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How to conduct user research: A step-by-step guide

This is part one of a guide to User research.

Continue with part two: How to conduct user research: A Step-by-step guide

Continue with part three: What is exploratory research and why is it so exciting?

What user research did you conduct to reveal your ideal user?

Uh-oh. Not this question again. We both know the most common answer and it’s not great.

“Uhm, we talked to some users and had a brainstorming session with our team. It’s not much, but we don’t have time to do anything more right now. It’s better than nothing.”

Let’s be brutally honest about the meaning of that answer and rephrase it:

“ We don’t have time to get to know our actual user and maximize our chances of success. We’ll just assume that we know what they want and then wonder why the product fails at a later stage.”

If that sounds super bad, it’s because IT IS. You don’t want to end up in this situation. And you won’t.

After reading this guide, you’ll know exactly how to carry out the user research that will become your guiding star during product development.

On this page

Why is user research so important?

Step #1: define research objectives.

Go ahead – create that fake persona

Step #2: Pick your methods

Qualitative methods – the why, quantitative methods – the what, behavioral and attitudinal methods, step #3: find your participants, how to recruit participants, how many participants, step #4: conduct user research.

Focus groups

Competitive analysis

Field studies

What’s next?

User research can be a scary word. It may sound like money you don’t have, time you can’t spare, and expertise you need to find. That’s why some people convince themselves that it’s not that important.

Which is a HUGE mistake.

User research is crucial – without it, you’ll spend your energy, time and money on a product that is based around false assumptions that won’t work in the real world.

Let’s take a look at Segway, a technologically brilliant product with incredible introductory publicity. Although it’s still around, it simply didn’t reach initial expectations. Here are some of the reasons why:

• It brought mockery, not admiration. The user was always “that guy”, who often felt fat or lazy.
• Cities were not prepared for it. Neither users nor policemen knew if it should be used on the road or on the sidewalk.
• A large segment of the target market comprised of postal and security workers. However, postal workers need both hands while walking, and security workers prefer bikes that don’t have a limited range.

Segway mainly fell short because of issues that could’ve been foreseen and solved by better user research.

Tim Brown, the CEO of the innovation and design firm IDEO, sums it up nicely:

“Empathy is at the heart of design. Without the understanding of what others see, feel, and experience, design is a pointless task.”

? Bonus material Download User research checklist and a comparison table

Never forget – you are not your user.

You require proper user research to understand your user’s problems, pain points, needs, desires, feelings and behaviours.

Let’s start with the process!

Before you get in touch with your target users, you need to define why you are doing the research in the first place. 

Establish clear objectives and agree with your team on your exact goals – this will make it much easier to gain valuable insights. Otherwise, your findings will be all over the place.

Here are some sample questions that will help you to define your objectives:

• What do you want to uncover?
• What are the knowledge gaps that you need to fill?
• What is already working and what isn’t?
• Is there a problem that needs to be fixed? What is that problem?
• What will the research bring to the business and/or your customers?

Once you start answering questions like these, it’s time to make a list of objectives. These should be specific and concise .

Let’s say you are making a travel recommendation app. Your research goals could be:

• Understand the end-to-end process of how participants are currently making travel decisions.
• Uncover the different tools that participants are using to make travel decisions.
• Identify problems or barriers that they encounter when making travel decisions.

I suggest that you prioritize your objectives and create an Excel table. It will come in handy later.

Go ahead, create that fake persona

A useful exercise for you to do at this stage is to write down some hypotheses about your target users.

Ask yourself:

What do we think we understand about our users that is relevant to our business or product?

Yes, brainstorm the heck out of this persona, but keep it relevant to the topic at hand.

Here’s my empathy map and empathy map canvas to really help you flesh out your imaginary user.

Once you’re finished, research any and every statement , need and desire with real people.

It’s a simple yet effective way to create questions for some of the research methods that you’ll be using.

However, you need to be prepared to throw some of your assumptions out of the window. If you think this persona may affect your bias, don’t bother with hypotheses and dive straight into research with a completely open mind.

Alright, you have your research goals. Now let’s see how you can reach them.

Here’s the main question you should be asking yourself at this step in the process:

Based on our time and manpower, what methods should we select?

It’s essential to pick the right method at the right time . I’ll delve into more details on specific methods in Step #4. For now, let’s take a quick look at what categories you can choose from.

Qualitative research tells you ‘why’ something occurs. It tells you the reasons behind the behavior, the problem or the desire. It answers questions like: “ Why do you prefer using app X instead of other similar apps?” or “What’s the hardest part about being a sales manager? Why?” .

Qualitative data comes in the form of actual insights and it’s fairly easy to understand.

Most of the methods we’ll look at in Step #4 are qualitative methods.

Quantitative research helps you to understand what is happening by providing different metrics.

It answers questions such as “What percentage of users left their shopping cart without completing the purchase?” or “Is it better to have a big or small subscription button?”.

Most quantitative methods come in handy when testing your product, but not so much when you’re researching your users. This is because they don’t tell you why particular trends or patterns occur.

There is a big difference between “what people do” and “what people say”.

As their names imply, attitudinal research is used to understand or measure attitudes and beliefs, whereas behavioral research is used to measure and observe behaviors.

Here’s a practical landscape that will help you choose the best methods for you. If it doesn’t make sense now, return to it once you’ve finished the guide and you’ll have a much better understanding.

Source: Nielsen Norman Group

I’ll give you my own suggestions and tips about the most common and useful methods in Step #4 – Conducting research.

In general, if your objectives are specific enough, it shouldn’t be too hard to see which methods will help you achieve them.

Remember that Excel table? Choose a method or two that will fulfill each objective and type it in the column beside it.

It won’t always be possible to carry out everything you’ve written down. If this is the case, go with the method(s) that will give you most of the answers. With your table, it will be easy to pick and choose the most effective options for you.

Onto the next step!

This stage is all about channeling your inner Sherlock and finding the people with the secret intel for your product’s success.

Consider your niche, your objectives and your methods – this should give you a general idea of the group or groups you want to talk to and research further.

Here’s my advice for most cases.

If you’re building something from the ground up, the best participants might be:

• People you assume face the problem that your product aims to solve
• Your competitors’ customers

If you are developing something or solving a problem for an existing product, you should also take a look at:

• Advocates and super-users
• Customers who have recently churned
• Users who tried to sign up or buy but decided not to commit

There are plenty of ways to bring on participants, and you can get creative so long as you keep your desired target group in mind.

You can recruit them online – via social media, online forums or niche community sites.

You can publish an ad with requirements and offer some kind of incentive.

You can always use a recruitment agency, too. This can be costly, but it’s also efficient.

If you have a user database and are changing or improving your product, you can find your participants in there. Make sure that you contact plenty of your existing users, as most of them won’t respond.

You can even ask your friends to recommend the right kind of people who you wouldn’t otherwise know.

With that said, you should always be wary of including friends in your research . Sure, they’re the easiest people to reach, but your friendship can (and probably will) get in the way of obtaining honest answers. There are plenty of horror stories about people validating their “brilliant” ideas with their friends, only to lose a fortune in the future. Only consider them if you are 100% sure that they will speak their mind no matter what.

That depends on the method. If you’re not holding a massive online survey, you can usually start with 5 people in each segment . That’s enough to get the most important unique insights. You can then assess the situation and decide whether or not you need to expand your research.

Finally! Let’s go through some of the more common methods you’ll be using, including their pros and cons, some pro tips, and when you should use them.

Engaging in one-on-one discussions with users enables you to acquire detailed information about a user’s attitudes, desires, and experiences. Individual concerns and misunderstandings can be directly addressed and cleared up on the spot.

Interviews are time-consuming, especially on a per participant basis. You have to prepare for them, conduct them, analyze them and sometimes even transcribe them. They also limit your sample size, which can be problematic. The quality of your data will depend on the ability of your interviewer, and hiring an expert can be expensive.

• Prepare questions that stick to your main topics. Include follow-up questions for when you want to dig deeper into certain areas.
• Record the interview . Don’t rely on your notes. You don’t want to interrupt the flow of the interview by furiously scribbling down your answers, and you’ll need the recording for any potential in-depth analysis later on.
• Conduct at least one trial run of the interview to see if everything flows and feels right. Create a “playbook” on how the interview should move along and update it with your findings.
• If you are not comfortable with interviewing people, let someone else do it or hire an expert interviewer. You want to make people feel like they are talking to someone they know, rather than actually being interviewed. In my experience, psychologists are a great choice for an interviewer.

Interviews are not really time-sensitive, as long as you do them before the development process.

However, they can be a great supplement to online surveys and vice-versa. Conducting an interview beforehand helps you to create a more focused and relevant survey, while conducting an interview afterwards helps you to explain the survey answers.

Surveys are generally conducted online, which means that it’s possible to gather a lot of data in a very short time for a very low price . Surveys are usually anonymous, so users are often more honest in their responses.

It’s more difficult to get a representative sample because it’s tough to control who takes part in the survey – especially if you post it across social media channels or general forums. Surveys are quite rigid and if you don’t account for all possible answers, you might be missing out on valuable data. You have to be very careful when choosing your questions – poorly worded or leading ones can negatively influence how users respond. Length can also be an issue, as many people hate taking long surveys.

• Keep your surveys brief , particularly if participants won’t be compensated for their time. Only focus on what is truly important.
• Make sure that the questions can be easily understood. Unclear or ambiguous questions result in data on which you can’t depend. Keep the wording as simple as possible.
• Avoid using leading questions. Don’t ask questions that assume something, such as “What do you dislike about X?”. Replace this with “What’s your experience with X?”.
• Find engaged, niche online communities that fit your user profile. You’ll get more relevant data from these.

Similar to interviews. It depends on whether you want to use the survey as a preliminary method, or if you want a lot of answers to a few, very focused questions.

Focus Groups

Focus groups are moderated discussions with around 5 to 10 participants, the intention of which is to gain insight into the individuals’ attitudes, ideas and desires.

As focus groups include multiple people, they can quickly reveal the desires, experiences, and attitudes of your target audience . They are helpful when you require a lot of specific information in a short amount of time. When conducted correctly, they can act like interviews on steroids.

Focus groups can be tough to schedule and manage. If the moderator isn’t experienced, the discussion can quickly go off-topic. There might be an alpha participant that dictates the general opinion, and because it’s not one-on-one, people won’t always speak their mind.

• Find an experienced moderator who will lead the discussion. Having another person observing and taking notes is also highly recommended, as he or she can emphasize actionable insights and catch non-verbal clues that would otherwise be missed.
• Define the scope of your research . What questions will you ask? How in-depth do you want to go with the answers? How long do you want each discussion to last? This will determine how many people and groups should be tested.
• If possible, recruit potential or existing users who are likely to provide good feedback, yet will still allow others to speak their mind. You won’t know the participants most of the time, so having an experienced moderator is crucial.

Focus groups work best when you have a few clear topics that you want to focus on.

Competitive Analysis

A competitive analysis highlights the strengths and weaknesses of existing products . It explores how successful competitors act on the market. It gives you a solid basis for other user research methods and can also uncover business opportunities. It helps you to define your competitive advantage , as well as identify different user types.

A competitive analysis can tell you what exists, but not why it exists. You may collect a long feature list, but you won’t know which features are valued most by users and which they don’t use at all. In many cases, it’s impossible to tell how well a product is doing, which makes the data less useful. It also has limited use if you’re creating something that’s relatively new to the market.

• Create a list or table of information that you want to gather – market share, prices, features, visual design language, content, etc.
• Don’t let it go stale. Update it as the market changes so that you include new competitors.
• If you find something really interesting but don’t know the reason behind it, conduct research among your competitor’s users .
• After concluding your initial user research, go over the findings of your competitive analysis to see if you’ve discovered anything that’s missing on the market .

It can be a great first method, especially if you’re likely to talk to users of your competitors’ products

Field Studies

Field studies are research activities that take place in the user’s context, rather than at your company or office. Some are purely observational (the researcher is a “fly on the wall”), others are field interviews, and some act as a demonstration of pain points in existing systems.

You really get to see the big picture –  field studies allow you to gain insights that will fundamentally change your product design . You see what people actually do instead of what they say they do. A field study can explain problems and behaviours that you don’t understand better than any other method.

It’s the most time-consuming and expensive method. The results rely on the observer more than any of the other options. It’s not appropriate for products that are used in rare and specific situations.

• Establish clear objectives. Always remember why you are doing the research. Field studies can provide a variety of insights and sometimes it can be hard to stay focused. This is especially true if you are participating in the observed activity.
• Be patient. Observation might take some time. If you rush, you might end up with biased results.
• Keep an open mind and don’t ask leading questions. Be prepared to abandon your preconceptions, assumptions and beliefs. When interviewing people, try to leave any predispositions or biases at the door.
• Be warm but professional. If you conduct interviews or participate in an activity, you won’t want people around you to feel awkward or tense. Instead, you’ll want to observe how they act naturally.

Use a field study when no other method will do or if it becomes clear that you don’t really understand your user. If needed, you should conduct this as soon as possible – it can lead to monumental changes.

We started with a user persona and we’ll finish on this topic, too. But yours will be backed by research 😉

A persona outlines your ideal user in a concise and understandable way. It includes the most important insights that you’ve discovered. It makes it easier to design products around your actual users and speak their language. It’s a great way to familiarize new people on your team with your target market.

A persona is only as good as the user research behind it. Many companies create a “should be” persona instead of an actual one. Not only can such a persona be useless, it can also be misleading.

• Keep personas brief. Avoid adding unnecessary details and omit information that does not aid your decision making. If a persona document is too long, it simply won’t be used.
• Make personas specific and realistic. Avoid exaggerating and include enough detail to help you find real people that represent your ideal user.

Create these after you’ve carried out all of the initial user research. Compile your findings and create a persona that will guide your development process.

Now you know who you are creating your product for – you’ve identified their problems, needs and desires. You’ve laid the groundwork, so now it’s time to design a product that will blow your target user away! But that’s a topic for a whole separate guide, one that will take you through the process of product development and testing 😉

PS. Don’t forget -> Here is your ? User Research Checklist and comparison table

About the author

Oh hey, I’m Romina Kavcic

I am a Design Strategist who holds a Master of Business Administration. I have 14+ years of career experience in design work and consulting across both tech startups and several marquee tech unicorns such as Stellar.org, Outfit7, Databox, Xamarin, Chipolo, Singularity.NET, etc. I currently advise, coach and consult with companies on design strategy & management, visual design and user experience. My work has been published on Forbes, Hackernoon, Blockgeeks, Newsbtc, Bizjournals, and featured on Apple iTunes Store.

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How to Conduct User Experience Research Like a Professional

Whether you’re looking to develop a broad UX design skillset, or you’re exploring UX research as a design specialization , here’s your complete introduction to conducting user research like a pro. 

Hello, I’m Raven, a mentor for aspiring UX designers enrolled in the CareerFoundry UX Design Course . I also work as a UX Research Assistant at IBM and studied behavioral science at the University of Texas. I have 10 years of experience studying and analyzing human behavior—user research is definitely my thing.

During the past few years, I’ve worked with major companies, academic institutions, and non-profit organizations to develop and improve impactful products and applications. I’ve moderated focus groups, designed and administered surveys, carried out usability testing, and conducted user interviews. I also know a thing or two about creating a good persona!

In this guide, we’re going to cover the basics of UX research. We’ll start with exactly what it is, and then move on to discuss the various steps and associated terminology of UX research , as well as its role and value within the broader design process . We’ll then review the most common UX research methods, diving into how they’re conducted and a few best practices.

If you’re particularly interested in one of these topics, simply select it from the list below to jump straight to it. I’ve also added videos throughout the guide for those of you who prefer to learn with both eyes and ears—and I recommend you save this set of free UX research tutorials for later, too. Sound good? Let’s get started!

Introduction To User Experience (UX) Research

• What is UX research?
• What’s the difference between good and bad UX research?
• What are the five steps of UX research?
• What’s the role of research in the UX design process?
• Whats the value of UX research?

Introduction To User Experience Research Methods

• User Groups
• Usability Testing
• User Interviews
• Online Surveys
• User Personas
• What Next? User Research Analysis

1. What is UX research?

You read my bio in the introduction. Using only this information, could you explain why I recently switched from one time management app to another? Probably not. In order to answer this question, you need more context. UX research provides that context.  So, what is UX research and what is its purpose ?

“User research is how you will know your product or service will work in the real world, with real people. It’s where you will uncover or validate the user needs which should form the basis of what you are designing.”

— Chris Mears, UXr

According to Design Modo , UX research is; “The process of understanding user behaviors, needs, and attitudes using different observation and feedback collection methods.” One of the other benefits of user experience research is that it helps us understand how people live their lives so that we can respond to their needs with informed design solutions. Good UX research involves using the right method at the right time during the development of a product.

Maria Arvidsson, Head of Product and UX at Usabilla , describes UX research as:

“The means through which you try to understand your users’ needs, behaviors and motivations and validate your assumptions and solutions.”

2. What’s the difference between good and bad UX research?

The biggest sign of an amateur UX designer is excluding end users from the design process. At the very start of my career I held the attitude that I could test any app, website, or product on myself, replacing the act of speaking with users. Never a good idea. It took time for me to learn a more professional approach, which is to start the design process by listening to the end user. Overall, UX research helps us avoid our biases since we are required to design solutions for people who are not like us.

“Insights that are received directly from user experience research are like muscle memory; the more you do research, the more insights you build up. But just like muscle memory, YOU have to be a part of the hard work in order to enjoy the lasting benefits of it that are specific to you. While it may be tempting to outsource research to a specialized team (and sometimes you can’t avoid it), you should try your utmost best to engage in at least a little bit of the research so that the insights grow under your skin instead of being handed to you from someone else who has sweated it.” 

—UX designer Ali Rushdan Tariq from ARTariq

A quick plug before we continue: If you’re looking to become a professional in this subdomain of UX, be sure to take a look at our guide to becoming a UX researcher

3. What are the five steps of UX research?

Created by Erin Sanders , the Research Learning Spiral provides five main steps for conducting UX research. The first two steps are about forming questions and hypotheses, and the last three steps are about gathering knowledge through selected UX research methods.

