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The Complete Guide to UX Research Methods

UX research provides invaluable insight into product users and what they need and value. Not only will research reduce the risk of a miscalculated guess, it will uncover new opportunities for innovation.

By Miklos Philips

Miklos is a UX designer, product design strategist, author, and speaker with more than 18 years of experience in the design field.

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“Empathy is at the heart of design. Without the understanding of what others see, feel, and experience, design is a pointless task.” —Tim Brown, CEO of the innovation and design firm IDEO

User experience (UX) design is the process of designing products that are useful, easy to use, and a pleasure to engage. It’s about enhancing the entire experience people have while interacting with a product and making sure they find value, satisfaction, and delight. If a mountain peak represents that goal, employing various types of UX research is the path UX designers use to get to the top of the mountain.

User experience research is one of the most misunderstood yet critical steps in UX design. Sometimes treated as an afterthought or an unaffordable luxury, UX research, and user testing should inform every design decision.

Every product, service, or user interface designers create in the safety and comfort of their workplaces has to survive and prosper in the real world. Countless people will engage our creations in an unpredictable environment over which designers have no control. UX research is the key to grounding ideas in reality and improving the odds of success, but research can be a scary word. It may sound like money we don’t have, time we can’t spare, and expertise we have to seek.

In order to do UX research effectively—to get a clear picture of what users think and why they do what they do—e.g., to “walk a mile in the user’s shoes” as a favorite UX maxim goes, it is essential that user experience designers and product teams conduct user research often and regularly. Contingent upon time, resources, and budget, the deeper they can dive the better.

What Is UX Research?

There is a long, comprehensive list of UX design research methods employed by user researchers , but at its center is the user and how they think and behave —their needs and motivations. Typically, UX research does this through observation techniques, task analysis, and other feedback methodologies.

There are two main types of user research: quantitative (statistics: can be calculated and computed; focuses on numbers and mathematical calculations) and qualitative (insights: concerned with descriptions, which can be observed but cannot be computed).

Quantitative research is primarily exploratory research and is used to quantify the problem by way of generating numerical data or data that can be transformed into usable statistics. Some common data collection methods include various forms of surveys – online surveys , paper surveys , mobile surveys and kiosk surveys , longitudinal studies, website interceptors, online polls, and systematic observations.

This user research method may also include analytics, such as Google Analytics .

Google Analytics is part of a suite of interconnected tools that help interpret data on your site’s visitors including Data Studio , a powerful data-visualization tool, and Google Optimize, for running and analyzing dynamic A/B testing.

Quantitative data from analytics platforms should ideally be balanced with qualitative insights gathered from other UX testing methods , such as focus groups or usability testing. The analytical data will show patterns that may be useful for deciding what assumptions to test further.

Qualitative user research is a direct assessment of behavior based on observation. It’s about understanding people’s beliefs and practices on their terms. It can involve several different methods including contextual observation, ethnographic studies, interviews, field studies, and moderated usability tests.

Jakob Nielsen of the Nielsen Norman Group feels that in the case of UX research, it is better to emphasize insights (qualitative research) and that although quant has some advantages, qualitative research breaks down complicated information so it’s easy to understand, and overall delivers better results more cost effectively—in other words, it is much cheaper to find and fix problems during the design phase before you start to build. Often the most important information is not quantifiable, and he goes on to suggest that “quantitative studies are often too narrow to be useful and are sometimes directly misleading.”

Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted. William Bruce Cameron

Design research is not typical of traditional science with ethnography being its closest equivalent—effective usability is contextual and depends on a broad understanding of human behavior if it is going to work.

Nevertheless, the types of user research you can or should perform will depend on the type of site, system or app you are developing, your timeline, and your environment.

Top UX Research Methods and When to Use Them

Here are some examples of the types of user research performed at each phase of a project.

Card Sorting : Allows users to group and sort a site’s information into a logical structure that will typically drive navigation and the site’s information architecture. This helps ensure that the site structure matches the way users think.

Contextual Interviews : Enables the observation of users in their natural environment, giving you a better understanding of the way users work.

First Click Testing : A testing method focused on navigation, which can be performed on a functioning website, a prototype, or a wireframe.

Focus Groups : Moderated discussion with a group of users, allowing insight into user attitudes, ideas, and desires.

Heuristic Evaluation/Expert Review : A group of usability experts evaluating a website against a list of established guidelines .

Interviews : One-on-one discussions with users show how a particular user works. They enable you to get detailed information about a user’s attitudes, desires, and experiences.

Parallel Design : A design methodology that involves several designers pursuing the same effort simultaneously but independently, with the intention to combine the best aspects of each for the ultimate solution.

Personas : The creation of a representative user based on available data and user interviews. Though the personal details of the persona may be fictional, the information used to create the user type is not.

Prototyping : Allows the design team to explore ideas before implementing them by creating a mock-up of the site. A prototype can range from a paper mock-up to interactive HTML pages.

Surveys : A series of questions asked to multiple users of your website that help you learn about the people who visit your site.

System Usability Scale (SUS) : SUS is a technology-independent ten-item scale for subjective evaluation of the usability.

Task Analysis : Involves learning about user goals, including what users want to do on your website, and helps you understand the tasks that users will perform on your site.

Usability Testing : Identifies user frustrations and problems with a site through one-on-one sessions where a “real-life” user performs tasks on the site being studied.

Use Cases : Provide a description of how users use a particular feature of your website. They provide a detailed look at how users interact with the site, including the steps users take to accomplish each task.

You can do user research at all stages or whatever stage you are in currently. However, the Nielsen Norman Group advises that most of it be done during the earlier phases when it will have the biggest impact. They also suggest it’s a good idea to save some of your budget for additional research that may become necessary (or helpful) later in the project.

Here is a diagram listing recommended options that can be done as a project moves through the design stages. The process will vary, and may only include a few things on the list during each phase. The most frequently used methods are shown in bold.

Reasons for Doing UX Research

Here are three great reasons for doing user research :

To create a product that is truly relevant to users

• If you don’t have a clear understanding of your users and their mental models, you have no way of knowing whether your design will be relevant. A design that is not relevant to its target audience will never be a success.

To create a product that is easy and pleasurable to use

• A favorite quote from Steve Jobs: “ If the user is having a problem, it’s our problem .” If your user experience is not optimal, chances are that people will move on to another product.

To have the return on investment (ROI) of user experience design validated and be able to show:

• An improvement in performance and credibility
• Increased exposure and sales—growth in customer base
• A reduced burden on resources—more efficient work processes

Aside from the reasons mentioned above, doing user research gives insight into which features to prioritize, and in general, helps develop clarity around a project.

What Results Can I Expect from UX Research?

In the words of Mike Kuniaysky, user research is “ the process of understanding the impact of design on an audience. ”

User research has been essential to the success of behemoths like USAA and Amazon ; Joe Gebbia, CEO of Airbnb is an enthusiastic proponent, testifying that its implementation helped turn things around for the company when it was floundering as an early startup.

Some of the results generated through UX research confirm that improving the usability of a site or app will:

• Increase conversion rates
• Increase sign-ups
• Increase NPS (net promoter score)
• Increase customer satisfaction
• Increase purchase rates
• Boost loyalty to the brand
• Reduce customer service calls

Additionally, and aside from benefiting the overall user experience, the integration of UX research into the development process can:

• Minimize development time
• Reduce production costs
• Uncover valuable insights about your audience
• Give an in-depth view into users’ mental models, pain points, and goals

User research is at the core of every exceptional user experience. As the name suggests, UX is subjective—the experience that a person goes through while using a product. Therefore, it is necessary to understand the needs and goals of potential users, the context, and their tasks which are unique for each product. By selecting appropriate UX research methods and applying them rigorously, designers can shape a product’s design and can come up with products that serve both customers and businesses more effectively.

Further Reading on the Toptal Blog:

• How to Conduct Effective UX Research: A Guide
• The Value of User Research
• UX Research Methods and the Path to User Empathy
• Design Talks: Research in Action with UX Researcher Caitria O'Neill
• Swipe Right: 3 Ways to Boost Safety in Dating App Design
• How to Avoid 5 Types of Cognitive Bias in User Research

Understanding the basics

How do you do user research in ux.

UX research includes two main types: quantitative (statistical data) and qualitative (insights that can be observed but not computed), done through observation techniques, task analysis, and other feedback methodologies. The UX research methods used depend on the type of site, system, or app being developed.

What are UX methods?

There is a long list of methods employed by user research, but at its center is the user and how they think, behave—their needs and motivations. Typically, UX research does this through observation techniques, task analysis, and other UX methodologies.

What is the best research methodology for user experience design?

The type of UX methodology depends on the type of site, system or app being developed, its timeline, and environment. There are 2 main types: quantitative (statistics) and qualitative (insights).

What does a UX researcher do?

A user researcher removes the need for false assumptions and guesswork by using observation techniques, task analysis, and other feedback methodologies to understand a user’s motivation, behavior, and needs.

Why is UX research important?

UX research will help create a product that is relevant to users and is easy and pleasurable to use while boosting a product’s ROI. Aside from these reasons, user research gives insight into which features to prioritize, and in general, helps develop clarity around a project.

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Miklos Philips

London, United Kingdom

Member since May 20, 2016

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UX research methods: Deciding which to use for your project

Choosing the right method in UX research can be confusing because it has to be tailored to your specific product and rely on your unique organizational goals.

Each research method has its own unique strengths and weaknesses, but being able to identify the best one to apply to your case is the key to UX research success.

Therefore, it is critical to assess the strengths and weaknesses of the most popular UX research methods and clearly understand the application possibilities and constraints, considering which might make the difference in the choice of one over the other.

Let’s walk you through some of the most common UX research methods to make choosing your option easier.

Overview of different UX research methods

Field studies, focus groups, diary studies, usability testing, five-second testing, a/b testing, considerations for choosing the best ux research method, examples of successful ux research projects, and the methods used, recruiting participants, develop a research protocol, use analytical tools.

The different UX research methods each have their own strengths and limitations, and selecting the right method is essential for gaining meaningful insights. Here are the most popular UX research methods:

• Interviews : involve asking questions to gain insights from users. It is important to start with a wide context, avoid bias, ask questions that focus on tasks users are trying to complete, and analyze the data
• Field studies : a research method where researchers observe people in their natural environment to understand their behavior, needs, and constraints. It is useful for understanding the context in which users complete tasks and gaining a better understanding of customers
• Focus groups : involves studying a group of people and their beliefs and opinions on a topic, usually through face-to-face meetings or video conferencing tools. It can help understand how users perceive a product, identify important features, and discover problems users experience with the product
• Diary studies : a research method where users keep logs or diaries to uncover their behaviors, activities, and experiences over an extended period. It is important to plan well, decide on the type of feedback, and determine triggers for the diary entries
• Surveys : helps gather both qualitative and quantitative data from a group of participants to gain meaningful insights. Surveys can include close-ended or open-ended questions, and it is important to formulate questions correctly to get accurate responses
• Usability testing : involves observing people completing tasks to evaluate usability, using various methods. Method selection is based on research goals and resources, and usability testing should be conducted early and often
• Five-second testing : gauges users’ first impressions by showing them an image for five seconds. The method is useful for assessing messaging effectiveness and attention-grabbing techniques, capturing users’ initial perceptions
• A/B testing : allows testing of design variations to find the most effective one for conversion optimization. The method involves presenting users with two different versions of the design and asking for feedback, with a focus on the prevention of biases and ego-based decision-making

Strengths and weaknesses of each UX research method

The existence of various research methods could confuse you about which method is best suited for your specific situation.

However, accessing the strengths and limitations of each method might help in identifying your preferences, while experience with all of them might give an additional advantage in understanding the best fit — trying and learning from mistakes is the way to perfection.

• Provides rich and detailed information about users’ experiences, preferences, and opinions
• Allows for follow-up questions to clarify responses and gain a deeper understanding of the topic
• Helps build a relationship with users and gain trust
• Can uncover new and unexpected insights

Weaknesses:

• May suffer from bias or social desirability effects
• Requires skilled interviewers to avoid leading questions and extract relevant information
• Time-consuming and expensive to conduct, especially with a large number of participants
• Results may not be generalizable to a larger population
• Provides a realistic view of how users complete tasks and interact with products
• Allows for the observation of behavior in a natural setting, providing contextual information
• Can uncover problems that users might not be aware of or might not report in interviews or surveys
• Provides a broad range of data types, such as visual and audio data
• May require specialized equipment or access to specific locations, making it difficult and expensive to conduct
• Observers may interfere with the natural behavior of participants
• Researchers may struggle to maintain objectivity and avoid bias when collecting and analyzing data
• Allows for the exploration of a wide range of opinions and perspectives in a short amount of time
• Provides insights into how users interact with each other and their social dynamics
• Can uncover new insights that would not have been obtained through individual interviews
• Allows for immediate feedback and discussion among participants
• Participants may be influenced by others’ opinions and not provide independent feedback
• May suffer from groupthink or dominant participants influencing the conversation
• Requires skilled moderators to guide the conversation and extract relevant information
• Provides rich and detailed information over an extended period
• Allows for the collection of data in a natural setting
• Participants have control over their own data and can report on their own experiences
• Can provide insights into changes in behavior or attitudes over time
• Requires participants to commit to recording data over an extended period, which can lead to high attrition rates
• Participants may forget to record important information or not record it accurately
• Results may be influenced by the participant’s memory, attention, or motivation to report accurately
• May not provide a complete picture of the participant’s experience, as they may not report everything they do or feel
• Can collect large amounts of data from a large number of participants quickly and easily
• Allows for the collection of both qualitative and quantitative data
• Provides standardized responses, making it easy to compare and analyze data
• Can be used to obtain data on a wide range of topics
• Participants may not provide accurate or truthful responses
• Can suffer from response bias or question order effects
• Close-ended questions may not capture the nuances of participants’ opinions or experiences
• Results may be influenced by the quality of the questions or response options
• Provides objective feedback on how users interact with products
• Allows for the identification of problems and areas for improvement
• Can be used to compare products or designs
• Can be conducted remotely, making it accessible and cost effective
• May not capture the full range of user experiences or behaviors
• Can be influenced by the tester’s biases or expectations
• May not replicate the natural environment in which the product will be used
• Can be time-consuming and expensive to conduct with a large number of participants
• Quick way to gather initial impressions of users
• Cost-effective method of testing
• Helps to identify potential issues or areas for improvement in design
• Easy to administer and analyze results
• May not provide a comprehensive understanding of the user experience
• Time constraint may not reflect real-life user interactions
• Results may be influenced by personal bias or preferences
• Limited information on how users actually interact with the design beyond initial impressions
• Allows for testing of different variations of a design or webpage
• Provides data to support decision-making and validation of assumptions
• Can be used to optimize the design for specific goals (e.g., conversion rate)
• Helps to control for variables that may affect user behavior
• May not capture the full user experience or account for all variables that could influence behavior
• Can be time-consuming and expensive to administer
• Requires a large enough sample size to ensure statistically significant results
• May lead to decision-making based solely on quantitative data, without considering qualitative insights

When it comes to conducting UX research, the method you choose will depend on the stage of the design process you’re in and what you want to know. It’s important to conduct research first to understand how your product will meet your audience’s needs before testing its effectiveness.

While all research methods have value, it’s often better to observe users’ behavior to discover their needs rather than ask them outright. You’ll also need to decide if what people think and believe or what they do with the product is more relevant to your question. It should also be noted that quantitative research typically assesses success, while qualitative research determines thoughts and motivations.

Once you’ve determined the type of research needed, consider the product’s context in your question to narrow your focus.

However, factors like cost, time, and resources may impact your choice of research method. UX researchers also need to stay in contact with business stakeholders to ensure that research aligns with business goals. Ultimately, the right researcher can make or break a study.

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If you have a small budget, consider starting with a small usability test with five users. If you have a short timeline, conduct an expert review and plan for a usability test in the next phase of development. At any stage in development, consider conducting one or more small usability tests and building improvements into the product as you iterate product design and testing throughout the development cycle.

While I already mentioned a lot of research methods, now it is time to get some insights into the best practices and grasp the feeling of how a successful application looks like in real-life scenarios.

An example of a practical application A/B testing is Spotify , which used this method to determine that users preferred a tab bar instead of the standard three-line menu icon on their mobile app. This resulted in a better user experience and decreased subscription churn, making it clear how A/B testing can have a significant impact on businesses.

Another user research strategy is usability testing, which produces both qualitative and quantitative data. The data gathered from usability testing can be applied in various ways depending on the type of testing and desired outcomes. I mentioned it more than others, as it seems that a lot of great companies constantly use some kind of usability testing to improve their performance.

For example,the world’s largest airline Ryanair’s official website utilized usability testing to increase improve the UX metrics of the website and create a better experience for clients, refreshing its look according to 21st-century expectations. The continuous work of more than 200 employees and an additional large group of testers provided the result that helped the company to stay on top of the airline industry as the website started not to just look better, but to work faster, attracting more clients. Hence, such work has to be ongoing as trends shift while the company has to stay on top of the competition, providing only the best for its clients. Therefore, major companies concentrate on continuous usability testing to increase sales.

An important note here would be that for specific product types, such as an ecommerce website or medical device, there are recommended research methods. When seeking responses from a large number of respondents, consider using a survey delivered electronically via a link or survey platform. On the other hand, if the website or app focuses on experience rather than usability, the chosen research method will usually go with interviews or surveys.

For example, some gaming apps might work just fine, but the visual aspects and music are just not enjoyable for the users, and the only way to grasp such feedback is to access qualitative responses from users in one way or another.

Tips for conducting effective UX research

Recruiting participants for low-cost UX research can be challenging, but there are ways to make it easier. A free 190-page report from the Nielsen Norman Group offers guidelines on how to set up and manage a recruiting program.

You can also use online tools like Doodle to sync schedules and Zoom, Google Hangouts, or Skype to conduct remote interviews, reducing the time it takes to organize multiple in-person interviews. While remote interviews may not provide as much data as other research methods, they can be useful in discovering usability issues and gauging user interaction with these issues.

It is important to ensure that your tested audience’s demographic is diverse and that you prepare by gathering adequate resources and background information. This can help you answer any questions your UX team may have and avoid bias and possible negative feedback from one demographic that you missed during the UX research.

One-on-one interviews can be beneficial because they allow you to focus on specific issues and go in-depth. This eliminates the risk of “groupthink” that can occur in focus groups, for example.

Developing a research protocol can help you stay organized and focused during your user research. This protocol should include tasks you want your participants to do, how much time you’ve set aside for the session, a script or description that you can use for every session, and your process for recording the interviews and looking after participant data.

Analytics tools can also provide valuable quantitative data for your user research. Free tools like Google Analytics and low-cost tools like LogRocket can help you answer questions such as how long it takes for users to complete a task, where they click, how far they scroll, what features are most popular, what paths people usually take, and when they leave.

However, it’s important to pair this raw data with real qualitative user research for insight. Plan ahead and collect useful, properly structured raw data that can be analyzed with as little effort as possible.

In conclusion, understanding the strengths and weaknesses of different UX research methods is crucial for creating effective user-centered designs. Interviews, field studies, focus groups, diary studies, surveys , usability testing, five-second testing, and A/B testing each offer unique insights into user behavior and preferences. When selecting a method, it’s important to consider factors, such as the research goals, target audience, and available resources.

To conduct effective UX research, recruiting diverse and representative participants, developing a research protocol, and utilizing analytical tools are all key factors.

Overall, incorporating UX research into the design process can lead to more satisfying user experiences, and choosing the most appropriate method can make all the difference.

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UX design research methods

Effective user experience design is intuitive, accessible, and engaging. But how do you design a delightful experience that meets your target audience’s needs? Conducting user experience research gives you a glimpse inside your users’ heads, so you can understand what they care about and the challenges they face.

In this article, Figma Designer Advocate Ana Boyer weighs in on:

• What user experience research is, and why your team needs it
• Different types of UX research that support product development
• UX design research methods made easier with Figma

What is user experience research?

User experience research helps design teams identify areas of opportunity to improve user interfaces and enhance the overall user experience. According to Ana, UX research can reveal insights about target users across all phases of product development—from strategy and planning to product launch and post-launch improvements. A robust UX research framework includes both quantitative and qualitative research.

Quantitative research

Using information gathered from larger sample sizes, quantitative research yields concrete numerical data that reveals what users are doing. Researchers run statistical analyses and review analytics to gain insights into user behavior. For example, Ana says, “you might try tracking the number of times users clicked a CTA button on a newly designed web page, compared to an old version."

