Conducting a UX Research Study. — The dos and the don’ts.

A Research study is a step-by-step examination of a group of users and their needs, and this examination adds a realistic context to the design process.

There are 4 steps in UX Research Study:

1. Planning the study.

In this phase, you need to outline the background for the project, set goals for the research you are going to conduct, write questions that are going to e asked during the research process, clearly outline and establish steps to be taken to conduct the study, select the people who will participate in the study.

2. Conducting the Research.

Data is gathered using A usability study which is a Research Method that assesses how easy it is for users to complete core tasks in a design.

The goal of a usability study is to identify pain points that users experience with your design so that the issues can be fixed before the final product launches.

3. Analyze and Synthesize the results.

This involves finding actual meaning in the data. It seeks to figure out why the data is the way it is and also looks for patterns in the quantitative data and explores trends in the qualitative data which comes from participants’ answers to the interview questions.

4. Share and promote the insight.

The analyzed results are then shared with the Project stakeholders. Stakeholders are people who are involved in the project or who will be impacted by its results. This is done through a Research presentation which should contain: Methods, Data, Conclusions and Recommendations. As a UX Researcher, you ought to pick up the skill of presentation as it is going to come in handy during the many meetings you will have with stakeholders. In addition to presentation skills, negotiation skills are also essential.

Why conduct a UX Research Study?

· Helps gain an understanding of users’ problems to address and solve them.

· Bridges the gap between what a business thinks the user needs and what the user actually needs, before an expensive and time-consuming product is made.

Language and Communication in UX.

When conducting UX Research, you ought to be:

· Equitable

· Inclusive

· Neutral

· Honest

· A team player

The seven elements of a Research Plan.

1. Project Background. — Answers the question: What led you to conduct this research?

Importance of a good Project Background.

· The entire team will be on the same page on the beginning of the study.

· Shows that the team understands why they are conducting the research.

· Promotes confidence in the overall quality of your analysis and insights.

Steps to writing a Project Background.

· Identify signals that indicated the necessity of the research.

· Describe any previous research that has been conducted on the same.

· Draw up a list of insights that the research will generate. Insights are observations about people that help you to understand the user or their needs from a fresh perspective.

2. Research goals — Answers the questions: What design problems are you trying to solve? and how will the results of the research impact design decisions?

Developing Research Goals:

a. Foundational Research Goal- This happens before any aspect of design has been done and helps to understand why and if you should build the product.

b. Design Research Goal- This happens during the design phase and informs on how to build the product.

c. Post-Launch research Goal- This happens after the product has been launched and it seeks to understand if the product worked as expected.

3. Research Questions — These are the questions your research is trying to answer, take note that these are not questions to ask the participants.

Importance of Research Questions:

· They guide the research that is being conducted.

· The questions provide focus and structure for the entire research study.

· These questions will be the main topics you cover in your presentation. Remember one of the skills you ought to have as a UX Researcher is the skill of presentation.

Considerations when writing Research Questions:

a. The questions should be actionable.

b. The questions should be specific and not too broad.

c. Leading questions (that assume a specific answer) should be avoided.

4. Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) — These are defined as critical measures of progress toward an end goal.

Examples of KPIs:

a. Time on Task — The measure of how long a user takes to complete a task.

b. User error rates — This indicates the part of the design that causes users to make errors, for example clicking on a wrong button.

c. Drop-off rates — How many users quit before reaching the intended end-point / how many users abandon the experience?

d. Conversion Rates — The percentage of users that complete an intended action.

e. System Usability Scale — Questionnaire to measure the usability of a design. It is filled using a strongly agree to strongly disagree scale.

5. Methodology — Document the steps that will be used to collect the research insights and how data will be analyzed after it has been collected.

Why do you have to include methodology in your Research plan?

· It informs stakeholders of what will happen during the study, the duration and where the study will occur.

· Detailing your survey as a UX Researcher will give stakeholders more confidence in your study’s results because they can see all the steps you took.

· It ideally provides details that other researchers need to repeat the same study in the future.

6. Participants — While conducting the research, use study participants who are representative of all users, not just a select group which will lead to collecting biased insight.

Things to include in Participants:

a. A list of the primary characteristics of the people you will recruit to participate in the study.

b. A screener survey to ask potential participants questions to see if they meet your desired characteristics.

c. It is advisable to have incentives to thank participants for their time and feedback.

d. Engage participants with diverse perspectives and abilities for every product you design. This employs the aspect of inclusivity.

7. Script (discussion guide) — Make sure you script questions you will ask study participants as they test your product. These questions should be specific to the Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) you are trying to measure.

Why do you have to a use script/ discussion guide?

a. So that you don’t forget any instructions.

b. To keep the language consistent for each participant