• Objectives: What are the knowledge gaps we need to fill?
• Hypotheses: What do we think we understand about our users?
• Methods: Based on time and manpower, what methods should we select?
• Conduct: Gather data through the selected methods.
• Synthesize: Fill in the knowledge gaps, prove or disprove our hypotheses, and discover opportunities for our design efforts.

4. What’s the role of research in the UX design process?

UX research is the starting point for a project . Research helps us learn about the users and their behavior, goals, motivations, and needs. It also shows us how they currently navigate a system, where they have problems and, most importantly, how they feel when interacting with our product.

UX research comes first in the UX design process because without it, our work can only be based on our own experiences and assumptions, which is not objective. As Neil Turner, founder of UX for the Masses told us, a good foundation is key to successful design:

“Good user research is key to designing a great user experience. Designing without good user research is like building a house without solid foundations—your design will soon start to crumble and eventually fall apart.”

5. What’s the value of UX research?

In the current digital product landscape, the real value of UX research is its ability to reduce uncertainty in terms of what users want and need , which yields benefits for the product, the business, and, of course, the users themselves.

1. Product Benefits

UX research provides data about the end user of the product, how and when the user will use the product, and the main problems the product will solve. UX research is also helpful when UX designers and the rest of the team (and stakeholders) have to decide between multiple design solutions.

2. Business Benefits

UX research brings a lot of a value to businesses. By knowing the end users and incorporating design requirements upfront, businesses can speed up the product development process, eliminate redesign costs, and increase user satisfaction.

3. User Benefits

One of the greatest values of user experience research is that it’s unbiased user feedback. Simply put, UX research speaks the user’s thoughts—without any influence from outside authority. It also serves as a bridge between users and the company.

“User experience research provides powerful insights that allow companies to humanize their customers and insert their needs, intentions, and behaviors into the design and development process. In turn, these insights enable companies to create experiences that meet—and sometimes exceed—customer needs and expectations. User experience research should be conducted well before the first sketch is drawn and integrated throughout the concept, iterative design, and launch phases of a product.”

—Janelle Estes, Director of Research Strategy at UserTesting

UX research is based on observation, understanding,  and analysis.  With the help of various UX research techniques, you will:

• O bserve your users , keeping an eye out for non-verbal clues as to how they are feeling;
• Develop an understanding of the user’s mental model : what does the user anticipate when using a certain product? Based on their previous experience, how do they expect this particular product to work?
• A nalyze  the insights you’ve gathered and try to identify patterns and trends. Eventually, these insights will inform the decisions you make about the product and how it is designed.

With that in mind, let’s consider some of the most valuable user research techniques.

1. User Groups

User groups—also called “focus group discussions” or “focus groups”—are structured interviews that quickly and inexpensively reveal the desires, experiences, and attitudes of a target audience. User groups are a helpful user experience research method when a company needs a lot of insight in a short amount of time. If you are unsure when to use a user experience research method, user groups can be a good one to start with.

Why Do We Conduct User Groups?

User groups can help your company better understand:

1) How users perceive a product

2) What users believe are a product’s most important features

3) What problems users experience with the product

4) Where users feel the product fails to meet expectations

User groups can also be used to generate ideas of what users want to see in the future.

What people say and what people do are often very different, therefore user groups do not provide an accurate measurement of behavior . And because user groups are conducted with more than one user at a time, participants may influence each other’s opinions and preferences (aka “groupthink”), thus introducing bias and producing inaccurate data.

Best Practices For User Groups

Getting the most out of your user group is straightforward if you consider the following best practices when conducting this particular user research technique.

• Ask good questions: Make sure your questions are clear, open-ended, and focused on the topics you’re investigating.
• Choose a few topics: On average, plan to discuss 3-5 topics during a 90-minute focus group.
• Include the right amount of people: A good focus group should include 3-6 users—large enough to include a variety of perspectives, but small enough so everyone has a chance to speak.

“Conducting user research allows you to dive deep beneath the surface of what your users say they want, to instead uncover what they actually need. It’s the key to ensuring that your products and features will actually solve the problems that your clients face on a day to day basis. User research is imperative if you want to create a successful, habit forming product.”

— Jennifer Aldrich, UX and Content Strategist at InVisionApp

How To Conduct User Experience Research With User Groups

Conducting user groups can be broken down into a few major steps:

• Create a schedule that provides enough time for recruiting, testing, analyzing, and integrating results.
• Assemble your team, and establish roles: choose a moderator, note-taker, and discussion leader.
• Define the scope of your research: what questions will you ask? And how in-depth do you want to explore the answers? This will determine the number of people and the number of groups that need to be tested.
• Create a discussion guide that includes 3-5 topics for discussion.
• Recruit potential or existing users who are likely to provide good feedback.
• Conduct user group testing, and record data.
• Analyze and report findings.

“It’s really hard to design products by user groups. A lot of times, people don’t know what they want until you show it to them.”

—Steve Jobs

2. Usability Testing

According to the usability.gov website, usability testing refers to “evaluating a product or service by testing it with representative users.” During a test, participants will be asked to complete specific tasks while one or more observers watch, listen, and record notes. The main goal of this user experience testing method is to identify usability problems, collect qualitative data, and determine participants’ overall satisfaction with the product.

Why Do We Perform Usability Testing?

Usability testing helps identify problems before they are coded. When development issues are identified early on, it is typically less expensive to fix them. Usability testing also reveals how satisfied users are with the product , as well as what changes are required to improve user satisfaction and performance .

Unfortunately, usability testing is not 100% representative of the real life scenario in which a user will engage with your product. Also, because the data is qualitative, this kind of UX testing method doesn’t provide the large samples of feedback a questionnaire might. The good news it that the qualitative feedback you receive can be far more accurate and insightful.

Best Practices For Usability Testing

• Test with five users: Testing five users is typically enough to identify a design’s most important usability problems.
• Invite your team to the testing sessions: Anyone who is involved with how fast and how well problems are addressed should be invited to the usability testing sessions. These stakeholders may include the executive team, and lead developers or designers.
• Keep the findings brief and to-the-point: When you report the findings of a usability test, limit the comments to the ones that are really important. One good rule of thumb is to include the top three positive comments and the top three problems. The overall report should be no more than approximately 50 comments and 30 pages.

How to Conduct UX Research with Usability Testing

Usability testing can be broken down into a few major steps:

• Identify what needs to be tested and why (e.g. a new product, feature, etc.)
• Identify the target audience (or your desired customers).
• Create a list of tasks for the participants to work through.
• Recruit the right participants for the test.
• Involve the right stakeholders.
• Apply what you learn.

“One of usability’s most hard-earned lessons is that ‘you are not the user.’ If you work on a development project, you’re atypical by definition. Design to optimize the user experience for outsiders, not insiders.”

– Jakob Nielsen

3. User Interviews

A well-known user experience methodology is an interview. An interview is a user experience research method used to discover the attitudes, beliefs, and experiences of users (and potential users) of a product. Interviews are typically conducted by one interviewer speaking to one user at a time for 30 minutes to an hour. Interviews can take place face-to-face, over the phone, or via video streaming.

Why Do We Conduct Interviews?

Of all the user experience design methods, interviews are typically conducted at the beginning of the product development cycle when reviewing product goals. Because of the one-to-one nature of the interview, individual concerns and misunderstandings can be directly addressed and cleared up.

Face-to-face interviews also allow you to capture verbal and nonverbal cues, such as emotions and body language, which may identify enthusiasm for the product or discomfort with the questions.

When thinking about what research methodology to use, bear in mind that interviews are also a good supplement to online surveys: conducting an interview beforehand helps you refine questions for the survey, while conducting an interview afterwards allows you to gain explanations for survey answers.

There are a few drawbacks, however. First, because interviews require a team of people to conduct them, personnel costs are usually difficult to keep low. Sample size is also limited to the size of the interviewing staff.

Best Practices For User Interviews

• Hire a skilled interviewer: A skilled interviewer asks questions in a neutral manner, listens well, makes users feel comfortable, and knows when and how to probe for more details.
• Create a discussion guide: Write up a discussion guide (or an interview protocol) for all interviewers to follow. This guide should include questions and follow-up questions.
• Get informed consent: Before conducting the interview, make sure to get permission or consent to record the session. It’s also good to have one or two note takers on hand.

How To Conduct User Experience Research With User Interviews

Conducting an interview can be broken down into a few major steps:

• Prepare a discussion guide, or a list of questions to ask participants.
• Select a recording method (e.g. written notes, tape recorder, video).
• Conduct at least one trial run of the interview.
• Recruit the right participants for the interview.
• Conduct the interview.
• Analyze and report the results.

“Curiosity is a natural outcome of caring, and it is the single greatest contributor to effective user research … Caring and curiosity engender personal investment, and investment motivates a researcher to develop a deep understanding of users.”

– Demetrius Madrigal

4. Online Surveys

A survey is a research tool that typically includes a set of questions used to find out the preferences, attitudes, and opinions of your users on a given topic. Today, surveys are generally conducted online and in various lengths and formats. Data collected from surveys is received automatically, and the survey tool selected generally provides some level of analysis, the data from which can then be used for user experience studies further down the line to inform your product.

“It is so important to avoid using leading questions when it comes to surveys. It’s a common mistake that many people make. For example phrasing a question like “What do you dislike about Uber?” assumes the user has a negative preference for the service off the bat. A more neutral phrase would be “Tell us about your experience getting around town.” – this elicits more natural user feedback and behavior instead of forcing them down a funnel.”

– Top tip from UXBeginner

Why Do We Conduct Online Surveys?

Unlike traditional surveys, online surveys enable companies to quickly collect data from a broad (and sometimes remote) audience for free—or a low price. Surveys also help you discover who your users are , what your users want to accomplish, and what information your users are looking for.

Unfortunately, what users say versus what they do are two different things and can often yield inaccurate results. Furthermore, poorly worded questions can negatively influence how users respond. Length can also be an issue—many people hate taking long surveys. This is why it’s important to create short surveys so users are more likely to complete them and participate in future research efforts.

Best Practices For Online Surveys

• Keep it short: Keep your surveys brief, especially if participants will be compensated little or not at all. Only focus on what is truly important.
• Keep it simple: Make sure questions can be easily understood: ambiguous or complex wording can make questions more difficult to understand, which can bring the data into question.
• Keep it engaging: Include a mix of both multiple choice questions and open-ended questions (or questions in which users complete the answer).

How To Conduct User Experience Research With Online Surveys

Conducting an online survey can be broken down into a few major steps:

• Identify goals and objectives of the survey.
• Create survey questions.

Note: Consider collecting information about how satisfied users are with your product, what users like/dislike, and if they have suggestions for improvement.

• Select an online survey tool (e.g. SurveyMonkey, Qualtrics).
• Recruit participants.
• Conduct the survey.

“We have to arm ourselves with data, research … and a clear understanding of our users so our decisions are not made out of fear but out of real, actionable information. Although our clients may not have articulated reasons for why they want what they want, it is our responsibility to have an ironclad rationale to support our design decisions.”

– Debra Levin Gelman

5. User Personas

A user persona is a fictional representation of your ideal customer. A persona is generally based on user research and includes the needs, goals, and observed behavior patterns of your target audience. You can find out how to create a user persona in this detailed guide .

Why Do We Create User Personas?

Whether you’re developing a smartphone app or a mobile-responsive website, any user experience research job will require you to understand who will be using the product. Knowing your audience will help influence the features and design elements you choose, thus making your product more useful. A persona clarifies who is in your target audience by answering the following questions:

• Who is my ideal customer?
• What are the current behavior patterns of my users?
• What are the needs and goals of my users?

Understanding the needs of your users is vital to developing a successful product. Well-defined personas will enable you to efficiently identify and communicate user needs. Personas will also help you describe the individuals who use your product, which is essential to your overall value proposition.

Unfortunately, creating personas can be expensive — it all depends on how deep into user research your organization is willing to go. There is also no real “scientific logic” behind persona building, which makes some people a little more hesitant to accept them.

Best Practices For User Personas

• Create a well-defined user persona: A great persona contains four key pieces of information: header, demographic profile, end goal(s), scenario.
• Keep personas brief: As a rule of thumb, avoid adding extra details that cannot be used to influence the design. If it does not affect the final design or help make any decisions easier: omit it.
• Make personas specific and realistic: Avoid exaggerated caricatures, and include enough detail to help you find real-life representation.

How To Conduct User Experience Research By Creating Personas

Creating user personas can be broken down into these main steps:

• Discuss and identify who your target users are with stakeholders (e.g. UX team, marketing team, product manager).
• Survey and/or interview real users to get their demographic information, pain points, and preferences.
• Condense the research, and look for themes to define your groups.
• Organize your groups into personas.
• Test your personas.

“Be someone else. It takes great empathy to create a good experience. To create relevant experiences, you have to forget everything you know and design for others. Align with the expected patience, level of interest, and depth of knowledge of your users. Talk in the user’s language.”

– Niko Nyman

Which User Experience Research Method Should You Use?

Now that you know more about the various user experience research methods, which one do you choose? Well, it all depends on your overall research goals.

You’ll also need to consider what stage you’re at in the design process. If you’re just starting out, you’ll want to focus on understanding your users and the underlying problem . What are you trying to solve? Who are you trying to solve it for? At this early stage in the design process, you’ll typically use a mixture of both qualitative and quantitative methods such as field studies, diary studies, surveys, and data mining.

Once you’ve established a direction for your design, you’ll start to think about actually building your product. Your UX research will now focus on evaluating your designs and making sure that they adequately address your users’ needs . So, you’ll choose research methods that can help you to optimize your designs and improve usability—such as card sorting and usability testing.

Eventually, you’ll have finalized your design and developed a working product—but this doesn’t mean your research is done! This is the ideal time to investigate how well the product performs in the real world. At this point, you’ll focus mainly on quantitative research methods , such as usability benchmarking, surveys, and A/B testing.

To help you with the task of choosing your research methods, let’s explore some important distinctions between the various techniques.

Behavioral vs. Attitudinal Research

As mentioned before, there is a big difference between “what people do” versus “what people say.” Attitudinal research is used to understand or measure attitudes and beliefs, whereas behavioral research is used to measure behaviors. For example, usability testing is a behavioral user research method that focuses on action and performance. By contrast, user research methods like user groups, interviews, and persona creation focus on how people think about a product.

UX designers often conduct task analysis to see not how users say they complete tasks in a user flow, but how they actually do.

Quantitative vs. Qualitative Research

When conducting UX research and choosing a suitable method, it’s important to understand the difference between quantitative and qualitative research.

Quantitative research   gathers data that is measurable. It gives you clear-cut figures to work with, such as how many users purchased an item via your e-commerce app, or what percentage of visitors added an item to their wishlist. “Quant methods”, as they’re sometimes called in the industry, help you to put a number on the usability of your product. They also allow you to compare different designs and determine if one version performs significantly better than another.

Qualitative research   explores the reasons or motivations behind these actions. Why did the user bounce from your website? What made them “wishlist” an item instead of purchasing it? While quantitative data is fixed, qualitative data is more descriptive and open-ended. You can learn all about qualitative research in the video guide below, in which CareerFoundry graduate and professional UX designer Maureen Herben takes you through the most common qualitative user research processes and tools.

A further distinction to make is between how qualitative and quantitative studies go about collecting data. Studies that are qualitative in nature are based on direct observation. For example, you’ll gather data about the user’s behaviours or attitudes by observing them directly in action. Quantitative studies gather this data indirectly—through an online survey, for example.

Qualitative research methods (e.g. usability testing, user groups, interviews) are better for answering questions about why or how to fix a problem, whereas quantitative methods (e.g. online surveys) are great for answering questions about how many and how much.

Ideally, you’ll use a mixture of both qualitative and quantitative methods throughout your user research, and work hard to ensure that the UX research you conduct is inclusive !

6. What Next? Conducting User Research Analysis

Once you’ve conducted extensive user research, you’ll move on to the analysis phase. This is where you’ll turn the raw data you’ve gathered into valuable insights. The purpose of UX research analysis is to interpret what the data means; what does it tell you about the product you’re designing, and the people you’re designing it for? How can you use the data you’ve gathered to inform the design process?

Watch this video to learn how to conduct user research analysis in five simple steps:

Final thoughts

“User experience research is the work that uncovers and articulates the needs of individuals and/or groups in order to inform the design of products and services in a structured manner.”

—Nick Remis, Adaptive Path

Overall, the purpose of user experience research is simple: to discover patterns and reveal unknown insights and preferences from the people who use your product. It basically provides the context for our design. Research also helps us fight the tendency to design for ourselves (or our stakeholders)—and returns the focus on designing for the user.

If you’d like to learn more about UX research, check out these articles:

• What Does a UX Researcher Actually Do? The Ultimate Career Guide
• The Ultimate Guide to UX Research Bootcamps
• Top 5 Mistakes to Avoid in Your UX Research Portfolio
• Interview Toolkit: Top 5 UX Research Questions to Prepare For

And to get inspired, check out these 15 quotes from influential designers in the industry.

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.

PREVIOUSLY AT

“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.

• UserResearch

Miklos Philips

London, United Kingdom

Member since May 20, 2016

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A 7-step adaptable UX research process

Every team knows how important great UX research is for satisfying and converting users. But with so many tasks to juggle, research can get pushed to the bottom of the workflow. 

You conduct research—but only in response to stakeholder requests, user complaints, or a major new web or product launch. By then, it’s too late for your research to shape your design. The result? Scrappy research and a missed opportunity to forge your product around user needs.

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Be proactive rather than reactive by implementing a solid user experience (UX) research process from the start. Stay tuned to learn how to structure a flexible, 7-step research process that will guide your product development and design thinking to help you generate customer delight.

Boost your UX research with Hotjar

Design confidently with Hotjar’s rich, data-informed user experience insights

Why a strong UX research process is key

The UX research process acts as the foundation for all other stages of UX design and product development.

