Research
User experience (UX) research is a crucial component of the design process. An essential part of creating solutions that meet user expectations and deliver value to customers, is talking to and observing users. This comprehensive guide to UX research dives into the fundamentals of research and its various methods and includes tips and best practices.
What is UX research?
UX research represents the insights gathered from users and customers that are used to help make product decisions at any stage of the design and development process. UX research should be more than just a “step” in the development process, but rather integrated in the entire design & development process.
✨ Tip: Research should happen at each stage of the design process, from early interviews and field studies to prototype testing and after-launch monitoring.
Benefits of UX rsearch?
- Make decisions based on data, rather than opinions
- Remove bias/assumptions from the design process
- Test and validate concepts
Qualitative vs Quantitative Research Methods
Qualitative
- It helps you collect qualitative data through direct observation and study of participants.
- There are different qualitative research methods you can employ for your studies, such as user interviews, diary studies, focus groups, usability testing, and more. Choosing the right user research techniques depends on the project and your research goals.
- Qualitative research gives you rich insights about the people, product, and the problem you’re researching, and helps you inform decision-making throughout the design and product development process.
Quantitative
- The data is collected indirectly, either through a tool that automatically records it, such as Google Analytics, or manually by measuring and analyzing UX metrics.
- It is used to collect and analyze numerical data, identify patterns, make predictions, and generalize findings.
- The most common quantitative data sources are analytics, usability testing data, online surveys, and A/B testing.
- With task success rates, time on task, completion rates, clicks, conversion rates, and heatmaps, you can measure how well a design performs and spot issues on a page or in the user flow.
- One of the advantages of quantitative research is the ability to run studies with large sample sizes and collect statistically relevant data.
✨ Tip: Employ qualitative research to explore ideas and discover new insights, and then tap into quantitative research methods to test a hypothesis or final solution.