your team understand users and deliver valuable and delightful experiences. You will find a UX research career appealing if you enjoy scientific and creative pursuits. 

Start exploring this career option; see the User Researcher Learning Path .

Studies suggest that companies are also willing to pay well for research roles. The average salary for a UX researcher ranges from $92,000 to $146,000 per year.

In smaller companies, user research may be one of the responsibilities of a generalist UX designer. How much can your salary vary based on your region? Find out in UI & UX Designer Salaries: How Much Can I Earn .

Research is one part of the overall UX design process. UX research helps inform the design strategy and decisions made at every step of the design process. In smaller teams, a generalist designer may end up conducting research.

A UX researcher aims to understand users and their needs. A UX designer seeks to create a product that meets those needs.

A UX researcher gathers information. A UX designer uses that information to create a user-friendly and visually appealing product.

Learn more about the relationship between UX research and UX design in the course:

User Experience: The Beginner’s Guide

If we consider a very broad definition of UX, then all user research is UX research.

However, in practice, there is a subtle difference between user research and UX research. While both involve understanding people, user research can involve users in any kind of research question, and some questions may not be that directly connected to user experience.

For example, you might do user research relating to a customer’s experience in relation to pricing, delivery or the experience across multiple channels.

Common UX research methods are usability testing, A/B testing, surveys, card sorting, user interviews, usage analytics and ethnographic research. Each method has its pros and cons and is useful in different scenarios. Hence, you must select the appropriate research method for the research question and target audience. Learn more about these methods in 7 Great, Tried and Tested UX Research Techniques .

Get started with user research. Download the User Research template bundle .

For a deep dive into usability testing—the most common research method, take the course Conducting Usability Testing .

Having a degree in a related field can give you an advantage. However, you don’t need a specific degree to become a UX researcher. A combination of relevant education, practical experience, and continuous learning can help you pursue a career in UX research. Many UX researchers come from diverse educational backgrounds, including psychology, statistics, human-computer interaction, information systems, design and anthropology.

Some employers may prefer candidates with at least a bachelor’s degree. However, it does not have to be in a UX-related field. There are relatively fewer degrees that focus solely on user research.

Data-Driven Design: Quantitative Research for UX

User Research – Methods and Best Practices

Every research project will vary. However, there are some common steps in conducting research, no matter which method or tool you decide to use: 

Define the research question

Select the appropriate research method

Recruit participants

Conduct the research

Analyze the data

Present the findings

You can choose from various UX research tools . Your choice depends on your research question, how you're researching, the size of your organization, and your project. For instance:

Survey tools such as Typeform and Google Forms.

Card sorting tools such as Maze and UXtweak.

Heatmap tools such as HotJar and CrazyEgg

Usability testing (through first-click testing and tree-testing) tools such as Optimal Workshop and Loop 11

Diagramming applications such as Miro and Whimsical to analyze qualitative data through affinity diagramming.

Spreadsheet tools such as Google Sheets and Microsoft Excel for quantitative data analysis

Interface design and prototyping tools like Figma, Adobe XD, Sketch and Marvel to conduct usability testing.

Presentation tools such as Keynote, Google Slides and Microsoft PowerPoint.

Many of these tools offer additional features you can leverage for multiple purposes. To understand how you can make the most of these tools, we recommend these courses:

There are relatively fewer degrees that focus solely on user research.

While there are no universal research case study formats, here’s one suggested outline: 

An overview of the project: Include the problem statement, goals and objectives.

The research methods and methodology: For example, surveys, interviews, or usability testing).

Research findings

The design process: How the research findings led to design decisions.

Impact of design decisions on users and the business: Include metrics such as conversion and error rates to demonstrate the impact.

Optionally, include notes on what you learned and how you can improve the process in the future.

Learn how to showcase your portfolio to wow your future employer/client in the How to Create a UX Portfolio course.

While AI can help automate tasks and help UX researchers, it will not completely replace them. AI lacks the creativity and empathy that human designers bring to the table.

Human researchers are better at understanding the nuances of human behavior and emotions. They can also think outside the box and develop creative solutions that AI cannot. So, AI can help researchers be more efficient and effective through data analysis, smart suggestions and automation. But it cannot replace them.

Watch AI-Powered UX Design: How to Elevate Your UX Career to learn how you can work with AI.

Agile teams often struggle to incorporate user research in their workflows due to the time pressure of short sprints. However, that doesn’t mean agile teams can’t conduct research. Instead of seeing research as one big project, teams can break it into bite-sized chunks. Researchers regularly conduct research and share their findings in every sprint.

Researchers can involve engineers and other stakeholders in decision-making to give everyone the context they need to make better decisions. When engineers participate in the decision-making process, they can ensure that the design will be technically feasible. There will also be lower chances of errors when the team actually builds the feature. Here’s more on how to make research a team effort .

For more on bite-sized research, see this Master Class: Continuous Product Discovery: The What and Why

For more practical tips and methods to work in an agile environment, take our Agile Methods for UX Design course.

User research is very important in designing products people will want and use. It helps us avoid designing based on what we think instead of what users actually want.

UX research helps designers understand their users’ needs, behaviors, attitudes and how they interact with a product or service. Research helps identify usability problems, gather feedback on design concepts, and validate design decisions. This ultimately benefits businesses by improving the product, brand reputation and loyalty. A good user experience provides a competitive edge and reduces the risk of product failure.

Learn more about the importance of user research in the design process in these courses:

Design Thinking: The Ultimate Guide

Answer a Short Quiz to Earn a Gift

What is the primary purpose of UX research in design processes?

• To ensure the product is visually appealing.
• To reduce the cost of marketing the product.
• To understand user needs and enhance design decisions.

Which type of UX research do designers use to collect non-numerical data such as opinions and motivations?

• Behavioral research
• Qualitative research
• Quantitative research

Which UX research method involves users sorting terms into categories to help structure design logically?

• Card sorting
• Information architecture
• Usability testing

What is a potential drawback of using card sorting in UX research?

• It can be expensive and requires special software.
• It may not provide deep contextual insights.
• It only works for digital products.

How does UX research primarily benefit a design team in a business context?

• It focuses exclusively on the aesthetic aspects of product design.
• It reduces dependency on technology.
• It validates design assumptions and keeps products competitive.

Better luck next time!

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Literature on UX Research

Here’s the entire UX literature on UX Research by the Interaction Design Foundation, collated in one place:

Learn more about UX Research

Take a deep dive into UX Research with our course User Research – Methods and Best Practices .

How do you plan to design a product or service that your users will love , if you don't know what they want in the first place? As a user experience designer, you shouldn't leave it to chance to design something outstanding; you should make the effort to understand your users and build on that knowledge from the outset. User research is the way to do this, and it can therefore be thought of as the largest part of user experience design .

In fact, user research is often the first step of a UX design process—after all, you cannot begin to design a product or service without first understanding what your users want! As you gain the skills required, and learn about the best practices in user research, you’ll get first-hand knowledge of your users and be able to design the optimal product—one that’s truly relevant for your users and, subsequently, outperforms your competitors’ .

This course will give you insights into the most essential qualitative research methods around and will teach you how to put them into practice in your design work. You’ll also have the opportunity to embark on three practical projects where you can apply what you’ve learned to carry out user research in the real world . You’ll learn details about how to plan user research projects and fit them into your own work processes in a way that maximizes the impact your research can have on your designs. On top of that, you’ll gain practice with different methods that will help you analyze the results of your research and communicate your findings to your clients and stakeholders—workshops, user journeys and personas, just to name a few!

By the end of the course, you’ll have not only a Course Certificate but also three case studies to add to your portfolio. And remember, a portfolio with engaging case studies is invaluable if you are looking to break into a career in UX design or user research!

We believe you should learn from the best, so we’ve gathered a team of experts to help teach this course alongside our own course instructors. That means you’ll meet a new instructor in each of the lessons on research methods who is an expert in their field—we hope you enjoy what they have in store for you!

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User experience (ux) research: definition and methodology.

17 min read To build outstanding products and services for your customers, you need a thorough understanding of who they are, what they need and where their pain points and priorities lie. UX research helps you fully step into your customers’ shoes.

What do we mean by user experience?

User experience (UX) is a customer’s-eye view of your business as it relates to completing tasks and using interactive platforms and services.

It’s closely tied to the idea of customer experience (CX) , but rather than being a holistic view of your brand, it’s more focused on utility and usability testing – the hands-on side of things. You can think of UX as a sub-discipline of CX .

For example, CX research might consider how customers perceive a company’s customer service levels and how confident they feel in having their issues resolved. Meanwhile, UX research would focus on how successfully those customers navigate a self-service website, whether the language on that site is clear and how easy it is to use.

Free eBook: The essential website experience & UX playbook

What is user experience (UX) research?

User experience (UX) research is about diving deep into how customers interact with your brand on a practical, functional level, and observing how easily they can complete their tasks and meet their goals.

User research is the process of discovering the behaviors , motivations, and needs of your customers through observation, task analysis, and other types of user feedback . It can involve working directly with members of your target audience through UX testing sessions, remote session observation using digital tools, surveys to collect user feedback, and many more UX research methods and techniques.

Why is UX research important?

So what exactly is the value of user experience research? After all, you understand your business and its workings better than anyone. How can uninformed external users help you learn more?

The fresh perspective of your end-users is exactly why UX research is so valuable. Because they’re not already immersed in your language, processes, and systems, user testing participants are in the best position to help you see where things might be confusing to a newcomer who isn’t involved with your business.

Better yet, they can show you where confusion or frustration might lead a new or potential customer to miss out on product benefits, fail to convert, or even give up and look toward your competitors instead.

In areas like new product design and development , user research allows you to head off potential issues with products and services before they even hit the shelves. You can design the product correctly the first time, instead of having to fix it later when customers are unhappy.

Simply put, UX research is critical because it keeps you from wasting time, money, and effort designing the wrong product or solution. It’s valuable for all areas of your business and yields clear benefits for your product, your users, and your bottom line.