Qualitative research

For qualitative research, researchers collect subjective and descriptive feedback directly from users, tapping into users’ personal feelings and experiences with a product or design.  "Qualitative research gives you a more thorough explanation of why someone is doing something in the context of a flow,” Ana says.

User-centered design research often covers two types of qualitative research: attitudinal and behavioral. Attitudinal research examines users’ self-reported beliefs and perceptions related to a user experience, while behavioral research focuses on observing first-hand what users do with a product.

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3 benefits of user experience research

According to Ana, with UX research you can:

• Validate your design. "You can learn whether or not your design is hitting project goals and your users are able to accomplish a task—for example, ordering an item from your platform.”
• Put your users front and center. UX research uncovers what users want and need, so you can deliver a product that delights customers.
• Save time and resources. Doing user research and testing early and often allows you to make smaller adjustments quickly and easily. That way, Ana says, “you can take a more iterative approach to design—without having to backtrack and redo your entire UX design.”

How to conduct  UX research

Most common UX research methodologies break down into these essential activities:

• Observe how users act and react . This not only includes clicks and scrolling onscreen, but also their body language and facial expressions. Careful observation helps you understand how users normally perform a task, what interactions users pick up easily or enjoy, where they get stuck in a flow, and more.
• Empathize with your users . To create a useful and usable product, you need to consider how users' context influences them as they interact with your design.
• Analyze information to surface common themes. “Tagging key user responses helps you pinpoint what needs the most work and refinement to improve the user experience," Ana advises

When to use key UX research methods—at a glance

Given all the UX research methods you can use for  product development, when is each most useful? Ana offers these pro tips.

• User personas help you understand your core users in the early stages of development. “If you don’t know who you’re building for, then the time you invest in building and creating something will be wasted,” Ana explains. FigJam’s user persona template will help you get the ball rolling.
• Interviews gather in-depth information directly from users to test your ideas, so you can lower the risk of building a product that misses the target. FigJam’s user interview template will help you lay the groundwork.
• Card sorting invites users to show you what they think is the most intuitive way to organize high-level information in your design. Try FigJam’s card-sorting tool to shape your product’s information architecture.
• Task analysis studies users as they use your site or app to complete tasks, or jobs to be done. Use it to validate your design, and ensure users can quickly and easily accomplish their goals. Get started with FigJam’s jobs to be done template .
• Eye tracking analyzes where users look, when, and how long as they interact with your product.
• Surveys indicate how useful and usable your design is. Surveys  can provide useful insights at any phase of product development, pinpointing where users are struggling with an interface, and revealing user sentiment about a product’s colors, fonts, and overall design.

Launch & post-launch

• A/B testing shows which version or iteration of a webpage, app screen, or CTA button performs better with your users.
• Analytics track KPIs like time spent on page, bounce rate, number of clicks on key CTAs, and more to see what’s working—and what isn’t. Analytics may also reveal useful insights about your users, including location, device usage, age, and gender.
• Usability bug testing identifies and helps fix usability issues that affect your product’s quality and ease of use. “Teams struggle to invest the time and process in doing this, but it can have a huge impact on quality,” Ana says.
• Diaries captured in writing or on video track users’ thoughts and impressions over a certain time period. This self-reporting approach reveals how a product fits into and enhances users’ daily lives.

Kick off user experience research with Figma

No matter where you are in the product development process, FigJam’s research plan template can help you define your research goals. Figma’s research and design templates help you conduct research with user interviews , user personas , card sorting , and Sprig study integration .

With the insights gained from your research, you're ready to design, develop, and prototype engaging user experiences. Use Figma’s UX design tool to:

• Give and receive instant feedback on designs or prototypes—and enjoy real-time collaboration with your team. Figma's Maze integration makes testing prototypes easy.
• Set up design libraries to quickly launch user research projects and improve UX design.
• Easily share assets between Figma and FigJam to help keep your projects moving forward.

To jumpstart your UX research, browse inspiring UX research resources shared by the Figma community .

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20 Essential UX research methods and how they help you build better products

The product development process has many aspects to take care of with decisions that can lead to success or disappointment. Finding the right path might seem tricky, but UX research methods become invaluable insights, which we’ll talk about today.

When every business is battling for attention, the importance of understanding your customers cannot be overstated. User experience (UX) research stands at the forefront, providing valuable data about user behaviors, preferences, and pain points, which is essential for tailoring products that truly resonate with and captivate your audience. In this article, we’ll figure out what exactly UX research is and, as a bonus, provide the 20 essential techniques shaping the world of user-centric product design in 2023.

What is UX research?

UX research is all about understanding the people who will use your product. It’s a way to discover what they need, what they like, and how they behave. There are different methods to do this, like asking questions, analyzing how customers interact with a product, or studying data about their behavior. By doing UX research, you can avoid guessing what users want and instead give them something they will really like and find helpful.

UX research? It’s like chatting with your users to get what they want — no guesswork needed!

Why UX research is important for your product creation

You can’t create a product “just because you want to.” Well, in fact, you can, but will it be useful? Understanding why UX research is crucial in developing a product is the first step toward building something truly remarkable. There are a number of advantages you should consider, so let’s discuss them in detail.

• User satisfaction. First off, UX research puts you in your users’ shoes. It’s the best way to uncover what they need, what frustrates them, and what makes them happy. When you understand these pain points and desires, you can create solutions that potential customers will love.
• Reduced development cost. Investing in UX analysis might seem like an extra expense, but it actually saves you money down the line. While making changes after a product launch is expensive and time-consuming, UX research helps you get it right the first time.
• Product usability. Usability is essential to any successful product, and this is where UX research shines. With proper analysis and focus on usability, you can enhance user satisfaction, making the website or app more appealing and encouraging for repeat usage.
• Increase conversion rates. It’s pretty straightforward — when you understand what users need and how they interact with the product, you can make improvements that hit the mark. These tweaks can make their experience smoother, encouraging more people to leap from being interested to making a purchase.
• Competitive advantage. Every business aims to gain a competitive edge, and UX research is exactly what you need for it. By understanding users and what they need, you can make your product stand out from the crowd. This isn’t just about being different — it’s about being better in a way that matters to your users.
• Informed decision-making. UX research can significantly help when it comes to making decisions in the process of product creation. It gives real, user-based insights, so you’re not just guessing what might work but making informed choices based on what users want and need.
• Brand loyalty. When users feel that a product is made with their needs in mind, they’re more likely to stick around. This loyalty stems from a sense of being understood and valued, a crucial outcome of effective UX research. In short, good UX leads to satisfied users, who, in turn, become loyal supporters of your brand.

With all of these benefits, it’s clear that starting with UX research, you’re starting on the path to success. It bridges the gap between user needs and business goals, leading to effective, efficient, and emotionally engaging solutions.

Types of user research

There are various types of UX research, each with its goals and objectives. From unique insights to different aspects of gathering information, every method helps to craft products that truly resonate with your audience. Overall, there are six main types of user research, which we’re going to discuss below.

Attitudinal vs. behavioral

When we talk about user research, we primarily look at two types: attitudinal and behavioral. The attitudinal type focuses on what users say. It’s all about understanding their attitudes, preferences, and opinions by using tools like surveys, interviews, and questionnaires. Think of it as having a direct conversation with your users to learn how they feel about your product or what they wish for.

In contrast, behavioral research is based on what users actually do. It involves being an observer, watching how people interact with your product. In that case, you can use such methods as usability testing, session recordings, and heatmaps to get the necessary data. This approach is crucial for understanding the true user experience and pinpointing areas for improvement. 

Together, these two research methods give a comprehensive view of the customers, blending what they tell with what their actions show.

Qualitative vs. quantitative

Alright, let’s talk about more types of user research: qualitative and quantitative. They both play crucial roles in crafting a complete picture of customer engagement and preferences. 

Qualitative research gathers stories about users’ experiences, thoughts, and feelings regarding your product. hrough interviews, focus groups, and direct observations, you gain insights into the “why” and “how” people behave while interacting with a website or app.

Now, let’s switch to quantitative research. This one deals with the hard data and is full of numbers. To get exact answers about what is happening on the website, use tools like surveys with fixed responses, website analytics, and statistical analysis. How many people clicked here? What percentage completed their purchase? Quantitative research gives you these facts and, most importantly, stats.

Qualitative research is about the quality of data — the stories and experiences, while quantitative focuses on the numbers.

Generative vs. evaluative

Among the various user research methods, it’s worth discussing generative and evaluative approaches. Both of them are super important to get a well-rounded understanding of your users and, as a result, create a successful product based on these insights.

Generative research is the go-to at the beginning stages of product development or when brainstorming for innovative solutions. It is all about coming up with new ideas and understanding broader user needs and behaviors through interviews, field studies, and diary studies. This type of research outlines what users need and want, helping to figure out what products or features to develop.

Following generative research, as your product ideas take shape, shift to evaluative research. This phase is crucial for assessing what you’ve created. It’s focused on refinement and improvement, using tools like usability testing, A/B testing, and specific surveys. The goal is to test your products against real user expectations and experiences, ensuring that the crafted product resonates with them and effectively meets their needs.

Top 20 UX design research methods and when to use them

Understanding users is the basis of impactful design, and the right research methods are key to gaining this insight. Scroll further as we explore 20 essential UX research techniques, each with its specific application context.

1.  Surveys

In UX research, surveys are handy for getting user feedback and can be qualitative or quantitative, depending on the type of questions asked. Qualitative surveys include open-ended questions to gain insights into what users think and feel, while quantitative use closed-ended questions (like multiple choice or ratings) to get data that’s easy to measure. There are two ways to conduct surveys, namely:

• Email surveys. Sent directly to users’ inboxes, these surveys help reach a broad audience by asking specific things about your product or service. To recruit participants for email surveys, utilize your existing customer database or sign-up forms on your website.
• On-site surveys. They pop up while users browse the website or app, letting you grab feedback about their experience right then and there. For on-site surveys, you can target customers who are actively engaging with your site.

Surveys are versatile. You can use them at various stages of the product development process — from the initial conceptualization phase to after the launch. They help collect data from many users, spot trends in user behavior, and gather thoughts on specific features.

2.  Interviews

A key qualitative method in UX research is interviews, where a researcher meets one-on-one with users to discuss a particular topic. This method includes two main types: in-depth interviews (IDIs) and intercept interviews.

• In-depth interviews (IDIs). They’re usually conducted in a relaxed and cozy environment where participants can talk through everything in detail. If you want to find people for IDIs who match your user profile, surf online, through social media, or use your customer list.
• Intercept interviews. They happen right where the action is — on a website, wherever users interact with your product or service. You’ll approach visitors while they’re using the website or just after they’ve used it. It’s free-flowing, so you rely on their willingness to chat there and then.

This UX method fits perfectly at different stages of your project development, from concept to release. In the early phases, it acts as a tool for gathering the target audience and shaping the user base. Towards the end, this approach becomes a great possibility for getting the lowdown on how people find your product’s usability and appeal.

3.  Personas

Think of personas as characters in a story, but in this case, they are based on real users. This qualitative method helps you make design decisions in the early stages of product development based on what people need and expect. It means ensuring your website or product is a hit with your audience, not just an imaginary user.

But how do you start creating these personas? First, you need actual user data, which you can gather from online platforms, social media, or customer lists. This process isn’t about guessing who your users are but understanding them through in-depth interviews or observational studies. The great decision is to prepare a set of questions or scenarios to gain insights into people’s lifestyles, preferences, and challenges to paint a comprehensive picture of your user base. This way, every design decision you make is grounded in reality, not assumptions.

4.  Usability testing

You’ve got your product or service, and now it’s time to see it in action with people through usability testing. During this process, real users tackle tasks by interacting with your product while a researcher observes their experience, gathering insights on how they use it and where improvements might be needed.

Whether you are wondering when to conduct usability testing, here are some tips to help you make an informed decision:

• Before the design stage. Such an early insight can influence the direction of your design, ensuring it meets the user requirements from the start.
• After wireframe or prototype creation. It helps identify usability issues early on, saving time and resources by preventing costly redesigns later.
• Ahead of the product launch. This step is crucial to eliminate last-minute issues and boost user confidence in your product’s reliability.
• Regularly after roll-out. Ongoing testing helps identify areas for improvement and ensures the product remains relevant and user-friendly.

This method can be both qualitative and quantitative. On the qualitative side, you’re watching and listening to participants, getting their thoughts and feelings on the experience. Quantitatively, you measure how long it takes to complete tasks or count errors. Finding the participants for usability testing can be done through online ads, social media, customer databases, or recruitment agencies.

5.  Field studies

Another aspect of UX research is field studies, where the action happens in places users typically hang out, like their homes or offices. Social media, customer lists, or special outreach programs are your go-to tools for finding people, but remember, you’re asking to step into their space, and it’s crucial they’re comfortable with that.

This qualitative approach offers a reliable overview of your products during the discovery stage or a ready-made prototype to see whether it fits into customers’ daily lives. Researchers are there to watch and learn — how people interact with the product, what’s happening around them, and all that jazz. 

Field studies are about making sure your designs don’t just work in theory but really click in the everyday lives of your users.

6.  Focus groups

A classic tool in UX research is focus groups that bring together a small number of people (typically around 6 to 10 participants) to discuss and share their thoughts about your product or service. It’s kind of a hangout, but instead of casual chit-chat, you’re talking about what they think and feel using your creation.

You need a diverse mix of participants representing different facets of your target audience. To find them, try advertising, searching customer databases, or reaching out to communities relevant to your product.

This qualitative method is thoughtful research of people’s opinions, attitudes, and experiences while formulating your website or service concept. The cool thing is, when customers start talking and bouncing ideas off each other, you get to uncover insights that might not pop up in a one-on-one chat.

7.  Eye-tracking

Eye-tracking is one of the more fascinating and technological UX research methods used to analyze how users view a website or app. Special equipment follows the movement of a visitor’s eyes, showing what catches their attention, for how long, and in what order. Since eye-tracking is a bit more high-tech, you can search for participants through online platforms, social media, or customer databases.

It is a quantitative process that gives you hard data — numbers and patterns demonstrating where people’s attention goes on the screen. This info is super valuable in the mid to late stages of product development to understand what draws users in and what might be getting overlooked.

8.  Remote moderated testing

For remote moderated testing, you can reach out to people through social media, email, or online ads, as this method permits people to join from anywhere. Whether at home, in a cafe, or any comfortable place, this handy UX research technique allows everyone to chill in their favorite spot using video calls and screen-sharing software for testing.

Remote moderated testing can provide qualitative insights by observing and talking to users as they navigate your product in different stages of development. At the same time, you can collect quantitative data like task completion times or error rates. This combo gives you a well-rounded view of the user experience to make iterative improvements based on what real users do and say.

9.  Concept testing

Take a glimpse into how potential users might react to a new idea or design before you start the development phase with the concept testing. It involves presenting a concept — like a product idea, feature, or design element — to users and getting their feedback.

Concept testing can swing both ways — qualitative and quantitative. You can gather feedback by engaging users through social media or online communities to share their thoughts and feelings about the website idea. Hard data comes into play when you ask specific questions that can be measured, like rating scales or choice preferences.

10.  Diary studies

In the method of diary studies, you make participants keep a record — like a diary — of their experiences with your finished product over a period of time. They jot down their thoughts, feelings, and actions, providing a window into daily interactions with what you’ve created.

Diary studies are mainly qualitative and focused on customers’ personal and detailed experiences. You can reach out to users who are already engaged with your product or use a database, social media platforms, or community forums. By analyzing their information, you get rich, narrative insights into how people navigate and feel about your product in their everyday lives.

11.  Customer feedback

You can have a direct line to your users’ thoughts and experiences through customer feedback. That looks like a casual chat with your audience to find out what they love, what frustrates them, and what could be better about your product or service. This communication can be built through a prominent button on your website, a form in your app, or even follow-up emails after a purchase or service use. 

Qualitative customer feedback comes from open-ended questions where users share their thoughts in their own words about any stage of your product’s lifecycle. On the other hand, quantitative data is derived from closed-ended questions, such as ratings or multiple-choice queries, offering measurable insights.

12.  Desirability studies

With desirability studies, you focus on the visual appeal and emotional impact of your product’s design. In these tests, you show participants different style options for your product and ask them to match these ideas with specific feelings or attributes from a list. It’s a bit like a game, where your design elements correspond to feelings like “exciting,” “modern,” or “user-friendly.”

Desirability studies are primarily quantitative and rely on structured feedback, where participants, who you can find through social media, online ads, or user groups, choose from a ready-made list of attributes. This approach provides measurable data about how users perceive the visual aspects of your product, revealing critical insights into their preferences, design effectiveness, and potential areas for visual enhancement.

13.  Card sorting

When it comes to designing the layout and structuring content, card sorting — a user-friendly and insightful method in UX research — kicks in. The main idea is to give participants a set of cards, each labeled with a piece of content or a feature, and ask them to sort it into categories that make sense.

Qualitatively, this method helps you understand how users think and why they group things a certain way. Quantitatively, when you analyze the patterns in how different people sort the cards, you get measurable data on common groupings and preferences.

Your participants don’t need to be current users of your product but should have interests relevant to your offerings. To find them, surf through online forums and social media or rely on your customer database. 

14.  Tree testing

If you want to evaluate the information architecture of your product during the mid-design phase, try tree testing. 

Recruit participants through social media, online ads, or existing customer databases and ask them to find a way through a simplified, text-only map of your website or app — a “tree.” Their mission is to complete specific tasks like finding a particular piece of information or performing an action.

This quantitative research focuses on measurable outcomes like the success rate of finding information, the time taken to complete tasks, and the paths users take. This data provides clear insights into the effectiveness of your site’s or app’s navigational structure.

15.  Analytics

UX research analytics involves exploring user behavior through clues like clicks, form fillings, and other interactions when your product is out in the real world. It’s all about gathering little breadcrumbs of data from actual users to form an overall picture.

This method is quantitative, measuring actions relying on numbers. By analyzing this data, you get objective insights into how users interact with your product, like which features are popular, where they might get stuck, and how they navigate through your site or app.

With UX analytics, every click tells a story, painting a clear picture of user journeys and experiences in the world of numbers.

16.  Clickstream analytics

There is a specific type of UX research — clickstream analytics. This method tracks the digital footprints of your users as they hop from page to page on your live site or app. It’s all about mapping their journey, seeing their paths, the stops they make, and for how long. By applying this research technique, you can gain valuable insight into how users navigate, what they like, and where they might run into trouble.

You don’t need to send out invites for a study or round up a group of participants because the data comes directly from the click and scroll of actual users. It’s a continuous stream of information that lets you tweak, adjust, and perfect a visitor’s experience over time.

Clickstream analytics is inherently quantitative. It deals with concrete data like the sequence of pages visited, the time spent on each page, and the transitions between different parts of the site or app. This data helps quantify user behavior, revealing trends and common navigation paths.

17.  A/B testing

Split testing, or A/B testing, is a method in UX research where you compare two versions of a webpage or app to see which one performs better. Essentially, you create two different versions — A and B — and show them to users. You analyze which is more effective based on specific metrics like clicks, conversions, or customer engagement.

A/B testing is a quantitative research method all about numbers and measurable results. You’re looking at data from current users to see which version leads to better performance regarding their actions and reactions. This approach provides concrete evidence about which design or content choices are more effective in achieving your goals.

18.  Five second testing

Quick and powerful — that’s exactly what five second testing is. The main idea is to show users a webpage, ad, or app screen — for just five seconds. After that brief glimpse, ask questions about what they remember or how they felt to identify the immediate impact and clarity of your designs. This method is flexible and fast, ensuring minimal disruption to your users, whom you can engage through online platforms, social media, or in-person meetings.

The five-second technique can provide both qualitative and quantitative data from the early to mid phases of design. Qualitatively, you can gather insights about participants’ initial feelings and thoughts. Quantitatively, you can measure aspects like recall accuracy, which provides data on the most memorable or attention-grabbing design elements.

19.  Prototyping

Another essential step in the UX design process is prototyping, where the design team creates a mini-version of a site or product. This mock-up can be as simple as a hand-drawn paper layout or as sophisticated as interactive HTML pages. The idea is to explore and visualize design concepts before fully implementing them, allowing for adjustments based on feedback.

You can gather qualitative information from the target audience to understand user reactions, thoughts, and feelings about the design. Quantitatively, you can test specific functions, like the ease of navigation or the effectiveness of user interfaces, by measuring task completion time and rates.

