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What is UX Research: The Ultimate Guide for UX Researchers

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The UX researcher’s toolkit: 11 UX research methods and when to use them

After defining your objectives and planning your research framework, it’s time to choose the research technique that will best serve your project's goals and yield the right insights. While user research is often treated as an afterthought, it should inform every design decision. In this chapter, we walk you through the most common research methods and help you choose the right one for you.

What are UX research methods?

A UX research method is a way of generating insights about your users, their behavior, motivations, and needs.

These methods help:

• Learn about user behavior and attitudes
• Identify key pain points and challenges in the user interface
• Develop user personas to identify user needs and drive solutions
• Test user interface designs to see what works and what doesn’t

You can use research methodologies like user interviews, surveys, focus groups, card sorting, usability testing to identify user challenges and turn them into opportunities to improve the user experience.

More of a visual learner? Check out this video for a speedy rundown. If you’re ready to get stuck in, jump straight to our full breakdown .

The most common types of user research

First, let’s talk about the types of UX research. Every individual research method falls under these types, which reflect different goals and objectives for conducting research.

Here’s a quick overview:

Qualitative vs. quantitative

All research methods are either quantitative or qualitative . Qualitative research focuses on capturing subjective insights into users' experiences. It aims to understand the underlying reasons, motivations, and behaviors of individuals.

Quantitative research, on the other hand, involves collecting and analyzing numerical data to identify patterns, trends, and significance. It aims to quantify user behaviors, preferences, and attitudes, allowing for generalizations and statistical insights.

Qualitative research also typically involves a smaller sample size than quantitative research. Nielsen Norman Group recommends 40 participants—see our full rundown of how many user testers you need for different research methods .

Attitudinal vs. behavioral

Attitudinal research is about understanding users' attitudes, perceptions, and beliefs. It delves into the 'why' behind user decisions and actions. It often involves surveys or interviews where users are asked about their feelings, preferences, or perceptions towards a product or service. It's subjective in nature, aiming to capture people's emotions and opinions.

Behavioral research is about what users do rather than what they say they do or would do. This kind of research is often based on observation methods like usability testing, eye-tracking, or heat maps to understand user behavior.

Generative vs. evaluative

Generative research is all about generating new ideas, concepts, and insights to fuel the design process. You might run brainstorming sessions with groups of users, card sorting, and co-design sessions to inspire creativity and guide the development of user-centered solutions.

On the other hand, evaluative research focuses on assessing the usability, effectiveness, and overall quality of existing designs or prototypes. Once you’ve developed a prototype of your product, it's time to evaluate its strengths and weaknesses. You can compare different versions of a product design or feature through A/B testing—ensuring your UX design meets user needs and expectations.

Remove the guesswork from product decisions

Collect both quantitative and qualitative insights from your customers and build truly user-centric products with Maze.

11 Best UX research methods and when to use them

There are various UX research techniques—each method serves a specific purpose and can provide unique insights into user behaviors and preferences. In this section, we’ll highlight the most common research techniques you need to know.

Read on for an at-a-glance table, and full breakdown of each method.

1. User interviews

Tl;dr: user interviews.

Directly ask users about their experiences with a product to understand their thoughts, feelings, and problems

✅ Provides detailed insights that survey may miss ❌ May not represent the wider user base; depends on user’s memory and honesty

User interviews are a qualitative research method that involves having open-ended and guided discussions with users to gather in-depth insights about their experiences, needs, motivations, and behaviors.

Typically, you would ask a few questions on a specific topic during a user interview and analyze participants' answers. The results you get will depend on how well you form and ask questions, as well as follow up on participants’ answers.

“As a researcher, it's our responsibility to drive the user to their actual problems,” says Yuliya Martinavichene , User Experience Researcher at Zinio. She adds, “The narration of incidents can help you analyze a lot of hidden details with regard to user behavior.”

That’s why you should:

• Start with a wide context : Make sure that your questions don’t start with your product
• Ask questions: Always ask questions that focus on the tasks that users are trying to complete
• Invest in analysis : Get transcripts done and share the findings with your team

Tanya Nativ , Design Researcher at Sketch recommends defining the goals and assumptions internally. “Our beliefs about our users’ behavior really help to structure good questions and get to the root of the problem and its solution,” she explains.

It's easy to be misunderstood if you don't have experience writing interview questions. You can get someone to review them for you or use our Question Bank of 350+ research questions .

When to conduct user interviews

This method is typically used at the start and end of your project. At the start of a project, you can establish a strong understanding of your target users, their perspectives, and the context in which they’ll interact with your product. By the end of your project, new user interviews—often with a different set of individuals—offer a litmus test for your product's usability and appeal, providing firsthand accounts of experiences, perceived strengths, and potential areas for refinement.

2. Field studies

Tl;dr: field studies.