• Product benefits By asking your customers for direct feedback about a potential product, you can discover how and when customers prefer to use a product, what pain points your product will solve, and how to improve your product design .
• User benefits UX research is unbiased feedback, straight from the most valuable source: your customers. Because this type of research is not biased by investors, company leaders, or outside influences, it is the best resource for getting actionable product feedback.
• Business benefits Knowing what your users value helps you spend less time and money fixing flawed designs, speeds up the product development process , and increases customer satisfaction.

UX research helps brands and organizations to:

• Understand how users experience products, websites, mobile apps, and prototypes
• Evaluate and optimize prototypes and ideas based on UX research discoveries – and nail the design and experience early in a product’s life cycle
• Unearth new customer needs and business opportunities
• Find and fix hidden problems with products and services that arise in real-world use cases
• Make informed decisions through the product development process by testing various aspects of product designs
• Provide user experiences that outperform other businesses in your sector ( UX competitor research )
• Understand each user interaction across complete customer journeys
• Build a richer, more useful picture of your target audiences for better marketing and advertising

What’s the ROI of performing UX research?

The ROI of UX research is tricky to pin down because there often isn’t a direct, easy-to-spot correlation between time spent on it and resulting revenue. UX research can and does drive revenue, but it more directly influences metrics that show customer satisfaction, customer retention, and behavioral goals like user signups.

A simple way to draw a straight (if basic) line between UX research and its associated ROI is to calculate your conversion rate, where ‘conversion’ simply means completing the action you had in mind:

Number of people who took your desired action

—————————————————————       x 100

Total visitors/users

That percentage can be calculated and revisited over time to see how UX changes resulting from your research are having an effect.

Generally, when we talk about ROI, we’re talking about the highest possible rates of return you can attribute to an investment. But – while PWC research suggests that ROI on UX research can rise to as high as 301% – it’s better not to get caught up in absolutes with operational data like revenue.

Instead, it’s worth thinking more about the benefits that come out of tracking human behavior associated with improving your UX in general.

For example, IBM research states that 3 out of 5 users think that a positive user experience is more influential than strong advertising, while Forrester Research estimates that as many as 50% of potential sales fall through because users can’t find the information they need.

Thorough UX research can also cut a project’s development time by up to 50% .

Ultimately, when trying to track the ROI of your time spent doing quantitative and qualitative research on UX, you want to look at behavior and sentiment. If your main goal is website use, you should notice a decline in bounce rate as a sign of positive ROI. If you sell services, run regular CSAT surveys to determine how satisfied customers are with everything.

You might also find that data in unusual places. For example, if you spot a decline in chatbot requests around how to do or perform certain actions, or for information, then you know your new UX implementations are working as desired.

Those kinds of behavioral data points will shine a light on how worthwhile your UX research has been more readily than changes in revenue.

User experience research methods

The type of UX research techniques you choose will depend on the type of research question you’re tackling, your deadline, the size of your UX research team, and your environment.

There are three research dimensions to consider as you decide which methods are best for your project:

Attitudinal and behavioral

“Attitudinal” refers to what people say, while “ behavioral ” refers to what people actually do – and these are often very different. Attitudinal research is often used in marketing because it measures people’s stated beliefs and needs. However, in product design and user experience research, what people do tends to be more relevant.

For example, A/B testing shows visitors different versions of a site at random to track the effect of site design on conversion and behavior.

Another behavioral method is eye tracking, which helps researchers understand how users interact and visually engage with the design of an interface by following their gaze.

Qualitative and quantitative methods

Quantitative UX research studies collect and analyze results, then generalize findings from a sample to a population. They typically require large numbers of representative cases to work with and are structured in their approach.

Quantitative research uses measurement tools like surveys or analytics to gather data about how subjects use a product and are generally more mathematical in nature. This type of inquiry aims to answer questions like ‘what,’ ‘where’ and ‘when’.

Qualitative research methods, on the other hand, gather information about users by observing them directly, as in focus groups or field studies.

Qualitative research aims to understand the human side of data by gaining a sense of the underlying reasons and motivations surrounding consumer behavior. It tends to use small numbers of diverse (rather than representative) cases, and the data collection approach is less structured. Qualitative methods are best suited to address the ‘how’ or ‘why’ of consumer behavior.

Qualitative UX research methods

Several UX research methodologies can help UX researchers answer those big ‘how’ and ‘why’ questions, and influence the design process of any product or service you’ve got cooking. Here are just a few …

1. Participatory design

In participatory design, people are asked to draw or design their own best-case version of the tool, product, or service in question. This gives UX researchers the ability to ask qualitative questions about why specific choices have been made. If multiple participants make similar choices, it’s easy to spot patterns that should be adopted.

You might ask participants how they would redesign your website. While their responses will naturally vary, you might spot that several of them have moved your site’s navigation to a more prominent spot, or have moved the checkout from the left of the screen to the right.

2. Card sorting

Card sorting involves giving participants a range of cards that represent business-specific topics and asking them how they would sort them into groups. UX researchers are then able to probe into why their audience might group certain things, and make changes to existing offerings as a result.

If you have a wide range of products and solutions, card sorting would be a useful way to gauge how your target audience would naturally bucket them on your website. A furniture seller, for example, might use this technique to find that people are naturally inclined to group items by room, rather than by furniture type.

3. Diary studies

If you’d like to know how the UX of your product or service varies over time or throughout the length of its use, a diary study can help. Here, participants are given a way to record their thoughts as they set about using the product or service in question, noting things that occur to them as they go. This is useful as it provides real-world insight over a longer period than a one-off focus group.

Giving people access to an early build of an app and asking them to keep usability testing notes can highlight pain points in the user interface. In a one-off focus group, having to tap three times to get to an oft-used screen might seem fine – whereas participants are more likely to find it annoying in the day-to-day. This kind of longer-term usability test can provide really valuable insights.

Both quantitative and qualitative UX research methodologies can be useful when planning the design and development of your brand presence, as well as for usability testing when it comes to product and service design.

Context-of-use

By collecting and analyzing information about users, the intended use of the application, the tasks they perform with the application, and the technical constraints presented by the application, context-of-use analysis allow UX researchers to better understand the overall experience.

Typically, context-of-use analysis data is collected through research surveys, focus groups, interviews, site visits, and observational studies.

Context-of use-analysis is one method for identifying the most important elements of an application or product in the context of using that application or product. This type of UX research is typically done early in the product lifecycle and continued as data identifies which components of the product and UX are most critical.

Types of user research tools

There are many types of user research methods for discovering data useful for product design and development. Below are some common examples of tools user experience researchers may use to gather information and draw insights into mental models, or users’ thought processes.

UX research surveys or questionnaires can discover data at scale through in-person or remote polling, with specific questions designed to collate useful information about user experience.

User groups or focus groups are a form of a structured interview that consults members of a target audience on their experience, views, and attitudes towards the product or solution. They usually involve neutral parties, such as a moderator and note-taker, and are led by a researcher who asks open-ended questions focused on specific aspects of an investigation.

User interviews are one-on-one structured interviews with a target audience member, led by a UX researcher to understand more about personal experiences with the product. These user interviews can be directed to compare and contrast answers between users, or non-directed, where users lead the conversation.

Ethnographic interviews take place within the target users’ typical environment to get a better context-of-use view. Field studies and site visits are similarly observational in nature, and take place in situ where the product or service is used, but may involve larger groups.

This is not a comprehensive list of research techniques but represents some of the main ways UX researchers might perform usability testing or trial UX design.

When to conduct user experience research

Before launching a new product or service, understanding user preferences that could impact your design or development is key to success. The earlier user experience research is performed, the more effective the end product or service will be, as it should encompass the insights learned about your target audience.

As a product and service’s use and value evolve over its lifecycle, the user experience will change over time. User research should be undertaken on an ongoing basis to determine how to adapt to users’ new needs and preferences.

Five basic steps to conducting UX research

If you’re new to UX research, here’s a step-by-step list of what to consider before you begin your UX testing program:

• Objectives What do you need to find out about your users and their needs?
• Hypothesis What do you think you already know about your users?
• Methods Based on your deadline, project type, and the size of your research team, what UX research methods should you use?
• Process Using your selected UX research method(s), begin collecting data about your users, their preferences, and their needs.
• Synthesis Analyze the data you collected to fill in your knowledge gaps, address your hypothesis and create a plan to improve your product based on user feedback.

Qualtrics makes UX research simple and easy

User experience research and user testing are multifaceted and can involve a lot of both quantitative and qualitative data. To ease the process and make sure it is efficient and scalable, it’s best conducted using a highly responsive platform that allows you to collect data, analyze trends and draw conclusions all in one place.

Whether you need attitudinal or behavioral insights, Qualtrics is your go-to solution for collecting all kinds of UX data and making use of it in the context of your wider CX program .

Conduct in-person studies or send beautifully designed surveys easily and quickly, and view your results via custom dashboards and reports using the most sophisticated research platform on the planet.

Related resources

User experience 20 min read, user experience surveys 9 min read, ux research tools 8 min read, user analytics 11 min read, rage clicks 11 min read, user experience analytics 10 min read, website user experience 14 min read, request demo.

Ready to learn more about Qualtrics?

UX Research: ¿Qué es, importancia, razones para hacerla y mitos?

Información sobre la investigación de ux: importancia, razones para hacerla y su papel fundamental en el diseño de ux.

Maye Vaca | Mayva

El concepto de experiencia de usuario (UX) es fundamental en el mundo de los productos digitales. En el corazón de la mejora de esta experiencia se encuentra la investigación de UX, un enfoque disciplinado para comprender a los usuarios y sus necesidades.

¿Qué es la investigación de la experiencia del usuario (UX)?

El concepto de Experiencia de Usuario (UX) es esencial en el ámbito de los productos digitales. En el núcleo de la optimización de esta experiencia se halla la investigación de UX, un método riguroso y disciplinado que se centra en entender a los usuarios y sus necesidades.