Mar P., product researcher at Hotjar, says: “The main goal of UX research is to create a product that works for your users and your business. It's about understanding real user problems so the team can work on solutions and move away from assumptions that can lead to bad product decisions. ”

Without a strong UX research process, you’ll end up with frustrated users, low conversion and customer loyalty rates, high error and churn rates, and costly redesigns. In short, if you rely on guesswork rather than research , users suffer—and so do your business objectives and team.

What are the benefits of great UX research? 

Great UX research helps you make confident UX decisions. 

It lets you validate your assumptions and weed out unpromising ideas before you waste resources on them, and ensures your product is designed to delight users from the start. 

Ongoing UX research is crucial to cultivating empathy for users throughout your organization . User experience data helps you solve problems and continually optimize your platform or product to meet user needs, and gives you the insights you need to get stakeholder buy-in on fixes and redesigns.

UX research is critical in validating that a team’s concepts are on the right track. It fosters alignment between an idea and the reality of what users actually want and need. UX research also allows teams to ‘fail early’ and adapt before large sums of time and money are spent.

The UX research process

Clearly, research is critical to UX design and development success. 

So it can’t just happen sporadically to put out customer or stakeholder fires, or when you happen to find yourself with extra time—which, let's be honest, never happens .

Instead, engage in a structured UX research process to prioritize research and infuse all stages of UX design with data insights.

But remember: a structured process doesn’t mean a rigid process. There’s no one-size-fits-all solution to UX research: the best processes are flexible, adaptable, and tailored to the unique needs of your users, team, and business. 

Use our guide to establish a solid UX research process—tweaking it throughout to fit your workflow, company culture, and customer types.

You want your UX research to inform decisions, rather than post-rationalize decisions that have already been made without customer input. That’s why you need to define a research process.

7 steps for user research with impact

Our step-by-step guide to UX research is based on lean UX design principles, meaning continuous iteration, testing, and user feedback are central. 

Lean UX is based on an agile cycle with three phases: 

Think: brainstorming and reflecting on areas for improvement 

Make: creating new designs or features to solve user problems

Check: testing assumptions and verifying designs with real customers 

UX research is a non-linear process—research doesn’t end when design and development begin. The best research centers on continuous discovery at every stage, and involves circling back and forth between those stages. 

These 7 steps will get you well on your way:

1. Clarify your goals 

Clear goals will help you define the process, efficiently distribute resources, get stakeholders on board, and maximize the user insights you uncover .

Start by formulating hypotheses and topics of interest based on the potential problems and opportunities you want to learn more about. These might emerge from previous research, new opportunities you’ve identified, or from creative brainstorming. 

Then, define the key UX research questions you want to answer . These might center on user behavior (why are customers abandoning carts?), on different UX design options (which new CTA option performs best?), or on customer goals (which new features would most improve the user experience?). 

Pro tip : design user questions that are focused but flexible enough to allow for free discovery. Don’t go in armed with too many assumptions and don’t ask leading questions. Make sure you leave space to discover new information from your users that might not have occurred to you. Set up Hotjar’s Feedback widget to collect open-ended feedback from users to start.

Next, make sure you contextualize UX research goals in line with larger organizational objectives and success metrics: how will decreasing cart abandonment impact conversions and revenue, for example? 

Finally, explain to key stakeholders what you’re doing—and why—to get their support and maximize the reach of your research.  

It’s important to set research goals around current problems. For instance, if we need to offer an advanced search function for an ecommerce website, the goal will be to find the best solution for our users that’s easy to implement from the development perspective.

2. Define your research methods

Once you’ve set goals and designed user questions, decide what kinds of research you’ll do and the type of data you want to collect. 

Use a variety of methods to cover all the bases and fill potential gaps. These will depend on your user and business needs, and the resources you have available. 

Make sure you include both attitudinal and behavioral UX research methods .  

Behavioral research is about observing how users act. Heatmaps, A/B testing, user recordings, and eye-tracking are all important sources you can use to understand user behavior data.

Attitudinal research tells you how users are thinking and feeling . This often involves asking them directly through surveys, focus groups, customer interviews, concept testing, and card sorting.

If you rely on only one of these, you’ll be missing out on the big picture. Combining behavioral and attitudinal research fills in the gaps between what users say and what they actually do , which don’t always align.

Seek to also explore a mix of qualitative and quantitative UX data. 

Quantitative studies put a number on user behavior. Analyzing the number of users who scrolled past your CTA or clicked in frustration where they couldn’t find a button will help you spot patterns in clickthroughs, conversions, user engagement, and retention. 

Qualitative data uncovers the reasons behind these patterns. They’re opportunities to learn what your users really think and help you understand their needs more deeply.  

Remember: Hotjar’s tools combine behavioral and attitudinal research methods through a blend of quantitative and qualitative data. Use Hotjar Surveys and Feedback widgets to collect voice-of-customer (VoC) feedback, and Heatmaps and Session Recordings to round out the picture with behavioral insights.

3. Dive into discovery

Once you’ve set up research questions and UX analysis methods, the next step is to jump into the discovery phase, where the spotlight should be on speaking to your customers and understanding what they need to convert. 

Seek to develop a deep understanding of your users, the problems they experience, and what will help them with their jobs to be done. 

User interviews are a great way to start—video tools like UserInterview can really help when paired with Hotjar's brilliant interview tips .

Check out our in-depth guide to UX research tools that can help streamline the process.  

You should also: 

Observe customers using other similar sites (lab studies are great, but you can also use session recordings to see how users behave in their own environment)

Deploy Hotjar Feedback widgets to learn what users are thinking while they browse and understand blocks in navigation

Use surveys to ask users questions about their current and ideal experience

Run competitive analyses and conduct market research to understand the UX offered by other companies and identify areas of improvement and exploration

Make sure to ask customers open-ended questions about their experiences and what they’d like to see, as well as targeted questions around navigating particular product pages or features. For example, are they finding all the information they need to confidently complete the checkout process? You might discover that your users like to check out reviews before making a final decision, so making reviews more accessible could help UX and conversions alike.

4. Dig deeper and explore

Use the insights from the discovery phase as a starting point, then get more specific and home in on answering your specific UX research questions and really understanding your users at a granular level.  

Map out customer journeys and develop user personas and stories to clarify and communicate the information you’ve learned. 

You should also use your discoveries to inform preliminary idea development, design sketches, and wireframes and prototypes.

Maybe you’re losing customers at the checkout stage, and discovery phase feedback has suggested it could be because you don’t have a ‘guest checkout’ option, forcing users to sign up for a full account, which creates friction if they’re browsing your site on mobile.

Start by validating the guest checkout idea with your users, then design and test different iterations through prototypes, mockups, and card sorting experiments. 

5. Iterate and test

Once you have a working model of your website or product redesign, focus on testing the user experience to refine it. 

Here's how:

Start with usability testing to ensure that your website hierarchies, user flow, and search filters make sense. Run A/B and multivariate testing to see which designs users respond to best, and use heatmaps to see exactly where they're clicking and scrolling. 

Make sure you also evaluate accessibility: is the guest checkout option easy to find? Is it visible to users across different devices, and with different vision needs? 

Next, go deeper: seek to build a complete picture of the UX and how it facilitates and blocks users from getting their needs met.

Observe users in action. Use Hotjar Heatmaps to identify click and scroll patterns and Session Recordings to track the entire user journey. This helps the UX team see what their customers see, which is crucial at this testing stage when you’re often too close to the design to understand the experience from the outside. 

Look at the page elements customers are engaging with, and which ones they’re scrolling past. Filter session recordings by rage clicks to see where users may be clicking in frustration expecting a button or action. Pay special attention to dissatisfied customers or users who didn’t complete key conversion actions, and understand what their journey looks like.

Complement this understanding of user behavior with qualitative interviews and survey methods that will help you understand their motivations and product experience (PX). 

6. Evaluate and communicate research findings

By now, you’ve collected many research insights. Organize your data using categories and tags, focusing on user pain points . Look for key patterns and recurring issues—and once you’ve identified them, ask users more questions if needed.

Make your research insights searchable, manipulable, and easily accessible by everyone on the team.

Then, engage in cross-functional communication outside the core UX team. Make sure you keep different departments informed and involved with your UX research process. 

Create UX analysis reports and engage stakeholders with comprehensive UX and user storytelling and strong product narratives. But make sure you also share key nuggets of user data along the way, so your research insights filter throughout the whole organization.

Pro tip : use Hotjar Highlights to easily share user recording clips, screenshots, heatmap snippets, and VoC quotes throughout your company. You can also use the Slack integration to automatically keep different departments up to date!

7. Put your research into action

The UX research data you gather is a potential goldmine. It can help you prioritize brilliantly and boost user satisfaction, engagement, and retention. But only if you turn those insights into action . 

You need to put the data to work in making key UX design decisions. 

Use your UX research insights to prioritize fixes and product updates . Focus on urgent issues that are affecting key metrics and blocking users from meeting their needs. 

Heatmaps and session recordings can help you quickly spot low-hanging fruit. You might find you could drastically improve conversions by positioning your CTA differently or making your signup form more streamlined and intuitive. 

For larger design opportunities that will require significant resources, UX research data can help you to justify the cost to stakeholders.

I follow the process of finding patterns in the data, pulling at least one insight from each identified pattern, and then creating at least one design recommendation or design principle for each insight. When you are designing you can easily refer back to your identified design principles and requirements to help guide your decision making and have data-supported designs when it’s time for handoff.

Building the UX research process into your design culture

UX research isn’t a one-time activity to be forgotten about once you begin designing and developing. 

The UX research process should happen continuously, influencing all other aspects of UX design and product development. Ongoing research, testing, and user conversations are all part of confident, user-led design thinking. 

Prioritizing brilliant UX research will improve your design culture, boost conversions, and keep users engaged and delighted.  

FAQs on the UX research process:

Is ux research important.

UX research is hugely important in data-informed UX design. The UX research process acts as the foundation for all other stages of UX design and development.

Great UX research gives you confidence in your UX decisions, lets you test your assumptions and weed out unpromising ideas before you waste resources on them, and ensures your product is designed to delight users from the start. 

UX research is crucial to cultivating empathy for users throughout your organization . It helps you to problem-solve and continually optimize your platform or product to meet user needs, and gives you the evidence you need to get stakeholder buy-in on fixes and redesigns.

Should I do attitudinal or behavioral UX research?

Use both attitudinal and behavioral UX research methods.  

Behavioral research is about observing how users act. Heatmaps, A/B testing, user recordings, and eye-tracking are all important sources of user behavior data.

If you rely on only one of these, you’ll be missing a big part of the picture. Combining behavioral and attitudinal research methods fills in the gaps between what users say and what they actually do , which don’t always align.

What’s the best UX research process?

There’s no one-size-fits-all solution to UX research. The best processes are flexible and tailored to the unique needs of your users, team, and business. 

We recommend a 7-step, adaptable UX research process: 

Clarify your goals

Define your research methods

Dive into discovery

Dig deeper and explore

Iterate and test

Evaluate and communicate your research findings

Put your research into action

UX research guide

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User Research: A 10-step Guide. Just for you

UX research is the most essential part of the UX design process. If you do not have a clear idea of who your target user is and what they want (or need); it is nearly impossible to provide them with the right user experience.

To make your work easier for you, we have crafted a 10-step guide to make your work easier and to help you communicate user research to your clients and boss.

• Evangelize. With a bit of luck, your company or client is already aware of the importance of user research in a design project. If not, make sure you find ways to communicate your points and put all team members and stakeholders on the same page. Find examples, case studies, or any other resources to help you evangelize the importance of user research upfront. Just take one of our courses and we will equip you with lots of good arguments.
• Rewind. It is likely that your client or boss has come to you with a pre-made solution, design, or service. At this point, he/she wants you to do user research to fully understand this solution/design/service in a usage context. It could also be yourself who have a ready-made design that you want to research from a UX perspective. In this situation, danger lurks.If you have a pre-designed solution, you need to resist the temptation to push it onto your users. The goal of UXresearch is to find out what someone thinks – as opposed to hand them something and say; “This is great! Isn’t it?” A leading question like that may get you the answers you want but not the answers you need. In other words, be very mindful of your own biases – or those of your client and boss.
• Team up. Team diversity is really important and we mean both academic and professional diversity. You want researchers with experience of the topic in hand and also those without. Why? Those with experience may be able to drill down in-depth with your users to get a deep understanding of their issues/needs/wants/etc. Those without, on the other hand, may pick up on issues/needs/wants/etc that more experienced people miss because they make assumptions based on their experience.
• Choose. The toolbox for user research methods is large and they all have pros and cons; the best option depends on the needs of your project. In order to select the right one(s) consider elements such as: budget, time frame, access to target users, results from desk research, etc. With all these in mind – and above all with a clear question or problem to answer or solve – choose a user research method. The image above made by Christian Rohrer is very helpful to have nearby. For the full article: http://www.nngroup.com/articles/which-ux-research-methods/
• Plan. This short word involves many tasks that need be taken care of before reaching out to users. By now, the target audience is clear but you still need to 1) prepare a screener to recruit the most appropriate users, 2) hire a recruiting company or do it yourself, 3) schedule the interviews, focus groups , contextual inquiry or the method of your choice. More at: https://www.interaction-design.org/ux-daily/121/the-basics-of-recruiting-users-for-usability-testing . Besides the recruitment, do not forget to prepare your script for the interview!
• Equip yourself. It is really difficult to observe someone properly when you’re talking to them. You’re trying to listen to them, you’re trying to make notes, and you’re trying to ask relevant questions – you’re basically overloaded. If you video-record your interviews, you’ll be amazed at how much they reveal when you play them back afterward. They can help inform not just the current research but also help you optimize your behavior for the next interview. In addition, we recommend a team of two for each interview. More interviewers would be too much but two people listening to a user is just the right amount. One to ask questions and lead the interview, the other one to take notes and take care of the video camera.
• Introduce yourself and what you do
• Explain that the user should treat you like you don’t know anything at all about the product
• Ask some simple questions to start off. Even if the questions are simple, direct themat some details of the product. That will encourage the user to follow your example and go into details.
• Be curious. Learn how to ask more questions and listen. You are there to learn from the user. It can be hard to work out what someone means by their words and even body language alone. In other cases it can be hard for someone to express what they mean in words. The more questions you ask, the easier it becomes to find out what someone means. “Why?” is a very handy question to ask and you can ask it often to drill down further.
• Analyze. Debrief with your fellow interviewer as soon as possible and take notes so that you do not rely only in your memory and that you use these insights to improve the next interview. Once you have done all your meetings with users, consolidate results and prepare the necessary documentation to communicate about the findings.
• Share. The more the rest of the team members and stakeholders are aware and incorporate, the easier it will be from now on. Ensure that all of you are on the same page and that the key takeaways from the research phase are always present.

How are you feeling after reading this list? If you want one word – just one single word – which is the most essential word in user research, then it is empathy . You need empathy to understand your client or boss and drive him/her where you want in terms of UX design. You need empathy to put yourself in the target users’ shoes and find a solution that fits them.

If you want to learn more, we have a new course on User Research – Methods and Good Practices ( https://www.interaction-design.org/courses/user_research_-_methods_and_best_practices.html ).

10 User research steps: Evangelize, Rewind, Team Up, Choose, Plan, Equip Yourself, Connect, Be Curious, Analyze and share. Or just Empathy. [ Tweet this ]

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

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

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

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

What is User Experience research?

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

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

Types of UX research methods

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

Quantitative vs. qualitative research

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

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

LEARN ABOUT: Qualitative Research Questions and Questionnaires

Attitudinal vs. behavioral research

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

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

Steps to conduct user experience research

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

Step 1: Define objectives

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

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

Step 2: Set a hypothesis

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

Step 3: Choose a suitable method(s)

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

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

Step 4: Apply the research method(s)

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

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

Step 5: Synthesize feedback

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

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

Uses of User Experience Research

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

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

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

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

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

Usability Testing

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

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

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

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

Benefits of UX research

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

Better products

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

Happy users

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

Business growth

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

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

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

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

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User experience (ux) research: definition and methodology.

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

What do we mean by user experience?

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

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

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

Free eBook: The essential website experience & UX playbook

What is user experience (UX) research?

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

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

Why is UX research important?

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

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

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

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

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

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

UX research helps brands and organizations to:

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

What’s the ROI of performing UX research?

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

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

Number of people who took your desired action

—————————————————————       x 100

Total visitors/users

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

User experience research methods

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

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

Attitudinal and behavioral

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

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

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

Qualitative and quantitative methods

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

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

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

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

Qualitative UX research methods

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

1. Participatory design

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

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

2. Card sorting

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

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

3. Diary studies

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

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

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

Context-of-use

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

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

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

Types of user research tools

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

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

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

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

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

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

When to conduct user experience research

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

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

Five basic steps to conducting UX research

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

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

Qualtrics makes UX research simple and easy

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

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

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

Free eBook: The essential website experience & UX playbook

Related resources

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

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What is UX Research: The Ultimate Guide for UX Researchers

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11 Key UX research methods: How and when to use them

After defining your objectives and planning your research framework, it’s time to choose the research technique that will best serve your project's goals and yield the right insights. While user research is often treated as an afterthought, it should inform every design decision. In this chapter, we walk you through the most common research methods and help you choose the right one for you.

What are UX research methods?

A UX research method is a way of generating insights about your users, their behavior, motivations, and needs. You can use methods like user interviews, surveys, focus groups, card sorting, usability testing to identify user challenges and turn them into opportunities to improve the user experience.

More of a visual learner? Check out this video for a speedy rundown. If you’re ready to get stuck in, jump straight to our full breakdown .

The most common types of user research

First, let’s talk about the types of UX research. Every individual research method falls under these types, which reflect different goals and objectives for conducting research.

Here’s a quick overview:

Qualitative vs. quantitative

All research methods are either quantitative or qualitative . Qualitative research focuses on capturing subjective insights into users' experiences. It aims to understand the underlying reasons, motivations, and behaviors of individuals. Quantitative research, on the other hand, involves collecting and analyzing numerical data to identify patterns, trends, and significance. It aims to quantify user behaviors, preferences, and attitudes, allowing for generalizations and statistical insights.

