Conducting research without a UX research plan is like forging a sword blindfolded.
Pointless.
Poor jokes aside, research without a plan is a recipe for disaster. It eats away at resources, costing companies precious time and money. More importantly, it can cause you to move in the wrong direction. This puts a below-par product in the user’s hands that doesn’t address their needs.
With the complexity and scale of research studies, you’re missing a step if you don’t plan properly. So, we thought we’d address this with a comprehensive guide.
Here are our two cents on creating a UX research plan. Explore the benefits of creating a plan and how to create one from scratch.
Thank us later.
What is a UX Research Plan?
A UX research plan is a structured document that outlines individual research projects. A living document, it establishes clear goals and a defined scope of a study. It details various dimensions such as tactics, methodology, timelines, and resource constraints.
UX research plans serve as roadmaps — acting as a reference point and keeping teams on track.
Initially, plans establish the purpose of the study. This aligns stakeholders with the project goals. Throughout the research process, the plans focus everyone’s attention on strategic objectives. Once research is complete, they answer key questions from the beginning of a project.
A well-crafted research plan is essential for conducting effective research.
Key Benefits of Developing a UX Research Plan
If research is exploratory, why create a plan in the first place?
Plans define and aggregate research objectives and initiatives. The more detailed a research plan, the lower the likelihood of overlooking any information. Establishing an action plan increases the efficiency and accuracy of UX research work.
Here are some benefits of having a well-crafted UX research plan:
Defines Problem
Drafting a plan helps clarify the research problem:
What question are you trying to answer? What are the project goals? What do you want to accomplish?
Establish the questions that the research will help address. Outlining study expectations at the outset provides clarity. It gives everyone specific and measurable goals to work towards. Charting the success of initiatives allows researchers to track and improve results.
Aligns Stakeholders
Good research planning involves collaboration with cross-functional teams. Together with key stakeholders, researchers establish company-wide questions that need answering. Drafting a research plan for UX keeps everyone aligned on project objectives.
Involve them in the process of addressing stakeholder needs. By engaging in initiatives, they become more invested in research outcomes. UX research plans help strengthen stakeholder buy-in and align everyone with company strategy.
Optimizes Workflow
Defining goals helps add structure and streamlines the research process. Teams use the plan to identify which research and data collection methods to use. Setting clear objectives allows teams to follow a structured and sequential approach.
UX research plans set realistic expectations around project timelines and deliverables. Teams focus on making informed decisions to achieve research goals. With a solid plan in place, everyone stays in the loop.
Saves Resources
Planning UX research enables efficient allocation of time, money, and manpower. Outlining achievable goals ensures resources aren’t wasted. Plans allow everyone to leverage the company’s existing research. This helps teams avoid silos and duplicative efforts.
Conducting research with a proper plan helps identify potential roadblocks and issues early on. Pivoting design efforts early on in the build is far less expensive. This minimizes development time and production costs. In the long run, organizations save precious resources with a research plan.
How to Choose the Right UX Research Methods
To understand more about their users, researchers collect two different types of data:
- Behavioral. Measures how users interact with and navigate through a product.
- Attitudinal. Understand how users feel and why (while they’re immersed in a product).
Data collected can either be qualitative or quantitative. Remember, combine qualitative and quantitative research to understand the context behind user actions. Learn when to use quantitative vs. qualitative research.
It’s essential to determine your needs before choosing the correct study methodology. Any research methods you choose depend on:
- Initial research question. What do you want to find out about your customers? Are you looking for feedback on a design? Or trying to understand user needs?
- Stage of product development. Generative studies such as interviews help collect deep user feedback. This helps while brainstorming new products. Testing a final prototype is more evaluative. Usability testing helps researchers identify bugs. Researchers examine how users navigate through an app.
- Product use context. Where and how is research conducted? Will you observe users in their own environment or a controlled one (lab)? Will they carry out specific tasks? Or regular use?
- Resource constraints. Establish the scope and budget of the study. Is it a small or large-scale study? What resources will you need? What tools can you use (free or paid)?