Don Norman: El término “UX” (youtube.com)

No hay UX sin User Research

Pero ¿En qué consiste User Research?

Este es un enfoque un enfoque bien estructurado para para entender cómo los individuos interactúan con el producto, su comportamiento, las necesidades y motivaciones que los impulsaron a utilizar dicho producto, y sus aspiraciones (lo que buscan lograr). Por ejemplo, la meta podría no ser simplemente enviar un correo electrónico, sino mantener una comunicación constante.

Como investigadores, nuestra responsabilidad es intentar descifrar esta dimensión subjetiva que las personas aspiran a alcanzar a través del producto y transmitir ese conocimiento al equipo para facilitar la toma de decisiones más fundamentadas.

Importancia de la investigación de UX

La industria tecnológica está en constante evolución, lo que requiere un entendimiento profundo de cómo los usuarios interactúan con los productos digitales. Aquí es donde la investigación de UX se vuelve crucial, ya que proporciona información invaluable sobre el comportamiento, las necesidades, las motivaciones y las aspiraciones de los usuarios.

Este conocimiento te permitirá identificar los puntos de frustración en tu UX, realizar ajustes y motivar a los clientes a seguir utilizando tus productos. Esto conduce a la creación de productos que están más alineados con las expectativas del usuario, resultando en una mayor satisfacción del usuario, una mayor lealtad y un mejor rendimiento del producto en el mercado.

En áreas como el diseño y el desarrollo de nuevos productos, la investigación de UX ayuda a prevenir posibles problemas con los productos o servicios antes de que sean utilizados por el usuario final. El objetivo es diseñarlos correctamente desde la primera vez, en lugar de tener que corregirlos después cuando descubras que los clientes no están satisfechos.

Por lo tanto, podemos afirmar que la investigación de UX es esencial. Te ayuda a evitar perder tiempo, dinero y esfuerzo en el diseño de un producto equivocado.

Razones para hacer una investigación de UX

Aquí te presento algunas razones para hacer una investigación UX:

• Entiendes las necesidades, expectativas y dificultades de tu usuario.
• Obtienes una nueva visión del diseño de tu producto.
• Creas productos digitales que fascinan a tu cliente.
• Minimizas los prejuicios de los inversores o líderes de la empresa sobre cómo debería ser el diseño del producto.
• Evitas gastar dinero, tiempo y recursos en productos que no son efectivos.
• Previenes errores antes de que el usuario final utilice el producto.
• Proporcionas una excelente experiencia digital para tu usuario.
• Diseñas un producto digital superior al de tu competencia.

Mitos del User Research

Existen varios mitos sobre la investigación de UX que pueden desalentar a las personas a incorporarla en su proceso de diseño. Aquí te presento algunos de ellos y cómo puedes superarlos:

• Es muy costoso : No necesitas invertir en herramientas o recursos costosos. Existen alternativas asequibles que pueden ser igual de efectivas.
• Es muy difícil : Puedes simplificar el proceso dividiéndolo en partes más pequeñas y manejables.
• Es el trabajo de alguien más : Como diseñador, es nuestra responsabilidad comprender a los usuarios. Un consejo útil es incluir a usuarios o programadores en las pruebas de usabilidad para sensibilizarlos sobre la importancia de la UX.
• Es muy tardado : Las pruebas de usabilidad pueden realizarse en un corto período de tiempo, como dos semanas, utilizando métodos como el guerrilla testing.
• Trabajamos bajo una forma ágil : La agilidad está más relacionada con la flexibilidad. Por lo tanto, es posible incorporar la investigación de UX en este esquema de trabajo.

Incorporar la investigación de UX en tu proceso de diseño te ayudará a crear productos más exitosos. Estos productos no solo brindarán una buena experiencia a tus clientes, sino que también satisfarán de manera efectiva sus necesidades y resolverán problemas reales. Al final, esto te dará una ventaja competitiva en el mercado.

Written by Maye Vaca | Mayva

Te ayudo a optimizar tus experiencias de usuario a través del diseño web, UX, UI y Branding. 📲

Text to speech

• User Research

User Research: todo lo que necesitas saber

• Gabriela Pérez
• agosto 31, 2021
• 0 comentarios

¿Qué es el User Research?

Todo gira en torno a la experiencia de usuario, métodos y técnicas de ux research (user research), ¿cómo obtener personas para investigación de usuarios .

Consumir un producto o servicio cuyo precio por pagar vaya de la mano con la calidad de la experiencia que ofrece es, la mayoría de las veces, el gran motor de los consumidores. -Y ojo, este precio no siempre es un valor monetario.

Como una consumidora promedio y en lo personal, yo no tenía idea de lo que había detrás una UI. Mi única motivación era consumir un producto fresco y bueno, y si se trataba de conseguirlo de forma digital, que encontrarlo fuera lo más sencillo posible.

No fue sino hasta que comencé a adentrarme en la investigación de mercados, que entendí lo valiosas que son mis experiencias como usuaria, y que detrás de mi preferencia por aquellas interfaces, bienes y servicios que siempre terminaba eligiendo por encima de otros, se encontraba el User Research y el diseño UX. 

Si eres una marca que busca posicionarse en el mercado, o como yo alguna vez lo fui, una usuaria que desconoce la potencia de sus opiniones, en este artículo te comparto algunos básicos para entender la importancia de la Investigación de Usuarios o User Research

No hace muchos años que el mundo digital todo comenzó a girar entorno al usuario. Las interfaces que comenzaron a darle peso a las opiniones y preferencias de quienes las utilizaban, para mejorar sus experiencias de interacción, comenzaron a cobrar relevancia, y a prevalecer por encima de las que no invertían recursos en la escucha de sus usuarios. Hoy en día, es imposible pensar en una marca exitosa, que no cuente con un equipo especializado en UX design.

Esto es muy fácil de comprender para el marketing tradicional, que sostiene que no es suficiente con obtener la atención. Hay que ir incluso más allá de la aceptación. Los consumidores deben asimilar, sentirse cómodos e identificados con una marca, para sobrevivir en el competitivo mercado, donde una idea existe miles de veces. 

Si no lo estás leyendo entre líneas, te lo digo de una vez: la investigación de usuarios es -o debería ser- la herramienta principal para un diseñador de experiencias. ¿Cómo sería posible vender un producto sin saber quién lo compraría?

Que la experiencia ofrecida sea agradable, es el mínimo requerimiento. Ya que toda marca está en una lucha constante por mucho más que la atención, conectar con los usuarios es el verdadero reto.

¿Por qué hacer Investigación de Usuario o User Research?

Pero conectar con los usuarios no es tarea fácil. La vida de la sociedad hiperconectada evoluciona rápidamente y como tal debe evolucionar el marketing y diseño digital para adaptarse a ella. 

En esta interminable competencia, el ganador será siempre aquel producto que logre conectar mejor con el usuario, con el que más se identifique, la interfaz que le sea más fácil de navegar, que sea intuitiva y le comprenda a la perfección, sin exagerar, ¡casi como si de su pareja sentimental se tratase! 

Bueno, tal vez sí es un poco exagerado. 

La investigación UX emplea métodos y técnicas extraídas del método científico y de la investigación social, para nutrir su objetivo de conocer a fondo a los usuarios.

Un user researcher utiliza las reiteradas metodologías cuantitativas , para medir datos cuantificables, y cualitativas para recolectar los datos que no pueden ser reducidos a cifras. Esto se logra mediante la aplicación de técnicas como encuestas, etnografías , entrevistas, focus groups, entre otros. 

Además, es preciso que la mayoría de humanas y humanos somos seres incongruentes en el decir y en el hacer. En su artículo, Metodología de Investigación en estudios de usuarios , Carmen Martin Moreno señala que los métodos de recogida de información distinguen en dos, según los datos buscados:

• Directo se busca conocer la opinión que expresa un usuario.
• Indirecto se busca conocer su comportamiento. 

El uso diferenciado de una u otra técnica y metodología dependerá de la naturaleza del objeto del estudio y será determinado dentro del protocolo en el diseño del proyecto de investigación. Resultan conclusiones nutritivas al emplear técnicas provenientes de ambos métodos y metodologías de recolección de datos.

¿Quienes son usuarios?

Como bien lo expresa uno de los magnéticos slogans de los gigantes en UX Nielsenn Norman Group ; Audience is everything.

La audiencia es la suma de usuarios que se encuentran consumiendo contenido en un  tiempo determinado. Un usuario somos todos. Todos, pues mientras comamos y bebamos, a diario hacemos uso de las tecnologías de la información y consumimos productos digitales. 

Nadie conoce mejor al usuario que las agencias de mercado. Ellas están especializadas en diseñar experiencia de usuarios, llevando a cabo procesos de investigación. También cuentan con los medios para reclutamiento de usuarios para recolección de datos en las etapas de investigación de campo. 

La investigación de usuarios es -o debería ser- la herramienta principal para un diseñador de experiencias.

Si lo que se busca son datos indirectos , que documenten el comportamiento real de los usuarios más que su discurso, habrá que conocer la conducta de interacción mediante bases de datos. Google Analytics es una herramienta que permite analizar este tipo de información.

Otro método asociado es el story mapping, que involucra a las llamadas historias de usuario o user stories , además de la organización de un producto digital que permita brindar una orientación al desarrollador.

Si lo que se requiere es información directa , Existen muchas formas de reclutar participantes o “informantes”. Un user researcher puede emplear métodos como la bola de nieve, donde identifica a un potencial infórmate y este le conecta con otras personas relacionadas. Contacta a través de bases de datos de personas interesadas previamente registradas. O a partir de segmentos de la población identificados en investigaciones previas. 

Si se necesita evaluar un proyecto ya existente, puede incluir soluciones como encuestas de satisfacción ancladas en el website del producto en cuestión.

Los datos obtenidos serán posteriormente analizados y se convertirán en información valiosa para la mejora y optimización de los productos y experiencias.

