Top UX Research Methods – Uncovered for Faster Insights

Every successful product has a great user experience (UX).

As Kat Holmes, former Director of Inclusive Design at Microsoft, explains, “Inclusive design starts with understanding people who use technology in unexpected ways. UX research helps us uncover those stories and build products for everyone.”

Microsoft uses UX research, and you should, too. But first, you need to know how to conduct UX research and the top research methods. 

We’ve got you covered — we’ll guide you through why UX research is essential, the 9 most used UX research methods, and how to pick the one that fits your needs most.

Let’s dive in!

TL;DR – UX Research Methods and Techniques

Here’s a quick rundown of the top UX research methods we will explore further in the blog:

1. User interviews
2. Usability testing
3. Prototype testing
4. Tree testing
5. Card sorting
6. Diary studies
7. Eye tracking
8. Surveys
9. System Usability Scale (SUS Scores)

Once you use these research methods to collect data, what’s next? You should turn that raw data into meaningful insights to create and improve designs that satisfy your users.

HeyMarvin makes that possible.

HeyMarvin is an AI research tool for note-taking and qualitative data analysis. It is a centralized repository that allows you to quickly share data with your stakeholders, identify sentiments and themes, and collaborate with your team effortlessly.

So, don’t just collect data; transform it into actionable insights with HeyMarvin. Sign up for a free account today!

What Is UX Research and Why Does It Matter?

UX research is the process and steps researchers and the product team take to understand users’ desires, preferences, needs, and behaviors.

It matters because it:

• Supports Decision-Making with Data: UX research can provide data that informs the features to prioritize and improvements to make. This information can then be used to create a product that is easy to use and functional, resulting in the highest user satisfaction and customer retention.
• Helps Create User-Centric Experiences: You can gain insights into authentic user needs and craft delightful designs that satisfy them. You can also position your brand as a trendsetter and increase customer loyalty.
• Reduce Production Costs: Using UX research methods like prototype testing, you can catch pre-launch issues and fix them early. Ultimately, you can avoid costly production issues and save weeks of rework.

How to Choose the Right UX Research Methods for Your Project

UX research is the backbone of designs that appeal to users, but with many methods available, which is the right one for your study?

Here are the steps to choosing the best research methods:

1. Define Your Research Goals: What must you learn from your research?

If you’re figuring out what your users want or their challenges, use methods like interviews and field studies to gain deep insights. If you have your design ready and want to optimize it further, opt for A/B testing and surveys.

2. Identify Your Project Stage: Each stage of the design process calls for a different research method.

For example, in the early design stages, opt for card sorting and diary studies. In the late stages, choose usability testing and analytics to validate and optimize user flows.

3. Consider Your Time and Budget: Ask yourself, ‘How much time do you have, and what’s your realistic budget?’

Choose fast and affordable usability testing and surveys if you’re on a budget or have a tight schedule. Alternatively, if you have more time and flexibility, opt for longer interviews and field studies that offer deeper insights.

4. Match the Method to the Users: A big part of deciding your method of choice is shaped by your group of participants.

For example, diary studies might work best for a specialized group to get a detailed look into the users’ lives. If your audience is diverse, surveys can be great for capturing broad data and spotting patterns.

Note: One method might not be enough. Consider mixing UX research methods, such as interviews, surveys, and heatmaps, to gather insights from different angles.

You’ll also gain a broader perspective on attitudes and user behaviors and enhance the accuracy of your findings.

List of Top UX Research Methods and Techniques

We’ve seen how to choose the right UX research method depending on your objectives and project phase.

Now, let’s explore the UX research methods mainly used today and their ideal use cases:

1. User Interviews

This research method is the most popular among UX designers because it’s relatively quick and easy to gather information through conversations. You can hold one-on-one discussions with participants and learn about their desires, needs, pain points, motivations, and wants.

When to Use: It’s best when you want to collect as much detailed information as possible, which can help you create accurate user personas and journey maps.

2. Usability Testing

This method refers to a researcher observing the users as they perform and complete a particular task.

When to Use: You can use it later in the design process to evaluate fully functioning prototypes. It will help you create a report with the usability issues and review each situation.

3. Prototype Testing

Creating a prototype, a website mock-up, or interactive HTML pages allows you to explore ideas before implementing them.

When to Use: Use it early to save time and effort. Before full development, you can test how well a product design works, whether it meets the user’s needs, and catch errors.

4. Tree Testing

You can involve your testers in assessing whether the architecture of a website or an app is intuitive. Primarily, the users interact with the prototype menu.

When to Use: If you want to assess the findability and labeling of information in a website or app, it’s often ideal to use tree testing in the early design stages or when redesigning. If the tree fails, you can fix the problem without going back to the beginning or spending too much.

5. Card Sorting

In this qualitative research technique, a designer creates a set of cards, each with a piece of content or an idea. Then, you can ask users to organize the cards into groups and categorize each group according to what makes sense to them.