Observe users in their natural environment to inform design decisions with real-world context

✅ Provides contextual insights into user behavior in real-world situations ✅ Helps identify external factors and conditions that influence user experience ❌ Can be time-consuming and resource-intensive to conduct ❌ Participants may behave differently when they know they are being observed (Hawthorne effect)

Field studies—also known as ethnographic research—are research activities that take place in the user’s environment rather than in your lab or office. They’re a great method for uncovering context, unknown motivations, or constraints that affect the user experience.

An advantage of field studies is observing people in their natural environment, giving you a glimpse at the context in which your product is used. It’s useful to understand the context in which users complete tasks, learn about their needs, and collect in-depth user stories.

When to conduct field studies

This method can be used at all stages of your project—two key times you may want to conduct field studies are:

• As part of the discovery and exploration stage to define direction and understand the context around when and how users interact with the product
• During usability testing, once you have a prototype, to evaluate the effectiveness of the solution or validate design assumptions in real-world contexts

3. Focus groups

Tl;dr: focus groups.

Gather qualitative data from a group of users discussing their experiences and opinions about a product

✅ Allows for diverse perspectives to be shared and discussed ❌ Group dynamics may influence individual opinions

A focus group is a qualitative research method that includes the study of a group of people, their beliefs, and opinions. It’s typically used for market research or gathering feedback on products and messaging.

Focus groups can help you better grasp:

• How users perceive your product
• What users believe are a product’s most important features
• What problems do users experience with the product

As with any qualitative research method, the quality of the data collected through focus groups is only as robust as the preparation. So, it’s important to prepare a UX research plan you can refer to during the discussion.

Here’s some things to consider:

• Write a script to guide the conversation
• Ask clear, open-ended questions focused on the topics you’re trying to learn about
• Include around five to ten participants to keep the sessions focused and organized

When to conduct focus groups

It’s easier to use this research technique when you're still formulating your concept, product, or service—to explore user preferences, gather initial reactions, and generate ideas. This is because, in the early stages, you have flexibility and can make significant changes without incurring high costs.

Another way some researchers employ focus groups is post-launch to gather feedback and identify potential improvements. However, you can also use other methods here which may be more effective for identifying usability issues. For example, a platform like Maze can provide detailed, actionable data about how users interact with your product. These quantitative results are a great accompaniment to the qualitative data gathered from your focus group.

4. Diary studies

Tl;dr: diary studies.

Get deep insights into user thoughts and feelings by having them keep a product-related diary over a set period of time, typically a couple of weeks

✅ Gives you a peak into how users interact with your product in their day-to-day ❌ Depends on how motivated and dedicated the users are

Diary studies involve asking users to track their usage and thoughts on your product by keeping logs or diaries, taking photos, explaining their activities, and highlighting things that stood out to them.

“Diary studies are one of the few ways you can get a peek into how users interact with our product in a real-world scenario,” says Tanya.

A diary study helps you tell the story of how products and services fit into people’s daily lives, and the touch-points and channels they choose to complete their tasks.

There’s several key questions to consider before conducting diary research, from what kind of diary you want—freeform or structured, and digital or paper—to how often you want participants to log their thoughts.

• Open, ‘freeform’ diary: Users have more freedom to record what and when they like, but can also lead to missed opportunities to capture data users might overlook
• Closed, ‘structured; diary: Users follow a stricter entry-logging process and answer pre-set questions

Remember to determine the trigger: a signal that lets the participants know when they should log their feedback. Tanya breaks these triggers down into the following:

• Interval-contingent trigger : Participants fill out the diary at specific intervals such as one entry per day, or one entry per week
• Signal-contingent trigger : You tell the participant when to make an entry and how you would prefer them to communicate it to you as well as your preferred type of communication
• Event-contingent trigger : The participant makes an entry whenever a defined event occurs

When to conduct diary studies

Diary studies are often valuable when you need to deeply understand users' behaviors, routines, and pain points in real-life contexts. This could be when you're:

• Conceptualizing a new product or feature: Gain insights into user habits, needs, and frustrations to inspire your design
• Trying to enhance an existing product: Identify areas where users are having difficulties or where there are opportunities for better user engagement

TL;DR: Surveys

Collect quantitative data from a large sample of users about their experiences, preferences, and satisfaction with a product

✅ Provides a broad overview of user opinions and trends ❌ May lack in-depth insights and context behind user responses

Although surveys are primarily used for quantitative research, they can also provided qualitative data, depending on whether you use closed or open-ended questions:

• Closed-ended questions come with a predefined set of answers to choose from using formats like rating scales, rankings, or multiple choice. This results in quantitative data.
• Open-ended question s are typically open-text questions where test participants give their responses in a free-form style. This results in qualitative data.

Matthieu Dixte , Product Researcher at Maze, explains the benefit of surveys: “With open-ended questions, researchers get insight into respondents' opinions, experiences, and explanations in their own words. This helps explore nuances that quantitative data alone may not capture.”