Referencias

Martin Moreno, C.(2007)  Metodología de Investigación en Estudios de Usuarios. Revistas.ucm. Universidad Complutense de Madrid. España. Disponible en: https://revistas.ucm.es/index.php/RGID/article/viewFile/RGID0707220129A/9407

investigación UX , UI/UX , user research

Editado Por: Gabriela Pérez

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What is UX Research: The Ultimate Guide for UX Researchers

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User experience research is a crucial component of the human-centered design process and an essential part of creating solutions that meet user expectations and deliver value to customers. This comprehensive guide to UX research dives into the fundamentals of research and its various methods and includes tips and best practices from leading industry experts.

Make informed design decisions with user research

Validate ideas, test prototypes, assess usability, and deliver real, actionable insights to your product team.

UX research: Your ultimate guide to nailing user experience and exceeding expectation

User experience research, or UX research , is the process of gathering insights about users' behaviors, needs, and pain points through observation techniques and feedback methodologies. It’s a form of user research that looks at how users interact with your product, helping bridge the gaps between what you think users need, what users say they need—and what they actually need.

The goal of UX research is to understand your users and gain context and perspectives to help make informed decisions and build user-centered products. It’s an essential part of designing, developing, and launching a product that will be an instant hit—but it should also be used throughout the product’s lifecycle post-launch to keep updated, and ensure new features are relevant to your audience.

As Sinéad Davis Cochrane , UX Manager at Workday, explains: “UX research represents insights gathered directly from users and customers, that helps you make product decisions at every stage of the development process.”

Is UX research the same as user research?

The terms ‘user research’ and ‘UX research’ are often used interchangeably, but they do differ. User research is the parent of UX research; it’s a broader research effort that aims to understand the demographics, behaviors, and sentiments of your users and personas.

UX research, on the other hand, is a type of user research that’s specific to your product or platform. Where user research focuses on the user as a whole, UX research considers how they interact with, respond to, and feel about your product or concept itself.

In both cases, the overarching goal is to get to know your users, understand what they need from your product, gain context to help make informed decisions, and build human-centered experiences.

Involve your users at every stage of your design process

Create research projects with Maze using customizable templates, and start making data-informed product decisions

Why is conducting UX research important?

In an ideal world, users would find your product easy to navigate, your net promoter score (NPS) would be off the charts, and you’d see adoption and activation rates skyrocket. In reality, however, this can be a challenging dream to achieve—but it is possible. The only way to build a product that users really resonate with is by involving them throughout the development process and building with them.

UX research is more than just a single ‘step’ in the development process: it should happen continuously, throughout the product lifecycle—so whether you’re building new products or iterating on existing ones, every decision is informed by user insights.

Here’s what you can achieve with continuous UX research:

Make informed decisions based on data

Our 2023 Continuous Research Report shows that 74% of people who do research (PWDR) believe research is crucial to guiding product decisions. Plus, 60% of respondents find that user recommendations inspire new product ideas.

Getting stakeholder buy-in to product decisions can be challenging, but when you suggest changes based on UX research, you have data to back up your suggestions. Your users inform your product, becoming the decision-makers as well as the customer.

UX research helps reduce and mitigate the risk of building the wrong thing—or building the right thing in the wrong way.

Sinéad Davis Cochrane , UX Manager at Workday

Reduce bias in the UX design process

There are hundreds of cognitive biases identified by psychologists, many of which unknowingly influence our decisions and the products we build. But a key principle of great UX design is to put aside existing beliefs, and learn from your users.

“You have to be humble, optimistic, and open-minded,” says Bertrand Berlureau , Senior Product Designer at iMSA. Using effective UX research, you can root out bias or assumptions, and follow real human behavior to inform product decisions.

According to Sinéad, you should consider these questions early in the design process:

• “What are your assumptions?”
• “What are some of the assumptions you’ve been making about your end-users and product without any evidence?”
• “What are the anecdotes or coincidental pieces of information that you hold, and how can you challenge them?”

Biases can subconsciously affect research and UX design, and it can be tricky to identify them. The first step to overcoming cognitive biases is by being aware of them. Head to chapter three of our cognitive biases guide to discover how.

Test and validate concepts

The power of UX research is that it can prove you right or wrong—but either way, you’ll end up knowing more and creating a product that provides a better user experience. For Bertrand, an idea without a test is just an idea. So, before the design process, his team starts with these user research methods:

• Face-to-face and remote user interviews
• Focus groups
• Co-creativity sessions through design sprints, quick prototyping, and hypothesis concepts
• User testing

UX research is the only way to unequivocally confirm your product is solving the right problem, in the right way. By speaking directly to real users, you can pinpoint what ideas to focus on, then validate your proposed solution, before investing too much time or money into the wrong concept.

Work on solutions that bring real value to customers

Another main benefit of UX research is that it allows product teams to mitigate risk and come up with products users want to use. “One of the main risks we need to control is whether users actually want to use a solution we've implemented,” explains Luke Vella , Group Product Manager at Maze. “UX research helps us reduce this risk, allowing us to build solutions that our customers see as valuable and make sure that they know how to unlock that value.”

Luke works on pricing and packaging, an area that requires constant user research. On one hand, he and his team want to understand which problems their users are facing and come up with plans to satisfy those different needs. On the other hand, they need to make sure they can monetize in a sustainable way to further invest in the product. You can only get this perfect balance by speaking to users to inform each step of the decision.

Market your product internally and externally

UX research also plays a crucial role in helping product marketers understand the customer and effectively communicate a product's value to the market—after all, a product can only help those who know about it.

For example, Naomi Francis , Senior Product Marketing Manager at Maze, uses different research methods to inform marketing strategy. Naomi conducts user interviews to build personas, using user research to collect insights on messaging drafts, product naming, and running surveys to gather user feedback on beta products and onboarding.

Understanding how and why customers need and use our product pushes marketing launches to the next level—you can get a steer on everything from messaging to language and approach.

Naomi Francis , Senior Product Marketing Manager at Maze

Types of UX research

All UX research methods fit into broader UX research techniques that drive different goals, and provide different types of insight. You can skip to chapter seven for a rundown of the top 9 UX research methods , or keep reading for a deep dive on the main types of UX research:

• Moderated and unmoderated
• Remote and in-person
• Generate and evaluate
• Qualitative and quantitative
• Behavioral and attitudinal

Where moderated/unmoderated and remote/in-person refer to the way research is conducted , the other types of UX research reflect the type of data they gather.

The most powerful insights come from a mixture of testing types—e.g. attitudinal and behavioral, generative and evaluative, and quantitative and qualitative. You don’t need to run all types of research at all times, but you’ll benefit from gathering multiple types of data throughout different stages of product development.

Moderated research

Moderated research is any research conducted with a facilitator or researcher present. A moderator may observe research sessions and take notes, ask questions, or provide instruction to participants where needed.

Like all research, it’s crucial a moderator doesn’t overly guide participants or influence results. Due to certain types of cognitive biases , people may behave differently while being observed, so researchers often opt for unmoderated methods to avoid results being impacted.

UX research methods for moderated research

• User interviews to speak directly with your target user face-to-face
• Focus groups to gather feedback on a variety of topics
• Moderated usability testing to hear the thought process behind the actions

Unmoderated research

As the name suggests, unmoderated research refers to the lack of a moderator. Often used in tandem with remote research , users complete tasks independently, guided by pre-written instructions.

Unmoderated research is helpful to ensure users are acting entirely of their own volition, and it has a lower cost and quicker turnaround than moderated research—however it does require efficient planning and preparation, to ensure users can navigate the tasks unaided.

UX research methods for unmoderated research

• Unmoderated usability testing to see how easily users navigate your product
• Live website testing to witness users interacting with your product in real time
• Surveys to have users answer specific questions and rate design elements

Remote research

An incredibly flexible approach, remote research is often favored due to its time-to-results and cost savings. Remote research can be moderated or unmoderated, and is conducted using UX research tools which record user behavior, feedback, and screen recordings.

Another key benefit is its reach and accessibility—by moving research to a virtual platform, you can access users from anywhere in the world, and ensure research is inclusive of those with different abilities or requirements, who may otherwise be unable to take part in traditional in-person research.

UX research methods for remote research

• Usability testing to evaluate how accessible your product is
• Card sorting to understand how users categorize and group topics
• Concept testing to assess what ideas users are drawn to
• Wireframe or prototype testing to invite users to test a rough version of the design

In-person research

Research conducted in-person is typically more expensive, as it may require travel, accommodation, or equipment. Many traditionally in-person research methods can easily be performed remotely, so in-person research is often reserved for if there’s additional needs for accessibility, or if your product requires physical testing, safety considerations or supervision while being tested.

UX research methods for in-person research

• Guerrilla research to speak to random users and gather feedback
• User interviews to connect with users and read body language
• Field studies to gauge how your product fits into a real world environment

Generative research

Generative research provides a deep understanding of your target audience’s motivations, challenges, and behaviors. Broadly speaking, it pinpoints a problem statement, identifies the problem to be solved, and collects enough data to move forward.

It should happen before you even begin designing, as it helps you identify what to build, the types of problems your user is facing, and how you can solve them with your product or service.

UX research methods for generative research

• Field studies to get familiar with users in their authentic environment
• User interviews to ask open-ended questions about pain points
• Diary research to keep a log of users’ behaviors, activities, and beliefs over time
• Open card sorting to have users define and name their own categories

Evaluative research

Evaluative research focuses on evaluating a product or concept in order to collect data that will improve the solution. Evaluative research usually happens early on and is used in a continuous, iterative way throughout the design process and following launch. You can use this type of UX research to assess an idea, check navigation, or see if your prototype meets your user’s needs.

UX research methods for evaluative research

• Usability testing to see if your platform is easy and intuitive to use
• A/B testing two versions of a design to see which one works best
• Tree testing to assess if your website’s information architecture (IA) makes sense
• Five-second tests to collect first impressions

Behavioral research

This type of research refers to observation—it’s human nature that sometimes what we say, or what we think we’ll do doesn’t match up to what we actually do in a situation. Behavioral research is about observing how users interact with your product or how they behave in certain situations, without any intervention.