Qualitative research also typically involves a smaller sample size than quantitative research (40 participants, as recommended by Nielsen Norman Group ).

Attitudinal vs. behavioral

Attitudinal research is about understanding users' attitudes, perceptions, and beliefs. It delves into the 'why' behind user decisions and actions. It often involves surveys or interviews where users are asked about their feelings, preferences, or perceptions towards a product or service. It's subjective in nature, aiming to capture people's emotions and opinions.

Behavioral research is about what users do rather than what they say they do or would do. This kind of research is often based on observation methods like usability testing, eye-tracking, or heat maps to understand user behavior.

Generative vs. evaluative

Generative research is all about generating new ideas, concepts, and insights to fuel the design process. You might run brainstorming sessions with groups of users, card sorting, and co-design sessions to inspire creativity and guide the development of user-centered solutions.

On the other hand, evaluative research focuses on assessing the usability, effectiveness, and overall quality of existing designs or prototypes. Once you’ve developed a prototype of your product, it's time to evaluate its strengths and weaknesses. You can compare different versions of a product design or feature through A/B testing—ensuring your UX design meets user needs and expectations.

Remove the guesswork from product decisions

Collect both quantitative and qualitative insights from your customers and build truly user-centric products with Maze.

11 Best UX research methods and when to use them

There are various UX research techniques—each method serves a specific purpose and can provide unique insights into user behaviors and preferences. In this section, we’ll highlight the most common research techniques you need to know.

Read on for an at-a-glance table, and full breakdown of each method.

User interviews

User interviews are a qualitative research method that involves having open-ended and guided discussions with users to gather in-depth insights about their experiences, needs, motivations, and behaviors.

Typically, you would ask a few questions on a specific topic and analyze participants' answers. The results you get will depend on how well you form and ask questions, as well as follow up on participants’ answers.

“As a researcher, it's our responsibility to drive the user to their actual problems,” says Yuliya Martinavichene , User Experience Researcher at Zinio. She adds, “The narration of incidents can help you analyze a lot of hidden details with regard to user behavior.”

That’s why you should:

• Start with a wide context : Make sure that your questions don’t start with your product
• Ask questions that focus on the tasks that users are trying to complete
• Invest in analysis : Get transcripts done and share the findings with your team

Tanya Nativ , Design Researcher at Sketch recommends defining the goals and assumptions internally. “Our beliefs about our users’ behavior really help to structure good questions and get to the root of the problem and its solution,” she explains.

It's easy to be misunderstood if you don't have experience writing interview questions. You can get someone to review them for you or use our Question Bank of 350+ research questions .

When to conduct user interviews

This method is typically used at the start and end of your project. At the start of a project, you can establish a strong understanding of your target users, their perspectives, and the context in which they’ll interact with your product. By the end of your project, new user interviews—often with a different set of individuals—offer a litmus test for your product's usability and appeal, providing firsthand accounts of experiences, perceived strengths, and potential areas for refinement.

Field studies

Field studies are research activities that take place in the user’s environment rather than in your lab or office. They’re a great method for uncovering context, unknown motivations, or constraints that affect the user experience.

An advantage of field studies is observing people in their natural environment, giving you a glimpse at the context in which your product is used. It’s useful to understand the context in which users complete tasks, learn about their needs, and collect in-depth user stories.

When to conduct field studies

This method can be used at all stages of your project—two key times you may want to conduct field studies are:

• As part of the discovery and exploration stage to define direction and understand the context around when and how users interact with the product
• During usability testing, once you have a prototype, to evaluate the effectiveness of the solution or validate design assumptions in real-world contexts

3. Focus groups

A focus group is a qualitative research method that includes the study of a group of people, their beliefs, and opinions. It’s typically used for market research or gathering feedback on products and messaging.

Focus groups can help you better grasp:

• How users perceive your product
• What users believe are a product’s most important features
• What problems do users experience with the product

As with any qualitative research method, the quality of the data collected through focus groups is only as robust as the preparation. So, it’s important to prepare a UX research plan you can refer to during the discussion.

Here’s some things to consider:

• Write a script to guide the conversation
• Ask clear, open-ended questions focused on the topics you’re trying to learn about
• Include around five to ten participants to keep the sessions focused and organized

When to conduct focus groups

It’s easier to use this research technique when you're still formulating your concept, product, or service—to explore user preferences, gather initial reactions, and generate ideas. This is because, in the early stages, you have flexibility and can make significant changes without incurring high costs.

Another way some researchers employ focus groups is post-launch to gather feedback and identify potential improvements. However, you can also use other methods here which may be more effective for identifying usability issues. For example, a platform like Maze can provide detailed, actionable data about how users interact with your product. These quantitative results are a great accompaniment to the qualitative data gathered from your focus group.

4. Diary studies

Diary studies involve asking users to track their usage and thoughts on your product by keeping logs or diaries, taking photos, explaining their activities, and highlighting things that stood out to them.

“Diary studies are one of the few ways you can get a peek into how users interact with our product in a real-world scenario,” says Tanya.

A diary study helps you tell the story of how products and services fit into people’s daily lives, and the touch-points and channels they choose to complete their tasks.

There’s several key questions to consider before conducting diary research, from what kind of diary you want—freeform or structured, and digital or paper—to how often you want participants to log their thoughts.

• Open, ‘freeform’ diary: Users have more freedom to record what and when they like, but can also lead to missed opportunities to capture data users might overlook
• Closed, ‘structured; diary: Users follow a stricter entry-logging process and answer pre-set questions

Remember to determine the trigger: a signal that lets the participants know when they should log their feedback. Tanya breaks these triggers down into the following:

• Interval-contingent trigger : Participants fill out the diary at specific intervals such as one entry per day, or one entry per week
• Signal-contingent trigger : You tell the participant when to make an entry and how you would prefer them to communicate it to you as well as your preferred type of communication
• Event-contingent trigger : The participant makes an entry whenever a defined event occurs

When to conduct diary studies

Diary studies are often valuable when you need to deeply understand users' behaviors, routines, and pain points in real-life contexts. This could be when you're:

• Conceptualizing a new product or feature: Gain insights into user habits, needs, and frustrations to inspire your design
• Trying to enhance an existing product: Identify areas where users are having difficulties or where there are opportunities for better user engagement

Although surveys are primarily used for quantitative research, they can also provided qualitative data, depending on whether you use closed or open-ended questions:

• Closed-ended questions come with a predefined set of answers to choose from using formats like rating scales, rankings, or multiple choice. This results in quantitative data.
• Open-ended question s are typically open-text questions where test participants give their responses in a free-form style. This results in qualitative data.

Matthieu Dixte , Product Researcher at Maze, explains the benefit of surveys: “With open-ended questions, researchers get insight into respondents' opinions, experiences, and explanations in their own words. This helps explore nuances that quantitative data alone may not capture.”

So, how do you make sure you’re asking the right survey questions? Gregg Bernstein , UX Researcher at Signal, says that when planning online surveys, it’s best to avoid questions that begin with “How likely are you to…?” Instead, Gregg says asking questions that start with “Have you ever… ?” will prompt users to give more specific and measurable answers.

Make sure your questions:

• Are easy to understand
• Don't guide participants towards a particular answer
• Include both closed-ended and open-ended questions
• Respect users and their privacy
• Are consistent in terms of format

To learn more about survey design, check out this guide .

When to conduct surveys

While surveys can be used at all stages of project development, and are ideal for continuous product discovery , the specific timing and purpose may vary depending on the research goals. For example, you can run surveys at:

• Conceptualization phase to gather preliminary data, and identify patterns, trends, or potential user segments
• Post-launch or during iterative design cycles to gather feedback on user satisfaction, feature usage, or suggestions for improvements

6. Card sorting

Card sorting is an important step in creating an intuitive information architecture (IA) and user experience. It’s also a great technique to generate ideas, naming conventions, or simply see how users understand topics.

In this UX research method, participants are presented with cards featuring different topics or information, and tasked with grouping the cards into categories that make sense to them.

There are three types of card sorting:

• Open card sorting: Participants organize topics into categories that make sense to them and name those categories, thus generating new ideas and names
• Hybrid card sorting: Participants can sort cards into predefined categories, but also have the option to create their own categories
• Closed card sorting: Participants are given predefined categories and asked to sort the items into the available groups

You can run a card sorting session using physical index cards or digitally with a UX research tool like Maze to simulate the drag-and-drop activity of dividing cards into groups. Running digital card sorting is ideal for any type of card sort, and moderated or unmoderated sessions.

Read more about card sorting and learn how to run a card sorting session here .

When to conduct card sorting

Card sorting isn’t limited to a single stage of design or development—it can be employed anytime you need to explore how users categorize or perceive information. For example, you may want to use card sorting if you need to:

• Understand how users perceive ideas
• Evaluate and prioritize potential solutions
• Generate name ideas and understand naming conventions
• Learn how users expect navigation to work
• Decide how to group content on a new or existing site
• Restructure information architecture

7. Tree testing

During tree testing a text-only version of the site is given to your participants, who are asked to complete a series of tasks requiring them to locate items on the app or website.

The data collected from a tree test helps you understand where users intuitively navigate first, and is an effective way to assess the findability, labeling, and information architecture of a product.

We recommend keeping these sessions short, ranging from 15 to 20 minutes, and asking participants to complete no more than ten tasks. This helps ensure participants remain focused and engaged, leading to more reliable and accurate data, and avoiding fatigue.

If you’re using a platform like Maze to run remote testing, you can easily recruit participants based on various demographic filters, including industry and country. This way, you can uncover a broader range of user preferences, ensuring a more comprehensive understanding of your target audience.

To learn more about tree testing, check out this chapter .

When to conduct tree testing

Tree testing is often done at an early stage in the design or redesign process. That’s because it’s more cost-effective to address errors at the start of a project—rather than making changes later in the development process or after launch.

However, it can be helpful to employ tree testing as a method when adding new features, particularly alongside card sorting.

While tree testing and card sorting can both help you with categorizing the content on a website, it’s important to note that they each approach this from a different angle and are used at different stages during the research process. Ideally, you should use the two in tandem: card sorting is recommended when defining and testing a new website architecture, while tree testing is meant to help you test how the navigation performs with users.

8. Usability testing

Usability testing evaluates your product with people by getting them to complete tasks while you observe and note their interactions (either during or after the test). The goal of conducting usability testing is to understand if your design is intuitive and easy to use. A sign of success is if users can easily accomplish their goals and complete tasks with your product.

There are various usability testing methods that you can use, such as moderated vs. unmoderated or qualitative vs. quantitative —and selecting the right one depends on your research goals, resources, and timeline.

Usability testing is usually performed with functional mid or hi-fi prototypes . If you have a Figma, InVision, Sketch, or prototype ready, you can import it into a platform like Maze and start testing your design with users immediately.

The tasks you create for usability tests should be:

• Realistic, and describe a scenario
• Actionable, and use action verbs (create, sign up, buy, etc)

Be mindful of using leading words such as ‘click here’ or ‘go to that page’ in your tasks. These instructions bias the results by helping users complete their tasks—something that doesn’t happen in real life.

Product tip ✨

With Maze, you can test your prototype and live website with real users to filter out cognitive biases, and gather actionable insights that fuel product decisions.

When to conduct usability testing

To inform your design decisions, you should do usability testing early and often in the process . Here are some guidelines to help you decide when to do usability testing:

• Before you start designing
• Once you have a wireframe or prototype
• Prior to the launch of the product
• At regular intervals after launch

To learn more about usability testing, check out our complete guide to usability testing .

9. Five-second testing

In five-second testing , participants are (unsurprisingly) given five seconds to view an image like a design or web page, and then they’re asked questions about the design to gauge their first impressions.

Why five seconds? According to data , 55% of visitors spend less than 15 seconds on a website, so it;s essential to grab someone’s attention in the first few seconds of their visit. With a five-second test, you can quickly determine what information users perceive and their impressions during the first five seconds of viewing a design.

Product tip 💡

And if you’re using Maze, you can simply upload an image of the screen you want to test, or browse your prototype and select a screen. Plus, you can star individual comments and automatically add them to your report to share with stakeholders.

When to conduct five-second testing

Five-second testing is typically conducted in the early stages of the design process, specifically during initial concept testing or prototype development. This way, you can evaluate your design's initial impact and make early refinements or adjustments to ensure its effectiveness, before putting design to development.

To learn more, check out our chapter on five-second testing .

10. A/B testing

A/B testing , also known as split testing, compares two or more versions of a webpage, interface, or feature to determine which performs better regarding engagement, conversions, or other predefined metrics.

It involves randomly dividing users into different groups and giving each group a different version of the design element being tested. For example, let's say the primary call-to-action on the page is a button that says ‘buy now’.

You're considering making changes to its design to see if it can lead to higher conversions, so you create two versions:

• Version A : The original design with the ‘buy now’ button positioned below the product description—shown to group A
• Version B : A variation with the ‘buy now’ button now prominently displayed above the product description—shown to group B

Over a planned period, you measure metrics like click-through rates, add-to-cart rates, and actual purchases to assess the performance of each variation. You find that Group B had significantly higher click-through and conversion rates than Group A. This indicates that showing the button above the product description drove higher user engagement and conversions.

Check out our A/B testing guide for more in-depth examples and guidance on how to run these tests.

When to conduct A/B testing

A/B testing can be used at all stages of the design and development process—whenever you want to collect direct, quantitative data and confirm a suspicion, or settle a design debate. This iterative testing approach allows you to continually improve your website's performance and user experience based on data-driven insights.

11. Concept testing

Concept testing is a type of research that evaluates the feasibility, appeal, and potential success of a new product before you build it. It centers the user in the ideation process, using UX research methods like A/B testing, surveys, and customer interviews.

There’s no one way to run a concept test—you can opt for concept testing surveys, interviews, focus groups, or any other method that gets qualitative data on your concept.

*Dive into our complete guide to concept testing for more tips and tricks on getting started. *

When to conduct concept testing

Concept testing helps gauge your audience’s interest, understanding, and likelihood-to-purchase, before committing time and resources to a concept. However, it can also be useful further down the product development line—such as when defining marketing messaging or just before launching.

Which is the best UX research type?

The best research type varies depending on your project; what your objectives are, and what stage you’re in. Ultimately, the ideal type of research is one which provides the insights required, using the available resources.

For example, if you're at the early ideation or product discovery stage, generative research methods can help you generate new ideas, understand user needs, and explore possibilities. As you move to the design and development phase, evaluative research methods and quantitative data become crucial.

Discover the UX research trends shaping the future of the industry and why the best results come from a combination of different research methods.

How to choose the right user experience research method

In an ideal world, a combination of all the insights you gain from multiple types of user research methods would guide every design decision. In practice, this can be hard to execute due to resources.

Sometimes the right methodology is the one you can get buy-in, budget, and time for.

Gregg Bernstein , UX Researcher at Signal

UX research tools can help streamline the research process, making regular testing and application of diverse methods more accessible—so you always keep the user at the center of your design process. Some other key tips to remember when choosing your method are:

Define the goals and problems

A good way to inform your choice of user experience research method is to start by considering your goals. You might want to browse UX research templates or read about examples of research.

Michael Margolis , UX Research Partner at Google Ventures, recommends answering questions like:

• “What do your users need?”
• “What are your users struggling with?”
• “How can you help your users?”

Understand the design process stage

If your team is very early in product development, generative research —like field studies—make sense. If you need to test design mockups or a prototype, evaluative research methods—such as usability testing—will work best.

This is something they’re big on at Sketch, as we heard from Design Researcher, Tanya Nativ. She says, “In the discovery phase, we focus on user interviews and contextual inquiries. The testing phase is more about dogfooding, concept testing, and usability testing. Once a feature has been launched, it’s about ongoing listening.”

Consider the type of insights required

If you're looking for rich, qualitative data that delves into user behaviors, motivations, and emotions, then methods like user interviews or field studies are ideal. They’ll help you uncover the ‘why’ behind user actions.

On the other hand, if you need to gather quantitative data to measure user satisfaction or compare different design variations, methods like surveys or A/B testing are more suitable. These methods will help you get hard numbers and concrete data on preferences and behavior.

*Discover the UX research trends shaping the future of the industry and why the best results come from a combination of different research methods. *

Build a deeper understanding of your users with UX research

Think of UX research methods as building blocks that work together to create a well-rounded understanding of your users. Each method brings its own unique strengths, whether it's human empathy from user interviews or the vast data from surveys.

But it's not just about choosing the right UX research methods; the research platform you use is equally important. You need a platform that empowers your team to collect data, analyze, and collaborate seamlessly.

Simplifying product research is simple with Maze. From tree testing to card sorting, prototype testing to user interview analysis—Maze makes getting actionable insights easy, whatever method you opt for.

Meanwhile, if you want to know more about testing methods, head on to the next chapter all about tree testing .

Get valuable insights from real users

Conduct impactful UX research with Maze and improve your product experience and customer satisfaction.

Frequently asked questions

How do you choose the right UX research method?

Choosing the right research method depends on your goals. Some key things to consider are:

• The feature/product you’re testing
• The type of data you’re looking for
• The design stage
• The time and resources you have available

What is the best UX research method?

The best research method is the one you have the time, resources, and budget for that meets your specific needs and goals. Most research tools, like Maze, will accommodate a variety of UX research and testing techniques.

When to use which user experience research method?

Selecting which user research method to use—if budget and resources aren’t a factor—depends on your goals. UX research methods provide different types of data:

• Qualitative vs quantitative
• Attitudinal vs behavioral
• Generative vs evaluative

Identify your goals, then choose a research method that gathers the user data you need.

Tree Testing: Your Guide to Improve Navigation and UX

User Research: What Is It and How to Do It in SaaS

12 min read

Looking for the best ways to conduct user research and gather actionable insights?

Whether you’re building a product from scratch, updating something on your platform, or just want to listen to users and create better experiences , this article provides the guide you need.

We covered:

• The benefits of proper user research.
• A detailed 5-step process for conducting effective research.
• Types of user research and different methods to implement.
• User research employs various qualitative and quantitative methods to investigate and understand users better. It helps you create a user-centered design process and ensure your final product is what customers love.

