UX Research and UX Design, What’s the Difference?

Whether you are new to the UX field or have been in the industry for a while, you must have come across some projects that specify UX design, some that specify UX research, and others that completely blur the line between the two. However, UX research and UX design are two different disciplines and it would be beneficial to distinguish each field. But first, we must understand their meanings.

UX research focuses on understanding a user’s behaviors, needs, and motivations through observation techniques, task analysis, and other feedback methodologies. Basically doing research on an audience’s interests.

On the other hand UX design is the process of designing (digital or physical) products that are useful, easy to use, and provide a positive experience for users. It makes sure people find value within your product by applying the results of UX research.

If the definitions are so basic, why can it be hard to differentiate between the two? Oftentimes when dealing with a project, there can be some overlap between the UX research and design processes. To differentiate between the two, it’s best to take a look at both roles separately.

UX Research

Before a UX designer can begin designing a project, a UX Researcher must understand who they are designing for. Who is the target market? What motivates them? How will the product improve their lives? Without these insights, it’s impossible to design a good product. Finding the answers to these questions is the role of a UX researcher.

What do UX researchers do?

To answer these questions, UX researchers employ a mix of quantitative (measurable) and qualitative (subjective) research to get to know a target market and understand consumer behavior.

Observation: They observe how one uses a product to better understand what people think of it. Does the user find it easy to use? Did their behavior reflect what the UX designer intended them to do?

Interviews: Conducting interviews provides an environment for the researcher to ask specific questions, engage in conversation, or just observe the participants in how they interact with the product.

User Surveys: UX researchers can also conduct online user surveys to get people’s thoughts on a product or website.

These methods of acquiring data can help a researcher distinguish pain points, or problems, many users seem to have. These pain points are then solved by UX designers through designing the final product.

Relevance

UX research is unbiased feedback which proves to be invaluable when it comes to a product. It can show any errors with a product before it even hits the shelves through feedback from consumers, allowing it to be designed correctly the first try instead of having to repeatedly fix problems customers are unhappy with.

UX Design

A UX designer’s job is to design a user-friendly product that addresses the needs of the consumer. Only after a UX designer has a firm grasp on the target market through the UX researcher’s fundings, can they begin the design process.

What do UX designers do?

When designing, a UX designer considers the user’s entire journey to solve a particular problem. What steps do they take? What tasks do they need to complete? How straightforward is the experience? Much of their work focuses on finding a solution for pain points users come up against through the form of a product. They’ll then map out the user’s journey across a product, considering things like how the content is organized and labelled across a product and what kinds of features the user might need.

Eventually, they’ll create wireframes which set out the bare-bones blueprints for the product. Wireframes show others how the product will function and help others envision how the final product will look.

Finally, they will create a prototype, which is a simulation of the final product. The goal of a prototype is to test the flow of design and gather feedback from both internal and external parties before the final product is built. This is something the UX researcher can help with. Prototypes are fluid and can be edited based on user feedback.

Relevance

UX design is one of the main ways to increase usage of a product as it captivates the audience and persuades them to stay. A successful UX design fulfills a user’s needs by providing a positive experience.

Overall the biggest difference is that UX research focuses more on finding the purpose of the product by communicating with users to understand their needs while UX design primarily focuses on creating a product that solves the user’s problems.

Understanding these differences as well as their importance is key to becoming a well rounded designer.