UX research methods for behavioral research

• Observation in labs or real environments to witness behavior in real time
• Tree testing to view which paths users take on a website
• Diary research to see how users interact with your product in real life

Attitudinal research

Attitudinal research is the companion to behavioral research—it’s about what people say, and how they feel. In attitudinal research, you ask users to share their own experiences and opinions; this may be about your product, a concept, or specific design element. With a mix of attitudinal and behavioral research, you can get a broader picture of what your user truly needs.

UX research methods for attitudinal research

• Focus groups to understand users’ perspectives on your product
• User interviews to ask people questions about your product directly
• Surveys to gather insights on user preferences and opinions

Quantitative research

Quantitative and qualitative research methods are two types of research that can be used in unison or separately. Quantitative research comes from data and statistics, and results in numerical data.

It allows you to identify patterns, make predictions, and generalize findings about a target audience or topic. “[At iMSA] We analyze a lot of metrics and specific data like traffic analytics, chatbot feedback, user surveys, user testing, etc. to make decisions,” explains Bertrand. “The convergence of all the data, our user’s needs, governs the choices we make.”

Types of quantitative results you can find through UX research include:

• Time spent on tasks
• Net promoter score (NPS)
• System usability score (SUS)
• Number of clicks taken to complete a task
• Preference percentage on A/B tests

UX research methods for quantitative research

• A/B testing to see which option your users likes best
• Tree testing to get data on which paths users follow on your website
• Usability testing to get a score on system usability
• Heatmaps to spot where users spend most of their session time

Qualitative research

Qualitative research is about understanding the why behind the data. It comes from comments, opinions, and observations—this type of research answers why and how users think or act in a certain way. Qualitative data helps you understand the underlying motivations, thoughts, and attitudes of target users. For this reason, attitudinal research is often qualitative (though not always).

UX research methods for qualitative research

• Interviews to discover your users’ motivations and frustrations
• Open question surveys to learn users’ pain points in their own words
• Focus groups to observe users’ interacting with your product
• Think aloud usability tests to hear commentary behind each user decision

💡 Product tip:

Maze allows you to record your participants' screen, audio, and video with Clips, so you can collect qualitative and quantitative insights simultaneously.

When should you conduct UX research?

The truth is, you should always be researching. When NASA wants to send a new shuttle into space, they don't build a rocket and launch it right away. They develop a design, test it in simulations and lab environments, and iterate between each stage. Only once they’ve run all the foreseeable scenarios do they put a person on the ship. Why should your product be any different?

With an overwhelming 83% of product professionals surveyed in our 2023 Continuous Research Report believing research should happen at all stages, it’s surprising that just 36% run tests after launch. While time and budget can make continuous research a challenge, testing at different stages gives you access to unique insights about your users and how they interact with your product.

That being said, if you can only afford to research a few times throughout the development process , here are some key moments to focus on:

Before developing the product

This is when you need to conduct the most extensive and detailed part of your research. During this phase, you’ll want to conduct generative research to get to know exactly:

• Who your user is
• The types of problems they’re facing (and what kind of product they want to solve them)
• What their expectations on a product or service like yours are
• What they like or dislike about your competitors
• Where they currently go to solve the mentioned problems
• What needs to happen for them to change companies (if they’re using a different product)

You can use a variety of UX research methods like focus groups and surveys to gather insights during this stage.

Remember: This step applies even if your product is already live, if you’re thinking of introducing a new feature. Validate your idea and investigate potential alternatives before you spend time and money developing and designing new functionality.

When you want to validate your decisions

This is the point where you’ll run through a few cycles of researching, building, and iterating, before launching your product. The Maze Product team does this through continuous product discovery, via a dual-track habit:

Conduct research regularly while developing and building your product to see if you’re headed in the right direction. Let the research findings feed your deliverables.

Gather qualitative insights on user sentiment through surveys or focus groups. Test your wireframe or sketches to get quantitative answers in the form of clicks, heatmaps, or SUS. Use card sorting to generate ideas, tree testing to assess IA, or prototype testing to assess the usability of a beta version. The options are endless, so there’s no reason to miss maximizing your research at this stage and gather insights to power product decisions.

To evaluate product accessibility

Your product will be used by a multitude of diverse, unique users. Your research participants should be representative of your real audience, which means including all usage scenarios and user personas. Usability testing is one form of UX research that can be used here to ensure your product works for all its users, regardless of ability or need.

There are many ways to ensure your design is inclusive and accessible , including:

• Testing alt-texts, screen-reading capabilities, and color combinations
• Avoiding screen flashes or sudden pop-ups that may be triggering for certain conditions
• Being intentional in what language and imagery is used

Once your product is live

Research doesn’t end once you push your platform to production. Conduct Live Website Testing to evaluate how well your product is meeting your users' expectations and needs. This type of research invites you to answer the question: did we nail it?

Testing your live website also allows you to see how your users interact with your design in a real environment, so you can identify and solve mistakes fast. Pay close attention to loading times, error messages, and other quantitative data that may indicate bugs. You can also conduct regular sentiment checks by embedding feedback surveys into your product itself, to assess user satisfaction and NPS in a few clicks.

TL;DR: Why, how, and when to conduct UX research

The more you understand your customers, the better you can create products that meet expectations, tailor your strategy to their specific needs, and increase your chances for success. Plus, UX research allows you to create unbiased products that put your customers at the center of your business.

To conduct UX research, you’ll need to mix the stage of your product lifecycle with the right research type and methods. Meaning, while you need to conduct UX research continuously, you should look for different types of insights depending on the development stage you’re at and what your current objective is.

For example, if you want to test your live product, you should conduct a mix of quantitative and qualitative evaluative research. That means you might want to perform:

• Usability tests
• Feedback surveys
• Five-second tests
• Prototype testing

Now we’ve covered the what and why of UX research, let’s get into the how. Continue to the next chapter to learn how to create a UX research strategy that blows your competitors away.

Frequently asked questions

What are some examples of UX research?

Some examples of UX research include:

• A/B testing
• Prototype or wireframe testing
• Card sorting
• User interviews
• Tree testing
• 5-second testing
• Usability testing

What are the basics of UX research?

The basics of UX research are simple: you just need a clear goal in mind and a mix of quantitative and qualitative tests. Then, it's a case of:

• Determining the right testing methods
• Testing on an audience that’s an accurate representation of your real users
• Doing continuous product discovery
• Performing unbiased research to build an unbiased design
• Iterating and building user-centric products

UX research gets easier when you use a product discovery platform like Maze. This tool allows you to run multiple types of product research such as usability, prototype, card sorting, and wireframe tests—and get answers within hours.

Is UX research hard?

UX research isn’t hard, especially when you use an intuitive tool for product discovery—like Maze. Maze allows you to build tests using its multiple available templates. It also lets you bring your own users or recruit from its panel and creates an automated, ready-to-share metrics report. Maze gives you answers to tests within hours so you can improve your UX based on real user feedback fast.

Building a UX research strategy

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User Experience Research: Definition, Types, Steps, + Uses

Have you ever noticed how your favorite applications and websites appear to read your mind? How do they smoothly anticipate your wants and make you feel like a tech-savvy superhero? It isn’t magic; it is the result of User Experience Research!

UX research is a dynamic and ongoing process that is essential in developing effective and user-friendly products or services. It fills the gap between user expectations and design decisions, resulting in higher product satisfaction and better business-related results.

Continue reading to learn more about user experience research, how to do it, and how researchers may use it.

What is User Experience research?

User Experience research or UX research is defined as users’ systematic study to discover behaviors, needs, motivations, and trends through observations, analysis, and other user feedback.

UX researchers use different methods to understand problems and draw opportunities to stand out amongst their competition. Organizations conduct UX research to precisely understand how real customers react to the products or services in the real world.

Types of UX research methods

We can divide UX research into two dimensions depending on the product type, its environment, the research size, and your timelines. Let’s look at both measurements.

Quantitative vs. qualitative research

Quantitative research is the study of a population through the use of surveys and questionnaires. Quantitative research helps to generalize findings and understand what a specific population likes and dislikes. This data collection technique is generally mathematical in nature.

Qualitative research helps researchers gather information by observing users in field studies or focus groups. Qualitative research brings sense to the motivations and reasons for consumer behavior. The users are generally in small numbers belonging to diverse backgrounds and help answer the ‘how’ and ‘why’ questions about consumer behavior.

LEARN ABOUT: Qualitative Research Questions and Questionnaires

Attitudinal vs. behavioral research

“Attitudinal research” applies to what users say, while “behavioral” applies to what they really do. What users and customers usually say and what they do are sometimes pretty different. Researchers often conduct attitudinal research to measure customers’ needs and beliefs.

However, researchers lean towards behavioral research for insights as data on what users tend to do is more relevant. Website A/B testing is an excellent example of behavioral research because it gives researchers critical insights into how users perceive and act on different versions of the same site.

Steps to conduct user experience research

Conducting user experience research is a structured procedure that helps discover significant insights for improving the user experience. Here are the five steps to conducting user experience research:

Step 1: Define objectives

Always define the goals of your research before you act. Understand what you want to discover about your customers and their requirements.

By defining the objectives of your study, you can set the foundation for targeted and purposeful studies. Your goals should include a thorough understanding of your clients and their individual needs. This first stage acts as a compass to ensure that your research efforts are focused on measurable outcomes.

Step 2: Set a hypothesis

Set a hypothesis on what you feel you know about the users. This hypothesis serves as a preliminary assumption, a starting point that you will test and modify during the study process. A well-crafted hypothesis helps guide your research efforts and serves as the foundation for structured inquiry.

Step 3: Choose a suitable method(s)

Choosing the best research techniques is similar to choosing the right tools for a job. The method you’ll adopt is heavily influenced by factors such as project kind, available resources, research team size, and deadlines.