Effective user research helps you:

• Understand user behaviors, needs , and preferences.
• Identify experience gaps and remove friction.
• Increase product value and improve user experience .

Implement this user research process to gather data that’s exhaustive and actionable:

• Define your main objective and build a hypothesis.
• Choose research participants that represent your target audience.
• Choose the appropriate research method .
• Start collecting data.
• Analyze and form a conclusion.

User research methods for SaaS:

Usability testing

User testing, user interviews, focus groups, session replays, first click testing, user feedback surveys, card sorting, a/b testing, product analytics.

• Userpilot can help you conduct user experience (UX) research and easily interpret the data. Book a demo to discuss your needs with our team and get tailored solutions.

What is user research?

User research employs various qualitative and quantitative methods to investigate and understand users.

It’s a critical part of the product development process that helps inform design decisions and ensure the final product aligns with user expectations.

Why is conducting user research important?

Without effective user research, you’ll be building or updating your product based on assumptions, and that’s not a good place to be.

It’s like trying to construct a bridge without ever stepping onto the riverbank. You might craft something impressive, but without understanding the water’s flow, depth, and potential hazards, your bridge risks being unusable or, worse, dangerous.

Understand user behaviors, needs, and preferences

By conducting proper user research, you’ll gain data showing how users interact with your tool and their underlying needs and motivations.

This knowledge forms the foundation for designing products that resonate with users. It ensures what you build not only meets functional requirements but also aligns with the specific desires of your target audience.

Identify experience gaps and remove friction

An experience gap refers to the disparity between users’ expectations and their actual experience with your product. Such gaps can lead to customer dissatisfaction, as user needs are not adequately met.

User experience research is pivotal in closing experience gaps and removing friction from the user journey. By identifying pain points through methods like usability testing and feedback collection, you can pinpoint areas for improvement.

This proactive approach allows you to implement targeted enhancements, ensuring a smoother and more satisfying user experience. Ultimately, addressing these gaps not only boosts user satisfaction but also cultivates customer loyalty and positive brand perception.

Increase product value and improve user experience

Continuous user experience research ensures your product keeps adding more value and enhancing the user experience. With this, users will be more comfortable interacting with your product regularly.

As they incorporate your tool into their workflows and increase engagement, they’ll have more reasons to expand their accounts, leading to higher revenue for your business.

How to conduct user research to improve user experience

Ready to start conducting user research? Here’s a five-step process to follow:

1. Define your main objective and build a hypothesis

Before diving into user research, clearly define your primary objective. Whether it’s improving onboarding processes , enhancing navigation, or refining a specific feature, having a focused goal is crucial.

Use the objective to create a hypothesis of the results you hope to get. The research will then confirm or reject this hypothesis.

For instance, if your objective is to enhance your app’s usability, a hypothesis might be that simplifying the navigation will lead to a higher user satisfaction score . You can then design user feedback surveys to collect user opinions and see if your hypothesis is correct.

2. Choose your research participants

Identifying the right participants is key to obtaining relevant insights. Define segments based on characteristics like user type (current users, new users), demographics, or usage patterns.

For example, if you’re improving a feature specific to premium users, draw research participants from users who have engaged with the feature enough to provide valuable feedback. Taking this targeted approach ensures the data you obtain is relevant and actionable.

3. Choose the appropriate research method

There are many user research methods, but what you use generally depends on your objective. For example:

• Usability testing : Helps assess how easily users can accomplish specific tasks within the app.
• Features heatmap : Visually highlights user interaction with specific elements or features of your tool.
• First click testing : Focuses on the first click users make, revealing initial impressions and navigational challenges.
• User feedback surveys : Collects user opinions, preferences, and suggestions, providing valuable qualitative data.
• Card sorting : Helps understand how users categorize information, aiding in intuitive information architecture and a user-centered design process.

Depending on your objectives, you can employ several other types of user research methods. We’ll provide an extensive list in a later section.

4. Start collecting data

After deciding on your objective and choosing a suitable user research approach, it’s time to execute and gather valuable data.

Ensure you have the necessary resources (user research tools, participants, and the like) and clearly define the steps for data collection.

For instance, let’s return to the example we discussed in step 1. Recall the objective was to enhance app usability, and the user research technique was customer feedback surveys. Now that you have those two settled, it’s time to begin collecting data.

You want to keep the survey short and concise to get the best result. Combine various question types, including multiple-choice, open-ended, and rating scales. This provides a more comprehensive view of user opinions and allows for both quantitative and qualitative user research.

For example, you can ask: “ How would you rate the overall usability of [your app] on a scale of 1 to 5, where 1 is very poor, and 5 is excellent? ” and follow up with, “ Please share any specific challenges or difficulties you encountered while using the app, and if you have any suggestions for improving the usability, feel free to provide them here .”

Imagine your objective is broader—you want to understand usability, then decide which of two features to prioritize for an update. After the initial survey, you can ask what feature they prefer and the reason for their choice. Make a decision based on the data you obtain.

5. Analyze and form a conclusion

Once data collection is complete, the next step is to analyze the gathered information. Bring together all the data you’ve collected and form a comprehensive understanding of user behavior. Identify patterns, trends , and pain points within the data.

When you’re done, it’s time to implement changes to improve the user experience. For instance, imagine your research data shows your onboarding takes too long and results in drop-offs due to several unnecessary steps.

Your product team can work on identifying areas of the onboarding flow they can cut off. Also, you can implement an onboarding checklist to reduce the time to value and boost adoption rates.

Types of user research

User research is quite broad, but when you look at it closely, anybody researching users is either implementing quantitative or qualitative methods—or both.

Quantitative research

This user research type involves collecting numerical data to measure and analyze specific aspects of user behavior and preferences.

It uses surveys, analytics, and A/B testing to uncover user data.

Qualitative research

While quantitative research asks the what questions, qualitative research focuses on uncovering the why behind user behavior . For example, realizing that users are dissatisfied with a new feature is just the first step in your research process. You still don’t have sufficient data to make the changes your users will love.

But by conducting research that asks users why they don’t like the feature, you can identify changes to make. Examples of qualitative research methods include interviews, focus groups, and open-ended user feedback surveys.

User research can be both attitudinal and behavioral:

• Attitudinal research helps uncover user attitudes, opinions, and emotional responses to your product.
• Behavioral research focuses on observing and analyzing actual human behavior and interactions with your product.

User research methods

Combine any of the following qualitative and quantitative research methods to collect comprehensive user data and make informed development decisions:

Usability tests involve observing users as they interact with a prototype or an existing product to identify challenges and assess the overall user experience. You can do this remotely using specialized usability testing tools or have testers come together in a physical test lab while a user researcher observes and records everything.

You can also implement think-aloud protocols, asking users to verbalize their thoughts while interacting with the product.

During the test, aim to identify how well your product performs against these usability components :

• Learnability : The ease with which users can understand and navigate your product for the first time.
• Efficiency : User speed and effectiveness in performing tasks—this says a lot about your UI.
• Memorability : The extent to which users can remember how to use the product or feature after an initial encounter. Good memorability is a sign of a reduced learning curve.
• Errors : The frequency and severity of user mistakes while interacting with your product. Too many test participants making errors is a sign of friction.
• Satisfaction : The overall fulfillment and positive sentiment users experience when interacting with the product.

User testing and usability testing sound similar; people even use them interchangeably, but they’re not the same.

While the former is focused on evaluating functionality and ease of use , user or UX testing encompasses a broader spectrum, digging deep into user needs and preferences . Another way to put it is that usability testing is a subset of UX testing.

The specific approach you adopt when testing users depends on your research objectives, but just like any user research approach, you begin by deciding what feature, product, or prototype to test. Then, create the test task with a list of objectives and have it done remotely or in person.

Example of UX testing: create different interface designs , then ask users to interact with them and mention the one they find most appealing. Implement task analysis to analyze the data and uncover user user preferences.

If it were to be a usability test, you’d create a prototype and ask users to accomplish a specific task with it—e.g., schedule social media posts—then observe the steps they follow and how long it takes.

User interviews involve one-on-one conversations between you and participants to gather in-depth qualitative insights into their experiences and collect relevant data.

Although it can be more tasking than a quick usability test, a user interview allows you to collect extensive data and get immediate responses to your follow-up questions.

The best way to conduct interviews for your SaaS is over video conferencing platforms like Zoom—the one-on-one interaction allows for easy communication.

Here’s an interview preparation template you can use when preparing to interview users:

This is a structured group research involving a small group of 6-12 users (you can do more if you have the resources). Usually, an experienced moderator is present to facilitate discussions and debates about your product.

While the discussion is ongoing, someone is recording user thoughts, opinions, and attitudes toward the topics raised. In the end, you’ll gather useful qualitative data from different participants and use it to advise your product design process.

Side note: you can also use focus groups if you’re conducting market research as part of your development process.

This method involves using tools like Hotjar to record and analyze user sessions on your website or app.

By viewing clicks, scrolls, and keystrokes in a natural environment without users knowing someone is recording, you’ll gather quantitative data on click patterns and session duration, among other things. You can analyze the results to identify if users follow your tool’s happy path and see how they respond to your interface.

The first click test is an incredibly important component of user research. When users make the right first click, they’re more likely to achieve their goals faster and be satisfied with your tool than when they click several times on the wrong UI elements before finding the happy path.

First click testing helps you determine if your product is intuitive—and if it isn’t, you’ll see the errors users make and know what changes to implement.

To conduct this test, show users a mockup, screenshot, or prototype of your tool and ask them to verbally share their initial click choice and reasoning.

You can also have an interactive test where you share the task with users and have them click on what they think should be the first step. That’s what user researchers did in the example below:

They presented users with Bank of America’s homepage and tested to see where users click to find information. 82% of the test participants went to the right section of the homepage, demonstrating an intuitive design.

From quick quantitative questions to more in-depth qualitative research, user feedback surveys come in different forms.

The specific survey type you use depends on your objective. For instance, if you need to understand the ease of using your platform, trigger a customer effort score survey asking users to rate how much effort they put into using specific features. Other common survey types you might want to implement include NPS and CSAT surveys.

Userpilot can help you create in-app surveys, decide who sees them, and analyze the results quickly. Here’s what building your surveys with our tool looks like:

This research method comes in handy when testing your information architecture. Card sorting involves giving test participants cards representing various features, functions, or sections of your SaaS. For example, the cards might include “dashboard,” “reports,” “settings,” and so on.

You can ask participants to categorize the cards into predefined groups or tell them to do it as they deem fit. Choose the former if you already have a structure you wouldn’t want to change.

Take note of participants’ grouping patterns and any challenges or uncertainties they may encounter in the process. Once you’re done, implement task analysis to interpret the result and make data-driven decisions.

A/B testing compares two versions (A and B) of a webpage, email, or feature to determine which performs better in terms of user engagement or conversion.

With a tool like Userpilot, you can create different versions of the in-app flows or UI elements you want to test, and then run them through specific user segments. Userpilot also allows you to conduct multivariate tests where you compare more than two variables.

Product analytics involves collecting and analyzing data from user interactions with your platform to understand their behavior and preferences.

Userpilot’s robust analytics platform lets you track user actions extensively and generate different analytics reports to identify trends, patterns, and changes in user behavior. What’s more, you can visualize the results in a detailed analytics dashboard for easy interpretation and decision-making.

Heatmaps provide visual representations of user behavior. They’re generated based on data from user interactions, such as clicks, scrolls, or mouse movements, recorded during user sessions on a website or app.

As in the image below, heatmap tools assign colors ranging from warm to cool tones to demonstrate different engagement levels. Hotter colors (e.g., red) indicate high interaction, while cooler colors (e.g., blue) represent lower or no interaction.

Userpilot allows you to select the features of your product you want to track and generate real-time heatmap reports to see how users interact with your tool. This is useful when you want to make quick decisions about what features receive better engagement.

User research always pays off.

When you invest in understanding user needs, expectations, and pain points, you’ll build an exceptional user experience that drives retention and loyalty.

That’s not to mention the fact that your product will stay competitive, making it easy to expand your user base and offering.

Ready to start reaping these benefits? Book a demo now and see how Userpilot can help you implement different user research methods and easily interpret the results.

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A Step-By-Step Guide to User Experience Research

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As part of the design process, companies can forget the end-user to whom the product or service is being marketed. Designers can become blinkered and overly protective of their interfaces, platforms, and products, so much so that they overlook the fact that they need to be empathetic to the target market. Empathy needs to be at the very center of meaningful design. Without this, products can become redundant.

At the heart of user experience design is the mantra of creating products that are a joy to engage with and navigate. These products should make our lives easier, better, quicker, more fun, and they should be intuitive to use. UX design enables the user to have their experience improved while engaging with a product that makes the user smile, feel more fulfilled, and be more satisfied. UX research must put the user experience at the heart of the process. Many companies overlook research as an added cost. This can result in cutting corners where the end-user is considered an afterthought. While it may cost money to implement UX research, user testing is a crucial part of bringing a viable product to the market.

By being empathetic to the end-user, designers can get into the minds of their end-user. Consistent user experience research enables designers to solve the problems that users have to deal with through excellent product and service design.

What is UX Research?

UX research is a highly sophisticated collection of methods that enable companies to analyze how their clients, customers, and markets think and behave. Excellent UX research allows deep dives of end-users’ motivations, ambitions, and desires to enable more nuanced product and service design. To get to grips with the user experience, researchers need to connect with the users themselves on a meaningful level to allow targeted analysis to take place.

This is done through focus groups, listening, observations, and questioning. Products tend to be created in enclosed environments away from the users that will eventually be utilizing them. If UX research were never to be carried out, how would a company know whether the product that they are creating solves a problem, enhances lives, or makes their market beam with delight? A hunch? This simply isn’t scientific enough.

UX research is a perfect blend of scientific data-driven analysis and deep dives into emotional responses to focus on behaviors and motivations. Excellent UX research enables product designers and companies to hone their ranges to answer the call of their users.

All products that are designed need to be relevant to the real world, not just the lab, office, or factory where they are produced. UX research helps companies see their ideas play out in the real world and unpredictable environments. Get it right and this is the difference between a successful and profitable product and a complete failure of an entity.

Who works on UX research?

UX professionals are highly skilled individuals whose main aim is to make the user experience of websites, product ranges, and services exceptional. They can ensure that repeat custom is maximized and that companies develop reputations for awesome customer experiences.

CNNMoney’s 100 Best Jobs in America lists both UX designers and UX researchers in its 2017 countdown. These job listings are grounded in salary, growth opportunities, and job satisfaction. These positions have median salaries between $85,000 and $105,000, making them highly lucrative careers. They are also showing no signs of stopping, since the market for online UX research will increase up to 19% in the next ten years. This makes UX research a superb career choice for those with an analytical mind, who work methodically and well under pressure.

UX designer or UX researcher?

A UX designer is more focused on the creation of apps, websites, and pieces of technology to enable easier to use interfaces for end-users, showcasing their work in a UX designer portfolio . These individuals are the professionals that implement the findings that a UX researcher collates to make the user experience for websites and products so engaging. Websites like Airbnb and Amazon are renowned for their superior user experiences. This is because superior UX research informed their website design.

A UX researcher allows design teams to cater to the user. They value the need to understand the end-user and to implement this understanding into the design of a product or platform or app. A UX researcher is not some glorified market researcher – they are more like data scientists looking at the behaviors and needs of a target market and analyzing trends and data-driven information to pass onto the UX designers to form more meaningful products to comply with the needs of the user. They turn analysis into tangible product adaptations that make a range profitable and successful.

By being adept at research methods, researchers can choose a blend of qualitative and quantitative ways to collect information to form the clearest image of the end-user and their needs. This allows improvements to be made to apps and tech to make them more intuitive to use, enabling companies to provide a user experience akin to the likes of Amazon and Airbnb.

A UX researcher:

• Conducts concept development and user research.
• Analyzes the behavior of users and their motivations.
• Designs a list of UX research-led improvements to enhance the marketability and profitability of something tangible to meet the needs of the user more successfully.
• Liaises with product management and marketing teams to answer specific research questions.
• Implements, manages, and analyzes data-driven information and works closely with engineering, product design, marketing, and content strategy teams.

UX researchers need a mixture of skills. An analytical mind alongside soft skills such as communication and teamwork are crucial assets for any UX researcher. UX researchers meet all different sorts of people from all different walks of life so they need to be tolerant, open-minded, and willing to put aside their own internal biases for the good of the user experience.

Sometimes, the roles of UX designers and researchers might be blended in a cross-functional team. Chun-Chin Su, VP of Innovation & Design at KdanMobile , says:

Our UX design and research team is very cross-functional. The team is working simultaneously on multiple products, and thus sometimes the same people might be doing UX research for one product while prototyping new features for the other. This makes our team more agile and helps individual team members to grow faster professionally.

Critical thinking, problem-solving, teamwork, time management, and analytical prowess are the key skills needed to make it a sought after UX researcher. A UX researcher focuses on the wants, needs, and motivations of the end-user whereas the UX designer is focused on transforming this data analysis into the consumer-facing final project outcome.

UX Research Methods

There are several different research methods for user experience analysis.

Behavior Analysis

Usability studies tend to focus on behavior analysis rather than attitudes and belief systems. What people state as a belief is often not reflected in actions and what people do. It is the ‘doing the do’ that will inform UX research more thoroughly. A/B testing is a solid way to focus on people’s behaviors.

By putting two contrasting product designs to market, UX researchers can determine the favored option based on behavior. This can be done as simply as showing two options on a social media channel such as Instagram and watching the feedback roll in.

Surveys can focus more on attitudinal research that can inform product design and user testing. These are cheap to carry out and can give a qualitative dimension to your research by looking at the end user’s beliefs and motivations. Once collated, you end up with plenty of quantitative research to feed into statistical analysis of the data.