20.  Competitor analysis and benchmarking

The last critical method is to assess your product compared to others in the market. This involves analyzing the strengths and weaknesses of competitor products and benchmarking them against industry standards. The goal is to understand where your creation stands in the competitive landscape and identify opportunities for improvement or differentiation.

This method is valuable at every stage of your product’s life and can be both qualitative and quantitative. It allows you to analyze things like design style, how user-friendly its features are, and the overall website or app vibe compared to competitors. You can also acquire critical numbers, such as performance metrics, user engagement levels, and conversion rates, that’ll help you identify where your product stands in the market and how it can be improved.

What UX research technique is thought to be the best?

The best UX research technique depends on the specifics of your project, your goals, and the stage of development you’re in. For example, if you’re just starting out with a new app idea and want to understand your potential users’ needs and behaviors, generative research methods like interviews or surveys might be your go-to. These techniques help gather insights that can shape your initial design concepts.

On the other hand, if your app is already developed and you’re looking to refine the user interface, usability testing or A/B testing could be more beneficial. These evaluative methods allow you to observe how users interact with your app and make data-driven improvements.

There isn’t a one-size-fits-all answer — the key is to match the research method with your specific needs at each stage of your project.

How to choose UX research methods

When it comes to picking user experience research methods, a great factor to consider is your company’s budget. The amount of money you’re able to allocate for analysis can guide which strategies are feasible and most effective for your needs. But it’s not the only one, as there are other aspects to consider, which we’ll cover in the following paragraphs.

Define your objectives and problems

When starting with UX research, define your objectives and the problems you aim to solve. This step sets the direction of the study and helps you choose the most effective methods to achieve your goals. Knowing exactly what you want to understand or improve in your user experience guides your entire research process.

When defining your objectives and problems in UX research, we recommend you answer these key questions to set clear goals:

• What are the user’s needs?
• What challenges do the users face?
• How can you address user requirements?

Understand the stage of the design process

Choosing the right UX research methods depends on where you are in the design process. Each stage of your project has unique needs and goals, which require different research approaches and can be divided into three main stages, namely:

• Start of the project. This is the exploratory phase, where you gather initial insights to shape your concept. Methods like user interviews, surveys, and market analysis are ideal to understand user needs and market gaps.
• Formative phase. Here, you are in the process of shaping and testing your design. Techniques like prototyping, usability testing, and card sorting help refine your product, ensuring it meets user expectations and usability standards.
• Summative part. At this final point, your product is complete, and you’re assessing its overall performance. Methods like A/B testing, analytics, and satisfaction surveys are used to evaluate the user experience, measure effectiveness, and identify areas for future improvement.

Each phase has distinct goals, and understanding where you are in the process helps you choose research methods that provide the most valuable insights for that particular stage.

Determine the type of information you need

In UX research, determining the necessary information type will guide you in selecting the most appropriate research methods. 

If your goal is to explore more the thoughts, behaviors, and motivations of your users, qualitative methods like interviews and observational studies are your best bet. They give a rich, narrative understanding of customers’ experiences. On the other hand, when looking for concrete, data-driven insights, quantitative methods such as surveys and analytics are more suitable. They provide objective, numerical data that can reveal trends and patterns in user behavior.

Sometimes, a mix of both qualitative and quantitative data is necessary to get a full picture. Such an approach allows you to understand not just what users are doing but also why they’re doing it, combining in-depth insights with measurable facts.

By pinpointing the information you need, you can select UX research methods that provide the most relevant and valuable insights for your project.

Before you start

Eye-tracking, A/B testing, surveys — each method offers unique insights that can shape and refine your website or app development process. By carefully selecting and applying these research techniques, you are equipped to deeply understand user needs, behaviors, and preferences.

Ultimately, the success of a product in the market hinges on how well it meets the requirements and expectations of its customers. Integrating the 20 essential UX research methods outlined above into your development cycle increases the chances of achieving this alignment. 

Whether you’re at the concept stage or refining an existing product, these practices provide the necessary data to make informed decisions, ensuring your product is user-centric, innovative, and competitive in an ever-evolving digital landscape.

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11 Research Methods Every UX Designer Should Know

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Almost every successful product or service has benefited from some form of user experience research, whether a company has hired a whole team of user researchers to conduct focus groups and user interviews, sent out a quick survey, or simply asked friends and family for their feedback.

And while UX research is itself a distinct profession that requires formal training, UX/UI designers should still familiarize themselves with common UX research methods if they want to up their game. “Empathy is at the heart of design,” said Tim Brown, CEO of design firm IDEO . “Without understanding what others see, feel, and experience, design is a pointless task.”

The Interaction Design Foundation builds on that idea, encouraging designers to engage in UX research because:

• It helps them build products and services that are relevant to their users;
• It helps them create designs that are easy and pleasurable to use; and
• It helps them understand the return on investment of their designs

Understanding the different methodologies and insights that UX research offers can also improve collaboration and communication between designers and researchers, product managers, engineers. And, in the event that a UX designer doesn’t have access to a research team, they can take their own steps toward gaining insights into users’ behavior, motivations, pain points, and needs.

Related: What is UX Design?

What Are UX Research Methods?

User experience research serves many purposes , from identifying users’ needs and goals to understanding user behaviors, validating or debunking assumptions, pinpointing problems within a product or service, and coming up with potential solutions. In order to get into users’ heads and understand the user experience, researchers use a range of user research methods that generally fall into one of two categories: quantitative research and qualitative research . Quantitative research methods, also known as quant research, typically concern numerical data. These methods try to identify what problems exist, where they exist, and how many users are affected by the issue. The goal of quantitative methods is to identify trends of statistical significance so that design teams can resolve problems as they arise, understand what’s working, and pivot if their assumptions are off base. Common quant research methods include analytics, surveys, A/B testing, and eye-tracking testing.

Qualitative research methods , also known as qual research, typically concern user behaviors, motivations, and attitudes. Where quant research tries to answer questions like where and how much , qualitative research attempts to shed light on why . The goal of qualitative research methods is to understand why a problem exists, how users think or feel about a product, service, or feature, and what possible solutions or improvements could be introduced. Common qualitative research methods include interviews, focus groups, open-ended surveys, diary studies, and usability testing.

Why Are UX Research Methods Important?

“If you want a great site, you’ve got to test,” said Steve Krug, author of Don’t Make Me Think: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability . “After you’ve worked on a site for even a few weeks, you can’t see it freshly anymore. You know too much. The only way to find out if it really works is to test it.”

User testing, and, by extension, user research methods, are a crucial part of the design process. Without taking on user feedback, studying user behaviors, testing how a platform or app functions on different devices, observing how users interact with the user interface, and considering the possible use cases in different scenarios, it’s nearly impossible to measure customer satisfaction or to know if a product or service is actually working as intended.

There’s a high cost to building and launching products that either don’t work or no one needs. Glitchy services can frustrate users to the point of giving up. Difficult-to-use websites and storefronts can lead to a drop in sales and conversion. Platforms that fail to delight and make life easier for users risk losing their customers to a competitor. And if a product or service proves irrelevant, then an entire business can shutter. This is why user research is so important, according to UX professionals—UX research methods can help organizations identify weaknesses in their products, understand what users actually want, and avoid the pitfall of irrelevance. “To find ideas, find problems,” said Julie Zhuo, former VP of product design at Facebook . “To find problems, talk to people.”

Related Read: 10 Best UX Research Courses to Grow Your Skillset

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11 Essential UX Research Methods—and How To Use Them

There are dozens of methods that UX researchers use to better understand their users’ experience. Below are some of the more common qualitative and quantitative methods that are used by researchers. It’s not unusual for UX teams to use more than one method; in fact, qualitative and quantitative methods often complement each other and help paint a more nuanced and accurate picture of how users are experiencing a product or service, what they like about it, what’s not working, and possible fixes and improvements.

1. Card sorting

A qualitative method that attempts to get into users’ heads, card sorting presents users with a collection of words or images on cards and asks them to arrange them into categories or flows that make sense to them. For example, an e-commerce company might have research participants create a checkout flow so that they can see what users expect to see when they buy something online—the findings from such a study can then inform how a checkout page is designed.

2. Usability testing

This method is used by both qualitative and quantitative researchers because it is capable of collecting both qualitative and quantitative data. In the former, researchers can observe a research participant as they use a product, service, or prototype, asking them to narrate their experience and track where they might be running into issues. In the latter, researchers can record the number of users who are running into problems and pinpoint where issues are arising.

3. A/B testing

A quantitative method in which researchers offer multiple versions of a website, platform, or service, and analyze collected data on how users interact with each version. A/B testing can reveal whether one version is more useful than another and whether certain features influence conversion.

4. Focus groups

Typically involving six to nine research participants, focus groups give researchers an opportunity to measure how users feel about a product or service. Participants can be asked about their prior experiences with a product, what issues they’ve run into, and what attitudes they hold about a certain brand or company. This method also offers insights into what users want.

5. Interviews

One of the more open-ended forms of qualitative user research, interviews are a great exploration tool because they allow participants to offer in-depth and unrestricted responses, while giving researchers the opportunity to ask follow-up questions. While this can be a time-consuming process in terms of participant recruitment, time spent conducting the user interviews, and time spent analyzing the findings, this methodology can often be illuminating and give researchers a deep understanding of their users.

6. Behavioral research

Similar to usability testing, this method involves observing users to understand their behaviors, which in turn can help establish trends that designers can then factor into their work. Where participants might inadvertently say one thing and do another, behavioral observations allow research to actually see a participant interact with a product. 

7. Diary studies

This method meets participants wherever they are. Instead of inviting participants into a lab for structured testing or interviews, diary studies ask participants to keep a log of their actions. For example, a ride-hailing company like Uber might ask participants to make a note of each time they travel—are they choosing public transport, hailing an Uber, calling a cab, walking, or driving their own car? What’s motivating the choice at that moment? These kinds of studies can often provide long-term insight into how and why people use a product or service. 

8. Analytics

One of the most common forms of quantitative research, analytics covers a huge range of data collected from websites, apps, and platforms. One of the strengths of analytics is that they typically involve the data collected from a large number of participants, which makes it possible to see trends and issues of statistical significance. One of the most popular tools used in this form of research is Google Analytics, which can track data ranging from the number of site visitors to time spent on site, conversion rate, type of browser used, and referral links. 

9. Expert review

This process involves bringing on an expert in UX/UI research and design who can go through a product and, using their own expertise and experience, identify areas that can be improved. The process can vary from person to person, and expert reviews typically require only one “expert” to give feedback. 

10. Eye movement tracking

As the name suggests, eye movement tracking uses hardware and software to track where a users’ eyes are moving across a screen to better understand where users’ attention is drawn and how designers can prioritize content on a page in order to maximize views. 

11. User personas

Also referred to as profiles, this is a method in which researchers use findings from other forms of research to create fictional representations of users, assigning them traits, attributes, and a backstory that designers and collaborators can keep in mind as they build products. 

What Is the Role of UX Research Methods in a Designer’s Life?

User experience research is foundational in any UX designer’s process. Whether a designer is conducting research themselves or working off the findings of a UX research team, research methodologies help shed light on what users want and need, which in turn informs design decisions big and small. Whether it’s figuring out how a website’s navigation can be improved, understanding what strengths a company has over its competitor’s products or finding ways to make a product or service easier and more intuitive to use, research methods take out the guesswork and provide designers with the evidence they need to make informed decisions that potentially affect large swaths of the population.

“Usability plays a much wider role in our lives than most people realize,” according to UX research consultant Thomas Tullis. “It’s not just about using a website, a piece of software, or the latest technology. Usability is about setting up a tent, relighting a furnace to heat a home, trying to figure out a tax form, or driving an unfamiliar rental car. Usability impacts everyone, every day. It cuts across cultures, age, gender, and economic class.”

This post was written by Tracey Lien.

Since you’re here If you want to work in design, you can. It’s that simple. With our UX Bootcamp , we’ll help you launch your design career in 9 months or less. Browse our free UX salary guide to see what you could be making

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What Is User Research, and What Is Its Purpose?

User research, or UX research, is an absolutely vital part of the  user experience design process.

Typically done at the start of a project, it encompasses different types of research methodologies to gather valuable data and feedback. When conducting user research, you’ll engage with and observe your target users, getting to know their needs, behaviors, and pain points in relation to the product or service you’re designing.

Ultimately, user research means the difference between designing based on guesswork and assumptions, and actually creating something that solves a real user problem. In other words: Do not skip the research phase!

If you’re new to user research, fear not. We’re going to explain exactly what UX research is and why it’s so important. We’ll also show you how to plan your user research and introduce you to some key user research methods .

We’ve divided this rather comprehensive guide into the following sections. Feel free to skip ahead using the menu below:

• What is user research?
• What is the purpose of user research?
• How to plan your user research.
• An introduction to different research methods—and when to use them.

Ready? Let’s jump in.

1. What is user research?

User experience research is the systematic investigation of your users in order to gather insights that will inform the design process. With the help of various user research techniques, you’ll set out to understand your users’ needs, attitudes, pain points, and behaviors (processes like task analyses look at how users actually navigate the product experience —not just how they should or how they say they do). 

Typically done at the start of a project—but also extremely valuable throughout—it encompasses different types of research methodology to gather both qualitative and quantitative data in relation to your product or service.

Before we continue, let’s consider the difference between qualitative and quantitative data .

Qualitative vs. Quantitative data: What’s the difference?

Qualitative UX research results in descriptive data which looks more at how people think and feel. It helps to find your users’ opinions, problems, reasons, and motivations. You can learn all about in-depth in this video by professional UX designer Maureen Herben:

Quantitative UX research , on the other hand, generally produces numerical data that can be measured and analyzed, looking more at the statistics. Quantitative data is used to quantify the opinions and behaviors of your users.

User research rarely relies on just one form of data collection and often uses both qualitative and quantitative research methods together to form a bigger picture. The data can be applied to an existing product to gain insight to help improve the product experiences, or it can be applied to an entirely new product or service, providing a baseline for UX, design, and development.

From the data gathered during your user research phase, you should be able to understand the following areas within the context of your product or service:

• Who your users are
• What their needs are
• What they want
• How they currently do things
• How they’d like to do them

As you consider the  why  of user research, remember that it’s easier than you might realize to overlook entire groups of users. It’s important to ensure that you’re conducting inclusive UX research and that starts in the earliest stages!

2. What is the purpose of user research?

The purpose of user research is to put your design project into context. It helps you understand the problem you’re trying to solve; it tells you who your users are, in what context they’ll be using your product or service, and ultimately, what they need from you, the designer! UX research ensures that you are designing with the user in mind, which is key if you want to create a successful product.

Throughout the design process, your UX research will aid you in many ways. It’ll help you identify problems and challenges, validate or invalidate your assumptions, find patterns and commonalities across your target user groups, and shed plenty of light on your users’ needs, goals, and mental models.

Why is this so important? Let’s find out.

Why is it so important to conduct user research?

Without UX research, you are essentially basing your designs on assumptions. If you don’t take the time to engage with real users, it’s virtually impossible to know what needs and pain-points your design should address.

Here’s why conducting user research is absolutely crucial:

User research helps you to design better products!

There’s a misconception that it’s ok to just do a bit of research and testing at the end of your project. The truth is that you need UX research first, followed by usability testing and iteration throughout.

This is because research makes the design better. The end goal is to create products and services that people want to use. The mantra in UX design is that some user research is always better than none .

It’s likely at some point in your UX career that you will come across the first challenge of any UX designer—convincing a client or your team to include user research in a project.

User research keeps user stories at the center of your design process.

All too often, the user research phase is seen as optional or merely “nice-to-have”—but in reality, it’s crucial from both a design and a business perspective. This brings us to our next point…

User research saves time and money!

If you (or your client) decide to skip the research phase altogether, the chances are you’ll end up spending time and money developing a product that, when launched, has loads of usability issues and design flaws, or simply doesn’t meet a real user need. Through UX research, you’ll uncover such issues early on—saving time, money, and lots of frustration!

The research phase ensures you’re designing with real insights and facts — not guesswork! Imagine you release a product that has the potential to fill a gap in the market but, due to a lack of user research, is full of bugs and usability issues. At best, you’ll have a lot of unnecessary work to do to get the product up to scratch. At worst, the brand’s reputation will suffer.

UX research gives the product a competitive edge. Research shows you how your product will perform in a real-world context, highlighting any issues that need to be ironed out before you go ahead and develop it.

User research can be done on a budget

There are ways that you can conduct faster and less costly user research , utilizing Guerrilla research outlined later on in this article (also handy if budget and time are an issue). Even the smallest amount of user research will save time and money in the long run.

The second challenge is how often businesses think they know their users without having done any research. You’ll be surprised at how often a client will tell you that user research is not necessary because they know their users!

In a 2005 survey completed by Bain, a large global management consulting firm, they found some startling results. 80% of businesses thought they knew best about what they were delivering. Only 8% of those businesses’ customers agreed.

The survey may be getting old, but the principle and misperception still persist.

In some cases, businesses genuinely do know their customers and there may be previous data on hand to utilize. However, more often than not, ‘knowing the users’ comes down to personal assumptions and opinions.

“It’s only natural to assume that everyone uses the Web the same way we do, and—like everyone else—we tend to think that our own behavior is much more orderly and sensible than it really is.” (Don’t Make Me Think ‘Revisited’, Steve Krug, 2014.) A must on every UX Designer’s bookshelf!

What we think a user wants is not the same as what a user thinks they want. Without research, we inadvertently make decisions for ourselves instead of for our target audience. To summarize, the purpose of user research is to help us design to fulfill the user’s actual needs, rather than our own assumptions of their needs.

In a nutshell, UX research informs and opens up the realm of design possibilities. It saves time and money, ensures a competitive edge, and helps you to be a more effective, efficient, user-centric designer.

3. How to plan your user research

When planning your user research , it’s good to have a mix of both qualitative and quantitative data to draw from so you don’t run into issues from the value-action gap, which can at times make qualitative data unreliable.

The value-action gap is a well-known psychology principle outlining that people genuinely don’t do what they say they would do, and is commonly referred to as what people say vs. what people do.

More than 60% of participants said they were “likely” or “very likely” to buy a kitchen appliance in the next 3 months. 8 months later, only 12% had. How Customers Think, Gerald Zaltman, 2003

When planning your user research, you need to do more than just User Focus Groups—observation of your users really is the key. You need to watch what your users do.

Part of being a great user researcher is to be an expert at setting up the right questions and getting unbiased answers from your users.

To do this we need to think like the user.

Put yourself in your user’s shoes without your own preconceptions and assumptions on how it should work and what it should be. For this, we need empathy (and good listening skills) allowing you to observe and challenge assumptions of what you already think you know about your users.

Be open to some surprises!

4. When to use different user research methods

There’s a variety of different qualitative and quantitative research methods out there. If you’ve been doing the CareerFoundry UX Design course , you may have already covered some of the list below in your course.

It isn’t an exhaustive list, but covers some of the more popular methods of research. Our student team lead runs through many of them in the video below.

Qualitative Methods:

• Guerrilla testing: Fast and low-cost testing methods such as on-the-street videos, field observations, reviews of paper sketches, or online tools for remote usability testing.
• Interviews: One-on-one interviews that follow a preset selection of questions prompting the user to describe their interactions, thoughts, and feelings in relation to a product or service, or even the environment of the product/service.
• Focus groups: Participatory groups that are led through a discussion and activities to gather data on a particular product or service. If you’ve ever watched Mad Men you’ll be familiar with the Ponds’ cold cream Focus Group !
• Field Studies: Heading into the user’s environment and observing while taking notes (and photographs or videos if possible).
• In-lab testing: Observations of users completing particular tasks in a controlled environment. Users are often asked to describe out loud their actions, thoughts, and feelings and are videoed for later analysis
• Card sorting : Used to help understand Information Architecture and naming conventions better. Can be really handy to sort large amounts of content into logical groupings for users.

Quantitative Methods:

• User surveys: Questionnaires with a structured format, targeting your specific user personas. These can be a great way to get a large amount of data. Surveymonkey is a popular online tool.
• First click testing: A test set up to analyse what a user would click on first in order to complete their intended task. This can be done with paper prototypes, interactive wireframes or an existing website.
• Eye tracking: Measures the gaze of the eye, allowing the observer to ‘see’ what the user sees. This can be an expensive test and heatmapping is a good cheaper alternative.
• Heatmapping: Visual mapping of data showing how users click and scroll through your prototype or website. The most well-known online tool to integrate would be Crazyegg.
• Web analytics: Data that is gathered from a website or prototype it is integrated with, allowing you to see the demographics of users, page views, and funnels of how users move through your site and where they drop off. The most well-known online tool to integrate would be Google Analytics .
• A/B testing: Comparing two versions of a web page to see which one converts users more. This is a great way to test button placements, colors, banners, and other elements in your UI.