Whether you use surveys, interviews, usability testing, or a combination of methodologies, the goal is to customize your options to the specific context of your research, assuring effective data collecting and insight development.

Step 4: Apply the research method(s)

Conduct research using the research method(s) you chose and start collecting user data about their preferences, likes, dislikes, and needs. Conducting user experience research involves actively engaging with your target users and collecting valuable data.

This step entails creating surveys, setting up usability testing, conducting user interviews, or deploying any other chosen methodologies. UX researchers use a number of user research methods to conduct UX research. By directly interacting with users, you gain firsthand insights into user behaviors, preferences, and pain points.

Step 5: Synthesize feedback

Compiling and synthesizing the feedback is critical as data from your research activity comes in. This involves thoroughly examining user data and discovering trends, patterns, and variations. Collect and analyze the user-feedback data to fill in your knowledge gaps. Use this knowledge to improve and enhance your offering.

You can develop and improve your offers based on actual consumer demands by using synthesized feedback as a source of insights to direct your decision-making.

Uses of User Experience Research

UX research is a comprehensive toolkit for researchers. It allows them to navigate different stages of design and development while uncovering a variety of user insights. Researchers use UX research for the following:

Discovery means understanding what the users find relevant. Researchers either interview the user in their environment or ask them to maintain a record of their daily interaction with a design. Researchers look for insights into user habits, needs, and preferences during this phase.

UX researchers may conduct interviews with users in their natural surroundings or ask them to keep a record of their everyday experiences with a specific design to do this. Researchers can better empathize with users’ experiences and discover insights that help drive the design process by immersing themselves in their reality.

Exploration involves investigating many options and solutions to meet the different requirements of customers. During this phase, researchers look at possibilities to address the needs of all users. Card sorting is one of the interactive UX research methods to understand precisely what people like and dislike.

This interaction method helps researchers better understand users’ mental models and how they expect information to be organized. By investigating these preferences, UX designers may create interfaces and structures that fit customers’ needs, resulting in more intuitive and user-friendly designs.

Usability Testing

Usability Testing is an important stage in the UX research process because it allows designs and prototypes to be thoroughly tested. Testing helps you evaluate the design process thoroughly. UX researchers evaluate the product’s usability, functionality, and overall experience.

Usability testing involves observing real users interact with a prototype, product, or service. A UX researcher can modify the design and make informed decisions to produce a more seamless user experience by identifying pain points, problems, and places of misunderstanding. Companies test products to ensure they’re easy to use and accessible to everyone.

Listening to user feedback and viewpoints is essential for getting insights and putting design issues into context. Listening assists UX researchers in putting issues in perspective. It helps them find unseen problems to fix quickly.

Surveys and Questionnaires are useful tools that help researchers track user feelings. UX researchers can frequently seek user feedback via surveys, questionnaires, and feedback sessions. This method enables researchers to measure user sentiments, identify potential problems that may not be obvious at first, and fix them as soon as possible.

Benefits of UX research

The benefits of conducting UX research are numerous, contributing to both product quality and business success. Here’s a closer look at the main benefits of incorporating UX research into your design and development processes:

Better products

Involving your potential customers directly helps you gain a lot of knowledge on what the customers prefer, what their pain points are, and what will help the overall improvement of the product.

Happy users

UX research helps you collect unbiased feedback directly from your customers – your most reliable feedback source. It is the best actionable feedback source because it is not influenced by company leaders, investors, or other outsiders.

Business growth

Understanding what your customers seek helps organizations spend less money and time correcting flawed designs. It helps to speed up the product development process and boosts customer satisfaction.

User Experience research is an ongoing process. It connects user expectations and design decisions to create seamless product experiences. It discovers user behaviors and preferences using approaches such as quantitative and qualitative research, as well as attitudinal and behavioral insights.

QuestionPro research enables you to effectively develop, distribute, and analyze surveys, acquire useful insights, and make data-driven decisions across a wide range of research areas. It speeds up the research process, increases user interaction, and ultimately helps you better understand your target audience and improve your products or services.

Looking to deliver an exceptional customer experience? Discover more about how to delight your customer at every touchpoint and turn them into brand advocates.

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UX research

• Linda Rosencrance

What is UX research?

User experience (UX) research is the study of learning what end users of a system or product need and want, then employing those insights to enhance the design process for products, services or software.

UX research can take different forms depending on the area of focus. For example, for product teams, UX research could mean validating concepts and prototypes. For marketing teams, it might mean testing brand designs and messaging before launching products.

When conducting UX research, researchers study the motivations, behaviors and needs of users by analyzing how they perform certain tasks. UX research can also approach testing by working directly with users, remotely observing users using digital tools or conducting surveys to collect user feedback.

UX research methods and approaches

Like many types of research, studies on UX behaviors embody a number of different approaches to testing, data aggregation and garnering information. This involves both quantitative and qualitative methods.

Using quantitative research methods, UX researchers test proposed hypotheses about users' behaviors and attitudes based on a system of numerical and statistical evidence. Quantitative methods uncover, for instance, what percentage of people can successfully find a button on a page or how many users clicked on a particular link.

Meanwhile, qualitative UX research focuses on understanding why users behave the way they do or their reasons for wanting things to work a certain way. Qualitative research can be done via observations, field studies, moderated usability tests and user interviews. This research aims to comprehend the human side of data by trying to understand the underlying reasons and motivations that cause consumers to act the way they do.

While not an exhaustive list, here are some of the most prominent forms of UX research in use today:

• Card sorting. A technique that assesses and designs the navigation and structure of an application or website by giving individuals a list of related items (for example, a sample inventory listing for an online supermarket) and asking them to group the items in a way that makes the most logical sense to them.
• Contextual interviews. Monitored sessions where UX researchers observe users in their natural environments and ask questions to gain firsthand accounts of their experiences.
• Focus groups. A moderated feedback approach where a panel of users are asked to discuss their experiences among themselves, either in moderated or open formats, to help researchers learn more about the group's attitudes, ideas and wants.
• Expert reviews. Accredited and verified evaluations of a website against a list of established industry standards or other governing guidelines.
• Surveys. A selected series of questions posed to a number of users that help researchers learn about the individuals who use the end product.
• Usability testing. An evaluation technique that attempts to uncover the problems and frustrations users have with a site through one-on-one sessions where users perform tasks using a particular software application or other product.
• A/B testing. An assessment technique where users take part in blind studies that randomly assign those users to different versions of a website, application or other software product.

What are the benefits of UX research?

UX research helps organizations in many ways, but the following are some of the oft-cited benefits of performing UX research on a regular basis:

• Understand how users experience websites, mobile applications, products and prototypes.
• Evaluate and improve ideas and prototypes based on the findings of the UX research, enabling organizations to make the right design decisions early in the development process.
• Discover new customer needs and business opportunities.
• Find and fix flaws in products and services.
• Provide better user experiences than competitors.
• Understand every user interaction across the entire customer journey .
• Develop a more useful picture of the target audience for better advertising and marketing.

UX researcher role and responsibilities

The role of a UX researcher is to uncover user behaviors, needs and motivations to make products, services and websites more intuitive and enjoyable for users. Using qualitative and quantitative methods, they conduct comprehensive research and share the insights from research with the UX designers. The goal of the UX researcher is to make the overall design process smoother and more productive.

Some typical responsibilities of the UX researcher include:

• Create a well-crafted research plan with clear objectives.
• Build a picture of the target users based on their needs, wants, motivations and challenges.
• Write usability research screener questionnaires and discussion guides.
• Recruit targeted users for specific research studies.
• Moderate one-on-one usability sessions.
• Develop and implement quantitative surveys.
• Conduct client and stakeholder interviews.
• Provide actionable and meaningful recommendations for the product team.
• Present findings of the design research to a larger team clearly and in an organized manner.
• Work closely with the product team to identify research goals.
• Establish and implement an overall research strategy.

Best practices to conduct UX research

The following are some of the most important considerations to keep in mind when implementing a UX research initiative:

• Understand the needs and behaviors of users. This is key to building a product people want to use. Employ qualitative research, including studies and one-on-one interviews, to understand users' behaviors and desires.
• Pay attention to the differences in user behavior. After moving to the quantitative stage of measuring user behavior, don't just focus on the behaviors of the majority because not every user behaves the same way. Ask what you can learn from the behavior of the minority. Be open to every possibility, even if the findings don't align with the initial assumptions.
• Do UX research at every stage of a project. Although it may be best to conduct most research at the beginning to ensure the project is on track, it's also important to save some resources and budget to also conduct research later in the project.
• Conduct usability testing during the refinement and iteration phase. This will help provide an indication of what features should be added and what needs to be fixed by revealing how users interact with early versions of the product.
• Communicate the findings of usability tests, studies, quantitative and qualitative research, and user interviews with the developers working on the product. UX researchers should translate their users' needs into the technical language that the developers and the product team will understand.

How to become a UX researcher

While there are many paths to become a UX researcher, most job postings suggest that those interested in the career should possess the following certifications and skills:

• A bachelor's degree in computer science, psychology, marketing or another related field.
• Experience conducting user research using qualitative and user-centered design methodologies.
• In-depth understanding of user interface design.
• Working knowledge of behavioral analysis , quantitative methodology and statistics.
• General problem-solving and critical thinking skills.
• Good teamwork, communication and collaboration skills.
• Strong organization and time management skills.

Continue Reading About UX research

• The psychology of UX design: How design affects CX
• 4 UX analysis methods that ensure optimal user experiences
• What can urban sprawl teach us about UX design issues?
• UX guidelines for people-friendly software
• Why you need a UX researcher on your product team

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World Leaders in Research-Based User Experience

A guide to using user-experience research methods.

August 21, 2022 2022-08-21

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For further detail, see When to Use Which User-Experience Research Methods .

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Experiencia de Usuario: Qué es y por qué es tan importante

En esta era digital en la que vivimos, la “Experiencia de Usuario” o “User Experience” (UX) se ha convertido en un término, no sólo fundamental, sino que, desde ningún área de la empresa, podemos ignorar. 

