What is user experience research?
Research on user experience or UX is defined as the systematic study of users to discover behaviors, needs, motivations and trends through observations, analysis and other feedback from users. UX researchers use different methods to understand problems and draw opportunities to stand out from the competition. Organizations conduct user experience research to accurately understand how real customers react to products or services in the real world.
Types of UX Research Methods
We can divide UX research into two dimensions based on the type of product, its environment, the size of the research, and its timelines. Let’s look at both dimensions.
Quantitative versus qualitative research:
Quantitative research is the study of a population through the use of surveys and questionnaires. Also, quantitative research helps generalize findings and understand what a specific population likes and dislikes. This data collection technique is generally mathematical in nature. Qualitative research helps researchers gather information by observing users in field studies or focus groups. Qualitative research makes sense of the motivations and reasons for consumer behavior.
Attitudinal vs. behavioral research:
“Attitudinal research” applies to what users say, while “behavioral research” applies to what they actually do. What users and customers often say and what they sometimes do is quite different. Researchers often conduct attitude research to measure clients’ needs and beliefs. However, researchers are leaning towards behavioral research for information, as the data on what users tend to do is more relevant. Website A / B testing is an excellent example of behavioral research because it provides researchers with critical information about how users perceive and act on different versions of the same site.
Steps for conducting user experience research
Here are the five steps to conducting user experience research:
Define Objectives – Always define your research goals before acting. Understand what you want to discover about your customers and their requirements.
State Hypothesis: State a hypothesis about what you think you know about users.
Choose a suitable method (s) – Choose the best research approach based on factors such as the type of project, the size of the research team, and the deadline.
Apply research method (s) – Conduct research using research methods of your choice and start collecting data from users about their preferences, likes, dislikes, and needs.
Synthesize Feedback – Collect and analyze user feedback data to fill in your knowledge gaps. Use this knowledge to improve and improve your research.
Uses of user experience research
Researchers use UX research for the following:
Discovery: Discovery means understanding what users find relevant. Researchers interview the user in their environment or ask them to keep a record of their daily interaction with a design.
Exploration: During this phase, researchers look for possibilities to address the needs of all users. Card sorting is an interactive research technique to accurately understand what people like and don’t like.
Testing – Testing helps you evaluate your design thoroughly. Companies test products to make sure they are easy to use and accessible to everyone.
Listening: Listening helps researchers put problems in perspective. It helps them find invisible problems to fix quickly. Surveys and questionnaires are useful tools that help researchers track user sentiments.
Benefits of UX Research
These are the benefits of UX research:
Better Products – Engaging your leads directly helps you gain a lot of insight into what customers prefer, what their pain points are, and what will help overall product improvement.
Happy Users – UX Research helps you collect unbiased reviews directly from your customers, your most trusted source of reviews. Because it is not swayed by company leaders, investors, or other outsiders, it is the best source of actionable feedback.
Business Growth – Helps accelerate product development and increase customer satisfaction.
Using UX research methods throughout development
Los métodos clave son:
- Discover – determine what is relevant to users.
- Contextual Queries: Interview the appropriate users in your own environment to see how they perform the tasks in question.
- Daily Studies: Have users record their daily interactions with a layout or record the performance of their activities.
- Explore – Examine how to address the needs of all users.
- Flashcard sorting: write words and phrases on flashcards; then allow participants to organize them in the most meaningful way and label the categories to make sure your design is structured logically.
- Customer Journey Maps – Create user journeys to expose potential pitfalls and crucial moments.
- Test: evaluate your designs.
- Usability testing – Make sure your layout is user friendly.
- Accessibility Assessments – Test your design to make sure it’s accessible to everyone.
- Listen: put problems in perspective, find new problems, and watch trends.
- Surveys / Quizzes – Use these to track user feedback about your product.
Conclusions
Whichever UX research method you choose, you need to consider the pros and cons of the different techniques. For example, card sorting is cheap and easy, but it can be slow when it comes to analysis. Also, it may not give you deep contextual meaning. Another limitation is your available resources, which will dictate when, how much, and what kind of UX research you can do. Therefore, decide carefully on the most relevant methods for your research.
Plus, involve your organization’s stakeholders from the start. They can reveal valuable information about UX and help keep your research in line with business goals. Remember, a design team values UX research as a way to validate their assumptions about users in the field, lower the cost of the best products, and keep products in high demand, ahead of the competition.
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User Experience Research (UX)
