Research Methods Articles & Videos

  • Sample Sizes for Qualitative Studies

    When choosing your sample size for a qualitative research study, consider these three factors: the diversity of your target group, your research scope, and the researcher’s skill level.

  • Tools for Unmoderated Usability Testing

    There are many tools for unmoderated usability testing on the market. Choose a tool that offers the right features for your research.

  • Attitudinal vs. Behavioral Research

    Explore the difference between attitudinal and behavioral UX research. Learn how combining these methods offers a complete view of user interactions and perceptions.

  • UX Metrics Are Like Beans

    Common UX metrics can be grouped into three types: continuous, discrete, and binary. Continuous metrics occur on a smooth spectrum, like time. Discrete metrics have regular intervals between them, such as satisfaction score. Binary metrics have two possible values, like pass or fail.

  • Types of Surveys to Run Throughout the Design Process

    There are lots of types of UX surveys. Which one to use depends on your research goal and where you are in the design process.

  • Screening Participants for User-Research Studies

    Well-written screeners ensure that your study participants are appropriate for your research goals, improve data quality, save resources, and reduce bias.

  • How to Conduct a Competitive Usability Evaluation

    Competitive usability evaluations help you understand how your competitors solve certain design problems and how you might outperform them. These evaluations are often performed at the beginning of design projects to shift their direction toward areas of opportunity.

  • Why Use 40 Participants in Quantitative UX Research?

    40 is the optimal sample size for many quantitative UX studies, ensuring a balance of precision, risk, and practicality.

  • Coding in Thematic Analysis

    By coding qualitative data, we can see trends and patterns, which helps us find themes. For an efficient process, create some starter codes, start broad, and use short, clear labels.

  • Accelerating Research with AI

    AI can speed up certain research tasks but is currently most helpful in the planning and analysis stages.

  • NN/g’s Free UX Templates and Guides

    Use this curated set of free NN/g templates and guides for inspiration and to accelerate your product development activities and UX career.

  • MVP: Why It Isn't Always Release 1

    A minimum viable product (MVP) is a reasonable representation of your product that maximizes feedback on your core value proposition. It doesn’t need to be release one, but can be a simple experiment.

  • What Is a SWOT Analysis?

    A SWOT Analysis is a framework to analyze the position of a company or product experience relative to others in the market. Its four quadrants offer prompts to help teams identify specific factors that may impact their success.

  • Handling Sensitive Questions in Surveys and Screeners

    Researchers often want to ask about sensitive topics in surveys and screeners. Handle them appropriately and delicately to avoid dropoffs and inaccurate data.

  • What Is User Research?

    The goal of user research is to identify ways to improve a product's design based on evidence rather than opinions.

  • Competitive Reviews vs. Competitive Research

    There is more than one way to conduct a competitive evaluation. This video describes the difference between a competitive review and competitive research.

  • 15 User Research Methods to Know Beyond Usability Testing

    Explore 15 user research methods beyond usability testing. We describe 5 scenarios where these methods offer a broad spectrum of insights for a better understanding of users.

  • Card Sorting: Pushing Users Beyond Terminology Matches

    Labels in a card sorting study must be neutral to prevent keyword matching and encourage careful, conceptual groupings from users.

  • The Diverge-and-Converge Technique for UX Workshops

    By first working independently on a problem and then converging to share insights, teams can leverage the benefits of both work styles, leading to rapid data analysis, diverse ideas, and high-quality designs.

  • Affinity Diagramming for Collaboratively Sorting UX Findings and Design Ideas

    Use affinity diagramming to cluster and organize research findings or to sort design ideas in ideation workshops.