Alexis Abakasanga

Day 13: UX Research Methods Every Designer Needs to Know

Quantitative data = Fixed, Qualitative data = Open-Ended

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Alexis Abakasanga
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Table of contents

User Research

This is the process of gathering insights about your users to make smart design decisions. With the right method, we would learn about the user's needs, goals, and pain points to validate and invalidate our assumptions and continuously test the usability of our design.

User research is the process of understanding the impact of design on an audience - Mike Kuniaysky

Types of User Research

Data gathered through user research falls into four dimensions: Qualitative, Quantitative, Attitudinal, and Behavioral.

  1. Qualitative Research: This seeks to delve deeper into the user's behavior and how they feel about a product or experience.

  2. Quantitative Research: This allows us to compare different designs and determine if one version is better than the other.

  3. Attitudinal Research: This helps us understand people's stated beliefs and their motivations for using a particular product.

  4. Behavioral Research: This looks at what people do in a given situation, and tends to rely on direct observation of the user.

User Research Techniques

  1. User interviews: These focus on people's perceptions of a product or process, and can be conducted at various stages throughout the design process.

  2. Card sorting: This is used to evaluate or determine the information architecture of a product or system. This shows us how we might organize a website or app for maximum user-friendliness.

  3. Surveys and questionnaires: These are used to reach a large number of participants, and are ideal for collecting lots of data by asking open-ended or closed questions.

  4. A/B testing: This is used to compare two different versions or design options to see which performs better.

  5. Diary studies: These are an effective way of gathering first-hand insights.

Why UX Research is Important

  1. To create a product that is truly relevant to users.

  2. To create a product that is easy and pleasurable to use.

  3. Helps develop clarity around a project.

Assessment

While using a resource for today, I found these and would like to answer them to test myself. Please feel free to participate and share your answers in the comments section.

  1. You are designing an app from scratch and want to learn as much as possible about your target users.

Answer: I will use user interviews to learn about my users' needs, pain points, and why they would use the app.

  1. You’ve been working on a redesign of your website homepage, and you want to test how user-friendly it is. You’d also like to compare it to the original design to see which version performs better.

Answer: I will use A/B testing to compare the existing and new redesigns to see which performs better.

  1. You’d like to gather as much data as possible about people’s experiences with dating apps, but you need to research on a very small budget.

Answer: I will use surveys and questionnaires because we are on a very small budget.

References

Thank you for reading my article. I'd love to know your answers to the assessment in the comments section. Thank you, and have a great day 👋🏽

60daysUXchallengeProduct DesignUser Researchux design