So, how do you make sure you’re asking the right survey questions? Gregg Bernstein , UX Researcher at Signal, says that when planning online surveys, it’s best to avoid questions that begin with “How likely are you to…?” Instead, Gregg says asking questions that start with “Have you ever… ?” will prompt users to give more specific and measurable answers.

Make sure your questions:

• Are easy to understand
• Don't guide participants towards a particular answer
• Include both closed-ended and open-ended questions
• Respect users and their privacy
• Are consistent in terms of format

To learn more about survey design, check out this guide .

When to conduct surveys

While surveys can be used at all stages of project development, and are ideal for continuous product discovery , the specific timing and purpose may vary depending on the research goals. For example, you can run surveys at:

• Conceptualization phase to gather preliminary data, and identify patterns, trends, or potential user segments
• Post-launch or during iterative design cycles to gather feedback on user satisfaction, feature usage, or suggestions for improvements

6. Card sorting

Tl;dr: card sorting.

Understand how users categorize and prioritize information within a product or service to structure your information in line with user expectations

✅ Helps create intuitive information architecture and navigation ❌ May not accurately reflect real-world user behavior and decision-making

Card sorting is an important step in creating an intuitive information architecture (IA) and user experience. It’s also a great technique to generate ideas, naming conventions, or simply see how users understand topics.

In this UX research method, participants are presented with cards featuring different topics or information, and tasked with grouping the cards into categories that make sense to them.

There are three types of card sorting:

• Open card sorting: Participants organize topics into categories that make sense to them and name those categories, thus generating new ideas and names
• Hybrid card sorting: Participants can sort cards into predefined categories, but also have the option to create their own categories
• Closed card sorting: Participants are given predefined categories and asked to sort the items into the available groups

Card sorting type comparison table

You can run a card sorting session using physical index cards or digitally with a UX research tool like Maze to simulate the drag-and-drop activity of dividing cards into groups. Running digital card sorting is ideal for any type of card sort, and moderated or unmoderated sessions .

Read more about card sorting and learn how to run a card sorting session here .

When to conduct card sorting

Card sorting isn’t limited to a single stage of design or development—it can be employed anytime you need to explore how users categorize or perceive information. For example, you may want to use card sorting if you need to:

• Understand how users perceive ideas
• Evaluate and prioritize potential solutions
• Generate name ideas and understand naming conventions
• Learn how users expect navigation to work
• Decide how to group content on a new or existing site
• Restructure information architecture

7. Tree testing

Tl;dr: tree testing.

Evaluate the findability of existing information within a product's hierarchical structure or navigation

✅ Identifies potential issues in the information architecture ❌ Focuses on navigation structure, not visual design or content

During tree testing a text-only version of the site is given to your participants, who are asked to complete a series of tasks requiring them to locate items on the app or website.

The data collected from a tree test helps you understand where users intuitively navigate first, and is an effective way to assess the findability, labeling, and information architecture of a product.

We recommend keeping these sessions short, ranging from 15 to 20 minutes, and asking participants to complete no more than ten tasks. This helps ensure participants remain focused and engaged, leading to more reliable and accurate data, and avoiding fatigue.

If you’re using a platform like Maze to run remote testing, you can easily recruit participants based on various demographic filters, including industry and country. This way, you can uncover a broader range of user preferences, ensuring a more comprehensive understanding of your target audience.

To learn more about tree testing, check out this chapter .

When to conduct tree testing

Tree testing is often done at an early stage in the design or redesign process. That’s because it’s more cost-effective to address errors at the start of a project—rather than making changes later in the development process or after launch.

However, it can be helpful to employ tree testing as a method when adding new features, particularly alongside card sorting.

While tree testing and card sorting can both help you with categorizing the content on a website, it’s important to note that they each approach this from a different angle and are used at different stages during the research process. Ideally, you should use the two in tandem: card sorting is recommended when defining and testing a new website architecture, while tree testing is meant to help you test how the navigation performs with users.

8. Usability testing

Tl;dr: usability testing.

Observe users completing specific tasks with a product to identify usability issues and potential improvements

✅ Provides direct insights into user behavior and reveals pain points ❌ Conducted in a controlled environment, may not fully represent real-world usage

Usability testing evaluates your product with people by getting them to complete tasks while you observe and note their interactions (either during or after the test). The goal of conducting usability testing is to understand if your design is intuitive and easy to use. A sign of success is if users can easily accomplish their goals and complete tasks with your product.

There are various usability testing methods that you can use, such as moderated vs. unmoderated or qualitative vs. quantitative —and selecting the right one depends on your research goals, resources, and timeline.

Usability testing is usually performed with functional mid or hi-fi prototypes . If you have a Figma, InVision, Sketch, or prototype ready, you can import it into a platform like Maze and start testing your design with users immediately.