Esto no es ninguna novedad, pero hace ya varios años que se viene hablando, primero de la “Experiencia del Cliente” (CX) y más recientemente de la Experiencia de Usuario y deberíamos agregar la “Interfaz de Usuario” (UI), porque estos tres conceptos y prácticas están fuertemente entrelazados: CX investiga e identifica cómo mejorar la experiencia y le pide a UX que trabaje en esos prototipos para poder testearlos. Una vez encontrada la versión final que se ajusta a las necesidades del Cliente, UX le pide al experto en UI que “programe” para que esa modificación o lanzamiento (por ejemplo, de una nueva APP) se pueda implementar. 

En este post nos vamos a focalizar en UX , es decir la Experiencia de Usuario , en qué consiste y por qué es tan importante y cómo un User Experience Designer (el especialista) juega un papel crucial en la creación de experiencias excepcionales para los usuarios. 

¿Qué es la Experiencia de Usuario o User Experience? 

La Experiencia de Usuario (UX) se refiere a la forma en que una persona se siente al interactuar con un producto, servicio o plataforma digital. Esta experiencia abarca todos los aspectos de interacción, desde la navegación y la apariencia visual, hasta la facilidad de uso y la satisfacción del usuario. En otras palabras, se trata de cómo se siente un usuario al usar un sitio web, una aplicación móvil o cualquier otro producto digital. 

Para entender mejor este concepto, consideremos un ejemplo. Pensemos en una persona que después de su búsqueda en Google, decide visitar dos sitios web de comercio electrónico para comprar un nuevo par de zapatos. En el primer sitio, encuentra una interfaz intuitiva (es fácil de navegar y entender dónde dar click para ver lo que uno quiere), tiene imágenes de alta calidad de los productos, con descripciones detalladas y completas y finalmente un proceso de pago sin problemas. Cuando el usuario va al segundo sitio, la navegación es confusa, las imágenes son borrosas, la descripción es escasa o está ausente y el proceso de pago es lento y complicado. 

En este escenario está claro que el navegante terminará comprando en el primer eCommerce y, claramente, no regresará jamás al segundo, porque mientras que su experiencia en el primero ha sido positiva y satisfactoria, en el segundo lo que posiblemente sintió fue frustración y terminó por abandonar el sitio. La UX marca la diferencia y explica por qué algunos productos digitales (webs o apps) tienen éxito y son además recomendadas y otras sólo acumulan carritos abandonados. 

¿Cuál es la importancia de la Experiencia de Usuario? 

Veamos a continuación algunas razones claves por las cuáles la E xperiencia de Usuario no puede subestimarse: 

Retención de Usuarios

Una buena experiencia de usuario fomenta la retención de estos. Cuando los usuarios tienen una experiencia positiva (trabajaron en equipo CX, UX y UI) el usuario regresa y continúa utilizando un producto o servicio. Por ejemplo, las redes sociales como Facebook e Instagram han perfeccionado mucho su UX para mantener a los usuarios enganchados y que vuelvan una y otra vez. 

Atracción de Clientes 

La UX efectiva puede atraer nuevos clientes. Un sitio web elegante y fácil de usar puede convertir a los visitantes en clientes. Por ejemplo, el sitio de comercio electrónico Amazon se ha destacado por su UX, atrayendo a millones de compradores en línea.

Mejora la Conversión

Una experiencia de usuario optimizada puede aumentar las tasas de conversión. Un formulario de registro sencillo o un proceso de compra sin obstáculos pueden impulsar las conversiones. Un caso ejemplar es el de PayPal, cuya plataforma simplifica las transacciones en línea. 

Satisfacción del Usuario

La satisfacción del usuario es fundamental para el éxito a largo plazo . Cuando los usuarios están contentos, pueden convertirse en defensores de la marca y recomendar el producto o servicio a otros. Un ejemplo es la aplicación de transporte de UBER, que se centra en la comodidad y la eficiencia para satisfacer a los usuarios. 

Reducción de Costos de Soporte

Una buena UX puede reducir los costos de soporte al minimizar las consultas y problemas de los usuarios. Por ejemplo, Apple, se enorgullece de su UX y diseño de productos, lo que conduce a menos problemas de hardware y menos llamadas de soporte. 

¿Qué hace un Diseñador de Experiencia de Usuario? 

Un User Experience Designer, es un profesional dedicado a garantizar que los productos y servicios digitales sean fáciles de usar y satisfagan las necesidades de los usuarios. Estos diseñadores desempeñan un papel esencial en la creación de experiencias excepcionales al seguir estas etapas de trabajo: 

Realizar investigaciones de usuarios para comprender sus necesidades y preferencias 

Diseñar interfaces de usuario atractivas y funcionales 

Crear prototipos y realizar pruebas de usabilidad 

Colaborar con equipos de desarrollo para implementar soluciones 

Mejorar continuamente la UX a medida que se recopilan datos y comentarios de los usuarios. 

En resumen, los User Experience Designe r trabajan incansablemente para garantizar que los productos digitales sean intuitivos, eficientes y agradables de usar. 

Conclusión 

La Experiencia de Usuario (UX) es un elemento crítico en el diseño y desarrollo de productos y servicios digitales. Ofrecer una experiencia de usuario positiva puede marcar la diferencia entre el éxito y el fracaso en el mundo digital. Los User Experience Designers desempeñan un papel fundamental en la creación de estas experiencias excepcionales. En última instancia, invertir en la UX es una inversión en la satisfacción del usuario, la retención y el crecimiento de la base de clientes, y el éxito a largo plazo en el mercado digital. Por lo tanto, no debemos subestimar el poder de una buena UX. Si quieres saber más sobre el tema, nuestro Máster en Branding y Estrategia de marca es para ti. 

Máster en Branding y Estrategia de Marca

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What is User Experience Research and how to do it?

Good product design and improvements to user experience are driven by user insights. A customer-centric (or user-centric) approach to UX Design will significantly reduce the risk of designing the wrong product or service. User Experience Research dives into the practicality of customer interactions with a brand to discover user needs, customer behaviours, and motivations.

Indeemo User Journey Mapping Dashboard

UX Research, or user research, are often terms used to describe the same thing. This guide outlines the concept of user experience research and gives you tips on how to conduct qualitative research to help you achieve actionable user insights.

What is User Experience Research?

For many brands, there is always the possibility that poor design or even an underwhelming user experience can prompt a potential customer to look elsewhere, leaving your product or service behind. UX research has become a way to bridge the gap between brands and customer needs. It is not a stand alone initiative. User experience research should be an ongoing process that draws on collective inputs from stakeholders, with the perspective of the end-user at the forefront product design and development.

To build the right prototype, and ultimately design the best product or service for potential customers - the motivations, behaviours, and needs of users need to be understood. UX research through various user research methods, is used to answer questions that are central to the success of a brand.

Who are your users (or customers)?

Of course, many organisations will have a wealth of information about their customers experience, product experience, and buying experience. Traditionally, market research relies on quantitative techniques to gain a broad understanding of the customer experience. UX research has an important role to play here. The needs and desires of customers shift. Innovations to consumer products and service design can, and often do, influence customer loyalty. A customer-centric organisation leverages on the insights that derive from user experience research. Qualitative methods are most commonly used through a generative research approach to help brands figure out who their customers are. More so, who their potential customers can be.

What are the Users' needs?

User Diaries , observations, and mobile usability testing are built into the UX research plan to capture the needs of users. UX teams often apply various techniques to put themselves in the shoes of the customer with an aim to understand their needs and build user empathy.

What are the pain points for Customers?

The digitisation of many brands makes it more difficult to have a singular understanding of a customer journey. Customers interact with a brand via websites, mobile apps, and even virtual reality (VR). Not every user experience is the same. Various touch points and interactions might not be seamless. Correct product design is dependent on a rich understanding of any pain points customers experience throughout their interaction with a brand. UX research uncovers these pain points.

Further reading

How to do user experience research.

There is no singular formula for conducting user research. Your UX research plan should be informed by previously uncovered insights and ongoing trends that might come from your marketing team. In this guide to user experience research, we are going to focus on the qualitative component. User research is increasingly being designed with qualitative methods. Generative research is usually designed with a distinct qualitative focus.

Share your UX Research Plan

Your UX research plan involves identifying historic and ongoing trends about your customers. Highlighting key areas that need to be addressed through your research should be part of your plan. Most importantly, bring all internal stakeholders to the table. Combine their aims for future improvements for your product or service. Silos can form quickly in an organisation. But one way to ensure you remain customer-centric is by taking onboard the goals from various internal stakeholders and sharing your ux research plan.

Outline your UX Research objective

Every user experience research project should have an overall objective. Your research objective will be formulated through problem statements your team and other stakeholders have identified. Even more, your problem statements should be informed by user insights uncovered from past ux research projects. With a qualitative approach you don't necessarily need hypotheses to test. Instead, you will want to take an exploratory approach . Also known as generative research, this approach will allow you to design an objective that will produce optimal results for user discovery.

UX Research Design

There are many types of methods and techniques that can be adopted and utilised for effective UX research. Under the generative research approach, your project can apply one or many qualitative techniques. Research design will involve identifying the best techniques for your project. Ethnography, user observations, and ux diaries are commonly applied techniques that can benefit user discovery and ux experience research.

For your research design, the duration needed for your fieldwork is important. It is not uncommon for exploratory research to be conducted longitudinally. Nonetheless, your research design will need to consider the optimal fieldwork duration for your participants to describe and report on their experiences with your product. 

Fieldwork and User Activities

User activities and tasks required for your team to uncover insights will need to be incorporated into your research design. These tasks involve the activities your research participants will complete over the course of your fieldwork. A generative approach will allow you to explore the varying environmental factors and influences that impact the experiences of your potential customers.

The benefits of User Experience Research

User experience research is not new. Even more, ux research is strongly integrated into many areas of a brand. CX management, UX design, and marketing teams all leverage the insights that emerge from user experience research. The importance of user-centric research relates directly to the idea that your customers are the most important stakeholder of your brand.