Further reading

Now you know what user research is and why it’s so important. If you’re looking for a way to get trained in this particular discipline, there’s good news—owing to demand and popularity, there’s a growing number of UX research bootcamps out there.

If you’d like to learn more about UX research, you may find the following articles useful:

• What Does A UX Researcher Actually Do? The Ultimate Career Guide
• How to Conduct User Research Like a Professional
• How to Build a UX Research Portfolio (Step-by-Step Guide)

User research is the process of understanding the needs, behaviors, and attitudes of users to inform the design and development of products or services. It involves collecting and analyzing data about users through various methods such as surveys, interviews, and usability testing.

2. How to conduct user research?

User research can be conducted through various methods such as surveys, interviews, observations, and usability testing. The method chosen depends on the research goals and the resources available. Typically, user research involves defining research objectives, recruiting participants, creating research protocols, conducting research activities, analyzing data, and reporting findings.

3. Is user research the same as UX?

User research is a part of the broader UX (User Experience) field, but they are not the same. UX encompasses a wide range of activities such as design, testing, and evaluation, while user research specifically focuses on understanding user needs and behaviors to inform UX decisions.

4. What makes good user research?

Good user research is characterized by clear research goals, well-defined research protocols, appropriate sampling methods, unbiased data collection, and rigorous data analysis. It also involves effective communication of research findings to stakeholders, as well as using the findings to inform design and development decisions.

5. Is user research a good career?

User research is a growing field with many opportunities for career growth and development. With the increasing importance of user-centered design, there is a high demand for skilled user researchers in various industries such as tech, healthcare, and finance. A career in user research can be fulfilling for those interested in understanding human behavior and designing products that meet user needs.

The Ultimate Guide to UX Research Methods

Look no further: This deep dive has how-tos, best practices, and prime advice on key approaches to user research.

A human centered practitioner's job is more than just data gathering—think collaboration building, workshop leading, budgeting, hiring, and generally advocating for insights. But the core of many UXRs' roles is still research.

This roundup pulls together People Nerds's best resources for the core research approaches used by mixed-methods thinkers . Even if you're not sure which method to use , this guide will help you get started with the foundations.

Bookmark it for later, because this one is chock-full of information.

Recruitment

Interviews and focus groups, unmoderated methods, other approaches.

Empathy-driven experiences start with stories—human stories. Finding folks to share their perspective, experiences, and document their highs and lows is a critical (but often rushed) phase of the research process. Use these pieces to balance ethics with speed, disclosure with safety, and create a relationship with your ultimate boss: the user.

✔ DEIB and inclusivity

✔ Participant challenges and advice

Flexible, templatable, and endlessly useful, a survey should be a well-worn tool in any UXR's kit. From lightweight approaches like NPS or customer feedback to longitudinal journey-mapping aligned engagements, a good survey can bring scale—plus just the right amount of quant to ensure insight activation and ultimate user impact.

✔ Data analysis

✔ Approach and practice

Nothing beats the sensation of sitting across from someone and chatting about their experiences. From generative "How might you?" sequences to task-oriented usability studies, interviews (and focus groups) are a rich and reliable way to capture feedback and information to make smarter, more human experience decisions.

Research platforms have grown in importance and rigor alongside orgs' own maturity. These platforms offer a flexible and powerful way to extend reach, improve visibility, and manage concurrent projects. dscout's own platform supports many of the following use cases. But even if you're not a customer, tomorrow's UXR will need to be remote and mobile fluent.

It never hurts to have extra tools in your box. Between competitive analysis, usability testing, A/B testing and day in the life studies, you can round out your UXR skills to tailor the study at hand.

Ben is the product evangelist at dscout, where he spreads the “good news” of contextual research, helps customers understand how to get the most from dscout, and impersonates everyone in the office. He has a doctorate in communication studies from Arizona State University, studying “nonverbal courtship signals”, a.k.a. flirting. No, he doesn’t have dating advice for you.

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World Leaders in Research-Based User Experience

Ux writing: study guide.

May 8, 2024 2024-05-08

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UX writing is the practice of writing carefully considered information that addresses people’s contexts, needs, and behaviors . Writing copy involves many of the same skills as visual or interaction design , except writers use words instead of pixels to communicate with users throughout the experience.

Unfortunately, content design and copywriting are often skipped, rushed, or misunderstood in product development. In fact, they are more complex and involved than many assume or appreciate. Quality content speaks clearly to people , builds trust , and compels action toward organizational goals . 

In This Article:

Understand how people read online, improving your writing, formatting, and structuring, best practices for short copy: headings, command labels, and links, related study guide: content strategy, ux writing training course.

Many years’ worth of evidence from our eyetracking and content-focused usability research shows people behave differently when reading online versus in print . Use the articles and videos in this section to understand how much (or little) people read online, common reading patterns, and implications for content design.

Writing good copy starts with understanding who will consume the information, why they need it, and what they’ll do with it next. This knowledge informs which words to use or avoid , appropriate presentation formats , and how to structure information so people can quickly get to what they need. Use these subsections and resources to remember commonly overlooked details for writing online.

Plain Language

Plain language can be understood the first time your audience reads or hears it. Content that is easy to read and understand benefits all users . Just because you and your internal team understand something, doesn’t mean your users do!

Tone of Voice

Consider the information you’re sharing and also how you say it . Conduct user research to understand how people feel when reading a message (e.g., confused, stressed) and what they need or expect to feel afterwards (e.g., clarity, comfort). Tone of voice has a measurable impact on users’ perceptions of your organization, so it’s important to properly set and consistently maintain it across all channels.

Jargon and Writing for Experts

Jargon terms are special words or expressions commonly used and understood by a particular profession or group. While jargon is meaningful to insiders, it doesn’t usually make sense to anyone outside of the group . We usually recommend avoiding it and using plain language instead.  

However, if there's a jargon term your audience uses in regular speech or writing, then it’s not jargon to that audience! If you're writing copy for just that group , you may be able to use the jargon and users may expect to see it. This is why it’s so important to understand your users before you start writing.

Formatting and Structuring Content

Formatting techniques help make information predictable and easy to scan , while structuring prioritizes the right types of details users need and expect , without excess or fluff. Pay attention to the order in which information is displayed and use interactive tools, such as anchor links and accordions to help users skip to and focus on the information they need.

Headlines help users understand where they are, while command labels tell users what will happen after taking action. Link text sets users’ expectations for where they’ll go next and what they will find there, while microcontent eases understanding and potentially saves users time and effort. Use the articles and videos in this section to prioritize the small pieces of information that have a big impact on the user experience .  

• Content Strategy: Study Guide

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Techniques and tools for implementing an actionable content strategy

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UX Research Methods and Techniques

Explore 16 of the most common quantitative and qualitative methods for making informed decisions and generating actionable human insights

Introduction to UX Research Methods

What are ux research methods.

UX research methods are the family of experimental protocols design teams use to study users and test prototypes. They include everything from simple interviews to specialized scorecards, and can be either moderated (ex. interviews) or unmoderated (ex. surveys).

While conducting UX research should generally be left to experienced designers, every member of a Design Thinking team can benefit from a deeper appreciation of the established techniques and rich insights they provide.

What are the types of UX Research methods?

For the sake of simplicity, this guide categorizes common UX research methods into three types based on the data they commonly provide: Quantitative, Qualitative, or Mixed.

Quantitative UX Research Methods Best for benchmarking, prioritization and forecasting

Qualitative UX Research Methods Best for modelling user experiences and inspiring ideas

Mixed UX Research Methods Can be used to deliver both quantitative and qualitative data

The UX Research Methods Matrix

X-dimension: situation vs solution.

The X-dimension separates methods based on what they are typically used to study: Either the situation as a whole (like a literature review or diary study), or the solution being created (like concept testing or an intercept survey). UX research methods are leveraged throughout the complete project cycle — they don’t end when the interviews are over.

Y-Dimension: Qualitative vs Quantitative

The Y-dimension separates methods based on the type of data they typically output: Either more qualitative (like focus groups or concept testing), or more quantitative (like user surveys or A/B testing). Relying on only one type of data can be dangerous: Robust research projects should include a mix of both, as they provide different perspectives on the experience.

Which UX Research Methods should I use?

Typically, UX research methods are stacked together to create an overall UX research plan . That means that the selection of your methods is based on what stage of the plan you are in, and what questions you need to answer. Keep the following factors in mind as you browse the guide:

Three factors to consider when selecting a research method

• Questions: What do we need to find out specifically?
• Resources: How much time/talent/budget do we have?
• Risk tolerance: What are the risks of incorrect assumptions?

If it doesn’t agree with experiment, it’s wrong.

Qualitative UX Research Methods

Qualitative UX Research Methods are powerful sources of inspiration. They bring the voice of the customer directly into the design process, and answer critical questions about the goals and behaviors that solutions can support.

UX research methods in this section:

• User interviews
• Focus groups
• Diary studies
• Literature review
• Participatory design
• Remote walkthrough

User Interviews

User Interviews are the bread and butter of qualitative UX research methods. When designing user-centered solutions, there is no substitute for speaking with real users. While user interviews can take many forms and can integrate multiple methods (such as card sorting and concept testing), the quality of any interview is determined by the quality of its questions.

When planning user interviews, extreme care must be taken to develop questions that are most likely to make interviewees comfortable and actively engaged. If you have ever conducted user interviews before, you will appreciate how difficult this can be in formal settings.

User interviews help to answer

• Who are our primary and secondary personas?
• What do they think and do? Say and feel?
• What are their major pains and gains?
• Who else should we be talking to?

Focus Groups

Focus groups are like user interviews conducted with a group of 5-10 people at once. While they can help expedite the research process , they require significant planning and expert moderation to conduct effectively. Because of this, focus groups are typically conducted by research firms experienced at building group discussion guides that balance personalities and ensure all participants are able to share their feelings openly and evenly.

Focus groups help to answer

• What do teams think about a topic/solution?
• What information gaps exist in the field?
• Which disciplines should we be talking to?
• Does our messaging spark controversy? Conversation?

Diary Studies

Diary studies are an ethnographic UX research method that provide rich qualitative insights. The basic premise of a diary study is to ask potential users to record their experiences in a diary, which is then collected by researchers upon completion.

Diary studies can be recorded as guided journal entries or photo essays, and typically aim to describe a “ day in the life ” of a particular person. Diary studies add a level of realism that can’t be achieved in controlled settings, and are a great way to gain the type of detailed insights that inspire genuine innovations. Note that due to their revealing nature, protecting user privacy is especially important to consider with this method.

Diary studies help to answer

• What does a typical day look like?
• Who do our users rely on and when?
• When/where do our users engage with us?
• What other factors influence the experience?

Literature Review

Also called secondary or desk research, Literature Reviews are a method for exploring available information to gain context about a specific domain. While the rigor required varies with every solution, every design project is likely to benefit from at least a cursory review of existing research. When conducting literature reviews, it is critical to consider the credibility and bias of the source. Government statistics and peer-reviewed publications are typically the most robust sources, with surveys, articles and other sources requiring additional caution.

Literature reviews help to answer

• What cultural trends are influencing our users?
• How has our demographic evolved over time?
• What does science say about the unmet need?
• How are other related solutions experienced?
• What else do we know about our users?

Participatory Design

Participatory design is when teams integrate one or more users directly into their design process. This can be particularly helpful when designing enterprise solutions for specific roles, where deep domain knowledge is needed to appreciate the complexities of required tasks. It also helps to create external “champions” of the solution, who will then help train users and improve adoption.

While the benefit of having instant access to real user feedback can help remove bias and align teams, it is not without risks. The power of user personas is that they represent the collective goals and behaviors of target groups. Relying on n=1 comes with risks.

Participatory design helps to answer

• What would the user do/think?
• What challenges a decision cause?
• Which feature is most important?
• How do these experiences compare?

Remote Walkthrough

A remote walkthrough, also called a Touchstone Tour or simply “shadowing”, puts users in the driver seat as they walk design teams through their environment. For example, if you were designing a new video editing application, you may recruit current video editors to walk you through their daily tasks within the software. Thanks to modern video conferencing tools like Slack or Zoom, it’s easy to conduct and record remote walkthroughs alongside other ux research methods.

Remote walkthroughs help to answer

• What tasks are required to complete their goals?
• How do users complete these tasks?
• What UX challenges do they face along the way?
• Do they use any shortcuts? Customizations?
• How comfortable are users in their environment?

Quantitative UX Research Methods

Today, digital “desire lines” are everywhere — but only if you know where to look. Whether you are improving an app used by millions, or building a service for select specialists, being able to parse big data into actionable insights is a mandatory skill for all UX researchers.

• Behavioral analytics
• User surveys
• Intercept surveys
• Click tracking
• Eye tracking
• A/B testing

Behavioral Analytics

Behavioral analytics help model how users are engaging with an existing system or solution. The process of determining which metrics are the best proxy for the experience, and what the current data says about the solution, is where this UX research method shines.

Typically, the analysis is completed by a core research team and shared with the broader cross functional team during design thinking workshops to inform and inspire ideas. Common behavioral metrics include bounce rate, conversion rate, time to completion, time on task, or other digital/physical desire lines.

Behavioral analytics help to answer

• Where are our users coming from?
• Are they finding what they want?
• How long are they spending with us?
• What do they search for most?
• How often do they engage with us?

User Surveys

Surveys are an established research method adopted by myriad disciplines to collect hard data from groups of people. Data are then analyzed by statistical methods to generate “significant” insights that are unlikely to be due to chance. The power to discern signal from noise is the product of the size of the survey sample: The more people you ask, the more confident the statistics will be.

Like user interviews, the quality of a user survey relies on recruiting the right people and asking the right questions. But unlike interviews, these questions need to be formatted in a way that can be answered using a sliding scale or multiple choice — at least until natural language processing simplifies the analysis of free-text responses.

User surveys help to answer

• Who are our users?
• What challenges do they face?
• What goals and behaviors do they share?
• Where should we focus our design efforts?
• What do they think about a situation or solution?

Intercept Surveys

Intercept surveys, also called feedback surveys, are a simplified form of user survey deployed in the wild where interactions occur. Intercept surveys are commonly found on websites and in emails, and can be as simple as asking “Was this information helpful?”. In practice, intercept surveys are best when limited to only a single question that is easy to understand and effortless to answer.

Intercept surveys help to answer

• What are the biggest challenges users face?
• Where does the experience go wrong?
• Why are users dropping off at this point?
• How is our current solution being received?

Click Tracking

Click Tracking is a specialized ux research method that lets designers observe and analyze everywhere users click or tap when visiting a website. While digital marketers have been using scroll depth and CTA conversion rates for years, modern click-tracking tools like HotJar can now passively record real user visits and generate cumulative heat maps for your pages. These heat maps show where users are (and aren’t) clicking. In fact, HotJar will automatically generate three different layers of heat maps to capture all clicks, moves and scrolls. Together, these session-tracking maps help designers present findings to stakeholders and improve on-page conversions.

Click tracking helps to answer

• Is this button/content getting lost?
• Are users trying to click the wrong thing?
• How are users engaging with our pages?
• What effect did this design update have?

Eye Tracking

Eye tracking is a specialized UX research method that records where your test users are looking — not just where they scroll or click to. Unlike click tracking which can be installed on a live website, eye tracking studies require controlled settings with user opt-in. In the past, eye tracking was prohibitively expensive due to the technology required; however, accurate, webcam-based tools like Real Eye have greatly reduced the barrier to entry.

Today, eye tracking studies are frequently used as a form of unmoderated usability testing that participants can complete on their own time. This dramatically simplifies the logistics and reduces the guesswork in major decision decisions.

Eye tracking helps to answer

• Where do users look first?
• What design is more attractive?
• Is our message being missed?
• Are we confusing our users?

A/B Testing

A/B Testing is a data-driven way to determine which of two (or more) options is the most effective at achieving a specific goal. A/B testing is used in a variety of industries, especially in digital marketing, where optimizing conversion rates is of critical importance. In user experience design , A/B testing can be used to optimize specific aspects of an existing solution, or to determine which of two designs to pursue.

A/B testing helps to answer

• What experience converts best?
• How can we optimize the experience?
• What direction should we pursue?
• What do our users prefer?

Mixed UX Research Methods

Mixed UX Research methods can be used to generate human insights and hard data . They allow for both direct observation of user behaviors, while also generating data that can be subject to statistical analysis.

UX research methods described in this section:

• Heuristic evaluation
• Concept testing
• Tree testing
• Card sorting
• Usability testing

Heuristic Evaluation

Heuristic evaluation is effectively a “pragmatic review” of a user experience by design experts. When applied formally, it uses a point-based scoring system akin to those used to judge athletic performances (like gymnastics or diving). Using predefined criteria and scorecards helps to reduce bias and make scalable decisions in situations where direct usability testing is not possible or necessary.

Of course, the quality of a heuristic evaluation is determined by the experience of the reviewers, and their ability to make unbiased judgements from a user’s point of view. Having a validated set of personas helps improve the output of a heuristic evaluation, and the same interfaces can (and should) be reviewed from the perspective of multiple user personas.

Web users ultimately want to get at data quickly and easily.

Heuristic evaluation helps to answer

• Which design is more user friendly?
• How much have we improved our UX?
• Do we need to redesign this solution?
• What quick wins can we start with?

Concept Testing

Concept testing is exactly that: Testing concepts/prototypes with users to see what they say. Concept testing is common when developing marketing campaigns or other mass-market creative ideas where it is difficult or impossible to predict how people will respond. Concept testing and usability testing are quite similar in this sense; however, concept testing is concerned with deciding which concept (or “big idea”) to pursue, while usability testing is conducted with high-fidelity designs to validate decisions or make minor improvements. Concept testing is commonly integrated with other techniques to streamline the research efforts, and can use card sorting and scorecards to support data-informed decisions.

Concept testing helps to answer

• What tasks are required to complete a user’s goal?

Tree Testing

Tree testing is a specialized UX research method for assessing how intuitive an information architecture is. In its simplest form, tree testing involves watching users interact with a prototype menu within a controlled setting (i.e., no content or visuals included, only the menu itself).

By prompting users to complete specific tasks by clicking through the menu (ex: Where would you go to find X or do Y), researchers can see how their architecture relates to their user’s mental models. This allows teams to optimize critical structural elements early in the design process, avoiding more expensive updates downstream.

Tree testing helps to answer

• Is our information architecture intuitive?
• Are we using the right labels?
• Where are users getting lost?
• Which sitemap is more effective?
• How can we optimize click depth?

Card Sorting

Card sorting is a fundamental UX research method applied throughout the design process . In essence, card sorting is exactly that: Sorting a stack of cue cards that have words on them into piles that make sense to the sorter. For example, you may have a stack of 30 cards with the names of different foods on them.

If you asked someone to sort them into piles according to their most vs. least favorite items, you would learn more about their preferences than if you simply asked them their favorite foods. This basic card sorting theory can be applied to any situation, and augmenting the prompts and piles lets UX researchers answer a variety of questions about the opportunity.

Card sorting helps to answer

• How do our users think about this domain?
• What items belong together? Apart?
• What navigation will work best?
• Where will they look for this content?
• Which experiences should we prioritize?

Usability Testing

Usability testing is used to assess how user friendly a higher-fidelity prototype is with your target users. Usability tests are typically used later in the design process, before shifting to the Implementation step of the design thinking process. Usability testing is conducted similar to other ux research methods such as Tree Testing or Card Sorting, where users are asked to complete specific tasks within a controlled environment. Because usability testing is performed with fully functional prototypes (or the minimum viable product), UX researchers are able to benchmark quantitative metrics such as Time to Completion (TTC) in addition to other qualitative metrics. This makes usability testing a powerful tool for demonstrating business impact and deciding what areas to work on in future updates.

Usability testing helps to answer

• How user friendly is our solution?
• How much time/effort does our solution save?
• What impact can we expect our solution to have?
• What should we focus on in the next release?

So what are UX research methods?

UX Research methods describe the established protocols and best practices designed to help teams understand users and improve real experiences . They range from simple surveys to rich ethnographic field studies, and furnish teams with the actionable insights they need throughout the development process.