The tasks you create for usability tests should be:

• Realistic, and describe a scenario
• Actionable, and use action verbs (create, sign up, buy, etc)

Be mindful of using leading words such as ‘click here’ or ‘go to that page’ in your tasks. These instructions bias the results by helping users complete their tasks—something that doesn’t happen in real life.

✨ Product tip

With Maze, you can test your prototype and live website with real users to filter out cognitive biases, and gather actionable insights that fuel product decisions.

When to conduct usability testing

To inform your design decisions, you should do usability testing early and often in the process . Here are some guidelines to help you decide when to do usability testing:

• Before you start designing
• Once you have a wireframe or prototype
• Prior to the launch of the product
• At regular intervals after launch

To learn more about usability testing, check out our complete guide to usability testing .

9. Five-second testing

Tl;dr: five-second testing.

Gauge users' first impressions and understanding of a design or layout

✅ Provides insights into the instant clarity and effectiveness of visual communication ❌ Limited to first impressions, does not assess full user experience or interaction

In five-second testing , participants are (unsurprisingly) given five seconds to view an image like a design or web page, and then they’re asked questions about the design to gauge their first impressions.

Why five seconds? According to data , 55% of visitors spend less than 15 seconds on a website, so it;s essential to grab someone’s attention in the first few seconds of their visit. With a five-second test, you can quickly determine what information users perceive and their impressions during the first five seconds of viewing a design.

Product tip 💡

And if you’re using Maze, you can simply upload an image of the screen you want to test, or browse your prototype and select a screen. Plus, you can star individual comments and automatically add them to your report to share with stakeholders.

When to conduct five-second testing

Five-second testing is typically conducted in the early stages of the design process, specifically during initial concept testing or prototype development. This way, you can evaluate your design's initial impact and make early refinements or adjustments to ensure its effectiveness, before putting design to development.

To learn more, check out our chapter on five-second testing .

10. A/B testing

Tl;dr: a/b testing.

Compare two versions of a design or feature to determine which performs better based on user engagement

✅ Provides data-driven insights to guide design decisions and optimize user experience ❌ Requires a large sample size and may not account for long-term effects or complex interactions

A/B testing , also known as split testing, compares two or more versions of a webpage, interface, or feature to determine which performs better regarding engagement, conversions, or other predefined metrics.

It involves randomly dividing users into different groups and giving each group a different version of the design element being tested. For example, let's say the primary call-to-action on the page is a button that says ‘buy now’.

You're considering making changes to its design to see if it can lead to higher conversions, so you create two versions:

• Version A : The original design with the ‘buy now’ button positioned below the product description—shown to group A
• Version B : A variation with the ‘buy now’ button now prominently displayed above the product description—shown to group B

Over a planned period, you measure metrics like click-through rates, add-to-cart rates, and actual purchases to assess the performance of each variation. You find that Group B had significantly higher click-through and conversion rates than Group A. This indicates that showing the button above the product description drove higher user engagement and conversions.

Check out our A/B testing guide for more in-depth examples and guidance on how to run these tests.

When to conduct A/B testing

A/B testing can be used at all stages of the design and development process—whenever you want to collect direct, quantitative data and confirm a suspicion, or settle a design debate. This iterative testing approach allows you to continually improve your website's performance and user experience based on data-driven insights.

11. Concept testing

Tl;dr: concept testing.

Evaluate users' reception and understanding of a new product, feature, or design idea before moving on to development

✅ Helps validate and refine concepts based on user feedback ❌ Relies on users' perception and imagination, may not reflect actual use

Concept testing is a type of research that evaluates the feasibility, appeal, and potential success of a new product before you build it. It centers the user in the ideation process, using UX research methods like A/B testing, surveys, and customer interviews.

There’s no one way to run a concept test—you can opt for concept testing surveys, interviews, focus groups, or any other method that gets qualitative data on your concept.

*Dive into our complete guide to concept testing for more tips and tricks on getting started. *

When to conduct concept testing

Concept testing helps gauge your audience’s interest, understanding, and likelihood-to-purchase, before committing time and resources to a concept. However, it can also be useful further down the product development line—such as when defining marketing messaging or just before launching.

Which is the best UX research type?

The best research type varies depending on your project; what your objectives are, and what stage you’re in. Ultimately, the ideal type of research is one which provides the insights required, using the available resources.

For example, if you're at the early ideation or product discovery stage, generative research methods can help you generate new ideas, understand user needs, and explore possibilities. As you move to the design and development phase, evaluative research methods and quantitative data become crucial.

Discover the UX research trends shaping the future of the industry and why the best results come from a combination of different research methods.

How to choose the right user experience research method

In an ideal world, a combination of all the insights you gain from multiple types of user research methods would guide every design decision. In practice, this can be hard to execute due to resources.

Sometimes the right methodology is the one you can get buy-in, budget, and time for.

