Unsure where to start? Use this collection of links to our articles and videos to learn about the components of ResearchOps and get started implementing ResearchOps activities.
Before starting any user research project, write down a research plan, preferably using a template that ensures that you don't overlook something. This keeps stakeholders informed and structures your own thinking.
Contextual inquiry is a user research method that is helpful to define requirements, improve processes, learn what's important to users, and spark ideas for future projects.
Understanding and sharing the needs and motivations of users will lead to better design decisions. Observational research should be nonjudgmental while keeping an open mind and reducing bias.
If your product doesn't exist yet, and you don't even have a prototype, you can (and should) still base design decisions on user research. Observational research methods can gather information about user needs and provide input to new-product ideation.
Wayfinding cues like districts and landmarks help residents and tourists find their way around cities. The same ideas can help users of digital products (e.g., websites) understand where they are and where they can go.
Our research suggests that customer-journey maps 1) tend to be created collaboratively with a team, 2) produced with digital tools, and 3) are moderately successful at making organizational impact.
Jakob Nielsen's 10 general principles for interaction design. They are called "heuristics" because they are broad rules of thumb for UX and not specific usability guidelines.
Empathy maps help UX teams visualize user attitudes and behaviors, building a shared understanding of end users while highlighting gaps in existing user data.
Modern day UX research methods answer a wide range of questions. To know when to use which method, each of 20 methods is mapped across 3 dimensions and over time within a typical product-development process.
User interviews have become a popular technique for getting user feedback, mainly because they are fast and easy. Use them to learn about users’ perceptions of your design, not about its usability.
User journeys and user flows both describe processes users go through in order to accomplish their goals, but they differ in scope, purpose, and format.
iOS 26’s visual language obscures content instead of letting it take the spotlight. New (but not always better) design patterns replace established conventions.
Elaborate usability tests are a waste of resources. The best results come from testing no more than 5 users and running as many small tests as you can afford.
In a card-sorting study, users organize topics into groups. Use this research method to create an information architecture that suits your users' expectations.