While UX research methods were once confined to specialized labs, the rise of cloud-based solutions has dramatically simplified the methodologies and reduced the overhead. Today, teams of all sizes can leverage UX Research methods to improve their solutions

UX Research Methods

• Describes set of research protocols and best practices
• Used to study both users, situations and solutions
• Output quantitative or qualitative data
• Helps develop personas and optimize prototypes
• Support end-to-end Design Thinking process
• Major methods include User Interviews, Usability Testing, Card Sorting, Surveys and Behavioral Analytics

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A complete guide to presenting UX research findings

In this complete guide to presenting UX research findings, we’ll cover what you should include in a UX research report, how to present UX research findings and tips for presenting your UX research.

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User experience research sets out to identify the problem that a product or service needs to solve and finds a way to do just that. Research is the first and most important step to optimising user experience.

UX researchers do this through interviews, surveys, focus groups, data analysis and reports. Reports are how UX researchers present their work to other stakeholders in a company, such as designers, developers and executives.

In this guide, we’ll cover what you should include in a UX research report, how to present UX research findings and tips for presenting your UX research.

Components of a UX research report

How to write a ux research report, 5 tips on presenting ux research findings.

Ready to present your research findings? Let’s dive in.

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There are six key components to a UX research report.

Introduction

The introduction should give an overview of your UX research . Then, relate any company goals or pain points to your research. Lastly, your introduction should briefly touch on how your research could affect the business.

Research goals

Simply put, your next slide or paragraph should outline the top decisions you need to make, the search questions you used, as well as your hypothesis and expectations.

Business value

In this section, you can tell your stakeholders why your research matters. If you base this research on team-level or product development goals, briefly touch on those.

Methodology

Share the research methods you used and why you chose those methods. Keep it concise and tailored to your audience. Your stakeholders probably don’t need to hear everything that went into your process.

Key learnings

This section will be the most substantial part of your report or presentation. Present your findings clearly and concisely. Share as much context as possible while keeping your target audience – your stakeholders – in mind.

Recommendations

In the last section of your report, make actionable recommendations for your stakeholders. Share possible solutions or answers to your research questions. Make your suggestions clear and consider any future research studies that you think would be helpful.

1. Define your audience

Most likely, you’ll already have conducted stakeholder interviews when you were planning your research. Taking those interviews into account, you should be able to glean what they’re expecting from your presentation.

Tailor your presentation to the types of findings that are most relevant, how those findings might affect their work and how they prefer to receive information. Only include information they will care about the most in a medium that’s easy for them to understand.

Do they have a technical understanding of what you’re doing or should you keep it a non-technical presentation? Make sure you keep the terminology and data on a level they can understand.

What part of the business do they work in? Executives will want to know about how it affects their business, while developers will want to know what technological changes they need to make.

2. Summarise

As briefly as possible, summarise your research goals, business value and methodology. You don’t need to go into too much detail for any of these items. Simply share the what, why and how of your research.

Answer these questions:

• What research questions did you use, and what was your hypothesis?
• What business decision will your research assist with?
• What methodology did you use?

You can briefly explain your methods to recruit participants, conduct interviews and analyse results. If you’d like more depth, link to interview plans, surveys, prototypes, etc.

3. Show key learnings

Your stakeholders will probably be pressed for time. They won’t be able to process raw data and they usually don’t want to see all of the work you’ve done. What they’re looking for are key insights that matter the most to them specifically. This is why it’s important to know your audience.

Summarise a few key points at the beginning of your report. The first thing they want to see are atomic research nuggets. Create condensed, high-priority bullet points that get immediate attention. This allows people to reference it quickly. Then, share relevant data or artefacts to illustrate your key learnings further.

Relevant data:

• Recurring trends and themes
• Relevant quotes that illustrate important findings
• Data visualisations

Relevant aspects of artefacts:

• Quotes from interviews
• User journey maps
• Affinity diagrams
• Storyboards

For most people you’ll present to, a summary of key insights will be enough. But, you can link to a searchable repository where they can dig deeper. You can include artefacts and tagged data for them to reference.

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4. Share insights and recommendations

Offer actionable recommendations, not opinions. Share clear next steps that solve pain points or answer pending decisions. If you have any in mind, suggest future research options too. If users made specific recommendations, share direct quotes.

5. Choose a format

There are two ways you could share your findings in a presentation or a report. Let’s look at these two categories and see which might be the best fit for you.

Usually, a presentation is best for sharing data with a large group and when presenting to non-technical stakeholders. Presentations should be used for visual communication and when you only need to include relevant information in a brief summary.

A presentation is usually formatted in a:

• Case studies
• Atomic research nuggets
• Pre-recorded video

If you’re presenting to a smaller group, technical stakeholder or other researchers, you might want to use a report. This gives you the capacity to create a comprehensive record. Further, reports could be categorised based on their purpose as usability, analytics or market research reports.

A report is typically formatted in a:

• Notion or Confluence page
• Slack update

You might choose to write a report first, then create a presentation. After the presentation, you can share a more in-depth report. The report could also be used for records later.

1. Keep it engaging

When you’re presenting your findings, find ways to engage those you’re presenting to. You can ask them questions about their assumptions or what you’re presenting to get them more involved.

For example, “What do you predict were our findings when we asked users to test the usability of the menu?” or “What suggestions do you think users had for [a design problem]?”

If you don’t want to engage them with questions, try including alternative formats like videos, audio clips, visualisations or high-fidelity prototypes. Anything that’s interactive or different will help keep their engagement. They might engage with these items during or after your presentation.

Another way to keep it engaging is to tell a story throughout your presentation. Some UX researchers structure their presentations in the form of Joseph Campbell’s Hero’s Journey . Start in the middle with your research findings and then zoom out to your summary, insights and recommendations.

2. Combine qualitative and quantitative data

When possible, use qualitative data to back up quantitative data. For example, include a visualisation of poll results with a direct quote about that pain point.

Use this opportunity to show the value of the work you do and build empathy for your users. Translate your findings into a format that your stakeholders – designers, developers or executives – will be able to understand and act upon.

3. Make it actionable

Actionable presentations are engaging and they should have some business value . That means they need to solve a problem or at least move toward a solution to a problem. They might intend to optimise usability, find out more about the market or analyse user data.

Here are a few ways to make it actionable:

• Include a to-do list at the end
• Share your deck and repository files for future reference
• Recommend solutions for product or business decisions
• Suggest what kind of research should happen next (if any)
• Share answers to posed research questions

4. Keep it concise and effective

Make it easy for stakeholders to dive deeper if they want to but make it optional. Yes, this means including links to an easily searchable repository and keeping your report brief.

Humans tend to focus best on just 3-4 things at a time. So, limit your report to three or four major insights. Additionally, try to keep your presentation down to 20-30 minutes.

Remember, you don’t need to share everything you learned. In your presentation, you just need to show your stakeholders what they are looking for. Anything else can be sent later in your repository or a more detailed PDF report.

5. Admit the shortcomings of UX research

If you get pushback from stakeholders during your presentation, it’s okay to share your constraints.

Your stakeholders might not understand that your sample size is big enough or how you chose the users in your study or why you did something the way you did. While qualitative research might not be statistically significant, it’s usually representative of your larger audience and it’s okay to point that out.

Because they aren’t researchers, it’s your job to explain your methodology to them but also be upfront about the limitations UX research can pose. When all of your cards are on the table, stakeholders are more likely to trust you.

When it comes to presenting your UX research findings, keep it brief and engaging. Provide depth with external resources after your presentation. This is how you get stakeholders to find empathy for your users. This is how you master the art of UX.

Need to go back to the basics and learn more about UX research? Dive into these articles:

What is UX research? The 9 best UX research tools to use in 2022

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• October 22, 2021

UX Research for Beginners

UX research is a massive subject, so where do you start as a beginner? Right here, with this article! We’ve gathered everything you need to know to get going.

Shortcuts: Jump straight to

What is ux research.

Put simply, UX research is a discipline that studies the user experience of a product or service by investigating and observing how users interact with it. The goal is to define problems and find solutions that can be used to improve the product. 

UX research is far from a new profession, but it’s only become more mainstream in the last 10 years or so. The term user experience probably goes back to the 1990s and UX legend Don Norman, who worked at Apple as a User Experience Architect (yes, that’s the same Norman as in the great Nielsen Norman Group that he co-founded with Jakob Nielsen). You can read more about it in the articles Where UX comes from and A 100-year view of user experience —it’s interesting stuff!

Why is UX research important?

At an early stage of product development, the purpose of UX research is to find out if there is an interest in your idea. It’s so easy to make assumptions about what people out there like or need. As UXers like to repeat, “you are not your user”. If done well, UX research has the power to prevent nasty surprises that can wreck a startup or new product.

Once the product need has been validated, there are lots of benefits to making UX research an ongoing habit. It is used to investigate and test new features before they are released, but also to test and improve existing products. 

The focus for a UX researcher is to improve the user experience, but it has been well-documented that better UX can increase conversions . So it makes sense from a business perspective too . Still, UX research is far from being universally embraced. It can be hard to persuade the people in charge that it is worth the effort.

What does a UX researcher do?

A UX researcher tries to understand users’ needs and pain points . Based on research data and insights, they can then suggest improvements to the user experience. UX researchers spend a lot of time setting up user interviews, surveys and usability tests . They work closely with clients, designers, and other stakeholders and have direct contact with users and test participants. As you can tell, it’s a pretty social job where you interact a lot with people.

Here are examples of tasks you may be involved with as a UX researcher:

• Create time and budget estimates for research projects
• Hold workshops to understand research needs
• Map research needs and identify hypotheses to test
• Write research questions and select the best research method
• Recruit participants for testing
• Conduct tests and analyze the results
• Transform your conclusions into concrete insights
• Write research reports
• Present your findings to designers, developers, and other stakeholders
• Last but not least, a UX researcher always asks lots of questions

If your job title is UX designer rather than UX researcher, you will also create wireframes to illustrate your findings and revise user journeys. This brings me to the next point—what’s the difference between UX research and UX design?

Are UX research and UX design the same thing?

What’s the relation between UX research and UX design? If you have befriended any UX designers, you know that user research is part of their job. So what’s the difference? Is there a difference?

Well, it depends. In large corporations, there’s most likely a UX research team and a UX design team. They collaborate closely for sure, but would divide the tasks between them . The UX designer may come up with a research task and request the researcher to do it (there will often be a discussion here about the best method and other details). The UX designer can use the results to create wireframes or prototypes, or revise a current user flow in a design tool like Figma.

In smaller companies and startups, you may well be a UX designer and researcher baked into one .

Another difference is that a UX designer is more involved with information architecture and interaction design.

Do I need to do research as a UX writer?

Again, it depends! If you land a UX writing or content design job in a large company like Google, Uber, or Amazon, you will be able to reach out to the UX research team for guidance and to find the insights you need. In a startup, you may do research yourself and/or collaborate with the UX designer.

In any case, research is fundamental for UX writing. Even if you’re not responsible for doing it yourself, be sure to consult any relevant research that has been done by others , and suggest research that may be missing. The more you learn about UX research, the better you will become in your job as a UX writer.

It is also good to remember that UX writers and content designers have specific research needs . Insights about our users’ language help us make informed decisions about things like tone, voice, grammar, style, and word choice.

There are even research methods that are unique to UX writing and content design—see the conversation mining  example below!

User research related to language will come in handy when creating or revising a style guide or voice and tone, too.

Types of UX research

Quantitative and qualitative research.

One of the first things you learn when you get into UX research is the difference between qualitative and quantitative research.

Quantitative research is about the bigger picture . It’s based on large numbers of data and statistics and answers the question “what’s going on here?” Examples of quantitative research are user surveys and A/B tests . For digital products, some quantitative research may be the responsibility of an SEO expert or data analyst. 

Quantitative research doesn’t tell you why something happened, however. And this is why we also need qualitative research.

Qualitative research digs into personal experiences and opinions . By delving deep into what users think about a product or service, or finding out how they feel when they use it, the goal is to answer the question “why is this happening?” Examples of qualitative research include user interviews and usability tests .

Do you need both? Ideally yes, as they complement each other nicely. 

And which one should you start with? It depends! Quantitative research can be a good starting point to get a general idea of what’s going on. You can then follow up with qualitative research to get a deeper understanding of the problem you’re trying to solve. But if you’re working on a new product, you probably don’t have access to substantial quantitative data yet.

Attitudinal and behavioral research

It’s also common to distinguish between attitudinal and behavioral research. The basic difference is that attitudinal research listens to what users say (i.e. finds out how they feel about a product), and behavioral research observes what users do (i.e. finds out how they use a product).

Proactive and reactive research

One more important thing to keep in mind is the difference between proactive and reactive research. UX veteran Jared Spool knows a thing or two about this topic. He explains that while reactive UX research is more common, it makes much more sense to anticipate user concerns with proactive research . 

UX research methods

Card sorting.

Card sorting is used to arrange elements on a screen in the most logical and intuitive way. In brief, you create a bunch of cards with different categories or topics. Ask the participants to arrange the cards into groups and label them in a way that makes sense for them.

Competitor research

Whether you’re working on a new or established product, it’s really helpful to check out the competition. Not to copy what they do, but to decide how you’re going to distinguish yourself from them. What do they do well? What are they lacking? What’s your competitive advantage?

Usability testing

Usability testing means that you observe participants as they navigate through an interface or user flow. It’s common to ask them to talk their way through the task and comment on anything they find odd or difficult or unclear.

User and stakeholder interviews

Is there a better way to understand what people think and feel about a product than to sit down and talk to them? Probably not, as long as we’re aware of all the pitfalls: People are people, and in an interview situation we tend to reveal what we *think* we will do, not what we actually end up doing. It’s also crucial to avoid leading questions, which can be easier said than done.

Besides chatting with users, it can be really insightful to speak to other stakeholders. The customer service department is usually a goldmine for identifying issues users experience.

If you interview people in [small] groups, it’s often called a focus group .

Surveys are usually considered a quantitative research method, and they can be great for collecting data. But you can also include open-ended questions for a qualitative study.

A/B testing

With A/B tests you can use two versions of a screen for different sets of users. It’s then easy to see which version converts better than the other. Great for testing CTAs—just remember that an A/B test will never tell you how the users felt when they chose one button over another.

Personas are created to give a picture of your target audience. They often include details like a made-up name, picture, age, income, education, profession, hobbies, pain points, challenges and goals. The idea is that a detailed description will help you strike the right tone when writing copy.

It’s good to know that personas have had a bit of a bad rep recently. Some people even think that they can do more harm than good. There’s a risk that they reinforce static stereotypes about your ideal customers instead of saying something useful about the people that actually use your product.

An alternative is to work with so-called persona spectrums instead. Check out Microsoft’s Doug Kim’s article Kill your personas for more on the subject.

At the end of the day, the important thing is to develop deep empathy with your users!

Conversation mining

The idea behind conversation mining is to scan public forums, social media groups and online reviews to find out how people talk about your product or similar products. You can also make notes of words and phrases used in user interviews. 

By noting and wisely re-using the vocabulary they use, we can then create copy that is more likely to resonate with them .

It’s not just about finding good one-liners, though. It’s also a fab way to understand how users communicate in writing (tone, level of formality, use of emojis, etc.) plus their specific pain points and goals . As such, conversation mining can give our content strategy direction.

Take a look at conversation mining in practice in this article by Kevin Pichinte, a UX Writing Academy alumnus.

Cloze tests and readability checks

Cloze tests and readability checks are two ways to evaluate how people read your copy. They’re quite different: A text’s readability score shows things like structure (for example if you overuse the passive voice) and word choice (highlighting difficult words that have a simpler alternative). There are many great tools that can help you with that (for example the free Hemingway Editor ). A cloze test on the other hand checks if your copy is easy to understand . In other words, it tells you if people can easily grasp the meaning of your words.

Test participants are shown a text where some words have been removed and are asked to fill in the blanks .

Nielsen Norman Group recommends removing every 6th word of the text . If participants guess 60% or more right words on average, you can assume that the text is reasonably comprehensible. 

Tools UX researchers use

As you can imagine, there are tons of cool tools out there that help researchers map user behavior. Here are a few examples that come in handy when you’re starting out:

• Airtable for collecting and organizing your data. We’re so fond of this tool at the UX Writing Hub that we have a separate article about how to make the most of it for research—check it out: Getting started with UX research and Airtable  
• Typeform or SurveyMonkey for creating surveys
• Miro for remote workshops
• Hotjar and Google Analytics for heatmaps and statistics
• Whimsical , Miro , or Figma for wireframes and mockups
• Zoom for remote user testing
• Simon Says for creating transcriptions
• Platforms like UXtweak , usertesting.com and userzoom.com for finding participants and carrying out tests
• Optimal Sort for help with card sorting and other research tasks

Get more inspiration from this article that analyzes 25 research tools for product design teams .

Challenges with UX research

UX research is both an art and a science, and it can be pretty challenging. It’s a well-known fact that people who know that they are part of a research study will provide answers they *think* we want to hear rather than what spontaneously comes to mind. As this article from the Nielsen Norman Group says, what’s the first rule of usability research? Don’t listen to users . This doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t do research, only that we have to be very careful how we phrase our research questions and how we interpret research results.

Here are a few questions to ask yourself when you start doing research:

• Where do you find participants?
• How do you know that your participants are relevant to your study?
• How do you avoid asking leading questions?
• What do you do if the people you’re interviewing are reluctant to talk?

Essential UX research resources

Just enough research by erika hall.

If you’re short on time, start with a recorded presentation! This one, for example: Erika Hall—Just enough research (YouTube)

Podcast episodes

How to plan research with Erika Hall The evolution of UX writing with Jared Spool Content prototyping and UX research with Steve Curran

3 insights on UX content testing Guide to user interviews (Nielsen Norman Group) Tips for writing interview questions (Nielsen Norman Group) The first rule of usability (Nielsen Norman Group) What proactive UX research looks like (Jared Spool) Undervaluing user research is a deadly disease (Jared Spool) Kill your personas (Doug Kim)

That’s it for today! Research is a crucial part of UX, whether it’s done by a dedicated researcher or by a UX designer or writer. We hope this article has given you a decent overview of the subject. 

Want to learn more about UX research?

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How to use MoSCoW in UX research and avoid featuritis

Eva Schicker

UsabilityGeek

UX Design Essentials: Article 11

What is MoSCoW?

MoSCoW is the acronym for a concept called M ust Have/ S hould Have/ Co uld Have/ W ould Have. This conceptual tool is used to analyze the ranking of your product’s features.

What is featuritis?

Featuritis is the condition of Too Many Product Features . This condition arises when stakeholder and/or design teams add too many buttons, clicks, turns, or knobs to their product. This leaves the consumer utterly confused and overwhelmed, and thereby unable to use the product properly.

To prioritize product features, and avoid featuritis, we use the MoSCoW analytics tool at the beginning of the product’s design phase (or towards the end of the research phase)

What is the concept of a moscow analysis.

MoSCoW is a research/design method that gives you a visual insight into how to prioritize your product’s features

MoSCoW is represented with this four-quadrant chart, each quadrant representing types of features in order of priority, in clock-wise ranking of priority:

Written by Eva Schicker

Hello. I write about UX, UI, AI, animation, tech, fiction & art through the eyes of a designer & painter. I live in NYC. Book author, UX Grad GA NYC.

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Data-Driven UX Writing: Leveraging Analytics for Better Results

In the digital age, understanding your audience and tailoring your content to their needs has never been more important. this is where data-driven ux writing comes into play. data-driven ux writing involves using analytics and user data to create content that is not only engaging but also effective in helping users achieve their goals. by leveraging data, ux writers and content designers can optimize content performance, enhance user experience, and drive better results. in this post, we’ll explore how you can use data to inform your ux writing decisions and improve the overall effectiveness of your content..

Why data matters in UX Writing

Data plays a crucial role in UX Writing because it provides insights into user behaviour, preferences, and needs. By analyzing this data, UX Writers can make informed decisions that enhance content effectiveness and user satisfaction.

Here are a few ways data can inform and improve UX writing:

• Identifying user pain points : Data can help identify where users are struggling with content. For example, if a significant number of users drop off at a particular step in a process, it may indicate that the instructions are unclear or the content is too complex.
• Optimizing content for different audiences : By analyzing data, you can understand which content resonates with different user segments. For example, a younger audience may prefer concise, informal language, while a more professional audience may respond better to detailed and formal content.
• Improving conversion rates : Data can reveal which calls to action (CTAs) are most effective, helping you craft more compelling CTAs that drive user engagement and conversions.