- Timelines. How much time can you afford for research efforts? When do you need certain deliverables?
Use the graphic below to identify the method that best suits your study:
How to Create a UX Research Plan
Research studies help uncover user needs, preferences, motivations, and frustrations. UX research plans must answer a study’s who, what, when, why, and how.
Follow our 6-step process to create a bulletproof UX research plan:
Step 1: Define Research Purpose & Goals
Research begins with a question. Clearly document the underlying reason for carrying out a project. Establish WHAT you’re trying to accomplish with research. Clarify the problem statement:
What challenges are you trying to solve for customers? What is the end goal?
Establish the purpose of a study specifically and objectively. Establish a clear scope of work with objectives and deliverables to ensure focused effort. Define specific targets for research initiatives. This helps avoid confusion later when people inevitably have more questions.
It’s important to align research objectives with broader business goals. Why conduct a particular study? What decision-making will this research inform? What business goals does it help achieve?
This answers the WHY you’re conducting research in the first place.
Step 2: Gather Stakeholder Requirements
How do you translate research objectives into business goals?
Research influences various departments, such as product, design, development, sales, and customer success. Involve these stakeholders early on in the planning process. Brainstorm with them to understand their questions and pain points.
It’s vital to gather stakeholder requirements. Given the project constraints, try to align these requirements with the proposed study. You won’t answer all their questions, but establishing a scope draws a line in the sand. How do stakeholders benefit from a study’s success?
Engaging with them helps gain stakeholder buy-in and enables you to deliver the right insights to the right people.
This addresses one-half of the WHO the research serves. It’s also important to establish who is responsible for conducting research.
Step 3: Choose a Research Method
This answers the HOW of it all. How will you answer the research questions?
Will you capture user behavior or attitudes and emotions? Will the data collected be quantitative or qualitative? A mix of both?
Based on your research goals, you have many methods to choose from. Use the diagram above to choose the right research methodology. Include a brief that details your reason for choosing a particular method.
What tools will you use?
Review your budget and the resources available for the study. Considering these factors, choose a tool best suited for research needs today and tomorrow.
Speaking of tools, why not give Marvin a spin? A research repository that houses all your quantitative and qualitative data. Deeply analyze and understand more about the user experience. Need we say any more?
Step 4: Identify the Research Participants
Another important member of the WHO. And we’re not talking about the 60’s British rock band.
It’s your target demographic.
Who are they? What type of participants will you recruit? What characteristics are you looking for? Select participants based on demographic and psychographic factors. Also based on habits and behavioral patterns. This ensures diversity and inclusivity in your research group.
How will you recruit, screen, and compensate participants?
It’s important to use different sources to gather them. Start with your existing customers and use various channels such as email, social media or a recruitment platform. This acts as a failsafe if one channel produces low quality results.
Our friends at User Interviews have a robust and wide participant pool to choose from. Learn why they conduct continuous research with their customers.
Step 5: Establish Timelines & Allocate Resources
Timelines answer the WHEN behind a research study.
A study’s duration depends on the methodology of choice, number of participants needed, and the amount of data required. It’s also affected by the complexity of the research process.
Establish timelines for research projects. Create a schedule and set deadlines for project deliverables. Consider the time required to plan the study, recruit participants, and collect and analyze data.
Allocate resources to a study based on the availability of:
- Finances. How much money is available? What tools will you need?
- Manpower. How many team members will work on the research? Assign them tasks. Outline detailed study protocol and logistics. Include action plans to decide the next steps.
Step 6: Determine How to Analyze & Present Research Findings
Consider whether the project has met the plan’s objectives. Document the entire process. Include methodology, roadblocks encountered and study details. This overview helps inform future research at the company.
Share your findings across the organization. Revisit the WHO — how do findings affect key stakeholders and the target audience? What are the benefits of research findings? What departments can use this information?
Decide how to analyze and present your findings to different stakeholders. Demonstrate how insights will inform product development and design. Provide recommendations to act on insights upon study completion.
