Research Methods Articles & Videos

  • Quantitative User-Research Methodologies: An Overview

    Do you need numerical data about your product’s user experience, but you aren’t sure where to start? The first step is choosing the right tool. Check out this list of the most popular types of quantitative methods.

  • Multivariate vs. A/B Testing: Incremental vs. Radical Changes

    Radical redesigns are best tested using an A/B experiment, while multivariate tests indicate how various UI elements interact with each other and support incremental improvements to a design.

  • Beyond the NPS: Measure Perceived Usability with the SUS, NASA-TLX, and the Single Ease Question

    Post-test questionnaires like the SUS measure perceived usability of an entire system; post-task scales suggest problematic parts of a design.

  • Writing Tasks for Quantitative and Qualitative Usability Studies

    All usability studies involve asking participants to perform tasks, but the correct way to write those tasks depends on the methodology you’re using. Good quantitative tasks are concrete and focused, while good qualitative tasks are open-ended, flexible, and exploratory.

  • Avoid Leading Questions to Get Better Insights from Participants

    In user research, the facilitator's choice of words can affect the participants' feedback or behavior.

  • Quantitative vs. Qualitative Usability Testing

    Qualitative research informs the design process; quantitative research provides a basis for benchmarking programs and ROI calculations.

  • From Research Goals to Usability-Testing Scenarios: A 7-Step Method

    Developing goals for a usability study, deciding what to test, and crafting user scenarios can be challenging. This method makes the process straightforward.

  • Personas vs. Jobs-to-Be-Done

    Jobs-to-be-done focus on user problems and needs, while well-executed personas include the same information and also add behavioral and attitudinal details.

  • Quantifying and Comparing Ease of Use Without Breaking the Bank

    The PURE method quantifies how difficult a product is to use and provides qualitative insights into how to fix it, both without costing a lot of time or money.

  • Write Better Qualitative Usability Tasks: Top 10 Mistakes to Avoid

    Writing good tasks for a usability study is an art, not a science, but there are still rules. Examine your tasks for these 10 common task-writing mistakes.

  • How to Collaborate with Stakeholders in UX Research

    When teams become involved with users, they become better at preventing problems and faster at delivering usable software.

  • UX Research Cheat Sheet

    User research can be done at any point in the design cycle. This list of methods and activities can help you decide which to use when.

  • The Sketch Test: How to Test and Improve Your UX Deliverables and Other Documents

    Test your infographics, reports, and UX deliverables with representative colleagues to refine them and prevent potential stakeholder misunderstandings.

  • UX Prototypes: Low Fidelity vs. High Fidelity

    No matter which prototyping tools you use, the same tips apply to preparing a user interface prototype for the most effective user research.

  • 28 Tips for Creating Great Qualitative Surveys

    Qualitative surveys ask open-ended questions to find out more, sometimes in preparation for doing quantitative surveys. Test surveys to eliminate problems.

  • When and How to Create Customer Journey Maps

    Journey maps combine two powerful instruments—storytelling and visualization—in order to help teams understand and address customer needs.

  • Are Your Personas Outdated? Know When It’s Right To Revise

    Up-to-date personas result in a better UX design process. Data from 156 companies provide a baseline to understand how often to revise personas. Knowing when and how frequently to make updates will help you craft personas that are both accurate and effective.

  • Usability Testing of Icons

    To ensure that people understand the meaning and purpose of icons, conduct multiple types of tests at various stages of the product-development cycle.

  • How Much Time Does It Take to Create Personas?

    The size of the company and the approach taken influence the time needed to create personas, ranging from 23–103 staff hours across 216 companies.

  • No More Pogo Sticking: Protect Users from Wasted Clicks

    Misleading links and omitted information force users to bounce back and forth in a hub-and-spoke pattern between a routing page and subpages linked from it, increasing the interaction cost and decreasing engagement over time. Use web analytics tools to identify and monitor pogo-stick behavior on your site.