Many tools can help with behavior analysis. For example, the folks at Outfunnel have made a lot of use of Smartlook to analyze user behavior. Smartlook records user behavior on websites and in apps so you can review it. Markus Leming from Outfunnel shares an example of where Smartlook came in handy for UX research:

At one point, many of our users ran into errors when entering their payment method details. This resulted in a lot of frustration, countless support tickets, and some missed revenue. Smartlook helped us identify what went wrong really quickly (without revealing the payment method details, of course). This meant we could fix it as soon as possible and reach out to the customers who otherwise would have left us because of the broken experience.

User testing can involve something as simple as a card-sorting exercise. By asking an individual to order the information on a website into a logical order, a company can gain an insight into the intuitiveness of their platform. This can aid the user experience and provide a site that is more of a pleasure to navigate. One-to-one interviews are also a useful way to delve deeper into the psyche of an end-user. Attitudes, desires, previous experiences, and needs can all be analyzed from recording an interview.

Another effective UX research technique is leveraging online surveys to collect insights about your audience. These questions can gather simple feedback based on the usability of your site or they can delve deeper into the usability of a product. Alternatively, online surveys can be sent to a subgroup via email to focus on different aspects of your UX research.

Vlad Shvets from Paperform says:

Our research has shown that shorter and simpler customer surveys usually have higher completion rates. Focus on what matters and minimize the effort for your responders. It also helps to show the progress bar in your surveys — once the person sees the progress, it becomes mentally easier to finish the survey.

Qualitative or Quantitative

Quantitative data tends to allow more numerical analysis of statistics. These data are usually collated indirectly through an online survey or an online analytics tool such as Google Analytics. The data are less personal and more number-driven. Insights are usually mathematical and formulae based to create design statements and briefs.

At the other end of the scale, qualitative data are collated more directly, via interaction with the user. Field observations and focus groups are examples of qualitative data. UX research puts the interaction between researcher and user at the heart of the data collection cycle. The user can ask questions and begin to shape the research themselves. This is powerful for those designers and companies seeking to produce a product that is bespoke to a niche market.

As a rule of thumb, qualitative research informs the how and why questions of UX research whereas the quantitative data collected are more closed in its analysis answering the quantity-based questions. As many products are bought based on an emotional connection, qualitative research holds real value to user experience testing.

The motivations and actions of the user a company is marketing a product towards needs to be expertly understood to enable a product to become a market leader. UX research should never be overlooked because of a cost concern and should be deemed as money well spent.

5 UX Research Steps

User research enables companies to understand how their market lives their lives from day to day. This intimate picture of a lifestyle can empower product development and research. By following a UX research learning spiral, user research can be conducted on a more meaningful level.

All researchers need to consider the questions that they need answering from their user testing and UX research. These form the objectives of the UX research to be carried out. Companies may already know their market, but they may need to fill some gaps to help them construct a product or service that will hit the brief.

Focus groups can be an ideal forum in which to delve deeper into your objectives. Asking questions and having a focused debate will allow your questions to be explored.

• Who? This questioning allows you to focus on the identity of your focus groups and the individuals that you will be questioning.
• What? This questioning will help you to find out what people are doing. You can focus on the sorts of products, platforms, and apps that they may already be using.
• When? This questioning will help you to focus on timescales and relevant moments in a day when a product may or may not be used. You can delve deeper into the reasons why your product may be used more at specific times and how you can drive up usage in less popular moments.
• Why? This is the emotional hook – a why question will provoke an emotive response that looks at motivations and behaviors. Tap into this to discover the root causes of behavior and allow it to inform your product design.
• How? This questioning enables a deep dive into the ease of use of a product. How will an individual use a product, platform, or process to solve their problems and needs?

Stick to the objectives set and don’t allow debate or questioning to go off task. The scope needs to be adhered to create a nuanced and focused study and data set to be analyzed. Go out of scope and data will have to be waded through to find the relevant information.

Just like a science experiment, a hypothesis explores those notions that a company already holds to be true. They need to consider what they already know about users’ behaviors and motivations. The hypothesis will also put forward the potential product that will solve users’ problems and benefit their needs.

A hypothesis that is constructed by a company or product design team will always be tainted with the subjectivity of the team working on a product. It’s important to externalize the hypothesis to remove any potential internal bias. A company needs to remain objective and allow the user experience to dictate research results. A hypothesis can be attitude or behavior-related, so communicate these to your market and allow challenge and debate to ensue.

A hypothesis will inform your methodology choices. Don’t be afraid to be open with users and research groups when it comes to communicating your ideas. Being honest and transparent will allow your users to be more forthcoming with their ideas, views, and concepts.

The methods to be chosen will link to the objectives and questions that a company needs answering. User testing, online surveys, and focus groups can be used to gain a more detailed picture of a typical user. Methods should be diverse to enable both qualitative and quantitative data to be collated. This will help a company prepare their research proposal and begin conducting their UX research to a set timescale.

The methods you select to collect information will be based on how well you know your users. If you are bringing a new product to the market and have very little understanding of your end-user, you need those observational and qualitative approaches to get a clearer picture of your market.

Once a product design team fully understands the user and their beliefs, motivations, and needs, they can design a product range on a more empathetic level. This removes all hints of subjectivity and allows a designer to imagine that they are the user throughout the design process.

Conducting the research involves collating the evidence and data that a company wishes to collect based on the methods designed. This means following through with those methods outlined in your research proposal. Conducting focus groups can be labor-intensive so a team will be needed to expertly guide users through sessions to collect the information a company requires. While running focus group studies, multiple researchers might use a collaborative note-taking solution like Evernote or Noteledge to collect all the qualitative insights and notes in one place.

Online surveys are more manageable, but they need to be constructed effectively in the first place. You need to be asking the right questions to ensure that you get the answers you need.

Don’t worry about having to change tactics. This tends to be necessary if a hypothesis is way off. For example, if a company assumes that users will be eager for a new online platform to collate banking bills, but the focus groups simply aren’t that interested, a design team will need to focus on the way. Is it because there is already something like this on the market or is it because the product needs a little tweaking to make it more engaging to interact with?

The most crucial facet of the whole UX research cycle is the final step. By synthesizing the data effectively, a company can answer their objective questions in a nuanced way and work out whether their hypothesis was correct. If it was, a product can go ahead and be launched. If the hypothesis was wrong, the UX research will empower targeted adaptations to make it more nuanced and a more profitable and marketable product.

The numerical analysis only goes so far. The qualitative data will enhance the usability of a product. The user experience will be an emotive one so the data needs to be driven in the same vein. You can analyze through charts and graphs as much as you like, but it is those answers to those objectives that you first set out that will inform the design of a product. Remember, a product needs to be engaging and a real delight to use. UX research can empower this to happen.

UX research is carried out to create a product that is super relevant to users. It is something that will enable users to click on it if it is a website or to buy it if it is a product or service. Product design that is not influenced by UX research in any way will result in a product that is detached from the end-user. The chances of product success are limited without an empathetic understanding of the market you are marketing to.

Steve Jobs once said, ‘ If the user is having a problem, it’s our problem ’. This shows the need to be empathetic to end-users. If there are teething issues with a product or website, they need to be ironed out fast. Any chinks in the user experience armor will show through eventually causing users to move elsewhere, losing a company business and revenue.

Never assume that UX research is a luxury or a premium add-on to product design. Spending money on user experience research will pay for itself in the long run by providing a great return on investment. Companies develop more efficient work processes as a result and the profitability of the UX research empowered product will drive up sales. Joe Gebbia, the CEO of Airbnb even credits UX research as the key tool in turning the company around when it was struggling to break through to the online market.

The best companies and agencies acknowledge this and can deliver impressive results with well-researched UX design work. Saturist is a design agency that is all about using design to solve business problems. Peedu Tuisk from Saturist shares an example:

Recently, we redesigned KUMA’s online store , resulting in a 72% increase in their conversion rate. Total sales increased by 82% compared to the same period in the previous year. Great UX design always pays for itself, and then some.

When used in a technological sense, UX research can increase the SEO potential of a website, enhance the brand and online presence of a company, help a brand achieve a global reach, and boost customer loyalty.

Many companies are jumping on the UX-testing bandwagon. They appreciate all that UX research can bring, especially after seeing the success of Apple, Amazon, Airbnb, and Google. To compete with rivals, companies need to embrace UX research with open arms. Many are tentative in their approach because of the subjective nature of the analysis.

However, by using UX research methods appropriately and by synthesizing the data into meaningful data-driven insights, companies can adapt their product ranges, websites, apps, and technology to generate more customer-focused design that enhances consumer engagement and business profitability.

Darya Jandossova Troncoso is a photographer, artist, and writer working on her first novel and managing a digital marketing blog – MarketSplash . In her spare time, she enjoys spending time with her family, cooking, creating art, and learning everything there is to know about digital marketing.

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World Leaders in Research-Based User Experience

Planning research with generative ai.

April 5, 2024 2024-04-05

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AI chatbots (like ChatGPT, Google’s Gemini, and Microsoft Copilot) can support UX researchers of all experience levels in planning their research.

In This Article:

What is a research plan, using ai chatbots to write a research plan.

Good research always starts with a plan.

A research plan is a document that outlines the research objectives and how the research will be executed.

Research plans should include:

• The research goals or questions that the research is hoping to achieve or answer
• The method to be used and a description of how it will be carried out
• The tasks or questions that will be given to study participants
• The profile of the target participants
• The screener questionnaire used to recruit participants

Creating a research plan can be time-consuming. Even with a good template, a researcher must generate research questions, select the appropriate method(s), decide how to run sessions, and often create study collateral (like screeners and tasks) from scratch. The good news is that AI can help with many, if not all, of these tasks!

It can be tempting to just ask an AI tool to give you a research plan for a project. Don’t do that.

❌ Bad Prompt : Generate a research plan for a usability test of a food-delivery app.

This kind of request results in a generic, template-like response, partly because AI lacks the context to propose a complete research plan and partly because of how the model has been trained.

To construct a useful research plan, deconstruct the plan into parts and have the AI chatbot tackle each part individually. You can assemble responses in a final research plan.

Don’t expect the AI to ask you the right questions in order to get a comprehensive outcome. View the AI tool as a UX assistant , not as a UX mentor. You need to feed into the AI all the steps and details you want it to consider.

Follow the steps below for the best results.

Step 1: Provide Context

Imagine asking an experienced colleague for recommendations on what research study to run without giving them any context on what project you’re working on and what you’re trying to achieve. They would probably say, "It depends on what you’re trying to learn.” Conversing with AI presents no exception.

Start your conversation with enough context , especially if the AI tool does not already have this information stored about you or your current project. ( ChatGPT 4 allows users to store context for each new conversation.)

The contextual information you share should include who you work for, the scope of your project, and what you’re looking to achieve. Remember that some AI tools may use your conversations to train their models, so share only information you would be comfortable with being in the open domain.

 Prompt Template: I work for [type or organization] . My company provides [what kind of product, service, or experience] . I need to run a user-research study to learn [something about users or a problem] .

Step 2: Generate Research Questions

After providing the AI tool with context, ask it to suggest specific research questions for the study. Here’s an example from a recent study on research repositories that I conducted for NN/g.

Prompt Example: I will run a research study and report on how UX practitioners across different organizations set up and use research repositories. Please generate 10 research questions that would be suitable for this sort of study.

It’s a good idea to ask generative AI tools for more options or ideas than you think you’ll need, because some will not be a good fit.

Microsoft Copilot responded to the prompt above with the 10 research questions below.

10 Research questions generated by Microsoft Copilot

Who are the primary users of the research repository within different organizations? What motivates users to engage with the research repository? How do different teams (design, product, sales, marketing) access and benefit from the research repository? What challenges do practitioners face when contributing to or retrieving information from the repository? What types of research artifacts (reports, raw data, templates) are most commonly stored in the repository? How do organizations structure their research repositories? What tools and templates are commonly used to facilitate research repository management? How do practitioners ensure the quality and accuracy of information in the repository? What impact does the research repository have on decision-making and project outcomes? What strategies can organizations implement to encourage widespread adoption and active participation in the research repository?

To broaden your pool of research questions, ask for further research questions or provide the same prompt in a new session. Repeat this process as many times as you need to generate a list that feels exhaustive of what you’d like to learn.

Some of the research questions Copilot generated for me were appropriate, and others were not. As a result, I had AI generate more research questions to choose from.

Unfortunately, most AI chatbots don’t offer an easy way to dismiss suggestions or combine specific responses and work from only these (a behavior called apple-picking ).

Pulling in generated research questions into an offline document (like a FigJam or Google Doc) allows you to easily group items, remove duplicates, or reword suggested research questions.

Begin a new chat session with your selected and refined set of research questions, so that the unwanted research questions are removed from the chat history.

Step 3: Request Methods

After sharing the context and your chosen research questions, ask the AI tool to identify suitable research methods.

Example Prompt : What study would you suggest to answer these research questions? Please be specific; cite which research questions would be answered by which research method if you suggest multiple methods.

Generative-AI advice is not always good advice. Often, these tools will suggest various methods and suggest you triangulate data from multiple sources. This approach is not always needed. Also, not all methods will be practical or the best fit for your study. Additionally, AI may suggest interviews and focus groups even for research questions better suited to a behavioral research method .

Ask AI chatbots to tell you which research methods would be suited to which research question and why. We also recommend doing some further reading on your own about any methods that are unfamiliar to you.

In response to the prompt above (and given my chosen research questions), ChatGPT recommended a survey, interviews with select UX practitioners, and case studies. These were all my chosen methods, so AI had done well here!

Step 4: Request Inclusion Criteria

AI can create inclusion criteria — a necessary component of your research plan. Do this step only after generating research questions and methods since these will inform who should participate in the research study.

Inclusion criteria (or recruitment criteria) are specific characteristics of the target population that need to be represented in your sample.

Start with inclusion criteria before asking the AI to help you write a screening questionnaire ; AI can only craft an appropriate screener after it “knows” who you’re looking to recruit.

Example Prompt: So that I recruit the right people for my interviews, help me create some inclusion criteria. What characteristics or behaviors should I recruit for?

Step 5: Request Help with Screeners, Interview Questions, and Tasks

Finally, ask the AI to put together:

• Interview questions or an interview guide (if conducting interviews)
• Tasks for a usability test
• Diary-study prompts (if relevant)
• Recruitment confirmation emails or other communication messages.

Unfortunately, there are a lot of bad examples of the above on the web. Conversational AI has been trained on all this data. Therefore, don’t be surprised if it produces poor study collateral on its first attempt! This is a major risk area for new researchers.

One way to mitigate this danger is to give the AI tool advice when crafting any of these outputs . Think of AI as a new research assistant who can learn extremely quickly.

Common mistakes that AI tools make include:

• Using words that appear in the interface in task instructions (priming)
• Creating task instructions that ask users to imagine they are someone that they are not
• Not including a goal or a call to action in the task instruction
• Not including distractor options in screening questionnaires
• Using overenthusiastic marketing language in recruitment materials

It’s not surprising that AI makes these mistakes since UX practitioners also make them!

To improve outputs, feed the AI essential tips, such as:

• When crafting tasks: Do not use the name of words or link labels in the task instruction. Find a natural-language equivalent to explain what the participant should do . (You can ask AI to “read” a website or an image.)
• When crafting recruitment materials: Use neutral and concise language in the recruitment email. Avoid using overly enthusiastic marketing language.
• When crafting a screener: Include multiple-choice questions and answer options that might disguise what the study is about and who I am looking to recruit.

Additionally, when possible, feed the AI with good examples of screener questionnaires, tasks, or interview questions, so it can follow their format or style.

Even with this advice, AI can still make mistakes. If you’re doubting its answers, check primary sources or speak with an experienced researcher for old-fashioned human guidance.

If you have ChatGPT’s Plus Plan, you can use our GPT for planning your research.

With the proper context, examples, and advice, AI tools, like ChatGPT and Microsoft Copilot, can craft helpful research questions, tasks, interview questions, and other study collateral far more quickly than you could if you started from scratch.

Research leads and ResearchOps personnel can support junior researchers and PWDRs (People Who Do Research) by providing examples and advice that can be fed to AI agents. Experienced researchers can benefit from using AI to speed up their research-planning process and obtain further inspiration.

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Risk of desirable user experiences: insights from those who create, facilitate and accept mobile payments

• Open access
• Published: 15 April 2024

Cite this article

You have full access to this open access article

• Martin Mahler   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0003-4137-4415 1 , 2 &
• Andrew Murphy 1  

Incorporating fluency theory into a user experience design framework, this study utilises design considerations, drawing on complementary angles of the two theoretical domains, as a foundation with the ultimate goal of creating beneficial mobile payment experiences. An exploratory approach is deployed through semi-structured interviews to provide insights into experience design considerations utilising sensory elements and risk perception, a combination which has thus far received little attention. Research participants consist of senior managers that work for companies that create, facilitate, or accept mobile payment apps or processes. A conceptual framework is proposed with design as a starting point, including aesthetics and the need for a simplified experience, along with sensory elements that replicate familiar visual, audio, and haptic stimuli. These lead to a more usable experience that is perceived as easy to use through a frictionless experience. Usefulness is increased as exposure increases, and new app or process features can be added once prior features become familiar through repeated use. Key trade-offs include a simplified experience versus feature-rich experience, and frictionless experiences versus security risks, with key practical suggestions on how these can be approached.

Avoid common mistakes on your manuscript.

1 Introduction

Conducting a payment is typically the last step of a consumer completing a purchase, and directly contributes towards the overall experience perceptions [ 14 ]. The importance of a positive customer payment experience is particularly important in omni-channel management, to ensure that the payment component fits into that whole customer journey [ 14 ]. The need for designing meaningful experiences has been raised with a focus on brand experiences [ 45 ], web navigation [ 23 ] and mobile user experiences [ 4 ], highlighting the need for an experience considering variants on risk, functionality, and enjoyment. Given the subjective responses customers have to any interactions with a company [ 10 , 58 ], the payment component of a shopping experience is particularly relevant as a critical part of the direct interactions’ customers have with a company. Arguably, the point of conducting a payment can be considered as less pleasant, functional interactions for various reasons, with the need to make this aspect more enjoyable [ 8 ].