User experience research can be viewed as the foundations of design innovation, and improvements to design features. Ultimately, every insight derived from ux research comes from the perspective of the user.

User experience research puts the spotlight on detailed areas of product design that might not work well for customers. Mobile user testing will always show you issues customers experience with features of design. In line with the digital experience, ux research is used to see how well can users of your product achieve their desired goal.

The qualitative element of user experience research enables user researchers to capture both user attitudes and user behaviours. Quantitative methods for user experience research typically aim to capture the attitudes and opinions users have about a design. Whilst qualitative methods are applied to capture various user behaviours - in fact, a well-designed exploratory user experience research project can be attitudinal and behavioural. It is important to note that ux research is flexible and adaptable. The use of mobile technology for ux diaries leveraging on video and photos can quickly uncover user attitudes and behaviours.

One issue all types of research face is the potential for biases to occur. User experience research will reduce this risk significantly. The importance of ux research is that it will result in unbiased feedback. Feedback and qualitative insights from the perspective of the user will help you and your team build empathy for your customers. This puts them front and centre during the design process. The ideas from other internal stakeholders will be secondary as the voice of end-users will direct the need and opportunities for your design.

The challenges of UX and User Research

Every research project will face challenges. It is important to document possible challenges that may arise. Anticipating challenges will help you with your research design. For ux research, there is always the possibility that buy-in from internal stakeholders will be difficult. A lack of buy-in can impact your budget, and ultimately reduce the flexibility you and your team will have to achieve your research objective. 

Another challenge relates to recruitment . Or in this case, under recruitment. The nature of exploratory research does not require a large sample of research participants. As you are focused on the qualitative insights and the behaviours of your participants, and smaller sample will work just fine. However, it is always a good idea to over-recruit. Why? To simply put it, there is always the possibility that participants might not complete all tasks. When analysing your data, you might be underserved due to the low numbers. We recommend over recruiting slightly. This gives you the flexibility with data analysis.

Participant burden can also impact the volume and quality of data you retrieve. This comes back to your research design. Be mindful of the commitment required by your research participants. If you incorporate too many user activities and tasks over a short timeframe, this can impact engagement.

Generative AI Interview & Focus Group Analysis

You can now import interviews and focus groups into Indeemo from Zoom, Teams or your Computer and analyse them using Generative AI.

Low engagement can also be a result of the repetitiveness of tasks. It will always benefit your research outcomes by being creative with user activities. Incorporate the use of various types of media to help uncover insights and empower participants by gamifying some aspects of your fieldwork.

Data analysis can also be a challenge. For some, qualitative user research can be daunting if they are new to this approach. Analysis of contextual data involves digging into the unstructured data and yes, this can take time. However, with this type of research, you are allowed to explore. Start by segmenting and identifying various keywords. Draw out behavioural patterns, and identify emotions through various techniques like sentiment analysis. Technology plays a role with effective data analysis for user experience research. Organisations and UX teams are beginning to adopt user experience tools that will enable them to conduct rich and contextual qualitative research with a centralised repository of insights.

User Experience Research Tools

User experience research is constantly evolving. With new insights and new user needs, user researchers look to emerging techniques and methods, and innovative technology for their research projects.

User journey mapping tools are now being integrated into research design. Technology that captures the user experience in real time can be streamlined to build visual journey maps.

The use of mobile screen recordings is integral to user experience research. Mobile usability testing leverages on technologies that have built in screen recording capabilities.

A UX diary study is used to capture user attitudes. With the use of video diaries, user behaviour is quickly being recognised with emerging insights directly influencing design from the visual component.

Some technological capabilities can streamline user insights into a centralised dashboard for user researchers. It is here that in the moment data gets drawn out to form user insights.

The Indeemo User Experience Research tool is designed to bring you closer to your customers by leveraging all these capabilities. For effective user research, the technological functionalities enable researchers to gather contextual insights from the users perspective. 

How Mobile Screen-Recording guided the design ethnography process for a mobile jobs website.

We’ve supported thousands of research projects covering everything from mapping the path to purchase for aquarium filters to mortgage buyer journeys to mapping the patient journey of kidney transplant patients., if you’d like to discuss a specific user experience research project or are just curious to learn more, get in touch now..

Other UX research methods

Learn more about all the various user research methodologies we support..

What is the Buyer Journey and How to research it?

What is a UX Diary study and how to do it for User Research?

What is User Journey Mapping and How to do it?

Microsoft User Research

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Become a partner with Microsoft User Research and play a pivotal role in shaping the future of our products. As a participant, you can expect to receive invitations for user research opportunities, allowing you to provide valuable feedback directly to the teams responsible for building your favorite Microsoft products. Begin the journey by signing in with your Microsoft account or registering to get started.

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Information collected on this site is for the sole purpose of matching you with appropriate study opportunities. All information is kept confidential as described in our privacy statement and will not be sold, distributed, or otherwise publicized outside Microsoft.

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COVID-19 update: Google is prioritizing everyone's health and safety, this may impact UX Research. Learn More

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Whether you use Google products or not, we’d love to hear your feedback. Sign up to participate in our consumer research and influence how our teams improve products millions of people use everyday. If your profile is a fit for one of our upcoming user studies, you’ll be the first to try new offerings or features in products such as Google Classroom, Chromebooks, and more.

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In these studies, we’ll gather your feedback via a screen-sharing session with a researcher where you may be asked questions or provide feedback about a process or design. You can be almost anywhere in the world, but you’ll need to have a high-speed internet connection.

Giving feedback at a Google office

This works best for people who live close to one of our offices. Typically, you'll meet one-on-one with a Google Researcher who'll ask you some questions about your experiences with our products or technology in general.

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Your feedback will make it possible for us to continue our mission of building a more helpful Google for everyone – no matter who they are, where they live, or what they want to accomplish.

What does a User Experience Researcher do?

Published November 25, 2022 3 min read

A user experience researcher is responsible for studying and observing how people interact with technology. They use this information to help design better products and user interfaces.

User Experience Researcher job duties include:

• Planning and conducting user research, including usability testing, interviews, focus groups, ethnographic studies, and surveys
• Analyzing data from user research to identify trends and insights
• Synthesizing data into actionable recommendations
• Working with cross-functional teams to incorporate user research findings into product designs
• Designing and conducting user studies to evaluate new or existing products
• Analyzing data to identify areas for improvement in the user experience
• Creating prototypes of new designs to be tested with users
• Conducting heuristic evaluations of existing products
• Writing reports detailing user research findings and recommendations

User Experience Researcher Job Requirements

There are no formal education requirements for a User Experience Researcher, but most have at least a bachelor's degree in a relevant field such as psychology, human-computer interaction, or sociology. Many also have a master's degree or PhD. There are no specific certification or experience requirements, but most User Experience Researchers have several years of experience working in the field of user research.

User Experience Researcher Skills

• Communication
• Critical Thinking
• Flexibility
• Interpersonal
• Organizational
• Problem Solving

Related : Top User Experience Researcher Skills: Definition and Examples

How to become a User Experience Researcher

A user experience researcher is responsible for studying and improving the way people interact with technology. They work to make sure that users have a positive experience when using a product or service, and that any problems they encounter are resolved quickly and effectively.

Becoming a user experience researcher requires both formal education and practical experience. A bachelor’s degree in human factors, psychology, or a related field is typically required for entry-level positions. However, many employers prefer candidates with a master’s degree or higher.

Practical experience can be gained through internships, part-time jobs, or volunteer work. Many user experience researchers have previous experience working in customer service or technical support, as this can give them valuable insight into the types of issues users face.

Once you have the necessary education and experience, there are several professional organizations that offer certification in user experience research, such as the User Experience Professionals Association (UXPA) and the International Usability and User Experience Qualification Board (UXQB). These certifications can help you stand out from other candidates when applying for jobs.

Related : User Experience Researcher Resume Example

Related : User Experience Researcher Interview Questions (With Example Answers)

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Brenna Goyette

Brenna is a certified professional resume writer, career expert, and the content manager of the ResumeCat team. She has a background in corporate recruiting and human resources and has been writing resumes for over 10 years. Brenna has experience in recruiting for tech, finance, and marketing roles and has a passion for helping people find their dream jobs. She creates expert resources to help job seekers write the best resumes and cover letters, land the job, and succeed in the workplace.

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Job Description UX Project Manager

When it comes to a website, a UX Project Manager worries about the things that matter most to business:

The UX (User Experience) Project Manager controls the process of improving the user experience across the digital stream on a website or an app or some other application requiring user interaction. It’s a newer discipline, and the User Experience PM is at the forefront of this emerging field.

The UX Project Manager harnesses the skills of Graphic and Web Designers , creative teams and marketing departments to launch and maintain a particular digital effort. The goal is always to increase the interactivity and enjoyment of a website, app or other digital project. If you’re a User Experience PM, you focus on driving the team to accomplish the end product; for example, launching a new website for an established company that engages consumers so they buy more products or services.

UX Project Manager Skills Needed

UX Manager job descriptions should attract candidates who are creative but also analytical and task driven. They must be good listeners so they can take the clients initial concept and oversee teams that create a design in a targeted medium that incorporates the vision and brand of a product, service, an advertisement or other graphical content. They must also have a can-do attitude that finds the way around roadblocks so the team reaches their end goals.

UX Project Managers are team-oriented collaborators , who are patient with a process as they work to meet deadlines. They are project leaders who must be comfortable working with a client while using their best “inside voice” to push artists and web designers to do their best work under deadline. Understanding client goals while being driven by a complex timeline of tasks requires finesse as well as stress management and organizational skills.   UX PM job descriptions should bring in people who can manage details while seeing the big picture – and accomplishing it.

Suggested Software Proficiency

The UX Project Manager should be very comfortable with project management software. User Experience PMs should also be familiar with a variety of graphic design programs, spreadsheets and customer research tools. Staying on top of the latest software and industry trends is important.

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