UX Research: a complete overview

In this article, we provide a complete overview of the tools, methods, and techniques used to conduct user experience research, which is often abbreviated as UX research. 

What is UX Research?

User experience (UX) research involves the usage of various research techniques with the aim of gaining insight into the behaviour, context, and underlying motives of the end user.
 

User experience (UX) research, also known as user research, is essential to UX design. It helps avoid decisions based on gut feelings and assumptions. In fact, UX research is so integral to UX design that you can’t effectively carry out UX design without it. In other words, if you are not doing the research you are not doing UX.

Different terms are used for user experience research: UX research and user research all refer to user experience (UX) research.

The benefits of user experience research

Conducting user experience research offers numerous advantages. The top five benefits are:

• Prevents steering on assumptions. Directly test your assumptions and hypotheses with participants from your target group to gain clarity.
• A better product. By testing a website, app or concept with the target group, you ensure that pain points and obstacles become clear and can be remedied.
• Strong business growth. Conducting UX Research often leads to improvements in the design or interface of a website or app. This is shown to increase customer satisfaction and conversion rates.  

• More satisfied end users. By engaging with (potential) customers, you not only demonstrate that their voices are heard but also ensure that your website or app is tailored to meet their needs.

How much does UX Research cost?

The costs of UX research depend on various factors such as the location of the study (remote or on-site), the level of research support needed as well as the research methods that are being used. In addition to this, there may be additional costs for recruiting participants. This means costs vary from 500 to 5000 euro depending on:

• Remote or on-site. In general, studies conducted on-site (e.g. in a lab or at an office) require more preparation and are therefore more expensive than studies that are conducted remotely via an all-in-one platform such User Sense. 
• Research support. You can either decide to conduct the study yourself or outsource this to a research agency. 
• Reseach methods. Of course, the chosen research technique also affects the costs. For example, sending out an online survey is often cheaper than conducting qualitative research (e.g. user tests or interviews). 
• Recruitment. Finally, you should also take into account the fact that recruiting respondents can be expensive, especially when you are looking for niche or hard to reach target groups. Prices

UX Research Dimensions

The research techniques used depend on the specific question being investigated. While user experience (UX) research is a relatively new field, many of its techniques have been around for a long time. These techniques can be categorized into two main dimensions: quantitative vs. qualitative and attitudinal vs. behavioral.

Quantitative and qualitative UX research

In quantitative user experience research, an attempt is made to make a statement about the entire population on the basis of a sample. This often requires large numbers.

Conducting quantitative UX research is often most appropriate when there are research questions that need to answer 'what', 'where', and 'when'.

In qualitative user experience research, the focus is more on the human side of the hard data by investigating underlying motivations and motives. Although the sample size is smaller than in quantitative research its value should not be underestimated.

Qualitative UX research does not look so much at what is happening, but at why certain behavior occurs. Research questions in qualitative UX research often answer questions such as 'why' and 'how'.

Attitudinal and behavioral UX research

Another way to break down the different UX research techniques is to see whether they are attitudinal or behavioral in nature.

Attitudinal research focuses on what people say, such as user interviews and focus groups. Behavioral research, on the other hand, looks at what users do. You can think of eye tracking, heat maps, or A/B tests.

UX Research Techniques and Tools

Now that it is clear which dimensions of UX research there are, we will help you on your way by giving a brief overview of the most common UX research techniques.  

(Un)moderated usability research

Chances are you've heard of usability or user testing before; it is one of the most well-known UX research techniques. During a usability test (on location or online), users are asked to use a website and think aloud. You can read more about conducting usability research on this page. Our favorite tool? You guessed it: that's User Sense.

Biometric UX research

Biometric UX research, also known as biometric research, provides insight into the subconscious behavior of users. Brain scans (often in the form of EEG), eye tracking and emotion recognition are used to make a statement about how users feel when using a website, app or prototype.

Heatmaps

With the help of heatmaps you can easily gain insight into what users do on a website. The rage clicks, click, heatmaps, and move heatmaps are often the most interesting. Common tools for this are Microsoft Clarity and Hotjar.

A/B testing

To find out whether a proposed adjustment (for example, resulting from usability research) actually has a positive impact, the use of A/B testing is very suitable. Commonly used tools for this are Google Optimize, Optimizely, and VWO .

Card sorting

Card sorting is a UX technique that can give you insight into how users expect information to be arranged on a website or app. During a card sorting survey, you can ask users to categorize items on a website into categories that make sense to them. This can be done online via, for example, the User Sense platform. 

Tree testing

Tree testing is a research method used to determine the extent to which users are able to find information quickly and easily. The navigation structure often follows after a card sorting study has been carried out, after which a tree test determines whether the new menu structure is indeed logical. These types of tests can be performed through User Sense. 

Online Surveys

Online surveys is another common research method that can be used to validate user needs or designs.  This UX technique is more quantitative in nature. You can use an online survey tool such as User Sense.

User interviews

User interviews are often conducted to gather more information about the target audience you want to reach. In-depth interviews are often used when conducting concept tests, where a new idea or concept is presented to the target audience.

To reach the target audience, UX researchers often work with a recruitment agency to recruit test users. To conduct in-depth interviews, you can use Microsoft Teams or Zoom – or a tool such as User Sense.

Focus Groups

UX researchers also use focus groups to collect additional information. These often take place offline, because that often works better than via a video call. Focus groups are often used early-stage in the UX Research process. 

Diary Study

In a diary study testers are asked to use a product or service over a longer period of time and to take notes in the meantime about how they experience it. Unlike many other research techniques, a diary study provides an overview of the user experience over a longer period of time.

What does a UX Researcher do?

A UX Researcher is - you guessed it - responsible for conducting UX research. In many organizations, this is a crucial function; the UX Researcher represents the voice of the end user, often making him or her the basis of major business or design decisions.

While every company is different, the tasks a UX Researcher performs are often broadly the same. UX Researchers often take care of the following research phases:

• Drafting the research questions. The UX Researcher's task is to summarize the issues into a well-defined main question and associated sub-questions in order to ultimately answer the main question.
• Choosing the right methodology (and UX tool). Once the research questions are clear, a UX Researcher will look for the most appropriate methodology and tool (and corresponding budget if necessary).
• Execute the research technique. In this phase, you know what research questions need to be answered and what methodology you are going to use. That means the fun part can begin: conducting the research with the target audience.
• Analyzing the research results. In this phase the research results are in and it is important to analyze the results in a transparent and structured way. This is with the aim of being able to easily deduce patterns after the analysis.  
• Writing UX research reports. Have you conducted the research and discovered patterns? Then it's a matter of summarizing the findings in a clear and to-the-point UX research report.

Because UX Research has grown significantly in popularity in recent years, you can see that many people who now work as UX researchers have entered from a different direction.

Still, more and more companies are now looking for UX'ers with demonstrable experience. Do you want to get started as a UX Researcher or designer yourself? Then it is advisable to follow a training course in this field, for example at the UX Design Institute.