Notes on UX Research Methods & Usability Testing (Nielson Norman Group)
User experience or UX plays a crucial role in ensuring your customers have a meaningful and relevant experience with your product. Although UX’s designing phase has received traction, there seems to be less attention to its research.
Several universities integrate usability testing and research into their curriculum. However, novices may not have access or have limited knowledge about the same. Furthermore, a common misconception about UX is that it refers to the design of the interface alone. UX design refers to the end-to-end process that researches, sketches, and tests various patterns and how they appeal to specific user groups.
“UX involves the design of the entire process of acquiring and integrating the product, including aspects of branding, design, usability, and function.” — Interaction Design Foundation [1]
Trying to understand how users respond to your product prior to rolling it out is paramount to its success. User-centric research also helps drive your business in the right direction. Several companies such as IBM, Apple, Microsoft & Grofers have begun adopting an agile mindset [2], which compliments usability testing [3].
Given below is an excellent playlist on UX research methods and usability testing that I recommend anyone fresh to the realm of UX to watch.
The playlist is published and maintained by the Nielsen Norman Group, a pioneer in the field of Research-Based User Experience.
You can find a website with notes on the subject here:
Download the Word or pdf format of the notes using the same link above.
