Research Methods Articles & Videos

  • How and Why to Recruit Backup Participants (aka “Floaters”) in User Research

    Sometimes you should intentionally overrecruit test participants for one-on-one user-research studies. Backup participants must be recruited according to the same screening criteria and paid at least as much as regular participants.

  • Task Analysis: Support Users in Achieving Their Goals

    Task analysis is the systematic study of how users complete tasks to achieve their goals. This knowledge ensures products and services are designed to efficiently and appropriately support those goals.

  • Running a Remote Usability Test, Part 2

    Learn how to run a remote moderated usability test. This second video covers how to actually facilitate the session with the participant and how to end with debrief, incentive, and initial analysis with your team.

  • 7 Steps to Benchmark Your Product’s UX

    Benchmark your UX by first determining appropriate metrics and a study methodology. Then track these metrics across different releases of your product by running studies that follow the same established methodology.

  • Running a Remote Usability Test, Part 1

    Learn how to run a remote moderated usability test. Part 1 covers starting the session with your participant and observers.

  • Catching Cheaters and Outliers in Remote Unmoderated Studies

    In remote usability studies, it's hard to identify test participants who should not be in the study because they don't fit the profile or don't attempt the task seriously. This is even harder in unmoderated studies, but it can (and should) be done.

  • Remote Usability-Testing Costs: Moderated vs. Unmoderated

    Exact costs will vary, but an unmoderated 5-participant study may be 20–40% cheaper than a moderated study, and may save around 20 hours of researcher time.

  • Analyzing Qualitative User Data in a Spreadsheet to Show Themes

    A simple method for visually identifying strong vs. weak themes in qualitative data from user research: by placing individual observations in a spreadsheet and color-coding them.

  • Turning Complex Data into Compelling Stories: A 5-Step Process

    Uncover the story within extensive UX-research data by following a process of revisiting original research objectives and organizing findings into themes.

  • Can Market Research Teams and UX Research Teams Collaborate and Avoid Miscommunication?

    The total customer journey and user experience quality will benefit from considering market research and user research to be highly related, and to integrate the two, instead of keeping different kinds of research teams from collaborating.

  • 3 Persona Types: Lightweight, Qualitative, and Statistical

    For most teams, approaching persona creation qualitatively is the right balance of effort vs. value, but very large or very small organizations might benefit from statistical or lightweight approaches, respectively.

  • Rating Scales in UX Research: Likert or Semantic Differential?

    Likert and semantic differential are instruments used to determine attitudes to products, services, and experiences, but depending on your situation, one may work better than the other.

  • How Well Discovery Phases Are Performed in UX Projects

    Our survey results reveal that many UX practitioners perform discoveries in some shape and form, although many are on the short side, lack user research and don’t involve the right people.

  • Benchmarking UX: Tracking Metrics

    Quantitatively evaluate a product or service’s user experience by using metrics to gauge its relative performance against a meaningful standard.

  • Remote Moderated Usability Tests: How to Do Them

    The key to good remote moderated testing is to be thoroughly prepared and organized. Follow these 7 steps to ensure your study’s success.

  • Are You Doing Real Discoveries?

    Discoveries are a powerful part of the UX design process, but unfortunately, many teams are not doing true discovery. Here are 5 main ways to go wrong.

  • What a UX Career Looks Like Today

    Our latest research on UX careers looks into specialization, explores unique backgrounds of practitioners entering the field, and details the skills and responsibilities needed to work in UX today.

  • Remote Moderated Usability Tests: Why to Do Them

    Remote unmoderated usability testing is so fast and easy that some teams make it their only evaluation method. But don’t shy away from its more robust alternative, the remote moderated usability test, which can give you more information and is also inexpensive.

  • 5 Qualitative Research Methods

    Qualitative user research is invaluable for UX design. Here's an overview of 5 key methods beyond standard usability testing that are especially useful for early discovery studies.

  • Discovery: Definition

    Although many different instigators, roles, and activities are involved in a discovery, all discoveries strive to achieve consensus on a problem to be solved and its desired outcomes.