Data collection and analysis

To leverage data effectively, you first need to collect the right kind of data. Here are some tools and methods for gathering relevant data to inform your UX writing:

• Google analytics : This tool provides insights into user behavior on your website, such as page views, bounce rates, and time spent on specific pages. This data can help you understand which content is performing well and which areas may need improvement.
• A/B testing: A/B testing tools like Optimizely can help you test versions of copies or designs to see which one your users prefer.
• Heatmaps : Tools like Hotjar or Crazy Egg can show you where users are clicking, how far they are scrolling, and what they are focusing on. This visual data can help you understand user engagement with your content and identify areas that may need more attention or clarification.
• User surveys and feedback : User surveys can provide valuable insights into customer’s experiences with your content. Ask users what they find helpful or confusing and use this feedback to make improvements.
• Customer satisfaction score (CSAT): This method can help you gather insights on how satisfied your customers are with using your products

Once you’ve collected the data, the next step is to analyze it to extract actionable insights. Look for patterns and trends that can inform your content decisions. For example, if data shows that users frequently exit your site after viewing a particular page, it may indicate that the content is not meeting their needs or expectations.

Using data to improve UX Writing

After analyzing your data, you can use insights from your analysis to guide content creation and optimization. Here are a few ways (not exhaustive) to use data to improve your UX writing:

• Identify popular content types : Use data to analyze which types of content are most popular with your audience. This can help you focus on creating more of what your users find valuable and engaging.
• Optimize content formats : Use data to determine which content formats work best for your audience. For example, if data shows that users engage more with video content than text, consider incorporating more videos into your UX writing strategy.
• Tailor content to audience preferences : Use insights from data to tailor your content to different audience segments. For example, if data indicates that one segment prefers in-depth guides while another prefers quick tips, you can create content that caters to both preferences.

Potential pitfalls to avoid in data-driven UX Writing

While data can be incredibly useful, it’s important to avoid common pitfalls that can undermine your efforts:

• Over-reliance on data : Data is a powerful tool, but it should not be the sole driver of your content decisions. Remember to balance data insights with creativity and intuition to create content that resonates with users on an emotional level.
• Ignoring qualitative insights : Quantitative data is important, but it doesn’t tell the whole story. Be sure to consider qualitative insights from user feedback and research to get a complete picture of user needs and preferences.
• Data misinterpretation : Be careful not to misinterpret data. Ensure you understand the context behind the numbers and avoid making assumptions based on incomplete or misleading information.

Tools and resources for data-driven UX Writing

To help you get started with data-driven UX writing, here are some useful tools and resources:

• Analytics platforms : Tools like Google Analytics, Adobe Analytics, and Mixpanel provide detailed insights into user behavior and content performance.
• A/B testing tools : Platforms like Optimizely and VWO allow you to test different versions of content to see which performs better with your audience.
• Data visualization software : Tools like Tableau and Power BI can help you visualize data in a way that makes it easier to identify trends and patterns.
• Educational resources : Online courses and tutorials on platforms like Coursera, Udemy, and LinkedIn Learning can help you develop your data analysis skills and learn more about data-driven UX writing.

In summary, Data-driven UX writing is a powerful approach that can help you create more effective, engaging, and user-centered content. By leveraging analytics and user data, you can make informed decisions that enhance content performance and improve user experience. Remember to use data as a guide, not a rulebook, and balance data-driven insights with creativity and intuition. As you continue to explore data-driven UX writing, keep experimenting, learning, and refining your strategies to create content that truly resonates with your audience.

Written by Precious

I write content for a living

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What is UX Research and Why is it Important?

User satisfaction is central to how user experience is envisioned, planned, and implemented. Web and mobile applications have undertaken significant changes and experienced a fundamental shift in evaluating user-product interactions over the past few years.

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Web and mobile applications have undertaken significant changes and experienced a fundamental shift in evaluating user-product interactions over the past few years. It’s been quite a while since we’ve witnessed emotional aspects gaining prominence over conventional ones, such as usability and functionality.

What and how does the user interact with the product?

The term “ user experience design ” is used by design professionals to describe specific user-centered design methods, design philosophies, standard tools, and techniques used to produce desired effects in a person or persona. The introduction of user-centric designs, web accessibility, and usability revolutionized the creation of websites and also brought about a fresh perspective to UX design services .

User Experience , or UX, encompasses all user interactions with a company and its product, app, or website over time. UX is central to every interaction with the brand – from the product to marketing and messaging and social media – directly impacting customer attraction, conversion, retention, lifetime value, and referrals.

Research has demonstrated that sites with a superior user experience can have visit-to-lead conversion rates over 400% higher and that 84% of customers say user experience is as important as products and services.

This guide will provide an overview of user experience research, why it’s important, how to start UX research, and various UX research methods and tools that can help along the way.

What is UX Research?

User design research, sometimes called design research, helps inform UX design work. UX research is not just user research; UX research helps:

• Identify the user, including demographics ( user personas )
• Articulate the problem by understanding user needs, wants, and feelings
• Identify target market size
• Identify the competition
• Prove or disprove assumptions and ideas before and during the design

What are various types of user research?

There are many types of user research, but some of the most common include:

• Qualitative research is used to understand users’ thoughts, feelings, and experiences. This type of research is often conducted through interviews, focus groups, and diary studies.
• Quantitative research is used to collect numerical data about users’ behavior. This type of research is often conducted through surveys, A/B tests, and eye-tracking studies.
• Generative research is used to generate new ideas and insights about users. This type of research is often conducted through brainstorming sessions, card sorting, and usability testing.
• Evaluative research is used to evaluate the usability and effectiveness of a product or service. This type of research is often conducted through usability testing, A/B tests, and surveys.

In addition to these four main types, many other specific user research methods can be used, depending on the project’s particular needs. Some common ways include:

• Usability testing is observing users interact with a product or service to identify usability problems.
• Eye tracking is a method of tracking users’ eye movements to understand where they are looking and what they are paying attention to.
• A/B testing compares two versions of a product or service to see which one performs better.
• Card sorting is a method of understanding how users categorize information.

The best type of user research for a particular project will depend on the project’s specific goals. However, using various methods, researchers can gain a deeper understanding of users and their needs, leading to better products and services.

UX Design vs. UX Research

UX design is a process of research, product development , and strategy to deliver a product or service that meets or exceeds expectations. At every stage of the design process, the focus is on the interaction between the user and the product, such as the website, app, or physical product.

UX research is the starting point for UX design to test assumptions about the user objectively, but it is also a part of every stage of the design process.

UX research and UX design involve specialized skills in business/user analysis, information architecture , wireframing, prototyping, design, and soft skills. Given the wide range of specialized skills required, it is more common to separate the two roles:

• UX Researcher – focused on understanding the user (their needs, demographics, etc.) and the market to inform product development. The UX researcher conducts market research, surveys, product feedback, usability, and UI testing.
• UX Designer – focused on translating the understanding from UX research into products to meet user needs. The UX designer will have skills in wireframing & prototyping, information architecture, user journey mapping & user stories , and contributing to the UI (visual design).

UX Research Approaches

Quantitative vs. Qualitative Research Research

User experience research is quantitative and qualitative, gathering and synthesizing data, conducting interviews, surveys, user testing, and reviewing existing data. The two types of research provide very different insights into the user experience.

• Quantitative research can be measured with numbers, providing insight into what is happening and how frequently (how much) it is happening. Reporting is provided in large data sets that can be presented as bias-free statistics, graphs, or charts. Examples of quantitative research methods include surveys, forms, or A/B tests.
• Qualitative research is descriptive: it can be observed but not measured numerically. Qualitative research provides insights into why something happens. Examples of qualitative research include interviews, observation sessions, and usability tests.

Attitudinal vs. Behavioral Research

The next research dimension contrasts the difference between attitudinal and behavioral research to help understand user beliefs and actions – since there can often be a big difference between what people say and what they do.

• Attitudinal research helps define user attitudes, opinions, observations, or feelings toward an experience. Examples include surveys, focus groups, and preference tests.
• Behavioral research examines how people act, observing body language, pauses, and expressions. Examples include eye-tracking tests, ethnographic studies , usability studies, and A/B tests.

Moderated vs. Unmoderated Research

• Moderated Research: In moderated research, a researcher or moderator actively guides the research process. They are present during data collection, such as interviews or usability tests, to facilitate participant interaction. The moderator can ask follow-up questions, probe deeper into insights, and ensure the research objectives are met. This form of research allows for real-time adjustments and flexibility in the approach, providing a comprehensive understanding of user experiences. Examples of moderated analysis include in-person interviews, focus groups, and usability testing sessions conducted in a lab setting.
• Unmoderated Research: Unmoderated research, on the other hand, involves gathering data without a live moderator present. Participants complete tasks or answer questions independently, using online platforms or tools. This method offers convenience and scalability since researchers can collect data from a larger pool of participants from various locations and at different times. However, without a moderator’s presence, there may be limited opportunities to clarify responses or delve deeper into user thoughts. Examples of unmoderated research include remote usability testing, online surveys, and unmoderated interviews conducted through video recordings.

Remote vs. In-Person Research:

• Remote Research: refers to conducting user experience research remotely, where the researcher and participants are not physically present in the exact location. Advancements in technology have made remote research increasingly popular. It allows researchers to connect with participants regardless of their geographic location, enabling a broader and more diverse pool of respondents. Remote research methods include remote interviews, video conferencing usability tests, online surveys, and remote card sorting exercises. While it offers convenience, it may lack some aspects of in-person interactions, such as non-verbal cues.
• In-Person Research: In-person research involves conducting user experience research with the researcher and participants physically present in the same location. This method allows for richer observation of non-verbal cues, body language, and other subtle contextual elements that might not be fully captured in remote research. In-person research methods include face-to-face interviews, ethnographic studies, and usability tests conducted in a controlled lab environment. While it may require more logistical planning and time, in-person research offers the advantage of building a stronger rapport with participants and facilitating immediate feedback.

Generate vs. Evaluate Research:

• Generate Research explores new ideas, concepts, or user needs. It aims to generate insights that can inspire the creation of new products, services, or design solutions. This form of research is more open-ended, seeking to understand users’ problems, desires, and preferences. Generate research methods often include ethnographic studies, contextual inquiries, and co-creation sessions, where participants actively contribute to the ideation process.
• Evaluate Research ,on the other hand, aims to assess existing products, services, or designs to identify strengths, weaknesses, and areas for improvement. This type of research is more focused and specific, seeking to validate hypotheses or test the effectiveness of a design solution. Usability testing is a standard evaluation research method where participants are asked to perform tasks using a product or prototype while their interactions are observed and measured. A/B testing, surveys, and heuristic evaluations are examples of evaluation research methods.

Why is UX Research Important?

Why is user experience research significant? To reduce uncertainty at every stage of decision-making. By understanding the user, their wants, and needs, we can inform the UX design process – to create the optimal product for users, ultimately reaping the business benefits.

• Product Benefits: UX research is essential to inform the design strategy and decisions made at every step of the design process. The data in UX research helps prioritize ideas and features, articulate user stories , and inform decisions on how the product will work and look. This up-front investment in research and continuous testing ultimately streamlines the development process. It results in a product that does exactly what it needs to do – nothing more.
• User Benefits: Understanding users’ results in products, apps, services, or improvements that are useful, desirable, accessible, credible, findable, usable, and valuable – the six tenets of the user experience honeycomb. The more areas of the honeycomb the product can deliver on, the greater the chance the user will be happy – whether it’s a new product or service or an incremental change along the way.
• Business Benefits: UX research is one of the essential parts of creating an app or website, directly impacting customer attraction, conversion, retention, lifetime value, loyalty, and referrals. If you do not know who your users are or what they want, you’re likely going to result in a product that misses the mark in some way – away, thanks to the lack of research, that will be hard to understand. UX research, on the other hand, can inform what to build and the ROI achieved by creating it. Informed decisions can reduce costs by reducing development time and eliminating costly redesigns.

Five Steps to Conducting UX Research

• Objectives: Determine what you need to know about your users and their needs to inform your decision-making.
• Hypotheses: What do you think you already know about your users? Each hypothesis is a testable assumption about user behaviors and potential solutions to meet user needs.
• Methods: Based on your deadline, project type, and the size of your research team, what research methods should be used?
• Conduct: Using the selected research method(s), begin collecting data about your users, their preferences, and their needs.
• Synthesize: Analyze the data you collected to fill in your knowledge gaps, proving or disproving each hypothesis, and create a plan to improve your product based on user feedback.

When Should UX Research be Conducted?

• Discover – UX research helps discover who the user is, what problem is being solved, where current solutions are falling short, and possible areas of differentiation. This stage is about understanding, not finalizing solutions.
• Explore – UX research attempts to understand this stage’s problem and potential solution.
• Test – UX research is concurrent with product development, validating the design and iteratively testing features and improvements to find the optimal user experience
• Listen – UX research at this stage is focused on general feedback about the product or brand. However, this can also loop back into Discovery, where active listening has helped identify new problems that need solving.

UX research is valuable at every stage of UX design, with the project and resources dictating how much research is involved at every stage. However, remember that UX research is better than no research, so don’t get hung up on missing a step. To summarize,

• Do research now
• Do research as often as possible across all stages
• Do the most research early

Top UX Research Methods

There are many different methods of UX research depending on the stage of UX design the project is in. To follow our previous model, let’s examine each step of the Discover – Explore – Test – Listen model regarding the kinds of research conducted at each stage.

UX Research Surveys or Questionnaires:

Surveys or questionnaires are a popular and efficient method of gathering quantitative data in UX research. These research instruments consist of structured questions that participants respond to. They can be administered online or in person, which is valuable for collecting a large amount of data from a diverse group of participants.

Surveys allow researchers to gather insights into users’ attitudes, preferences, and experiences at scale. Using closed-ended questions (e.g., multiple-choice or rating scales), researchers can quantify and analyze user responses using statistical methods. Surveys can assess user satisfaction, identify pain points, gather demographic information, and more.

However, surveys have some limitations.

They may not provide deep insights into the “why” behind users’ responses since they often lack open-ended questions. Surveys can introduce biases or misinterpretations of data if not carefully designed due to the response options provided.

User Groups or Focus Groups:

User groups, also known as focus groups, involve bringing together a small group of participants (usually 5-10 people) with similar characteristics or interests to discuss specific topics related to a product or service. A trained moderator leads the discussion, guiding participants through predefined questions or scenarios while encouraging open conversation and group interaction.

The key advantage of user groups is the rich qualitative data from the discussions. Participants can share their thoughts, preferences, and ideas, sparking new insights that might not arise from individual interviews. Observing group dynamics can help researchers understand how users influence each other’s opinions and experiences.

User groups are best suited for exploring user attitudes and perceptions and understanding their motivations. They are valuable in the early stages of product development to generate ideas, test concepts, or validate assumptions. However, user groups may be subject to groupthink, where dominant personalities sway others’ opinions, and it might be challenging to ensure equal participation among all participants.

User Interviews:

User interviews are one-on-one interactions between a researcher and a participant. They are highly flexible and adaptable to individual contexts, allowing researchers to explore topics in-depth and gain a deeper understanding of users’ experiences and behaviors.

In user interviews, researchers can use open-ended and closed-ended questions to explore various aspects of the user experience. Open-ended questions allow participants to freely share their thoughts and feelings, while closed-ended questions provide quantifiable data. Using a semi-structured approach, researchers can follow a predefined set of questions while being free to explore unexpected insights.

User interviews are excellent for understanding the “why” behind user behaviors, uncovering pain points, and identifying user needs. They also allow researchers to build rapport with participants, leading to more honest responses. However, interviews can be time-consuming and require skilled interviewers to facilitate effective communication and active listening.

Ethnographic Interviews:

Ethnographic interviews are a specialized form of user interviews that focus on observing users in their natural environments and understanding their behaviors and experiences within their daily lives. Unlike traditional user interviews conducted in controlled settings, ethnographic interviews occur where users regularly interact with products or services.

Ethnographic interviews aim to gain rich, contextual insights into users’ lives, routines, and interactions. Researchers immerse themselves in the users’ environment, observing their activities and engaging in informal conversations. This approach helps uncover implicit needs, cultural influences, and context-specific issues that need to be evident in lab-based studies.

They are particularly valuable for projects where the cultural or environmental context significantly impacts the user experience.

However, conducting ethnographic research can be time-consuming and resource-intensive since researchers must spend time with participants to develop trust and rapport. The data collected in ethnographic interviews is typically qualitative and may require additional effort to analyze and derive actionable insights.

The choice of method depends on the project’s focus, time constraints, system maturity, top areas of concern, and the product or improvement being considered. A warning here is not to let UX Research skill limitations result in a too-narrow scope that could miss essential insights.

Best Practices to Conduct User Experience Research

User experience research is designed to be user-centric to give the team an authentic and accurate understanding of the user they’re designing for. They need to put themselves in that user’s shoes and work out what problem or problems they’ll be solving for that user. To get the most out of UX research, follow the following best practices:

• Create Empathy Truly get to know the users, their mindsets, and their needs. At this stage, reduce bias about what you think you know and focus only on the user without any specific goal or outcome.
• Be Open Avoid coming to the table with preconceived assumptions about the user, the problem, the solution you want to build, or what most users are doing or thinking. Instead, consider that opportunities could be present in the minority of users that could offer important insights for new products or features (for example, if 25% of users are unhappy with the common check-out experience, how can it be improved?). Be open to being proven wrong during the research stage.
• Research Everything While any research is better than no research, the most value comes from researching at every UX design stage to ensure you’re developing the right product – and the product is developed right.
• Small Tests can be Valid, too. Not every research method requires quantitative data. Consider that many qualitative methods provide enough feedback on features and improvements with just a handful of users.
• Actionable Insight is the Goal No matter how much UX research has been done and how much data is accumulated, that data must be translated from understanding users into meaningful and actionable information for the UX design process. Your UX researcher should know how to bridge the communication gap between the two, translating user needs into the technical language the developers and the product team can understand.

Top UX Research Tools

UX research tools help jumpstart any UX research program, from early-stage user research to late-stage prototype testing and listening activities. Let’s look at some of the more popular options:

1. User Testing Tools

2. Organization and Project Management

UX research requires careful planning and organizational skills to create, organize, and analyze research results. Many UX research tools are ideally suited to help plan and organize UX data.

3. Analytics and Heat Mapping

User experience analytics, is the quantitative measurement and analysis of user activity on a website or app, such as what a user clicked on and how much time was spent on a page. Heat mapping is a subset of data analytics that provides data visualization such as clicks, scrolling behavior, attention (based on time spent on a scrolled section based on screen size and resolution), or mouse movement (hovering).

4. A/B Testing

A/B testing involves qualitative methods to ask users their opinion on two options: wireframes, prototypes, or real-time data gathering. For example, many marketing techniques involve testing different ads at random to determine which is most effective. In prototyping, A/B testing can ask users for the pros and cons of each option and which would be a preference. UX designers can refine the A or B prototype or create a new one before additional testing.

5. User Surveys and Studies

Surveys present a series of questions to provide feedback about how users feel (attitudinal data). This data can be used quantitatively, in large enough numbers, or qualitatively. Surveys can be done in person but typically are done online. Particular attention should be made to survey design to make the questions as clear as possible so that results are clear.

6. Design Evaluation and Iteration

Design evaluation is the systematic review of a design to identify usability problems or opportunities to reduce friction. Design iteration is the process of testing, refining, and re-testing designs over time.

7. Wireframe and Prototype Testing

Wireframes are low-quality, often hand-drawn, designs of products, websites, or apps that offer a basic layout and guidelines. Prototypes take wireframes one step further, adding greater detail and often basic interaction.

8. User Onboarding and In-app Messaging

Although “onboarding” is typically referenced as the process of getting new users familiar with a product, in UX, “user onboarding” is of demonstrating value to users – a more comprehensive term reflecting all user experience segments.

Customer Experience vs. User Experience – The Ultimate Guide

What is the ROI of Performing UX Research?