Gregg Bernstein , UX Researcher at Signal

UX research tools can help streamline the research process, making regular testing and application of diverse methods more accessible—so you always keep the user at the center of your design process. Some other key tips to remember when choosing your method are:

Define the goals and problems

A good way to inform your choice of user experience research method is to start by considering your goals. You might want to browse UX research templates or read about examples of research.

Michael Margolis , UX Research Partner at Google Ventures, recommends answering questions like:

• “What do your users need?”
• “What are your users struggling with?”
• “How can you help your users?”

Understand the design process stage

If your team is very early in product development, generative research —like field studies—make sense. If you need to test design mockups or a prototype, evaluative research methods—such as usability testing—will work best.

This is something they’re big on at Sketch, as we heard from Design Researcher, Tanya Nativ. She says, “In the discovery phase, we focus on user interviews and contextual inquiries. The testing phase is more about dogfooding, concept testing, and usability testing. Once a feature has been launched, it’s about ongoing listening.”

Consider the type of insights required

If you're looking for rich, qualitative data that delves into user behaviors, motivations, and emotions, then methods like user interviews or field studies are ideal. They’ll help you uncover the ‘why’ behind user actions.

On the other hand, if you need to gather quantitative data to measure user satisfaction or compare different design variations, methods like surveys or A/B testing are more suitable. These methods will help you get hard numbers and concrete data on preferences and behavior.

*Discover the UX research trends shaping the future of the industry and why the best results come from a combination of different research methods. *

Build a deeper understanding of your users with UX research

Think of UX research methods as building blocks that work together to create a well-rounded understanding of your users. Each method brings its own unique strengths, whether it's human empathy from user interviews or the vast data from surveys.

But it's not just about choosing the right UX research methods; the research platform you use is equally important. You need a platform that empowers your team to collect data, analyze, and collaborate seamlessly.

Simplifying product research is simple with Maze. From tree testing to card sorting, prototype testing to user interview analysis—Maze makes getting actionable insights easy, whatever method you opt for.

Meanwhile, if you want to know more about testing methods, head on to the next chapter all about tree testing .

Get valuable insights from real users

Conduct impactful UX research with Maze and improve your product experience and customer satisfaction.

Frequently asked questions

How do you choose the right UX research method?

Choosing the right research method depends on your goals. Some key things to consider are:

• The feature/product you’re testing
• The type of data you’re looking for
• The design stage
• The time and resources you have available

What is the best UX research method?

The best research method is the one you have the time, resources, and budget for that meets your specific needs and goals. Most research tools, like Maze, will accommodate a variety of UX research and testing techniques.

When to use which user experience research method?

Selecting which user research method to use—if budget and resources aren’t a factor—depends on your goals. UX research methods provide different types of data:

• Qualitative vs quantitative
• Attitudinal vs behavioral
• Generative vs evaluative

Identify your goals, then choose a research method that gathers the user data you need.

What results can I expect from UX research?

Here are some of the key results you can expect from actioning the insights uncovered during UX research:

• Improved user satisfaction
• Increased usability
• Better product fit
• Informed design decisions
• Reduced development costs
• Higher conversion rates
• Increased customer loyalty and retention

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Quantitavive UX Research vs. Qualitative — a Comprehensive Guide (2023)

In the ever-evolving realm of user experience (UX) design, research acts as the compass that guides designers towards creating delightful and intuitive digital experiences.

As UX designers, we understand the vital role research plays in uncovering user insights, informing design decisions, and ultimately delivering exceptional products. However, within the expansive field of UX research, two dominant methodologies reign supreme: qualitative and quantitative research.

Qualitative and quantitative approaches each offer distinct lenses through which we can view user behavior, preferences, and needs. Yet, the question often arises: which research methodology should UX designers embrace to extract meaningful insights and optimize their design process?

In this article, we embark on a journey to demystify the complexities of qualitative and quantitative UX research specifically tailored to the discerning minds of UX designers.

What Is Quantitative UX Research

Quantitative UX research is a systematic approach to gathering and analyzing numerical data to gain insights into user behavior and preferences. It involves collecting data on a large scale, often through surveys, experiments, and analytics, with the goal of obtaining statistically significant results.

In quantitative UX research, designers use metrics, measurements, and statistical analysis to quantify user behaviors, attitudes, and opinions. The focus is on generating objective and measurable data that can be analyzed to identify patterns, trends, and correlations.

This data-driven approach provides designers with quantitative evidence to support decision-making throughout the design process.

Quantitative research in UX provides designers with valuable insights into user behavior at scale, helping them make data-informed decisions, identify usability issues, validate design hypotheses, and track the impact of design changes over time.

It complements qualitative research by providing a broader understanding of user preferences and behaviors, allowing designers to make informed decisions based on statistically significant data. Let’s review the various quantitative ux research methods.