A quick word on assumptions — every project has its own. Identify and document the assumptions you’ve made in the research process. Reconcile these assumptions with findings to provide context for your research results.
UX Research Plan Example
A good UX research plan must include the following:
- Title. Name your project so people across the organization can easily identify it.
- Date. When did the project begin?
- Author(s). Who’s in charge of the project? This may be multiple people. Include their contact information so readers can get in touch.
- Stakeholder Information. Which stakeholders need consulting? Include a point of contact from different teams to understand and establish their needs.
- Project Background. Akin to an executive summary, this section includes two to three sentences on why the project is being conducted.
- Project Goal. Sums up the objective of the project in one sentence. Define metrics to measure success.
- Research Question(s). What questions will the research answer? Listing them down helps identify data collection and analysis methods.
- Research Methods. Which research methods will you use? Use our diagram above to determine which methodology suits the study best.
- Participant Information. Define the target audience for your study. Include the sample size along with demographic and psychographic information.
- Risks & Assumptions. What assumptions have you made during research? What are the inherent risks? List them all out. Be exhaustive.
- Deliverables. Establish deadlines for key deliverables. Add milestones to track project progress.
- Timelines. When does the project start and end? Estimate how long each part of the study will take.
- Budget. How much money is available for the study? Estimate overall costs to prioritize activities.
Feeling overwhelmed? Don’t know where to begin? Marvin’s here to help!
UX Research Plan Template
Here’s a UX research plan template to get you started.
| # | Section | Description |
| 1 | Title & Date | Project Mamba; 08-08-2024 |
| 2 | Author(s) | David Brent; [email protected] |
| 3 | Stakeholder Info | Design / Product – Jonny Five; [email protected] – Elon Husk; [email protected] – Sara Newman; [email protected] Success – Dwight Shoot; [email protected] |
| 4 | Project Background | WHogg, the regional UK paper distributor, wants to digitize its sales process. They recently launched a website for B2B customers. After an initial flurry of activity, they found that few people complete transactions online. Instead, they revert back to calling a sales representative. WHogg would like to understand the root cause. |
| 5 | Project Goal | To understand why users are dropping off before making a purchase.Success MetricsTime on Task (lower = better)Task completion rate %Conversions |
| 6 | Research Question(s) / Script | What is the user journey like?What motivates people to use our product?Why do users leave the app?At what stage of the funnel do they abandon ship?What are user pain points?How do users feel while navigating through the app? |
| 7 | Research Method(s) | Usability Testing – Session Recordings (30 min)Surveys (20 questions; unlimited time)Interviews (30 min interviews w/ customers) |
| 8 | Participant Info | DemographicAge = 25-34 yearsGender = M/F/OLocation = Slough, EnglandOccupation = Procurement ExecutivePsychographicPrice sensitiveOrders periodically Sample Size: 20 people |
| 9 | Risks & Assumptions | AssumptionsEach user is an existing customerUsers prefer a digital solution for buying paper RisksPoor participant response rateData cleanup |
| 10 | Deliverables | User Journey MappingSurvey Results AnalysisSession Recordings ConclusionsInterview Insights |
| 11 | Timelines | Week 1: Create and distribute surveys. Week 2: Draft a discussion guide for interviews. Create usability tests for recording. Week 3: Conduct interviews. Conduct in-person lab sessions. Week 4: Collect user data for analysis. |
| 12 | Budget | $1,000 |
NOTE: Remember to replace this fictional information with actual data!
Best Practices for Conducting Effective UX Research
Effective UX research ensures that products address user needs. Leveraging the research, designers and developers can create easy and delightful-to-use products.
Employ these best practices to get the most out of your research plan (and therefore research):
- Maintain a user-centric focus. To truly understand your customers, you must develop user empathy. It’s critical for designing products that they love using. Identify various user groups and personas – consult experts and naive users. What are their goals?
- Data-driven decision making. Don’t rely on gut feel – harness the power of user research to inform product decisions. Use a variety of methods and tools to collect quantitative and qualitative data. Paint a well-rounded picture of the user experience.
