What is UX research and what types of testing can you do?

UX research is booming. Every day we use more and more digital tools for everything, and if our experience using one is bad, we will most likely look for alternative ways or providers. That’s why researching how to improve the user experience can make the difference between business success or failure.

What is UX research?

UX research is the process of gathering and analysing information about the needs, behaviours, motivations and difficulties users encounter when using a digital environment. It enables UX design to be improved in order to achieve functional, usable and engaging experiences. Thanks to UX research, digital experiences can be created that are better adapted to users’ expectations and that help organisations to achieve their objectives.

Benefits of UX research

UX research ensures that product design is user-centric, which has multiple benefits:

• Increases user satisfaction and loyalty: a design focused on the user’s needs and desires improves the relationship with the product and therefore avoids looking for alternatives to cover that need with another organisation.
• Reduces costs: identifying and solving problems in the design phase avoids investing in developments that will later have to be modified or completely replaced. In addition, it reduces the rate of incidents that require management outside digital channels to be resolved.
• It generates more revenue: a good user experience makes it possible to find the products you are looking for in an online shop and move towards conversion with fewer losses. This increases conversion rates and optimises revenue.
• Aligns the design and development team: research provides a better understanding of the user, allowing everyone to work towards the same goal in an aligned way.

Main UX research methods

There are various UX research methodologies, which are chosen according to project objectives, product type and time available. They are generally divided into qualitative and quantitative methods.

Qualitative UX research (why and how)

Qualitative methods seek to understand the reasons behind user behaviour, offering an in-depth insight into their emotions, frustrations and motivations. There are several ways to approach qualitative UX research:

• In-depth interviews. These are one-on-one conversations with users to explore their needs, problems and expectations. They are generally used in the early stages of the project to obtain detailed information, although they can also be used whenever questions arise that require a review of beliefs and a deeper understanding.
• Thinking aloud usability testing. In this type of testing, users attempt to complete tasks on a prototype or product while the researcher observes and takes notes. Thinking aloud surveys are used at any stage of development, especially before launch to identify navigation problems and friction points.
• Contextual observation. Researchers observe how users interact with a product in its natural environment and take discrete notes while avoiding interfering with user activity. These tests are particularly relevant when the context of use influences user behaviour and serves to reveal real behaviours that may not emerge in laboratory tests.
• Focus groups. This method consists of moderated group sessions to discuss perceptions and experiences with a product. Unlike in-depth interviews, interaction with a group shapes individual opinions to enrich users’ views.

All of these UX research methodologies are moderated, requiring the researcher to engage with all users, making them difficult to scale to obtain statistically valid data. But that is what quantitative UX research methodologies do.

Quantitative UX research (what and how much)

These methods focus on collecting numerical data to analyse behavioural patterns and validate hypotheses.

• Usage data analysis. This consists of reviewing metrics such as time on page, conversion rates and navigation flows. Much of this data can be easily obtained through Google Analytics. Usage analytics can provide rich data about what users are doing. However, they do not provide information about what the user wanted to do, so they are usually complemented by other types of tests.
• UX surveys. This type of UX research employs questionnaires that are sent to a sample of users to collect data on opinions, habits or needs. The great advantages of using surveys are speed and scalability. In a short time, data can be obtained from many users to validate hypotheses and help guide UX design in an agile way. Both closed and open-ended questions can be used in these questionnaires. Years ago, the analysis of open-ended questions required a lot of manual work, but today artificial intelligence makes it easier to use them to obtain spontaneous answers.
• Quantitative usability tests with tasks. The aim is to find out what proportion of users can complete a set of tasks successfully within the time allotted and to identify the points at which errors occur. These tests provide accurate quantitative data that are ideal for identifying areas for improvement. Quantitative usability tests can be used with prototypes and products under development as well as with finished products.
• First click testing. This quantitative usability test analyses where users first click when trying to complete a given task, such as finding information, initiating a purchase process, or navigating to a specific section of a page. The first click test is used to evaluate design clarity and improve navigation as a high click-through rate in unexpected areas will clearly identify opportunities for improvement.
• Card sorting. This is used to define the information architecture effectively. Participants can be given a set of cards (representing concepts, functions, categories or navigation elements) and asked to group them logically, according to their criteria. They can also be asked to assign names to the groups created.
• Tree testing. This is sometimes described as a reverse card sort test. In this case, a proposed content architecture is already in place and the aim is to quantitatively validate that the structure is intuitive for the user.

Combination of UX research methods

To get a more complete picture of usability improvement opportunities, the UX researcher can ideally combine qualitative and quantitative methods. For example, he or she can conduct in-depth interviews to identify user expectations and needs and then quantify the importance of each with numbers through a UX survey. This gives you the deep understanding that qualitative UX research provides and the precise numbers that quantitative UX research provides.

UX research with We are testers

With the We are testers research platform you can conduct many types of usability surveys. The tool supports methodologies such as in-depth interviews, focus groups, first click testing, or card sorting testing to name a few. You can conduct the tests yourself or have UX research experts help you or conduct them for you. And as for the participants, we have a panel of 130,000 users so you can find all the users you need quickly. We take care of user management and incentivisation so you can focus on research.

Contact our experts today to find out all the possibilities.