Quantitative UX Research Methods

There are several quantitative UX research methods that designers can employ to gather data and insights. Here are some commonly used quantitative methods in the field of UX:

• Surveys: Surveys are one of the several quantitative research methods. It involves collecting data from a large number of participants using structured questionnaires. They can be administered online or in person and are useful for gathering information on user preferences, satisfaction, demographics, and more.
• A/B Testing: A/B testing -one of the most common quantitative user research methods- compares two or more variations of a design element or feature to determine which performs better based on predefined metrics. It allows designers to test hypotheses, evaluate design choices, and optimize user experiences.
• Analytics and User Tracking: Utilizing web analytics tools or tracking software, designers can gather quantitative data on user behavior within a digital product. Metrics such as click-through rates, page views, time spent on pages, or conversion rates provide insights into user engagement and interactions.
• Behavioral Analysis: Behavioral analysis involves studying large-scale user behavior data to identify patterns and trends. This can include analyzing user flows, funnels, drop-off points, or frequency of interactions to gain insights into user journeys and optimize the user experience.
• Task Performance Metrics: Task performance metrics measure specific aspects of user performance, such as task completion time, error rates, or efficiency. These metrics provide quantitative data on the usability and effectiveness of a design and can help identify areas for improvement.
• Eye Tracking: Eye tracking technology is used to measure and analyze where users look on a screen or interface. It provides quantitative data on visual attention, gaze patterns, and heat maps, which can inform design decisions related to visual hierarchy, information placement, and visual cues.
• Clickstream Analysis: Clickstream analysis involves analyzing the sequence of user actions and interactions within a digital product. It helps identify navigation patterns, user flows, and areas of interest or concern.
• Quantitative Interviews: In quantitative interviews, researchers use a structured interview format to ask predefined questions to participants. The responses are quantified and analyzed for statistical trends and patterns.

These are just a few examples of quantitative UX research methods. Each method has its strengths and limitations, and the choice of methods depends on the research objectives, the target audience, and the available resources.

Often, a combination of qualitative and quantitative research methods can provide a more comprehensive understanding of the user experience.

Expert Considerations to Effectively Do Quantitative UX Research

Quantitative UX reasearch and successfuly interpreting quantitative metrics requires certain aspects that every UX researcher must keep in mind.

1. Plan for high-quality and relevant quantitative UX data

Proper interpretation of quantitative UX metrics starts before gathering any data. There are overarching questions that practitioners need to ask to keep on track and make sound interpretations. 

Some questions to consider are: What are the goals and objectives of the quantitative research you are gathering? What research questions are attempting to be answered with quantitative UX metrics? What methods will be used to interpret data? Who are the stakeholders who will use the data? 

Investing the time to define and answer these questions allow UX researchers to focus on highly relevant metrics to goals and objectives. 

2. Focus on UX-related metrics and not business metrics

There can be an overwhelming amount of metrics for business analytics. So the first step is to narrow it down so that time isn’t wasted focusing on irrelevant data to UX. 

Pro tips: understand UX Metrics versus KPIs. 

UX Metrics are quantitative data used to measure, compare, and track users’ experience interacting with a digital product over time. These are associated with user behaviors and attitudes. KPIs (key performance indicators) are quantitative data used to measure, compare, and track the overall goals. These goals typically are tied to revenue, growth, retention, and user counts. 

It is essential to focus on UX data that aligns with your goals and objectives for research.

3. Have a streamlined data wrangling process in place

A critical part of the quantitative data interpretative process is ensuring data is reliable before analyzing and leveraging it for insights. At this junction is where data wrangling (the process of discovering, structuring, cleaning, enriching, validating, and publishing the data) comes in. This process can be very lengthy and time-consuming. 

Data professionals spend as much as 80% of their time preparing data for analysi s. UX professionals cannot afford this much of their time to be sucked up in cleaning and organizing data. But suppose your research operations have streamlined processes for how to wrangle data. In that case, this saves a lot of time and removes the risk of gleaning insights and making interpretations from incomplete, unreliable, or inconsistent data.

4. Use storytelling to communicate findings

Data visualization is an art. And explaining data visuals is a craft. Not many can do these two things well. This is why storytelling is such a powerful skill. Graphs and charts are great, but if a researcher cannot tell a story to explain the data, the findings have minimal impact on business decisions. Additionally, people, including business leaders, are moved by stories.

It is essential to know how to choose the right data visualization type. Generally, there are four goals for data visualization types: 1. showing relationships, 2. showing distribution, 3. showing the composition, or 4. making comparisons. 

Asking the following questions will help you define the best visualization type for the right audience: 

• What is the story you want to tell?
• Who is the audience you want to tell the story to?
• Do we want to analyze trends?
• Do we want to demonstrate composition?
• Do we want to compare two or more sets of values?
• Do we want to show changes over time?
• How will we show UX Metrics?