When to Use: Use card sorting in the early phases of designing to organize and label your website information in a logical structure that matches your users’ needs.

6. Diary Studies

This method can uncover user behaviors and experiences over a set period. Depending on your specific area of interest, you can ask the participants to keep a log (diary) of their experiences and thoughts about how they use a product daily.

When to Use: It’s ideal when you want to learn the process users take to solve a problem, observe the products you want to replace, and identify the current pain points you’re trying to solve.

7. Eye Tracking

If you want to see how users interact with your product design, website, advertisement, videos, or physical objects, you can track how long and where people look.

When to Use: This method can help you understand how people understand and respond to visual designs at different stages of the design process. It can help you identify areas of interest, evaluate usability, and test different visual design variations.

8. Surveys

Usually, quantitative surveys are used during the initial phase or after a product’s release to collect data on its overall performance. Multiple participants tick from a list of answers, such as scales, ratings, or yes/no answers.

When to Use: You can use surveys to collect data on user satisfaction and gain valuable insights into the product experience.

9. System Usability Scale (SUS Scores)

SUS is a standardized ten-item scale used to measure user satisfaction and subjectively evaluate usability.

When to Use: It is an excellent method to incorporate with other research methods. You can also use it to benchmark and improve certain features of a digital product.

Key UX Research Steps You Must Follow

Next, let’s look at how to conduct UX research step-by-step.

1. Define the Objectives of Your Research: You should start with clear goals and objectives to help you choose the proper research methods, align your team, and recruit the right users. For example, your objective might be to identify why users drop off in the user journey or how new features could improve the onboarding process.
2. Identify Your Target Audience: Your entire user base will likely not face the same pain points and will not provide the insights you want. Instead, you should look for common characteristics, such as specific demographics, that face your focus issue. Let customer feedback and analytics tools guide you to zero in on the right target audience.
3. Select the Right UX Research Method: We touched on the research methods earlier, and you should use them at the ideal stage of your project. 

For example, pick surveys when you want closed-ended questions to gauge your users’ sentiments.

4. Choose a Tool for Conducting Your User Research: Choose the right tool for your study based on your chosen research method. The following section will discuss the best research tools.
5. Conduct the Research: It’s time to involve your users in your research in a neutral and unbiased environment. You should make your participants feel comfortable and heard. 

Remember to record your observations using notes, videos, and heat maps.

6. Analyze the Data and Gather Insights: To understand user behavior, you must analyze customer feedback. You can also track the adoption of specific features, satisfaction scores, or changes in user behavior over time.

Qualitative analysis can be challenging, but not anymore.

Thanks to our AI assistant tool, HeyMarvin, you can now analyze many user responses in minutes. Our software can automatically create transcripts, identify patterns, and tag the notes to improve searchability.

Book your free demo today and see HeyMarvin in action.

7. Share Research Insights with Key Stakeholders: The next step is to share your research findings with key decision-makers. This will allow collaboration between everyone involved and ensure your decisions align with your business goals.
8. Implement the Findings: There’s no point in conducting your UX research if you don’t implement the insights. Let’s say your users don’t find the cart because your menu is too cluttered. A solution here would be to simplify and personalize the menu for the users. 
9. Track and Improve Key Metrics: As you start moving the needle in the right direction and users engage with the design, you should track their behavior. Collect feedback and interview them to identify areas for further improvement. Then, implement the UX design changes and test again.

Best Tools for UX Researchers to Streamline Workflows

Do you want to streamline your research process and achieve impactful product development?

We’ve hand-picked several tools in different categories to help you improve your UX research processes and workflows:

Planning Your Research

Before starting your UX research, you must organize your goals and tasks. You should also plan communication, align your team, and streamline logistics.

Here are our top tools to help you with that:

1. Google Docs

If you prefer a widely used and straightforward tool for collaboration, Google Docs is the best fit. You can take notes, write reports, edit notes in real-time, and share files with your team and stakeholders.

Features that Stand Out:

• Collaborate in real-time with comments and suggestions.
• Cloud storage that allows you to store your files in Google Drive and access your research docs from any device.
• Use the version history to track changes in your document over time.

2. Notion

Notion lets you create a highly customizable workspace and documentation system with templates. It makes creating tables for participant data and tracking project timelines easy.

Features that Stand Out:

• Collaborate with your team and get real-time input.
• Integrate it with other tools like Slack and Google Drive. 
• Use it on the web and mobile app.

Recruiting Research Participants

Next, you should have tools that help you find the participants for your user research.

Check out our list here:

3. User Interviews

With User Interviews, you can build your group of participants or access over 350,000 categorized research participants by profession. 

Features that Stand Out:

• Schedule interviews right from the platform.
• Track the participation of your existing users.
• Message participants and offer automatic incentives.

4. Ethnio

Another tool on our list to help you select participants is Ethnio. It allows you to reach the right audience and create a central database of your participant data.