Smartphone mobile technology potentially solves multiple user problems, with a multitude of offerings in the form of applications (apps) to increase utility, making such devices indispensable [ 9 ] and with positive affect with use [ 1 ]. Due to the extensive array of apps for any particular use, there is a need for a specific app to add value in some way, while also competing with non-mobile technology alternatives. For a product or service on offer to act as a viable alternative to existing offerings, there is a need for that to be either easier to use, create more enjoyment, to offer more utility or is to be more cost effective [ 37 ]. The financial costs for consumers of using a mobile payment system is in most instances the same as almost every other means of payment, as most mobile payment systems link existing bank accounts, debit cards or credit cards [ 87 ], and so the focus needs to be placed on an easier process, or greater utility or hedonic aspects, which may include design considerations.

Existing research on mobile payments considering design perspectives include an experimental study on hedonic and utilitarian factors [ 47 ], testing for user tolerance to response rates [ 96 ] and investigating factors that enhanced the user experience during the Covid19 pandemic [ 78 ]. Little attention has been placed on studies that explore how to improve user experiences, especially on how sensory elements could be included to improve the overall experience, along with means to decrease risk perceptions. To investigate these aspects, a qualitative approach is utilised in this study to yield subjective opinions [ 51 , 66 , 85 ] with there being a need to go beyond retail perceptions, which has been the theme for research on this topic [ 51 , 66 , 85 ]. Doing so enables going beyond adoption research and extent research on mobile payment use as well as broader considerations on hedonic/utilitarian factors and risk considerations from a consumer/user perspective, to include intentions from a design perspective. The intent is therefore to yield responses from multiple stakeholders on process design, including those who create (mobile payment application designers), facilitate (banks and other payment facilitators) and those who accept mobile technology (merchants). The aim is to incorporate elements that may improve the user experience from a design perspective and to explore the role hedonic and risk considerations play to answer the research question: how fluency theory can improve a user experience, with mitigating factors of sensory elements and risk perceptions, as determined by key design stakeholders. Insights add to the extent literature on user design, fluency theory, sensory/touch, as well as risk with practical implications to improve user experiences.

2 Literature review

The literature suggests three considerations as being relevant to ensure an effectively designed experience relevant for mobile technology, consisting of fluency, risk consideration and sensory elements. The current state of knowledge is explored, predominantly from a consumer perspective, with the intent to provide a foundation for insights from a design perspective.

2.1 Fluent experience design

User experience design depends on the interaction between users, machines, and the surroundings the user is in while the experience takes place [ 43 ], with the foundation of user experience design on user perception of usefulness and usability of the experience [ 28 ]. The (initial) perception on the offering can be evaluated prior to a purchase [ 34 ] or prior to downloading an application, which might involve a commitment in time and exposure to potential risks as opposed to a direct financial cost. Key considerations from studies proposing models to measure usability, have a particular focus on simplicity of design, task complexity, visual aesthetics, and interactive design [ 15 , 86 ]. Interaction design is how a system behaves when users engage with it [ 40 ], and visual design is how a product looks in terms of colours, fonts, images, icons, and other graphics [ 39 ]. There is considerable overlap between visual design, which builds a positive and consistent brand image communicating the right information to its users [ 39 ], and interaction design, which intends to give users a desired experience at every touchpoint using aesthetics, motion, and sound amongst others [ 69 ,  40 ], to make interactions with users pleasant and meaningful. If done effectively, this leads to useable experiences, as well as allowing for ease of processing of relevant stimuli [ 69 ], such as visual, audio or haptic cues. Processing fluency theory of aesthetic pleasure [ 69 ] is a useful mechanism to explore the effectiveness of visual and interactive design. The theory measures interaction between a viewer and an object, focusing on the end user experience and perceptions, as opposed to design on the basis of artistic merit [ 41 ]. The importance of aesthetic judgment is critical, correlating the perceiver’s prior exposure to fluently process an object [ 69 , 70 ]. Processing fluency relates to the subjective feelings of ease of use that people may experience upon being exposed to a stimulus [ 94 , 95 ]. Little research is available on applying fluency theory to the intricacies of mobile interfaces, beyond a conference paper by Minikkovic and De Angeli [ 59 ]. Given the smaller screen of mobile devices, numerous applications attempting similar outcomes, and external distractions competing for the user’s attention, the focus on fluent user experiences is particularly relevant to mobile application interfaces, with the importance of visual impressions, initial impressions, aesthetics, and the need for a decrease in complexity.

2.2 Simplicity versus feature loading

Mobile technology competes with offerings already available to consumers in one form or another, with mobile payments competing with cash, debit and credit cards as well as digital currencies [ 22 ]. The offering must therefore create value beyond the functional aspects of the experience [ 19 ]. User experience literature [ 30 , 31 , 35 ] focuses on utility and useability to satisfy human needs, while augmenting to offer hedonic qualities. Emotionally satisfying elements have the potential to augment the experience creating a competitive advantage [ 30 ] over competing offerings, with Hassenzahl [ 29 ] using the term ‘be-goals’ as a means for users to attain self-fulfilment by attaching hedonic attributes. Fluency theory focuses on augmenting experiences to improve the processing of stimuli and the ease of interpreting meanings [ 69 ], garnering positive affect in the process, specifically if the ease of processing is unexpected. Essentially, the use of a certain technology feels right because the process is perceived as fluent, with disfluency raising a cognitive alarm, pressing users to stop and reassess the situation [ 69 , 71 ]. This is particularly relevant for mobile interfaces where visual impressions, initial impressions, aesthetics, and complexity are of importance given the smaller screen and level of competition, highlighting the need for simplicity given the external distractions that compete for the user’s attention.

2.3 Sensory experience

Visual perceptions go beyond what we see with our eyes and brains, it is how our minds predominantly interpret stimuli, which can take different shapes through conditions which might be cultural, based on preconceptions or various other aspects [ 63 ]. The sensory experience is likely derived from multiple modalities, with auditory and haptic processing supplementing the visual components, triggering action [ 41 ]. This is also key for mobile technology, with visual, audio and tactile prompts possible and feasible to facilitate the experience [ 69 , 70 , 88 ], going beyond the stimuli attached to alternative payment mechanisms such as physical cards. Schneider et al. [ 77 ] proposed the use of haptic experience design (HaXD) to enhance user experiences, with related subsequent research [ 72 ] proposing to use tangible ways to allow for an enhanced user experience. Key to the design of sensory experiences is the effective integration and to ensure the features interact seamlessly with the entire system’s design [ 77 ], with sensory cues used to create a familiar experience, adding more meaning and credibility to the experience [ 64 ]. The sensory experience is derived from multiple modalities, with the auditory and haptic processing supplementing the visual components, triggering action [ 16 , 32 ].

The expectation is therefore that auditory stimuli as part of mobile technology will lead to habitual motor responses [ 89 ] as had been found with full sensory experience having enhanced art exhibits [ 18 ], product judgement [ 65 ], advertising [ 42 ] and improved task performance [ 12 ]. For mobile payments this occurs at the payment confirmation, which in most instances is the only interaction a user has with a mobile payment platform utilising NFC (near field communication) launching automatically when held in proximity to a payment terminal [ 46 ]. Under these circumstances, in addition to being a means to potentially reduce risk perceptions, knowing that the phone has successfully connected with the reader can lead to positive affect, essentially making a functional experience one that is affective [ 44 , 65 ]. Tactile cues can shape perceptions on material information including texture [ 27 , 62 ] providing a mental imagery of physical aspects and increasing perceptions of control. Designing user experiences can therefore be founded on tactile feedback when tapping, scrolling, expanding certain features along with the replication of familiar audio cues, such as tapping or scrolling audio cues [ 24 , 57 , 81 ].

2.4 Familiarity and risk considerations to enhance the user experience

Jacoby and Dallas [ 36 ] identified a correlation between repeated exposures through processing fluency and an increase in favourable opinions towards the process. This has been tested and affirmed in design literature [ 25 ], considering user experiences for elders [ 72 ] as well as while utilising virtual reality [ 3 ]. Familiarity to create a desire and potentially to decrease risk is of particular relevance for a mobile offering and considering financial risk factors [ 59 ], with a potential interaction of hedonic and utilitarian aspects as opposed to being a trade-off.

The impact of risk as a means to decrease perceptions towards user experiences has previously been investigated in terms of privacy [ 92 ], security [ 97 ], cross-cultural variation [ 53 ] and from a generational perspective [ 5 ]. The need for a designed experience that suits the environment has been highlighted [ 19 ] with a decrease in the risk perception improving perceptions. Vitale et al. [ 92 ] have highlighted the need for a transparent interface that communicates privacy policies to decrease privacy concerns, ultimately increasing usability. For this study, the same consideration is proposed with there being a need to control risk considerations to increase the user experience [ 92 , 97 ].

As a user experience is created with considerations including processing fluency and ease of use, the risk perception is reduced as part of a more fluent process [ 83 , 95 ]. There will also be limitations to the extent to which a more fluent experience can decrease risk perceptions and to what extent this can influence cognitive factors, with Winkielman et al. [ 95 ] having concluded that in terms of subjective experiences, there are instances when high fluency has the potential to lead to negative evaluations. If familiarity or prototypicality is associated with danger, a subjective negative experience of processing fluency can arise. For mobile technology and particularly mobile payments, high levels of fluency may be negatively related to perceived risk, such as data breaches or social risks associated with payments being unsuccessful. If a process is therefore deemed as being too fluent in the absence of familiarity, this could lead to negative perceptions. The perception of risk is ultimately impacted by individual factors [ 80 ] with cognitive factors, such as media coverage [ 33 ] influencing the risk perception. However, affective factors [ 11 ] beyond the control of marketers may lead to the need to purposely decrease the level of fluency to decrease risk perceptions. A more fluent experience may therefore decrease the risk perception to the point where the experience becomes too fluent (too easy to use, perhaps paying for unintended items), and in the absence of familiar feedback elements, increasing risk perceptions.

3 Methodology

This research is exploratory, with inductive reasoning incorporating premises viewed as supplying evidence for the validity of the conclusion, with said validity being probable based on evidence provided [ 17 , 52 ]. The study has been designed to get insights into the current state of technology as well as perspectives on the process of the consumer experience using a qualitative approach [ 79 ]. Collection of data was undertaken by conducting semi-structured interviews to keep the respondents on topic, but a pre-determined list of questions was not actively pursued to allow the respondents to explore the topics deemed to be important to them [ 49 ]. The structure of the questions was derived on the basis of the literature review, with additional items iteratively added as interviews progressed [ 49 ]. The initial intent was to conduct these interviews either online (based on geographical constraints) or face-to-face, with a preference to conducting face-to-face interviews given research on methodological approaches had highlighted face-to-face interviews to be more effective to ensure validity and rigour [ 52 , 56 ]. Extensive ethics considerations gave (potential) respondents more confidence in the research, particularly given representatives from large companies were invited to take part in this research [ 52 ]. The definition of mobile payment systems was focused on physical retail-based mobile payments applications, which might consist of ApplePay, Google-/Android-Pay, WeChatPay or Alipay.

A purposive sampling approach was applied [ 52 ], with known international mobile payment technology creators, all major international retail banks operating in New Zealand and large nationwide merchants with physical locations invited to participate in this research. Different means of contact have been tested [ 52 ], [ 67 ], notably commencing with (more) established methods including to formally write to companies followed by connecting to key people in specific companies through LinkedIn and Facebook as described in Table  1 . The initial intent was to commence the data collection with technology creators with concerns that facilitators (banks) would be less likely to participate due to privacy reasons [ 38 ]. As the data collection commenced, facilitators (banks) were willing to participate, with technology creators hesitant to take part in formal interviews due to concerns relating around disclosing sensitive information, while merchants were otherwise occupied with issues relating to lengthy store closures associated with Covid19 lockdowns. The data collection commenced in early 2020, a time when free movement was considerably restricted due to Covid19 lockdowns. Therefore, all interviews took place online, however these interviews were as close to being face-to-face interviews as possible with the video function switched on and sessions recorded [ 20 ]. Interviews were held in a well-lit and quiet space with due care placed on the camera angle to ensure the video was clear, there being no interruptions and to have the ability to project body language and facial expression. Options were offered to participants on their preference of videoconferencing tool with selections stated in Table  1 , as some participants had objections towards some platforms due to privacy concerns. There is a possibility that participants might have felt more comfortable to share details while being in the comfort of their own home providing reprieve from what was a difficult situation being confined to one’s home for long periods of time [ 20 ]. Theoretical saturation was determined to have been reached after an initial analysis of the interviews with twelve participants [ 75 ]. The research incorporated responses from twelve industry experts: four representatives from mobile payment technology creators, five representatives from facilitators (banks/payment processors) and three representatives from major merchants.

Interviews ranged from 60 to 90 min in length for mobile technology creators and facilitators, with merchant interviews lasting an average of 40 min. All interviews were voice recorded following signed consent [ 13 ] having been received from each respondent prior to the commencement of each scheduled interview. Following the interview, the recordings were uploaded to an artificial intelligence application [ 61 ] that did an initial transcription followed by the interviewer going through the generated transcript and comparing it verbatim to the recording. The transcript was anonymised and sent to the respective interviewee for checking and (signed) approval [ 13 ].

4 Findings and analysis

All transcripts were analysed for word frequencies using nVivo and read repeatedly, followed by a thematic analysis and a code-recode procedure to ensure dependability of data [ 21 ]. Each transcript was analysed and coded using key user experience and fluency themes from the literature, with similar terms then cross-referenced across transcripts along with further read-throughs to determine sub-themes. Five themes were identified, consisting of risk, value, fluency, familiarity, and sensory cues. As part of the interviews, sequences were identified on what is required in order to attain next steps on the basis of which the findings are portrayed.

4.1 Making designed experiences usable

The need to have a simplified offering was identified, with respondents affirming that the focus needs to be on creating an experience that is superior to that of the incumbent. The design of mobile payment technology centres around what consumers deem as necessary when compared to competing offerings, while making that process as simple as possible. “ For us, it was the product itself which motivated people to use it, and then it just came down to—we did user testing, core user experience and made it simple, made it really as simple a process as you can.” (Technology Creator 3, November 2020). If there are numerous alternative means of payment available, the question is whether ‘pulling out’ a phone and tapping it on the terminal is easier or simpler then ‘pulling out’ a card and tapping it on the terminal. Therefore, there is a need to simplify the process, while attempting to make it a pleasurable experience, with the trade-off between simplicity versus adding functions favouring simplicity in the early stages. Technology creators highlighted the need for more functionality and adding features to their mobile payment offering. However, the consensus was to initially opt for a simpler design while adding more services to the application as users familiarise themselves with the experience and processes being perceived as fluent, which will ultimately make the experience more useable.

For the process to be deemed as fluent, the system would need to entail less friction when compared to the incumbent, notably card payments through a terminal with no requirement for a pin or signature. One aspect to this is the perceived usability, whereby cognitive effort influences the extent to which the process is being perceived as fluent [ 2 ]. A reduction of cognitive effort is universally described by respondents to decrease friction, which in turn makes the process more fluent. Frictions were identified by respondents from the sign-up process to the actual payment process noting that, “There’s a small amount of effort, although Apple Pay and Google pay have done a lot of work to try to remove the friction from doing that initial signup.” (Facilitator 1, May 2020). As part of the sign-up process, the key focus is on simplification but there being a legal requirement to ‘KYC’ (know your customer) to comply with anti-money laundering regulations, potentially leading to a decrease in affect and an increased (perception of) usability.

The simplification of processes in most instances is likely to be perceived only on the basis of a process being familiar and therefore of the technology creators emulating a process that users are familiar with [ 82 ]. Technology creators affirmed the importance of this with the need to have a familiar process as a means to facilitate for a frictionless (fluent) experience with one respondent noting; “so, when our product is released, it’s not all completely foreign and there are some familiar aspects of it.” (Technology Creator 1, July 2020). Similarly, technology creators that utilise the QR code approach to mobile payments talked about how government instigated applications that allow for virtual check-ins for physical sites, such as for retailers, have the ability to drive adoption on the basis of users becoming familiar with the process. One respondent highlighted how; “through Covid, we’re kind of learning that people don’t like QR codes, but they’re begrudgingly doing it. I think it’ll become a familiar process.” (Technology Creator 2, September 2020). There is however the question to what extent learnings of behaviour that have a negative sentiment to it influences the willingness of using such processes in the future with positive outcomes in terms of attitude. [ 48 ] have suggested that negative attitudes were a larger predictor towards future use compared to positive predictors. Facilitators and merchants focused on the actual payment process as opposed to components as part of mobile payment technology, noting the fact that willingness to use mobile payment technology is centred around a change in mindset, with muscle memory largely driving the need to use a process that for most consumers has been commonplace to reach for a wallet to make a payment. Specifically, one respondent noted that; “we’re conscious that consumers just have a preference, [and] some people will by muscle memory take their card out.” (Merchant 1, October 2020).

An effectively designed experience will lead to a more usable payment experience.

4.2 Making usable experiences desirable

To reduce complexity as part of mobile applications, responses from interviewees centred around the need for increased integration with supplementary aspects that are part of a payment. The thought process on that basis focuses on reducing frictions on the entire payment process as opposed to reducing friction on the payment mode only. When referring to mobile payments, most respondents mentioned that there is slightly more friction notably on the number of steps as well as the sign-up process in using a mobile payment as opposed to using the nearest alternative being tap-and-go cards, with respondents specifying that this disincentivises the use of mobile payments. Other considerations on that are that additional convenience is yielded by the user already having their phone in their hand (as opposed to their card) with the payment process being a fluent (learnt) experience with most users having experienced tap-and-go technology. The key determination centres on the fact that in most instances, mobile payments incorporate debit/credit cards to be ‘loaded’ onto the phone, hence the payment means being identical, with only the form differing. All respondents mentioned that there is a need to extent the value offering beyond just facilitating payments to drive adoption and the perception of value.