Once these questions are answered, it becomes easier to decide if a pie chart, a line chart, a spider chart, a bar chart, or a scatter plot is the best visualization type to tell the user experience story.

5. Synthesize your insights and draw valuable conclusions

Now comes the moment where the synthesis of quantitative UX metrics data serves as a change agent for the user experience. Extract facts from the data. Remain objective by being aware of the pitfalls previously discussed. And make interpretations of the data. The goal is to generate valuable recommendations. 

Good recommendations are:

• Constructive. They offer a solution rather than focusing on the problem revealed by the data.
• Specific. They identify wherein the user experience recommendations are most applicable.
• Actionable. Suggestions should be active. Use language that is active rather than passive to inspire change. 
• Concise. Plenty of recommendations can be generated from any given set of UX data, but not all of them will significantly impact the user experience. Prioritize the most important ones. 
• Measurable. Good recommendations can be measured so that there can be evidence a change has occurred and an impact has been made.
• Balanced. Identify both the strengths and weaknesses.

What is Qualitative UX Research

Qualitative UX research is an investigative approach that focuses on gathering rich, descriptive insights and understanding the subjective experiences, attitudes, and motivations of users.

Unlike quantitative research, qualitative research aims to uncover the “why” behind user behavior rather than focusing solely on numerical data.

Qualitative UX research methods involve observing and engaging with users in a more open-ended and exploratory manner, allowing for in-depth exploration of user perspectives.

This type of research provides designers with a deep understanding of user needs, pain points, and aspirations, which can inform design decisions and drive empathy-driven solutions.

Qualitative research allows designers to gain a deeper understanding of user needs, motivations, and emotions. It helps uncover nuances, user pain points, and opportunities for improvement that quantitative data alone may not reveal.

By leveraging qualitative insights, designers can generate empathy, enhance user engagement, and create user-centered experiences that address real user challenges.

It’s worth noting that qualitative and quantitative research are often used together in a complementary manner, with qualitative research providing a foundation for hypothesis generation and quantitative research validating and measuring the impact of design decisions.

Qualitative research methods in UX

Qualitative research methods focus on gathering rich, in-depth insights into user experiences, attitudes, and motivations.

These qualitative user research methods allow designers to understand the “why” behind user behavior and provide valuable context for design decisions. Here are some commonly used qualitative research methods in UX:

• User Interviews: These qualitative methods require one-on-one or group interviews with participants to gather detailed information about their experiences, behaviors, needs, and goals. These interviews can be structured or semi-structured, allowing for open-ended discussions.
• Contextual Inquiry: Observe users in their natural environment while they engage with a product or service. This method provides insights into how users interact with a design in real-life situations, uncovers pain points, and identifies opportunities for improvement.
• Diary Studies: Ask participants to keep a diary or journal to record their experiences, thoughts, and behaviors over a specific period. Diary studies provide longitudinal insights into users’ lives, allowing designers to understand their daily routines, challenges, and emotional responses.
• Usability Testing with Think Aloud: A solid approach is to observe users as they perform tasks while verbalizing their thoughts and impressions. This method provides real-time insights into users’ decision-making processes, frustrations, and successes during the interaction with a design.
• Focus Groups: Facilitate group discussions with participants to explore shared experiences, opinions, and perceptions. Focus groups encourage participants to build upon each other’s ideas, generate insights, and identify common themes or patterns.
• Card Sorting: Engage users in organizing and categorizing information by asking them to sort and group items into meaningful categories. This method helps designers understand users’ mental models and how they perceive and organize information.
• Cognitive Walkthroughs: Walk through a design or prototype with participants while they share their thoughts and decision-making process. Cognitive walkthroughs help identify potential usability issues and gaps in user understanding.
• Ethnographic Research: Conduct in-depth, immersive studies in users’ natural environments over an extended period. Ethnographic research allows designers to deeply understand users’ cultural context, behaviors, and needs.
• Emotional Mapping: Use techniques such as user diaries, interviews, or visual exercises to explore users’ emotional responses and associations with a product or service. Emotional mapping helps designers create emotionally resonant experiences.
• Prototype Testing and Iteration: One of the several qualitative methods is tp share low-fidelity or high-fidelity prototypes with users and gather their feedback through observations, interviews, or usability testing. Prototyping allows designers to validate ideas, refine designs, and iterate based on user insights.

These qualitative research methods provide rich data and insights that go beyond numbers and metrics, helping designers gain a deep understanding of users’ experiences, perceptions, and needs. Combining different methods can offer a comprehensive view of user perspectives and inform user-centered design decisions.

When conducting quantitative UX research, there are several expert considerations to keep in mind to ensure the effectiveness of your study. Here are some key considerations.

1. Clearly define research objectives

Begin by defining clear and specific research objectives. Clearly articulate what you aim to achieve through your quantitative research and what specific questions you want to answer. This will guide your study design and data analysis.