The Return on Investment (ROI) of UX research can be significant for businesses and organizations. While it might not always be immediately quantifiable in monetary terms, UX research can yield tangible and intangible benefits that contribute to improved products, increased customer satisfaction, and, ultimately, better business outcomes. Some key ways UX research provides ROI include –

• Enhanced User Satisfaction: By understanding user needs, pain points, and preferences through UX research, organizations can create products and services that better meet their customers’ expectations. Improved user satisfaction increases customer loyalty and retention, reducing churn rates and increasing customer lifetime value.
• Reduced Development Costs: UX research helps identify potential design issues and usability problems early in the development process. Addressing these issues early can prevent costly redesigns or post-launch fixes, saving time and development resources.
• Increased Conversion Rates: UX research can optimize user interfaces and user experiences, leading to higher conversion rates for e-commerce websites, sign-up processes, or other conversion-related actions. This can directly impact revenue generation and business growth.
• Competitive Advantage: UX research can help businesses differentiate themselves. A superior user experience can become a key differentiator, attracting more customers and gaining a competitive edge in the market.
• Brand Reputation and Trust: Positive user experiences lead to better brand perception and trust among users. Satisfied customers are likely to recommend a product or service to others, contributing to organic growth through word-of-mouth marketing.
• Reduced Support and Customer Service Costs: A well-designed product with a smooth user experience can result in fewer customer support inquiries and issues, reducing the need for customer service resources and associated costs.
• Informed Product Roadmaps: UX research provides valuable insights into users’ evolving needs and preferences. This information can guide product development teams in creating features and improvements aligned with user expectations, thus reducing the risk of building irrelevant or unpopular features.
• Market Validation: Conducting UX research before launching a new product or service can help validate assumptions and concepts. Understanding the target audience’s needs and desires helps ensure that resources are focused on building products with market demand.
• Improved Accessibility and Inclusivity: UX research can uncover accessibility issues that might be overlooked. By addressing these concerns, organizations can make their products and services more inclusive, expanding their reach to a broader user base.
• Long-Term Cost Savings: While UX research might require an initial investment, the long-term cost savings from creating better products and reducing the need for costly redesigns or fixes can far outweigh the initial costs.

How Net Solutions Utilizes UX Research to Create Compelling User Experiences

UX research is responsible for uncovering user needs and behaviors and helping transform data into insights for the UX design process at every stage of development. It takes years of experience in research methodology and product design to create and execute a research plan to deliver clear, actionable recommendations for the product development team.

An industry-leading provider like Net Solutions brings experience with innovative and proprietary research methods that reflect the latest trends in consumer behavior and UX design. Contact us today to see how we can help you get your product started on the right foot with UX research.

Frequently Asked Questions

1. Does UX research require coding?

No, UX research does not necessarily require coding. While some researchers may use coding skills to analyze qualitative data or work with specific tools, coding is not mandatory for UX research. Many UX researchers focus on qualitative and quantitative methods that do not involve coding.

2. What are some examples of UX research?

UX research includes user interviews, usability testing, surveys, card sorting, A/B testing, focus groups, ethnographic studies, and eye-tracking tests. Each method provides unique insights into user behaviors, preferences, and experiences.

3. What are the 7 elements of the UX research plan?

The seven elements of a UX research plan typically include:

• Research Objectives
• Target Audience
• Research Methods
• Data Collection
• Data Analysis
• Resources and Budget

4. What is a good sample size for UX research?

The appropriate sample size for UX research depends on the research objectives, the precision required, and the variability of the user population. Generally, a sample size of around 5 to 20 participants for qualitative research (e.g., user interviews or usability testing) is often sufficient to uncover significant usability issues. For quantitative research (e.g., surveys), larger sample sizes may be necessary to achieve statistical significance.

5. What are common UX research goals?

Common UX research goals include understanding user needs and preferences, identifying usability issues, evaluating product usability, optimizing user interfaces, testing new product concepts, gathering user feedback, and measuring user satisfaction and engagement. The specific goals will vary depending on the stage of product development and the organization’s priorities.

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Nikhil Vij is a UI/UX Design Lead at Net Solutions with over 13 years of experience creating and delivering engaging and effective digital solutions for various clients and industries. He is passionate about designing amazing, simple, user-centric products that solve real problems and enhance customer satisfaction. Capable of handling motion graphics, he takes pride in being able to handle detailed animation projects.

Nikhil has a strong background in Experience design, Product Design, and Micro Interactions, which allows him to bring visual appeal and creativity to his work. He aims to empower users with an intuitive and accessible design that meets their needs and expectations.

Oh, and when not figuring out optimizing design sprints, Nikhil can be found honing his landscape, wildlife, and fashion photography skills. Or you will probably catch him recording soulful melodies in his enviable studio!

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Making Your UX Life Easier with the MoSCoW

If you’re stuck trying to move a project forward because it seems like there are too many things to concentrate on then the MoSCoW method may help you get unstuck. It’s a prioritization technique which is easy to learn and simple to apply. It can also help you decide what’s really valuable for your UX projects before you get started on them.

There are many different prioritization techniques that can be employed on design projects but one of the simplest to use is the MoSCoW method. It’s used across all business disciplines to enable project teams to work with stakeholders to define requirements. It can also be used as a personal prioritization technique.

What Does MoSCoW Stand For?

MoSCoW is an (almost) acronym designed to reflect the four categories used by the technique to determine priorities; Must have, Should have, Could have and Would like but won’t get. The lower case “o’s” are added simply to give the acronym a pronounceable form. Occasionally, you may also see the whole phrase in block capitals MOSCOW to distinguish it from the name of the city but MoSCoW is more common.

What is the MoSCoW Method?

Experts Dai Clegg and Richard Barker proposed the method in their paper “Case Method Fast-Track: A RAD Approach” and while it was initially intended to be used with the Dynamic Systems Development Method (DSDM) it has long since been adopted throughout many areas of business. In recent times it has become very popular in the Agile and RAD (rapid application development) communities.

The MoSCoW method is most effective when it comes to prioritizing requirements in projects with either fixed or tight deadlines. It works by understanding the idea that all project requirements can be considered important but that they should be prioritized to give the biggest benefits in the fastest possible time frame.

It breaks down the requirements into four categories:

These are the requirements without which a project will fail. They MUST be delivered within the timeframe in order for anyone involved with the project to move on. In essence they make up the MVP ( Minimum Viable Product ) though it can be argued that MUST could stand for Minimum Usable SubseT too.

Should have

Should have requirements aren’t 100% necessary for delivering the project successfully but they are the “most nice to have” out of the list. They may be less time critical than “must have” or might be better held for a future release.

Could have requirements are just “nice to have” they are desirable to provide a nice user experience or customer experience but they’re not that important to the delivery of the project. They will be delivered only if there’s enough time and resources to spare to devote to them. Otherwise, they’re likely to be tabled for future releases and re-reviewed to see if they have become higher or lower priority in the interim.

These are the requirements that everyone agrees aren’t going to happen. It might be because they cost too much to implement or provide too little ROI ( Return on Investment ) for the efforts required to implement them. These are simply left to one side until they are either removed from the requirements list or become a higher priority.

The MoSCoW method provides a simple way of clarifying the priorities involved on a project. It’s most useful in time bound situations and it can be used to prioritize your own workload (usually with the buy in from a supervisor or manager if you work for someone else) as easily as it can be used for project work.

Implementing MoSCoW – A Practical Process

The easiest way to use MoSCoW is to bring together all the relevant stakeholders to the project and then:

List the requirements (on a flip chart or on a screen)

Vote on which category each requirement falls into (bearing in mind any hierarchical issues within the company itself – the CEOs vote may count for more than the votes of everyone else in the room)

Then collate the information and ensure that each requirement is presented against the relevant category in written form so that it can be used for reference by the project team

You can repeat this exercise whenever you feel it is necessary. Priorities may change mid-project or between releases. It’s important for everyone to understand what the implications of changing priorities in the middle of a project may be in terms of costs, resources, and time.

Issues with MoSCoW

It’s important to know that the MoSCoW method isn’t without its detractors. The main flaw in the method, as identified by authors Kark Weigers and Joy Beatty in their book Software Requirements, is that the method offers no means for comparing one requirement to another. This can make it difficult for those tasked with prioritizing requirements to know which category to place them in.

The Take Away

The MoSCoW method offers a simple process for prioritizing within project delivery. It can also be used to prioritize your work load. It should be used with some caution in that it may be too simple – particularly for complex projects – but it makes for a good starting point. One of the big advantages to its simplicity is that it should be easy to get buy in from other stakeholders to put it into practice.

Check out this useful study into how the MoSCoW method is used by business analysts .

You can read about the MoSCoW method as it was originally designed in: Clegg, Dai; Barker, Richard (2004-11-09). Case Method Fast-Track: A RAD Approach. Addison-Wesley. ISBN 978-0-201-62432-8.

You can read Weigers and Beatty’s criticism and their suggestion for a more complex method in: Wiegers, Karl; Beatty, Joy (2013). Software Requirements. Washington, USA: Microsoft Press. pp. 320–321. ISBN 978-0-7356-7966-5.

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How to write clear UX research objectives that define research direction (+ 20 examples)

Clear and effective UX research objectives are the starting point of successful studies. Here's what separates good from bad, plus 20 examples to learn from.

Armin Tanovic

Conducting a UX research study helps get feedback on your user’s pain points, expectations, and needs. The insights you collect inform your design decisions, ultimately helping you provide better user experiences.

But before it all begins, you need a solid UX research objective. These specific goals outline the direction for your entire research project; UX research objectives are the north star of any research study—guiding your project toward game-changing insights.

In this article, we’ll cover 20 examples of UX research objectives and explain how to write your own, to set your UX research project up for success.

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Why do you need UX research objectives?

A UX research objective is an overarching goal you set to define the purpose of your UX research study. It determines the direction of your entire UX research project and enables you to choose the best UX research methods for collecting insights .

They also ultimately serve as guidelines and a benchmark for success, enabling you to track your progress and measure the impact of your UX research .

UX research objectives help you:

• Focus your research efforts: A specific objective helps you and your team focus on specific tasks and methods that collect relevant feedback from your users
• Align team members and stakeholders: Use your objective to ensure stakeholders and team members are all on the same page, setting the stage for seamless collaboration across multiple departments
• Allocate resources efficiently: Your objective allows you to allocate time, budget, and personnel while prioritizing tasks that lead directly to project success
• Inform success criteria: With a clear research objective, you define what success looks like, outline metrics to track and KPIs to focus on

What makes a good UX research objective (and a bad one)?

A good UX research objective guides your UX research efforts with a clear definition of what you want to achieve, why you want to achieve it, and what success looks like. Good research objectives should follow the SMART framework:

• Specific: Your objective should be clear and precise enough to guide research without ambiguity
• Measurable: You should be able to measure your objective’s success in one way or another, whether that’s during the research phase or any other phase of the UX design and development phase
• Achievable: It must be realistically possible for you to achieve your objectives with the time, resources, and research methods you have available to you
• Relevant: It should be closely tied into your user’s overall goals and your business objectives
• Time-bound: You need to be able to put some form of time frame on the objective if necessary (even if that’s implicit)

An example of a SMART UX research objective:

✅ “Evaluate onboarding usability and increase onboarding task completion to 70% over a period of three months.”

This is an objective you can work toward. It has a clear purpose, measurement criteria, and timeline. Bad UX research objectives, however, fail to set a direction for your UX research project. They’re broad, unspecific, and vague , such as:

❌ “Improve the onboarding process for users”

You see? With the first objective, you know exactly what you intend to accomplish through UX research. Perhaps you can already visualize which methods to use, like UX surveys or usability testing .

Option one is a strong UX research objective because it points you in a specific direction. Option two, on the other hand, fails to define boundaries for your UX research project. It doesn’t outline a specific direction or intent that enables you to evaluate the success of your study.

20 Examples of UX research objectives to suit each stage of the product development process

Let’s say you’re designing an e-commerce platform. Your UX objectives will look different depending on where you are in the design process .

To help you create effective objectives for your specific phase, we’ve distilled the design and product development process down into four clear phases, and provided five examples for each stage.

Just to say—these examples don’t always include specific metrics to track, or timelines for the research, as these elements of a SMART goal are very individual to each project.

The product design and development process

5 Example UX research objectives for the problem discovery phase

In the problem discovery phase, you’re looking to conduct generative research to uncover the pain points and problems users have when using your product. This could be anything from issues navigating the interface, to missing features that would help users achieve their specific goals.

Potential UX research objective examples are:

• Create three personas that represent our users and their problems
• Uncover what usability problems users have while interacting with our product
• Map out the user journey from sign up to the aha! moment
• Investigate if users have problems navigating our product’s onboarding process
• Identify specific drop-off points within the user journey

⚙️ Need a tool to help achieve your research objectives during problem discovery research sessions? Maze’s Interview Studies and Feedback Surveys are a great way to collect qualitative and quantitative data to identify user issues and pain points to inform your research objectives.

5 Example UX research objectives for the solution generation phase

Once you know what issues users have with your product, you still need to understand the root causes, what users expect from solutions, and how you can introduce a solution that optimizes the experience.

Here, you need to propose specific design solutions that could potentially smooth out interactions and eliminate friction points throughout the user journey.

Going back to our e-commerce example, potential UX research objective examples are:

• Understand what specific usability issues might be causing customer drop-off at the checkout phase
• Establish what users expect from their user profile management experience
• Gauge user interest in a profile dashboard to help users better navigate their profile page
• Investigate if personalization could make the website more intuitive for users
• Explore potential solutions for users who abandon their shopping carts during the checkout phase in the user journey

5 Example UX research objectives for the design and development phase

During this phase, you’re designing and developing the proposed solution you generated during the previous step. But before these solutions go live, you need to test if they adequately solve user problems as you anticipated.

This typically involves creating and testing a prototype . Some UX research objectives during the design and development phase include:

• Establish if users can complete tasks with the lo-fi prototype design of the proposed solution
• Understand which of two dashboard wireframes is more intuitive to existing users
• Validate the information architecture of your design prototype
• Uncover if users have any usability issues with our proposed design
• Evaluate new feature interest to prioritize development initiatives

5 Example UX research objectives for the post-launch phase

UX research is an iterative, continuous process. There’s no start or finish, it’s a cycle that continually repeats. Once you design, develop, and launch a new product, feature, or experience—you need to research its impact. Setting post-launch UX research objectives measures if your UX research process was a success. Five of these objectives could be:

• Establish if we’ve solved core usability problems for users with the new feature
• Understand if users are more satisfied with their overall experience since introducing the new feature
• Evaluate user satisfaction with the updated interface’s usability
• Identify the impact our new feature had on user engagement and conversion rates
• Determine if our initial hypothesis was correct e.g. the solution will increase customer retention

⚙️ Looking for a tool to help hit your UX research objectives post-launch? Maze’s Live Website Testing and In-Product Prompt are purpose-built to help you gather real-time user insights.

How to write clear and effective research objectives: 4 Best practices

Writing your own UX research objective can be daunting. After all, it serves as the foundation for your entire UX research project. A wrong objective is a missed opportunity to start your UX research strong and guide your research team, resources, and efforts in the direction of actionable insights. That’s why we’ve outlined steps and best practices to help you get it right.

Begin by assessing both user and stakeholder needs. Use reviews, user personas , results from past UX projects or your UX research repository to identify the most pressing concerns for your users. Then, balance them with your stakeholders’ wider business goals . Finally, write what you intend to uncover through your next project, based on user needs and stakeholder goals.

To ensure your UX research objectives are as effective as can be, follow these four best practices.

1. Start with a problem statement

Having trouble defining your project’s objective? Start with a problem statement instead. These should clearly define the issues your users are having—they identify and call out pain points, enabling you to get a better idea of what your objectives should be.

This will not only help you think of objectives, but help you organize your team further and delegate tasks.

For example, a problem statement could be “Users are having trouble navigating their customer profile pages” From there, your objective may become “Uncover specific usability and navigation issues with design elements on the profile page.”

A problem statement helps inform your research objectives and research questions by highlighting the overall issue you’re looking to solve.

2. Make UX research objectives actionable

One thing that all strong UX research objectives share is their actionability. Your objective should be active, defining what you want to achieve from the very start of the sentence.

Doing so ties it to a tangible outcome, helping you clarify what you want while pointing your efforts in the right direction.

Here are some actionable ways to start your UX research objectives:

• Evaluate the usability of…
• Identify user friction points throughout…
• Measure increases in…
• Compare satisfaction between…
• Explore potential solutions for…
• Understand how users approach…
• Assess if users…

Starting your objective with a command helps structure your objective from the get-go.

3. Use only one to three objectives per study

Write too many objectives, and you risk being able to focus on none—ultimately putting your project’s success at risk.

While branching out your efforts is beneficial for more complex studies, having too many objectives can result in spreading your resources too thin.

One to three objectives per study is a good rule of thumb. This range ensures you maintain clarity and focus throughout your project—the whole reason you're writing UX research objectives in the first place.

Make sure that the objectives of your research project are connected in scope and theme, too. If you’re using more than one objective, each should allow you to hone in on a specific issue from multiple angles, not explore three different issues. With the above example, a group of three objectives might look like:

• “Assess the ease of navigation and efficiency of the search functionality on user’s profile pages.”
• “Understand how users prefer to view products and settings on their profile pages.”
• “Evaluate the effectiveness of the product dashboard on user profile pages.”

4. Ask stakeholders and team members for feedback

With your freshly-written UX research objectives, you’re probably excited to get started on your UX research. However, you still need to get feedback from stakeholders and team members. Doing so helps you identify:

• The relevance of your outlined objective
• Potential roadblocks during later phases of your UX research project
• How well your objectives align with wider business goals

You might need to refine your UX research objectives based on the feedback you receive. For example, stakeholders might raise concerns about your objective’s feasibility or question if it can help achieve wider business goals like reducing churn or increasing retention. Don’t be afraid to revisit and rework your objectives until everyone’s aligned. This will lead to a stronger result overall.

Achieve your UX research objectives with Maze

UX research objectives are the starting point for a fully-fledged UX research plan . From there, you can begin your project, test with real users, and get the insights you need for designing user-centered products .

Given you have the right tool, that is.

Maze is a leading user research platform that makes the process easy. Choose from a wide range of moderated and unmoderated UX research methods and get shareable insights with automated reporting features that make presenting your findings to stakeholders a breeze.

Frequently asked questions about UX research objectives

How do you write a user research plan in UX?

A UX research plan is a systematic roadmap for organizing your UX research efforts. To create one, you need to outline:

• Research methodologies
• Participants
• Deliverables

What is an example of a research goal in UX?

An example of a research goal in UX would be “identify navigation issues for the checkout process on our new e-commerce app.”

What is the purpose of UX research?

UX research aims to understand user behaviors, needs, and preferences to inform the product design process and improve user experience. Through user research methods, organizations can uncover insights that help them create more intuitive, relevant, and successful products.

What’s the difference between UX research objectives and UX research goals?

UX research objectives and UX research goals are generally interchangeable terms but often differ in the level of specificity and detail. UX research objectives are more specific, measurable, and actionable, often supporting broader goals. UX research goals, on the other hand, are broad, often general statements that state what UX research aims to achieve.

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• The Moscow Method

Understanding the MoSCoW Method for Prioritizing Requirements

In project management, prioritization is key. With limited resources and tight deadlines, it’s crucial to determine what requirements are essential and what can be put on the back burner. One popular technique for prioritizing requirements is the MoSCoW method. In this article, we will delve into the ins and outs of the MoSCoW method, understand its origins, break down the acronym, explore its role in project management, and compare it with other prioritization techniques.

🔩 The Nuts and Bolts:

• Weighted Scoring Prioritization is a decision-making technique that enables organizations and individuals to evaluate different options systematically and consistently. 
•  It aims to focus on strategic objectives, reduce bias, promote collaboration, manage risks, and optimize resource allocation.
•  The process involves identifying criteria, assigning weights to each criterion, and calculating weighted scores for each option.
•  The benefits of using weighted scoring prioritization include improved decision-making, enhanced resource allocation, and increased project success rates. 
•  Challenges in implementing weighted scoring prioritization may include difficulty assigning accurate weights, the potential for bias in scoring, and complexity in managing multiple criteria.

What is the MoSCoW Method?

The MoSCoW is a prioritization technique used to categorize requirements based on their importance and urgency. It was developed in the 1990s by Dai Clegg, a software project manager at British Airways Technology, to manage limited development resources effectively.

Origins of the MoSCoW Method

The inspiration for the MoSCoW method came from a popular catchphrase in Moscow called “Must, Should, Could, Won’t.” Clegg astutely adapted this concept to create a framework for prioritizing requirements in a project setting.

