UX Research 101 (Part 1)
Just a few things you should know about UX research
What is UX research?
UX Research is pretty much what it sounds like… it’s research. It uses the same methods as other research, both qualitative and quantitative. UX researchers have borrowed a lot of the research methods they use from other industries who already have mastered research.
Why do we research?
One of the main goals of research in UX design is to empathize with our users. The more research our users, the more we can empathize with how they live and design for their needs. We can’t exactly design a solution for ourselves. I mean, we can but that really wouldn’t solve the problem you are trying to solve.
UX Research has two parts
Researching has two parts which include conducting research and gathering all the data, and then synthesizing that data to get some results you can base designs off of!
To start, you need to research the goals of your stakeholders and you need to learn both your user's wants and needs are. After that, you can go ahead and start conducting interviews, read the research already out there and collect surveys.
Quantitative vs. Qualitative
Quantitative Research: This is basically any research you can measure numerically. You are trying to see what is going on. It answers basic questions such as “how many people like this feature?” or any amount of percentages.
Some examples of quantitative research include:
- Surveys
- A/B testing
- Behavior tracking
- Analytics
- Server logs
Qualitative Research: This is answering more of the why is this happening? So you are going to gather information by observing your users in interviews and having more of a conversation trying to read people and why they do the things they do.
Some examples of qualitative research include:
- User interviews
- Stakeholder interviews
- Subject matter expert interviews
- Contextual inquiry
- Ethnography
- Focus groups
- Participatory design
That’s all for today! Stay tuned for part 2 of this research fun!
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