What is User Experience (UX) Research, and What’s Its Purpose?
What Is User Experience (UX) Research?
UX Research is mostly about context. It is used to gain a better understanding of how consumers use/consume/experience various marketing efforts such as products, websites, and mobile apps. Qualtrics defines User Experience (UX) Research as “the process of discovering the behaviors, motivations, and needs of your customers through observation, task analysis, and other types of user feedback.” Ultimately, UX research is about understanding the user experience to enhance the design process to design with the end-user in mind. This research helps us as marketers to determine who that end-user is and in what context they will use the product or service, so we are able to design the product or service to meet the user’s needs. It is about gathering the necessary data to properly synthesis and improve user ability.
What’s the Purpose of UX Research?
UX research assists businesses in accomplishing an understanding of the user experience with new products, websites, and mobile apps. Having this knowledge and understanding of the user experience benefits companies and brands by allowing them to make informed decisions throughout the development process. It serves as an essential foundation of a design strategy. It provides the opportunity to optimize your product to meet the needs of your consumers and deliver a pleasant user experience.
How is UX Research Conducted?
When conducting UX Research, it is essential to consider your objectives, hypothesis, research methods, how you will conduct your research, and how you plan to synthesize your data to make improvements. Read more about these categories below:
Objectives:
Establishing clear research objectives will allow you to formulate a plan and determine what exactly you need to learn about your user’s needs. You can establish your research objectives by using the research objective recipe.
The Recipe:
“Conduct a(n)_____(1)______ among ____(2)_______ to learn about ____(3)_____ as measured by ____(4)_____.”
- Research tool
- Research audience
- Main idea of the research (the construct)
- Types of questions to be asked
Hypothesis:
What do you think the result of your research will be? What do you THINK you know about your consumers? How do you foresee this research/experiment ending up? What do you predict will happen?
Research Methods:
It is essential to consider the research method you will utilize to obtain the data you require to meet your objectives. The method of research you conduct will depend on many factors, including the amount of time you have to conduct your research, the experience you are developing, and the audience.
Will you use quantitative or qualitative data? Will you conduct interviews, surveys, questionnaires, usability tests, or A/B tests? There are many ways to conduct UX research, and every UX project is different, so it is important to consider your research method wisely to select the one that is best suited for your research needs.
Synthesizing Your Data:
Synthesizing your data is arguably the most important part of UX research. If you don’t synthesize your data correctly, then your research efforts were pointless. To prevent this from happening, it is essential to select an analysis technique that uses the collected data to meet your objectives, challenge your hypothesis, utilizes your research methods, and provides useful insights. Then, use the insights to inform, design, understand user patterns, and identify solutions to make valid recommendations for improvement.
In conclusion, user experience (UX) research allows us as marketers to make more informed marketing decisions using the research we need to back them. Conducting this research will save you time and money so, next time you launch a new marketing campaign, website, mobile app, or another user experience-driven marketing effort, you should conduct the necessary research before launching to ensure your marketing efforts will be well received and successful. If you are interested in learning more about user experience (UX) research or need assistance in developing a new project, contact us for a consultation so we can help you meet your goals and objectives!
