User Research

The process of studying and understanding the needs, behaviors, and preferences of the people who will use a product or service. It involves collecting data through methods like surveys, interviews, and observations to inform the design and development of user-friendly solutions.

What is User Research?

User research is a way of learning about what people need, how they behave, and why they do what they do. It involves using methods like surveys, interviews, and observations to gather information. This knowledge helps design products and services that better meet users' needs.

“The process of understanding the impact of design on an audience.” Mike Kuniaysky

If you're new to this or if you work with user research but aren't too experienced, you might wonder how to gather and analyze data.

There are more than 100 research methods out there, but as a beginner in UX research, you don't need to know all of them.

No, Not really!

Think of the standard methods most companies are familiar with: in-depth, interviews, surveys, and usability testing.

So, when you need to do research, don't worry about the many methods in books. Instead, ask yourself which method will help you collect the information you need.

Why Research is so important?

Great UX Design is grounded in great user research - driven by user insights while balancing priorities and technical feasibility.

User research helps uncover important and useful insights about the user and their needs. Until you know your user and their needs, emotions, feelings, struggles, etc, you won’t be able to deliver a great user experience.

The importance of user research in UX design: 5 key benefits

In simple terms, user research is all about understanding the people you're making stuff for and making sure what you create works for them. This shows how crucial user research is. The main aim of design is to fix user issues and make things that are easy to use for everyone.

How can you do that if you don’t know who your users are and what problems they face? 

How can you design a user-friendly website or app for a particular target audience if you don’t know anything about their needs, goals, and expectations? 

You can’t. 

Well, you could—but you’d be basing your designs on guesswork and assumptions, with a very slim chance of landing on the right solution. 

User research is essential because:

• It helps you cultivate empathy for your end users

• It identifies the exact user problem you’re designing to solve

• It empowers you to make data-driven design decisions (no more guesswork!)

• It saves time and money in the long run

• User research = a better user experience (and a more successful product)

How to approach user research

The first thing to do before doing any research is to ask the right research questions. What is your research goal? What are you trying to understand?

Here’s a set of criteria to help you hone in on your research questions:

• Be specific

• Be focused and relevant to what you’re trying to understand

• Make them practical with the resources you have

• Make them actionable

• Be flexible and don’t worry about which method to use (yet)

Type of Research

1. Quantitative Research

2. Qualitative Research

Quantitative Research: Quantity

Quantitative research is used to understand the ‘what’. This type of research can be measured numerically. It will focus on collecting numerical data and analyzing it using statistical methods. It's all about numbers and objective measurements.

For example:

How many people visited a store over a week” or “What percentage of users clicked this button”. This type of research explores large sample sizes of data to identify trends and patterns.

...

Qualitative Research: Quality

Qualitative research aims to explore and understand people's experiences, perceptions, and behaviors in depth. It involves gathering non-numerical data, such as text, images, or observations, and interpreting it to find patterns and insights.

...

For example:

Let's say you're studying the reasons behind why some students drop out of college. Instead of using a survey with fixed questions, you conduct in-depth interviews with a smaller group of students who left college. During these interviews, you encourage them to share their personal experiences, feelings, and reasons for leaving. Then, you analyze the interview transcripts for recurring themes and patterns, which might reveal underlying factors like financial stress or academic difficulties.

Fazit

User research is an integral part of UX design. When it’s done right, user research contributes to great UX.

Remember, it’s all about meeting the user’s needs.

“UX without users isn’t UX.”