One key aspect to that are issues related to the user still having to use their wallet for loyalty card with all research participants concurring for there to be a need to integrate loyalty cards into a successful mobile payment app in order to ensure the adoption of mobile payments, highlighting a need to decrease cognitive effort in order to increase willingness to use a certain technology. “Yes, you can do the loyalty integration and everything but if your core functionality which is payments already has more friction, than the incumbent and you try to take on the incumbent then… it doesn’t quite make sense in my head.” (Technology Creator 2, September 2020). Further comments centred around there not being a real incentive to use mobile payments given other components are needed that are stored in the wallet including loyalty cards and identification making the wallet indispensable. Notably, facilitators and merchants spoke of the potential relating to simplified payment processes that is frictionless with the integration of all aspects relating to the payment process integrating multiple steps with one participant stating, “I actually see, the most powerful part that the phone brings is this whole authentication and once we have genuine digital identities, then there is no need for the wallet.” (Facilitator 4, January 2021). Every technology creator that took part in this study mentioned that they have aspects incorporated into their payment offering that go beyond traditional payment means or are working on incorporating such considerations including included ‘buy now pay later’ options, open-banking, additional security features, facial recognition to verify users, the integration of loyalty cards into apps, social aspects to make the payment experience more of a social experience as well as numerous aspects to gamify mobile payment applications. Similarly, facilitators and retailers who partook in this study mentioned there was a need thereof to ensure uptake.

A usable experience will lead to a more desirable experience.

4.3 Payment feedback

Respondents affirmed the importance of payment feedback partially due to (social) risk perceptions that payments were not successful with specifically facilitators noting the perceived risk of the transaction not going through with one respondent noting; “How do you know that you’ve paid apart from the merchant saying, you’ve paid, it’s good, off you go. What are the other methods? So, we have to think about that from a usability perspective.” (Facilitator 3, June 2020). Therefore, feedback is critical, with facilitators noting potential social factors and a general unwillingness to ensure repeated use if there are issues with the payment, including the need to use an alternative means of payment. Receiving a notification that the payment has been successful has the potential to make payment processes perceived as more fluent by means of consumer confidence as the confirmation has been obtained that the process is complete with the sensory experience adding an emotionally stimulating experience [ 7 ], [ 18 ]. Favourable comments have been made by respondents, notably on the audio feedback playing a familiar sequence of tones, leading to a familiar experience when paying, adding to the favourable affective perception towards the payment experience. “Everybody loved the little Ding that your phone makes when the payment is processed. And the same on the watch, and the way it vibrates as well. So that was, I think, sort of part of really the actual payment experience, like people really appreciated that.” (Facilitator 2, May 2020). This point was reiterated extensively by merchants, who noted the positive effects of audio signatures, how this contributes towards feelings of familiarity and how this leads to positive emotions; if you use Apple Pay a lot you get accustomed to the Apple Pay ‘Ding’, and there must be some research that says it does, because MasterCard are working on their own audio signature.” (Merchant 1, October 2020). This supports the notion of designing familiar experiences, with a supplementary auditory sensory experience that supports visual perceptions [ 93 ] to convert experiences that serve a functional purpose into one that is an enjoyable affective experience.

Most respondents commented on the salience of visual feedback over audio and haptic feedback. Particularly technology creators believed that users want to see the process and what the current status of the transaction is, while facilitators believed users just want to see whether the transaction has gone through or not with merchants more skewed towards sensory experiences and enhancing the touchpoint experience the user has. There is therefore somewhat of a divergence between functionality and enjoyment, with one respondent acknowledging that different experiences would suit differing requirements; “Sound, vision and vibration are all methods that can be used to do that, as long as we get high levels of customers knowing what happened in a manner that suits them.” (Facilitator 1, May 2020). However, facilitators affirmed that, especially with future innovation involving proximity payments, haptics would be invaluable, as phones do not need to be taken out. “Part of the benefit of what we did with proximity payments and with the camera payments is that you don’t actually have to take your device out of your pocket. So therefore, how do you know that you’ve paid apart from the merchant saying, you’ve paid, it’s good, off you go.” (Facilitator 3, June 2020). This is likely to become more relevant as payments disappear into the background, becoming a less conscious consideration based on consumer acceptance, therefore being able to increase the fluency of the payment process. Users may therefore no longer hold their phones in their hand, as the augmented experience supersedes the visual experience. This becomes increasingly relevant as experiences such as those witnessed through (automated) cashier-less stores such as Amazon Go (Polacco and Backes, 2018), which do not actively involve a phone, whereby an audio and/or haptic cue replaces the acknowledgment of either a physical person or other visible cues.

Multisensory payment feedback will make an experience a more usable experience.

4.4 Security and the perception of risk

All respondents affirmed that the use of mobile payments leads to a more secure experience (to the incumbent), given the additional layer of security that requires biometrics. As to whether this might translate into an increased uptake, responses varied ranging from the consideration that users have nothing to gain from added security; “Some people would, some people don't really care about security, they care more about convenience. I think there's also a perception that well, if there's fraud on my account, then the bank would’- and it's not your fault—then the bank will set me right.”, (Facilitator 2, May 2020) to the fact that some users would be willing to conduct additional steps to attain a higher perception of security. There is a significant trade-off between designing a simple process and reducing the amount of risk. Participants of the research highlighted that although there is one additional step when using mobile payments, the step is to scan the users’ finger (or face), which leads to reduced risk, something that research participants assumed (potential) users are willing to do to mitigate risks. Although the process has been designed to increase the perception of (financial) security, a threshold seems to have been reached, where increased security will be detrimental to the overall experience [ 84 ]. Respondents supported this notion stating that an entirely frictionless experience is quite feasible making the process fluent with the phone intrinsically ‘knowing’ the user “… by the speed that you walk, by the way we type into it. Obviously, there's the biometrics, there's all sorts of capabilities that the phone can say, this is not just one factor, or two factor transactions, we could build five or six factors into really effective mobile payment’, and it's almost certain that it is you.” (Facilitator 4, January 2021). One technology creator explained how a completely frictionless (fluent) experience is perfectly feasible using facial recognition technology in-store. A technology creator outlined results of a trial conducted on that with confusion and concerns arising due to the process having been too easy, with the need to either have processes in place to explain to the user (live) what security measures are currently being applied or to insert a physical step, which ultimately increases friction but decreases perceived risk. Numerous comments from respondents centred around the trade-off between risk and fluency, the need for ‘physical assurance’ and means to decrease risk perceptions as summarised in Table  2 .

Facilitators commented on social risks noting the need for fluency, supporting earlier arguments on this to keeping the process simple and focused, potentially at the expense of added value. Key considerations are the need to avoid embarrassment, which respondents feared would happen should the transaction not be fluent if there was a lack of understanding of the process. Respondents feared that should there be an occurrence where the process does not work in at least one of the earlier attempts, users would not continue to use the payment method long term, negatively influencing the outcome. This highlights the need for ensuring the process is right from the outset, while reiterating the need for familiar components to be built into the process to increase fluency as a means to attain positive experiences. Further, respondents highlighted established product adoption processes sighting early adopters utilising mobile payments, leading to the normalisation on the use of technology. It is therefore likely that as the technology is being utilised more frequently, social risk turns from consumers not willing to use a certain technology due to the risk of failing, to feeling the need to use a certain technology to conform to social cohesion and move in synchrony. This is likely to be at a notable turning point when the technology is widely available and considered to be more superior to existing technology, particularly relating to time taking to transact. At this point, the utilisation of older technology would slow down processes leading to non-users being perceived as disrupting societal fluency.

Familiar elements will make a usable experience more desirable.

A fluent experience will decrease perceived risk making the experience more desirable.

An experience deemed as too fluent will increase perceived risk making the experience less desirable.

5 Proposed mobile payment user experience design model

A proposed model of the mobile payment user experience (Fig.  1 ) is partially derived from an existing model using useability, usefulness and desirability [ 76 ]. The proposed sequence of design as an antecedent to useability has been widely supported as per the interview responses, with simplicity in design being the key driver. Representatives from technology creators stressed the need for simplicity to make the experience useable with considerations on enhancing the aesthetic experience deemed important but not a primary goal. Considerations on aesthetics further enhance value, which is a critical step to further increase the usefulness of the experience. Similarly, respondents concluded that sensory elements, including visual elements, are a major part of the design consideration, making it key to increase useability for an experience, and consequently, sensory elements are shifted from increasing useability to being part of the design. Key considerations as part of the sensory elements include replicating elements the user has already been exposed to (such as commonly recognised confirmation sounds and images. making the process more fluent [ 69 , 70 ], leading to elements of familiarity (priming) proposed as a moderator. This therefore suggests that usability increases as payment confirmation is yielded through an auditory or haptic confirmation on the basis of classical conditioning. Respondents to this research contend that the visual affirmation of payment completion is key, with other sensory elements such as audio to increase in importance as technology evolves. with the eventuality of no longer needing to physically hold a phone. Refinement of sensory elements in conjunction with elements not yet incorporated would therefore be critical as a means to increase desirability.

Proposed mobile payment user experience design model

If the experience is effectively designed, usability increases with ease of use and processing fluency, which was a key part of each interview with respondents affirming the importance of a frictionless experience aided by design considerations. An experience with less friction is constructed based on both simplicity and elements that do not just rely on only one sense [ 65 ]. The frictionless experience and associated habitual motor responses [ 89 ] through stimulating learnt experiences further mitigate the need for familiarity as a moderator with this element instead incorporated into the main framework. As propositioned and affirmed by respondents, ease of use will lead to an increase in desirability towards the technology, as was there an affirmation that should a process be too fluent, this will ultimately lead to technology being perceived as more risky and less usable, and ultimately less useful [ 95 ]. However, this is likely mitigated based on elements that make experiences usable and desirable, such as facial or fingerprint verification replacing PIN codes, with processes becoming more familiar through repeated exposure creating familiarity. Therefore, risk considerations are eased on the basis of simplicity of design leading to a useable experience, which is enhanced with features, leading to increased affect as users become familiar with processes.

Respondents affirmed an eagerness to build more features into mobile payment platforms with suggestions to increase desirability in such platforms incorporating identification, loyalty cards as well as other elements that align with payments. There were also suggestions that elements relating to security could be simplified significantly without compromising actual security. In order to take these steps to increase value, there is a need to align this with increased exposure in order to not compromise desirability and usability. Finding a balance between complexity and desirability [ 74 ] in experience design can positively impact user perceptions towards the experience.

5.1 Theoretical implications

This study offers important implications for theory by yielding insights from key stakeholders on design considerations, to determine divergences between real life reflections and those drawn based on academic research. This includes a triangulation of responses from key stakeholders that operate in different positions in the value chain. The result was a study that provides a holistic ‘behind the scenes’ view garnering insights from key stakeholders that are part of the creation of the experience, implementation, delivery, or a combination thereof. The continually developing mobile payment market presents theoretical and practical opportunities to investigate aspects beyond initial adoption behaviours with a focus on assessments as the market starts to mature.

The study extends on extant mobile payment research beyond initial adoption behaviour of mobile payment applications with theoretical insights from technology adoption models [ 22 , 46 ]. Instead, the study proposes a new technology design framework on the basis of experience design theory [ 6 , 50 , 76 ] using fluency theory as a starting point. As part of the framework, it is proposed that users are attracted to technology because of a simple experience that is complemented by sensory elements to create a familiar experience. Along with the intent of making an experience easy to use, the importance of decreasing frictions has been established. This aligns with established theory [ 15 , 86 ] and extends on early research by [ 26 ] and Rotliman and Schwarz [ 73 ] suggesting that those who were more likely to consider themselves at having high risk perceptions were less likely to rely on ease of use. However as was suggested by Winkielman et al. in [ 95 ], this study proposes to find a balance in not excessively focusing on a frictionless experience to assure the user of perceived security measures. This research proposes the need to restrict features and potentially temporarily increase frictions to get users acquainted to the technology prior to implementing a more frictionless process.

The study also extends on user experience design literature and research on the processing fluency theory of aesthetic pleasure which align well given there are numerous complementary angles. Fluency theory as well as user experience design look into the interactions between a user/viewer and an object with a focus on prototypicality [ 69 , 70 , 90 ]. While user experience design literature explores interaction designs between users and products with a focus on test results rather than aesthetic preferences and opinions [ 96 ], fluency theory incorporates hedonic considerations incorporating affective qualities as well as aesthetic appreciations to make evaluative judgements [ 69 , 70 ]. This is particularly useful when looking at what is currently in place versus what is possible going forward, as repeated exposure helps make the experience more desirable allowing for more feature-rich designs in line with an increase in familiarity.

5.2 Managerial implications

As to how experiences should be designed and possible perceptions towards said (designed) experiences are an ongoing challenge not just for mobile payment applications but technology in general. This is particularly relevant as demand for contactless payments increase for which mobile payments play a major role. Contactless transactions increased significantly in 2020 with further increases expected due to ongoing Covid19 fears along with more terminals enabled to accept contactless payments as a result of increased consumer demand [ 60 ]. Reasons cited as to why consumer uptake on mobile payments remained slow for some include the experience not being seamless and experiences being inconsistent, no incentives offered, the infrastructure not being in place, security concerns as well as ingrained consumer behaviour [ 54 ]. Therefore, to encourage consumers to switch. a superior payment experience needs to be in place that considers security, learnt behaviour as well as offering value that supersedes current offerings to consumers. Initial design considerations revolve around the extent of value offered in order to create a superior experience versus keeping the experience simple, representing a trade-off between attracting users on the basis of features versus ensuring the experience is usable. Respondents to this research affirmed that there are extensive opportunities to broaden services around mobile payments including opportunities to incorporate identification, loyalty cards and other reasons to use a wallet into a mobile payment application. However, this would increase complexity with this research proposing that processes are to be kept simple and requiring exposure to create (learnt) consumer habits. This may well be complemented by sensory elements that stimulate familiar elements of past experiences leading to the perception that the experience is easy to use. As existing elements become more familiar, value can be added, which is something that has taken place across new mobile offerings over the years. Notably, other mobile based technology utilised similar processes starting from simplicity to feature-rich applications that might be unrecognisable to early users [ 55 ].

Another key consideration that entails a trade-off is the need to have a seamless experience while adhering to security concerns. As part of this study, respondents stated that a truly frictionless experience is perfectly feasible as was outlined by respondents representing technology creators whereby users can order food and leave with said food without touching their phone or other means of payment with charges taking place automatically. Results from these experiments were that consumers felt uncomfortable and confused as to whether the payment took place leading to artificial friction with consumers returning to check if they had paid and remaining in the vicinity of the store until the payment confirmation had been received. Similarly, one respondent stated that there really is no need for passwords or security aspects relating to payment confirmations given due to machine learning, a phone could identify the user based on how the phone is picked up, how the user moves and how the user utilises the phone. Therefore, an entirely frictionless experience is perfectly feasible, however may lead to security concerns hence requiring creating friction to assure the user of perceived security measures.

To successfully implement the proposed mobile payment user experience design model (Fig.  1 ), there is a need to have an interactive mobile payment platform with an intuitive payment process, including a complementary combination of visual, audio, and haptic sensory elements. The sensory elements can be key to evoking a feeling of familiarity, be it in relation to a familiar audio tune and/or a known haptic feedback alert. This decreases risk perceptions, making the experience more enjoyable (affective). Once there is significant adoption and familiarity has been established, value can be generated by adding further features, such as identification and loyalty cards, in order to make the experience more desirable.

5.3 Limitations and directions for future research

This research provides a platform for understanding perceptions from key stakeholders of the supply side and what considerations they think is important as part of the rollout of mobile payment technology. The main limitations of this study are around the relatively small sample size, restrictions being placed on what can be discussed due to confidentiality reasons as well as a number of companies not willing to take part in the research citing commercial sensitivity. However, although especially some larger technology creators were unwilling to take part in the research, due to the very small number of technology creators, a replication of the study would most likely not add significant added value as theoretical saturation had been achieved. Future research directions could include a consumer study to determine divergences between the intent of the supply side and perceptions of consumers. Overall, results of this research provide support for future research that seeks to look at consumer perceptions relating to fluency considerations particularly relating to risk and feedback in mobile technology. The rapid development of mobile technology allows for payments to disappear into the background entirely, allowing for a redesign of the shopping experience. Extensive consumer research is needed to determine what factors might be required to get consumers to this point using empirical research [ 91 ]. This could include structural equation modelling to determine interaction effects between the elements, and potentially multigroup modelling to distinguish varying impacts of familiarity and/or risk on consumer perceptions of current processes. Experimental testing could be used to determine the extent to which users perceive process fluency, or to determine how consumer perception is altered as features are added.

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Mahler, M., Murphy, A. Risk of desirable user experiences: insights from those who create, facilitate and accept mobile payments. Electron Commer Res (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10660-024-09835-4

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Accepted : 16 March 2024

Published : 15 April 2024

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1007/s10660-024-09835-4

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Research: How Ratings Systems Shape User Behavior in the Gig Economy

• Arne De Keyser,
• Christophe Lembregts,
• Jeroen Schepers

A study reveals surprising differences between displaying an average score or individual reviews.

Platform providers typically display ratings information to the user in two ways. Incremental rating systems, employed by platforms like TaskRabbit and Airbnb, offer a detailed view by listing and often providing insights into every individual review score. Averaged rating systems, used by platforms such as Uber, Lyft, and DoorDash, present an overall score that aggregates all individual ratings. Over a series of nine experiments, researchers found that the way low ratings are communicated shapes user experience and behavior in a number of ways. Their findings offer implications for companies choosing between incremental or average ratings systems.

Rating systems, integral to the platform economy, profoundly influence human behavior and choice. Platforms like Uber, Airbnb, Turo, and Upwork rely on these systems not just as reflections of past performance, but as proactive tools for ensuring quality and encouraging proper conduct on both sides of a transaction from service providers (such as drivers and hosts) and users (like riders and guests).

• AK Arne De Keyser is a professor of marketing at EDHEC Business School. His research focuses on customer experience, frontline service technologies, and circular services.
• CL Christophe Lembregts is an associate professor of marketing at RSM Erasmus University. His research focuses on facilitating informed decision-making by investigating responses to quantitative information.
• JS Jeroen Schepers is an associate professor of frontline service and innovation at Eindhoven University of Technology. His research centers on frontline employees, artificial intelligence, and service robots.

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