Relationship between market research and design research

Abdullah Al Noman
Jul 25, 2017 · 2 min read

The most of great significance thing for user experience to know is when marketing research is needed, and when user experience research is needed.

If you understand how these two methodologies work together through a product lifecycle, you will be able to work effectively with marketing departments. You can reveal the value of including user experience research in their projects because you are able to explain how it complements the market research they are already manage.

Market research typically relies on subjective, self-reported data, which has its restrictions. Market research is good for getting user reactions to an existing product, but isn’t very useful in identifying innovation opportunities. At best, market research only uncovers incremental improvements of an existing solution.

Market research tends to involve large numbers and large samples. It focuses on what people will buy. It focuses on what people say, rather than what they do

User research, on the other hand, focuses on understanding the behavioral aspects of the users and more accurately identifies their needs. This research drives specific design decisions by determining how people will use a product and how to control user interactions via the interface design.

Market research provides a general direction to investigate, but user research more accurately drives UX design decisions.

Market Research vs. User Research

  • Wants vs. Needs
  • Reactive vs. Proactive
  • Progressive vs. Innovative
  • Time Consuming vs. Quick
  • Unusual vs. Iterative
  • Subjective vs. Objective
  • Direction vs. Design

User experience research is not about markets, trends, what people say they will buy, demographics, or how the market can be segmented apart or analyzed

It sounds like market research and user experience research are definitely distinct disciplines. But, there seems to be a lot of interplay between them, as well as between the professionals in those fields.

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