- Use soft launches. Pilot studies and interviews on a smaller scale to understand how they work. An important way to get feedback about your research process and make improvements or eradicate bias.
- Stay adaptable. Don’t set and then forget. Research is an ongoing practice. Continually iterate your research process. Gain better customer insights over time to refine the user experience.
- Communicate! How do you translate user needs into product choices that stakeholders understand? UX industry experts stress the importance of learning the language of business.
Make sure research applications quickly disseminate information on communication tools like Slack. Broadcast your findings across the organization with Marvin. Learn more about Marvin’s integrations.
5 Common Mistakes Every UX Researcher Should Avoid
No research study is straightforward. It’s a complex craft, requiring you to adapt to twists and turns along the way.
Avoid these common pitfalls when planning your UX research:
- Focusing on features, not outcomes. This is the opposite of user-centricity. When researchers become enthralled with adding new features, they lose sight of what the user really needs. What problems do these new features solve?
- Not setting specific goals. It’s not enough to say you want to understand more about your users. Being vague in your objectives leads to inaccurate and unusable results. Identify specifically what you’re after. Be clear in your questioning to get the right answers that inform business strategy.
- Failure to deal with bias. Every study has bias. Leading questions or confirmation bias can skew data and results. Testing research processes helps identify and mitigate bias. It’s important to acknowledge and document any inherent biases in your approach.
- Minimal stakeholder involvement. Failing to include stakeholders in research leads to poor buy-in. Without being actively involved, they can’t contribute their questions and insights to the process. Stakeholders are a great source of user information. Moreover, they have requirements from user research that need addressing.
- Ignoring context. Researchers can over rely on quantitative data. As a result, they ignore valuable qualitative information about the user experience. Collect qualitative data to understand user preferences better. Test in natural environments to collect real-world data.
Commit any of these research faux pas, and the product suffers. And we haven’t even mentioned the poor end users.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Let’s address any lingering questions you may have about research plans:
Can I Use a Tool to Develop an Effective UX Research Plan?
You certainly can!
A UX research plan is a living document. You merely need an editable document that facilitates collaboration among stakeholders. It can be ‘view-only’ for non-contributors. A document platform that literally keeps everyone on the same page with research initiatives.
We recommend smaller teams begin with Google Docs or similar platforms. Work your way up to using complex and purpose-built research tools.
UX research tools like Marvin allow you to create helpful discussion guides. Add questions to the guide and navigate your interviews with ease. Generate insights with the one keystroke. Moreover, Marvin lets you create comprehensive interactive documents with video, audio, and text.
How Do You Manage and Record Data During UX Research?
Companies collect terabytes of data from various customer touchpoints. So where does this data go?
You need a place to store, organize, access, and analyze all this data. A research repository houses user data. Collate your quantitative and qualitative data into Marvin for analysis. It integrates with applications that designers and researchers love.
You’ll also need a tool that’s capable of recording qualitative data. This includes data from focus groups, interviews, and other participant interactions.
UX research tools (such as Marvin) now record and transcribe all your video or audio calls. Generate a verbatim transcript in minutes. This allows researchers to focus on the task at hand.
Give Marvin a test drive today!
How Do You Integrate UX Research Insights into Design?
Here’s an easy action plan to turn UX research insights into design improvements:
- Collaborate with design and product teams. Discuss how to reflect research in design work.
- Translate insights into practical and actionable ones. e.g., “Users spend way too long trying to enter their personal information. How do we improve time on task?”
- Implement design changes.
- Test & iterate.
Conclusion
Planning is an essential first step of the UX research process.
UX research plans give research a purpose and direction — they clarify the goals of a study.
Plans facilitate the gathering of stakeholder requirements and inputs. Clearly outlining goals and objectives, they keep everyone aligned. In the long run, research plans save the company plenty of resources (money, manpower, and time).
They define problems and help generate actionable insights that inform product decisions. By integrating insights into design, companies create products that resonate with their users.
The importance of planning research isn’t lost on us. If you’re reading this far down, you’re likely in the same boat.
Happy planning!