Features that Stand Out:

• Calculate incentives using the Research Incentives and reward participants instantly.
• Customizable screeners to help you get the right participants.
• Integrates with tools, such as Zoom and Google Calendar, to simplify scheduling on your predefined time slots.

Testing Usability

Want to determine how easy your products and features are?

Explore our top two tools in this category:

5. Maze

Maze is an excellent option if you need quick and actionable feedback on your prototypes.

Features that Stand Out:

• Conduct polls and surveys to get additional insights.
• Import your prototype designs from apps like Figma and Sketch and get a quick start.
• Monitor all user interactions and track the completion paths and misclicks.

6. UXArmy

Another platform for testing your website, prototype, and app is UXArmy. It is perfect if you want feedback on your Figma design files or want to optimize your website experience.

Features that Stand Out:

• Run usability tests and record your user reactions with video and screen recording.
• Conduct tests in over 30+ languages and get tailored insights from a target region.
• Use the customizable testing templates to kickstart your tests.

User Surveys and Feedback

We’ve seen that surveys are a top option for obtaining users’ opinions on a design, but which tools help you ask the right questions and capture insights?

Here are the top two:

7. Typeform

If you want a survey tool that encourages participants to complete surveys, Typeform should be your go-to platform. It allows you to create appealing, conversational surveys.

Features that Stand Out:

• Integrates with other productivity and CRM tools.
• Comes with customizable templates that you can align with your brand identity.
• Has embedded forms and pop-up options for your website.

8. SurveyMonkey

SurveyMonkey is a popular survey tool that helps you understand your users’ needs and refine your products.

Features that Stand Out:

• Access customizable templates ideal for any industry.
• Integrate it with other platforms to export data.
• Users can participate in surveys directly from their mobile devices.

Note-Taking and Data Analysis 

How do you make sense of the data from the interviews, field studies, and survey responses?

Here’s the top software:

9. HeyMarvin

HeyMarvin speeds up your qualitative research analysis like no other. Our software is the best AI tool for UX research and offers features that streamline note-taking, theme recognition, and analysis.

For instance, Microsoft used our tool to analyze data from 80 hours of conversations, automate transcription of the interviews, and enhance collaboration among team members. The company used insights from the data to create a responsible AI maturity model.

Features that Stand Out:

• Automatically captures time-stamped notes so you don’t miss key insights while conducting interviews.
• Helps you scale user interviews and gather consistent data without a human moderator, through its AI Moderated Interviews feature.
• Analyze your interviews, generate transcripts in over 40 languages, and summarize them.
• Speeds up pattern recognition and generates automated themes across your notes.
• Acts as a centralized research repository that helps you organize and analyze your UX research in a single platform.
• Allows real-time collaboration with your research team.
• Detects sentiments within your notes, helping you get insights into the users’ emotions and attitudes.
• Integrates with tools like Figma, Notion, Asana, and Google Drive, allowing the syncing of insights across platforms.

Book a demo today to see how our software can help you remove the guesswork from your analysis and become an effective UX researcher. 

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Below, we’ve compiled the common questions researchers ask about types of UX research:

What UX Research Method Works Best for a New Product?

Check out the UX research methods that are great for a new product:

• Interviews to validate your ideas and give you early insights.
• Field studies are conducted to uncover unspoken needs or see how users use the tools in their everyday lives.
• Surveys to understand which features you should prioritize.

How Often Should You Conduct UX Research?

The short answer: it depends on your goals, product lifecycle, and available resources.

For example, you might conduct UX research bi-weekly during the discovery design stage to validate your ideas, while the ideal frequency for the development stage might be after the launch of each feature.

Can UX Research Improve Conversion Rates?

Absolutely! UX research can improve conversion rates in these ways:

1. Through usability testing and interviews, you can understand where users struggle with issues like confusing carts and unclear CTAs. Fixing these issues can reduce abandonment, increasing the conversion rate.
2. A/B and prototype testing can help you validate changes before rolling them out. The compelling copy and CTAs ultimately improve conversion.
3. Task analysis helps you understand the inefficient paths. Streamlining these steps can directly boost your conversions.

Is Quantitative or Qualitative UX Research More Effective?

Regarding qualitative vs. quantitative research, both are effective because they answer different questions.

Qualitative research is ideal for answering ‘why’ users behave a certain way. It helps you gain deep insights into the audience’s pain points, motivations, and behaviors.

Quantitative research is used to answer ‘how many’ experience an issue. It helps you validate patterns and make data-driven decisions.

Conclusion

Here you are at the end!

Take a moment to consider the proper research method for your project. Then, stay practical and follow the steps to guide your next UX research process. Lastly, embrace the tools we have compiled to streamline the process.

Speaking of tools, if you’re looking for an AI-powered research assistant, you should definitely add HeyMarvin to your tool stack.

Our software will automatically capture your live notes during interviews and create accurate transcripts. It can also detect sentiments within notes and group recurring ones.

So why wait? Try HeyMarvin for free today and ensure your research workflow is centralized, shareable, and insightful.