When Clegg first encountered the catchphrase in Moscow, he was struck by its simplicity and applicability to project management. He recognized the need for a systematic approach to prioritize requirements and ensure that the most critical ones were done first. Drawing from his experience in software development, Clegg saw the potential of the “Must, Should, Could, Won’t” concept to revolutionize how projects were managed.

Upon returning to his role as a software project manager at British Airways Technology, Clegg wasted no time implementing the MoSCoW method. He believed that by sorting requirements into distinct levels of importance, his team could make informed decisions about resource planning and project planning.

Key Principles of the MoSCoW Method

The MoSCoW method operates on four fundamental principles:

Must-Have Requirements: These requirements are essential for the project’s success and must be implemented. Must-have requirements form the foundation of the project. They are non-negotiable and represent the core functionality or features critical to achieving the project’s objectives. These requirements are typically identified through a deep analysis and stakeholder consultation to ensure they align with the project’s overall vision and goals.

Should-Have Requirements: These requirements are necessary but not critical. They can be deprioritized if necessary. Should-have requirements are significant but not as crucial as must-have requirements. They contribute to the project’s overall value and user experience but can be deferred or adjusted based on resource constraints or changing priorities. These requirements often involve trade-offs and decisions about what can be sacrificed or postponed without compromising the project’s success.

Additional principles

Could-Have Requirements: These requirements are “nice to have” but not crucial. They can be pushed to a later stage or even dropped. These features or functionalities enhance the project but are not essential for its success. They are often considered potential additions that can be implemented if time and resources permit. These flexible requirements can be postponed to future iterations or dropped altogether if deemed unnecessary or no longer aligned with the project’s goals. 

Won’t-Have Requirements: These requirements won’t be included in the current project cycle. They may be revisited in the future or deemed unnecessary altogether. Won’t-have requirements are explicitly excluded from the current project cycle. They are either paused for future iterations or deemed unnecessary based on the project’s scope, constraints, or ever-changing priorities. These requirements may be revisited in subsequent phases or projects if they become more relevant or circumstances change.

By adhering to these principles, the MoSCoW method provides an approach to prioritizing requirements and making informed decisions about what to include, defer, or exclude in a project. It helps project teams allocate resources effectively, manage stakeholder expectations, and deliver value by focusing on the most critical and impactful requirements.

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Breaking Down the MoSCoW Acronym

The MoSCoW acronym stands for Must-Have, Should-Have, Could-Have, and Won’t-Have. Let’s explore each category in more detail:

Must-Have Requirements

Must-have requirements represent the core needs of a project. They are essential to achieving the project’s objectives and are typically non-negotiable. Failing to meet these requirements may result in project failure or severe consequences.

For example, a must-have requirement in a software development project could be the ability to store and retrieve user data securely. This functionality is crucial for the system to protect sensitive information appropriately. Without this requirement, the project would be deemed incomplete and unusable.

Another example of a must-have requirement could be compliance with legal regulations. If a project involves handling personal data, it must comply with data protection laws to ensure the privacy and security of individuals’ information. Failure to meet this requirement could lead to legal consequences and damage to the project’s reputation.

Should-Have Requirements

Should-Have requirements are necessary but not critical for the project’s success. They contribute to the project’s value and can enhance the overall quality without compromising the core functionality. These requirements can be negotiated and adjusted based on resource availability and project constraints.

For instance, a should-have requirement could include a search functionality in a website development project. While not essential for the website’s basic functionality, a search feature can greatly improve user experience and make it easier for visitors to find specific information. Including this requirement would add value to the project without significantly impacting the core functionality.

Another example of a should-have requirement could be the implementation of responsive design . While the website may still function on different devices without this requirement, a responsive design ensures that the site adapts to different screen sizes and provides an optimal viewing experience for users. This requirement enhances the overall quality of the project and improves usability.

Could-Have Requirements

Could-Have requirements are desirable but not essential for the project’s success. They often include features or functionalities that would be nice but can be deferred to a later phase. These requirements can be selectively implemented based on available resources and project priorities.

For example, in a mobile app development project, a could-have requirement could be the integration of social media sharing capabilities. While this feature can enhance user engagement and promote the app’s reach, it may not be necessary for the initial release. By deferring this requirement to a later phase, the development team can focus on delivering the core functionality first and then add the social media integration as an update.

Another example of a could-have requirement could be including advanced analytics and reporting features in project management software. While these features can provide valuable insights and help users make data-driven decisions, they may not be essential for the software’s basic functionality. By categorizing them as could-have requirements, the development team can prioritize other critical aspects of the project and consider adding these features in future updates.

Won’t-Have Requirements

Won’t-Have requirements won’t be addressed in the current project cycle. They may be considered in future iterations or even abandoned altogether. It’s important to communicate clearly why these requirements are not included and manage stakeholder expectations to avoid misunderstandings.

For instance, it won’t have a requirement in a website redesign project, which could be the complete rebranding of the company’s logo. While a logo redesign may be desirable, it may not be feasible or necessary within the scope of the current project. By clearly communicating this decision to stakeholders, the project team can avoid unnecessary delays and focus on other aspects of the redesign, such as improving user experience and updating the website’s visual design.

Another example of a won’t-have requirement could be the integration of a specific third-party API in a software development project. While the API may offer additional functionalities, it may not align with the project’s goals or budget. By excluding this requirement from the current project cycle, the development team can streamline the development process and allocate resources more efficiently.

Product Management Framework

The role of the moscow method in project management.

The MoSCoW method is crucial in project management, providing a structured approach to prioritize requirements. Let’s explore some of its benefits and potential challenges:

Benefits of Using the MoSCoW Method

• Clear prioritization: The MoSCoW method helps project teams and stakeholders easily understand the priority of each requirement, reducing confusion and ensuring alignment.
• Efficient allocation of resources: By categorizing requirements into Must-Have, Should-Have, Could-Have, and Won’t-Have, teams can allocate resources more effectively and focus on what’s critical.
• Flexibility and adaptability: The MoSCoW method allows project teams to make informed decisions about what can be deferred or excluded, ensuring they can respond to changing circumstances without jeopardizing the project’s success.

Potential Challenges and Solutions

While the MoSCoW method brings many benefits, it has challenges. Some common challenges include:

• Lack of consensus: Stakeholders may have different opinions on the priority of specific requirements. By facilitating open and collaborative discussions, project managers can reach a consensus.
• Incomplete understanding: If stakeholders don’t fully understand the implications of a requirement, they might misjudge its importance. Clear communication and providing context can help address this challenge.
• Evolving priorities: As the project progresses, priorities may change. Regular review and reassessment of requirements help ensure they align with the project’s evolving needs.

Implementing the MoSCoW Method

Implementing the MoSCoW method requires a systematic approach. Here are a few steps to follow:

Steps to Apply the MoSCoW Method

• Identify and define project requirements: Start by thoroughly understanding the requirements and documenting them in detail.
• Categorize requirements: Use the Must-Have, Should-Have, Could-Have, and Won’t-Have categories to prioritize the requirements based on their importance and urgency.
• Validate priorities: Review and discuss the categorized requirements with stakeholders to ensure alignment and address any conflicting priorities.
• Communicate the prioritization: Communicate the priorities to the project team and stakeholders, ensuring everyone understands the rationale behind the categorization.
• Iterate and reassess: As the project progresses, regularly review and reassess the priorities to ensure they remain aligned with the evolving needs and circumstances.

Tips for Successful Implementation

To implement the MoSCoW method successfully, consider the following tips:

• Involve stakeholders early: Engage stakeholders from the beginning to understand their needs and gain their buy-in on the prioritization process.
• Focus on collaboration: Foster a collaborative environment where stakeholders can openly discuss and negotiate priorities, ensuring consensus and alignment.
• Communicate clearly: Communicate the rationale behind the priorities to ensure everyone understands the decision-making process and its impact.
• Revisit and refine: Regularly revisit priorities as the project progresses, considering any new information or changes in project dynamics.

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Leverage ranking to determine what is most important.

This makes it easy for teams to prioritize requirements.

The MoSCoW Method vs. Other Prioritization Techniques

While the MoSCoW method is effective, it must be compared with other prioritization techniques to understand its strengths and weaknesses.

Comparing the MoSCoW Method with Other Techniques

The MoSCoW method offers several advantages over other techniques, such as:

• Clear categorization: The MoSCoW method provides a clear and straightforward categorization framework, making it easy for teams to prioritize requirements.
• Flexibility: The MoSCoW method allows flexibility and adaptability, ensuring project teams can respond to changing circumstances without compromising the project’s overall success.
• Visual representation: The MoSCoW method’s acronym (Must, Should, Could, Won’t) provides a visual representation that aids understanding and facilitates communication.

Choosing the Right Method for Your Project

While the MoSCoW method has advantages, it’s crucial to consider your project’s specific needs and requirements. Popular prioritization techniques like the Eisenhower Matrix, Kano Model , or Weighted Scoring may better suit specific projects or industries. Assess the project’s context, available resources, and stakeholder preferences to choose the most appropriate prioritization technique for your project.

By understanding the MoSCoW method, project managers and teams can prioritize requirements, allocate resources efficiently, and ensure successful project delivery. This structured approach can enhance project outcomes and contribute to overall project success.

MoSCoW Framework FAQs

The MoSCoW method is a prioritization technique used to categorize requirements based on their importance and urgency. It was developed in the 1990s by Dai Clegg, a software project manager at British Airways Technology.

The MoSCoW method operates on four fundamental principles: Must-Have Requirements, Should-Have Requirements, Could-Have Requirements, and Won’t-Have Requirements.

The MoSCoW acronym stands for Must-Have, Should-Have, Could-Have, and Won’t-Have.

The benefits of using the MoSCoW method include clear prioritization, efficient allocation of resources, and flexibility and adaptability.

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Project phase

Walt disney method.

On the basis of a role play, several people look at and discuss a situation from three different perspectives (roles).

First, the team goes into the role of the dreamer. The dreamer develops ideas and visions. He can let his imagination run wild and does not care about possible limitations. Afterwards, the team takes on the role of the realist. The realist adjourns with the ideas he has won, reflects and asks himself the following questions: What needs to be done or said? What is needed for the implementation (material, people, resources, knowledge, techniques, etc.)? What do you feel about this idea? Which basics are already available? Can the approach be tested? At the last point in the cycle, the team takes on the role of the critic. It has the task of dealing constructively with the results of the realist and to express criticism. Starting points for this can be: What could be improved? What are the opportunities and risks? What was overlooked? How do I think about the proposal? Open questions are then handed back to the dreamer, who reintroduces the cycle based on the findings. The process is considered complete when the critic can no longer ask further relevant questions and when it is foreseeable that another run will not bring any optimization. This method can also be pragmatically and easily performed in a three-roll discussion at a table. In addition, additional persons can debate and take the word in the sense of the three roles.

• Concretize goals and visions. Elaboration of concepts and ideas.

The Walt Disney method is based on the interplay of three roles: the dreamer (visionary, idea supplier), the realist (maker) and the critic (quality manager). For each individual role, a separate room should be created. However, it does not necessarily have to be individual rooms; three chairs, which are placed in different corners of a room, are sufficient.

• Distribute roles
• Discuss idea

The method can also be used by individuals.

Anything to improve with the method description? Just send an e-mail with your suggestion. Thank you!

• If there are only similar characters in a team, this method helps to take a different view and break out of the old ways of thinking.
• Deadlocked thinking structures are solved
• Not necessarily required in a group of characters that already have the appropriate character traits anyway
• Bet-Cost-Matrix
• Brainstorming
• Letter to Grandma
• MoSCoW Voting
• Role Playing
• Story Cubes
• Walt-Disney-Methode (uni-protokolle.de / German)
• Walt-Disney-Methode (Wikipedia, German)
• Walt Disney Methode (ideenfindung.de, German)
• Arbeitsblatt "Walt-Disney-Methode" (BMWi / unternehmergeist macht schule, German, PDF)

The Design Method Finder is a UX and PM method data base with quick access to a lot of interesting and potentially helpful methods.

How to Write a Research Proposal: A Complete Guide

A research proposal is a piece of writing that basically serves as your plan for a research project. It spells out what you’ll study, how you’ll go about it, and why it matters. Think of it as your pitch to show professors or funding bodies that your project is worth their attention and support.

This task is standard for grad students, especially those in research-intensive fields. It’s your chance to showcase your ability to think critically, design a solid study, and articulate why your research could make a difference.

In this article, we'll talk about how to craft a good research proposal, covering everything from the standard format of a research proposal to the specific details you'll need to include. 

Feeling overwhelmed by the idea of putting one together? That’s where DoMyEssay comes in handy.  Whether you need a little push or more extensive guidance, we’ll help you nail your proposal and move your project forward. 

Research Proposal Format

When you're putting together a research proposal, think of it as setting up a roadmap for your project. You want it to be clear and easy to follow so everyone knows what you’re planning to do, how you’re going to do it, and why it matters. 

Whether you’re following APA or Chicago style, the key is to keep your formatting clean so that it’s easy for committees or funding bodies to read through and understand.

Here’s a breakdown of each section, with a special focus on formatting a research proposal:

• Title Page : This is your first impression. Make sure it includes the title of your research proposal, your name, and your affiliations. Your title should grab attention and make it clear what your research is about.
• Abstract : This is your elevator pitch. In about 250 words, you need to sum up what you plan to research, how you plan to do it, and what impact you think it will have.
• Introduction : Here’s where you draw them in. Lay out your research question or problem, highlight its importance, and clearly outline what you aim to achieve with your study.
• Literature Review : Show that you’ve done your homework. In this section, demonstrate that you know the field and how your research fits into it. It’s your chance to connect your ideas to what’s already out there and show off a bit about what makes your approach unique or necessary.
• Methodology : Dive into the details of how you’ll get your research done. Explain your methods for gathering data and how you’ll analyze it. This is where you reassure them that your project is doable and you’ve thought through all the steps.
• Timeline : Keep it realistic. Provide an estimated schedule for your research, breaking down the process into manageable stages and assigning a timeline for each phase.
• Budget : If you need funding, lay out a budget that spells out what you need money for. Be clear and precise so there’s no guesswork involved about what you’re asking for.
• References/Bibliography : List out all the works you cited in your proposal. Stick to one citation style to keep things consistent.

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Research Proposal Structure

When you're writing a research proposal, you're laying out your questions and explaining the path you're planning to take to tackle them. Here’s how to structure your proposal so that it speaks to why your research matters and should get some attention.

Introduction

An introduction is where you grab attention and make everyone see why what you're doing matters. Here, you’ll pose the big question of your research proposal topic and show off the potential of your research right from the get-go:

• Grab attention : Start with something that makes the reader sit up — maybe a surprising fact, a challenging question, or a brief anecdote that highlights the urgency of your topic.
• Set the scene : What’s the broader context of your work? Give a snapshot of the landscape and zoom in on where your research fits. This helps readers see the big picture and the niche you’re filling.
• Lay out your plan : Briefly mention the main goals or questions of your research. If you have a hypothesis, state it clearly here.
• Make it matter : Show why your research needs to happen now. What gaps are you filling? What changes could your findings inspire? Make sure the reader understands the impact and significance of your work.

Literature Review

In your research proposal, the literature review does more than just recap what’s already out there. It's where you get to show off how your research connects with the big ideas and ongoing debates in your field. Here’s how to make this section work hard for you:

• Connect the dots : First up, highlight how your study fits into the current landscape by listing what others have done and positioning your research within it. You want to make it clear that you’re not just following the crowd but actually engaging with and contributing to real conversations. 
• Critique what’s out there : Explore what others have done well and where they’ve fallen short. Pointing out the gaps or where others might have missed the mark helps set up why your research is needed and how it offers something different.
• Build on what’s known : Explain how your research will use, challenge, or advance the existing knowledge. Are you closing a key gap? Applying old ideas in new ways? Make it clear how your work is going to add something new or push existing boundaries.

Aims and Objectives

Let's talk about the aims and objectives of your research. This is where you set out what you want to achieve and how you plan to get there:

• Main Goal : Start by stating your primary aim. What big question are you trying to answer, or what hypothesis are you testing? This is your research's main driving force.
• Detailed Objectives : Now, break down your main goal into smaller, actionable objectives. These should be clear and specific steps that will help you reach your overall aim. Think of these as the building blocks of your research, each one designed to contribute to the larger goal.

Research Design and Method

This part of your proposal outlines the practical steps you’ll take to answer your research questions:

• Type of Research : First off, what kind of research are you conducting? Will it be qualitative or quantitative research , or perhaps a mix of both? Clearly define whether you'll be gathering numerical data for statistical analysis or exploring patterns and theories in depth.
• Research Approach : Specify whether your approach is experimental, correlational, or descriptive. Each of these frameworks has its own way of uncovering insights, so choose the one that best fits the questions you’re trying to answer.
• Data Collection : Discuss the specifics of your data. If you’re in the social sciences, for instance, describe who or what you’ll be studying. How will you select your subjects or sources? What criteria will you use, and how will you gather your data? Be clear about the methods you’ll use, whether that’s surveys, interviews, observations, or experiments.
• Tools and Techniques : Detail the tools and techniques you'll use to collect your data. Explain why these tools are the best fit for your research goals.
• Timeline and Budget : Sketch out a timeline for your research activities. How long will each phase take? This helps everyone see that your project is organized and feasible.
• Potential Challenges : What might go wrong? Think about potential obstacles and how you plan to handle them. This shows you’re thinking ahead and preparing for all possibilities.

Ethical Considerations

When you're conducting research, especially involving people, you've got to think about ethics. This is all about ensuring everyone's rights are respected throughout your study. Here’s a quick rundown:

• Participant Rights : You need to protect your participants' rights to privacy, autonomy, and confidentiality. This means they should know what the study involves and agree to participate willingly—this is what we call informed consent.
• Informed Consent : You've got to be clear with participants about what they’re signing up for, what you’ll do with the data, and how you'll keep it confidential. Plus, they need the freedom to drop out any time they want.
• Ethical Approval : Before you even start collecting data, your research plan needs a green light from an ethics committee. This group checks that you’re set up to keep your participants safe and treated fairly.

You need to carefully calculate the costs for every aspect of your project. Make sure to include a bit extra for those just-in-case scenarios like unexpected delays or price hikes. Every dollar should have a clear purpose, so justify each part of your budget to ensure it’s all above board. This approach keeps your project on track financially and avoids any surprises down the line.

The appendices in your research proposal are where you stash all the extra documents that back up your main points. Depending on your project, this could include things like consent forms, questionnaires, measurement tools, or even a simple explanation of your study for participants. 

Just like any academic paper, your research proposal needs to include citations for all the sources you’ve referenced. Whether you call it a references list or a bibliography, the idea is the same — crediting the work that has informed your research. Make sure every source you’ve cited is listed properly, keeping everything consistent and easy to follow.

Research Proposal Got You Stuck? 

Get expert help with your literature review, ensuring your research is grounded in solid scholarship. 

How to Write a Research Proposal?

Whether you're new to this process or looking to refine your skills, here are some practical tips to help you create a strong and compelling proposal. 

Research Proposal Template

Here’s a simple and handy research proposal example in PDF format to help you get started and keep your work organized:

Writing a research proposal can be straightforward if you break it down into manageable steps:

• Pick a strong research proposal topic that interests you and has enough material to explore.
• Craft an engaging introduction that clearly states your research question and objectives.
• Do a thorough literature review to see how your work fits into the existing research landscape.
• Plan out your research design and method , deciding whether you’ll use qualitative or quantitative research.
• Consider the ethical aspects to ensure your research is conducted responsibly.
• Set up a budget and gather any necessary appendices to support your proposal.
• Make sure all your sources are cited properly to add credibility to your work.

If you need some extra support, DoMyEssay is ready to help with any type of paper, including crafting a strong research proposal. 

What Is a Research Proposal?

How long should a research proposal be, how do you start writing a research proposal.

Examples of Research proposals | York St John University. (n.d.). York St John University. https://www.yorksj.ac.uk/study/postgraduate/research-degrees/apply/examples-of-research-proposals/

Understanding The Research Methods Database

Jennifer C. Boettcher, Business Librarian

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POLI 788: Methods, Research Skills, and Data usage in Social Science: Citing

• Discover research materials
• Data & statistics
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Writing & Citing

Citing Information Tutorial

Guide to Citing Data  - This guide provides guidance on how to construct a citation for data. Doing so is important to acknowledge the work of others if the data is not your own but, even if it is your own, to enable others to find (and perhaps re-use) your data.

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