2. Use validated measurement instruments

When selecting or creating measurement instruments such as surveys or questionnaires, use established and validated tools whenever possible. Validated instruments have been rigorously tested for reliability and validity, ensuring the accuracy and consistency of the data collected.

3. Pay attention to sampling and avoid bias in data collection

Ensure that your sample is representative of your target population or user group. Consider factors such as demographics, user characteristics, or usage patterns when selecting participants. A well-designed sampling strategy is crucial for the generalizability and validity of your findings.

Also, take steps to minimize bias in data collection. Provide clear instructions to participants, use neutral language, and avoid leading questions that may influence their responses. Additionally, consider factors such as the order of questions or the presentation of stimuli to mitigate potential biases.

4. Collect sufficient data

Ensure that your sample size is adequate to achieve statistical significance. Power analysis can help determine the appropriate sample size based on the effect size you expect to detect, the desired level of confidence, and statistical power.

5. Use appropriate statistical analysis and consider mixed methods

Choose appropriate statistical methods to analyze your quantitative data. Descriptive statistics, inferential statistics (e.g., t-tests, ANOVA, regression), and correlation analysis are common techniques used in quantitative UX research. Consult with a statistician if needed to ensure the accuracy and validity of your analysis.

Also, consider combining quantitative data with qualitative insights to gain a more comprehensive understanding. Integrating qualitative data can provide valuable context and shed light on the “why” behind quantitative findings, enriching the interpretation of your results.

6. Interpret results within context and communicate findings effectively

Interpret your quantitative findings in the context of your research objectives, user behavior, and broader UX considerations. Avoid drawing overly simplistic or misleading conclusions and consider alternative explanations or factors that may influence the results.

Also, present your quantitative findings in a clear and concise manner, using visualizations and data summaries that are easily understandable to both technical and non-technical stakeholders. Clearly communicate limitations and uncertainties associated with the research findings.

7. Iterate and refine

Remember that quantitative UX research is an iterative process. Continuously refine your research methods based on feedback, learnings, and new insights gained. Use findings to inform design iterations and further research efforts.

For UX practitioners, the volume of quantitative data available in today’s digital world is vast. And correctly interpreting quantitative UX metrics can be a daunting task. While it’s worth investing in highly technical skills, often, it’s more about processes that enable sound interpretations of UX metrics. The key is to remain objective, focus on relevant data, have simplified procedures for data cleaning and analysis, tell a good story with said data, and draw valuable conclusions to improve the user experience. Interpreting quantitative UX metrics is more about the process than sophistication in statistical knowledge (some tools take care of this). The goal is to have simplified, focused, and repeatable processes.

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Huyen Hoang is a User Experience Researcher at Codelitt . Codelitt helps companies create better product experiences for their users by designing and building people-driven solutions with the speed, technology, and innovation of a startup.

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Qualitative vs. Quantitative UX Research Methods: A Comprehensive Guide

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User experience research might be a relatively new profession, but the work behind the role has always been important to the development of new products and services. From companies asking customers for feedback to developers observing how their products are used to designers relying on their own experiences and intuition in order to inform their creative decisions, data from user testing and understanding of human behavior have shaped how things are made, bought, sold, and shared.

Because of the importance of this work, user experience researchers play an increasingly important role in organizations, helping stakeholders understand user behavior, addressing usability problems, and assisting in the design process of new products or services. Trained UX researchers have a variety of tools at their disposal to help take the guesswork out of UX design . Their methods generally fall into one of two categories:

• Qualitative research, which helps them understand user attitudes and behaviors; and
• Quantitative research, which helps them understand the statistical significance behind experiences

One way to think of qualitative research is that it answers the “why?”—why are users struggling to complete tasks? Why does the number of users fall off after a certain time? Why is the conversion rate so low? In comparison, qualitative research helps in answering the question “How much and how many?” —it’s based on math, web analytics, and big data, and is primarily focused on measuring the size and scale of a problem. Most UX researchers are capable of working with both qualitative and quantitative research methods, although it’s not unusual to specialize in one or the other.

Related Read: What Does a UX Designer Do?

What Is Qualitative UX Research?

Qualitative research, also referred to as “qual,” is the process of collecting and analyzing non-numerical data to understand user attitudes and motivations, and developing an in-depth understanding of a problem. Using qualitative research methods, UX researchers try to answer questions such as, “why?” and “how?”

Qualitative research generates insight into how users experience a product or service, and researchers will often use tools such as open-ended customer surveys, focus groups, interviews, and observational field studies. Unlike quantitative UX research, qualitative research doesn’t require as many respondents because, instead of focusing on statistical significance, it seeks to understand the experiences of users and formulate theories or hypotheses that can then be tested.

What Is Quantitative UX Research?

Quantitative research, also referred to as “quant,” is the process of collecting and analyzing numerical data to identify patterns and averages, measuring data points, and producing results that, as the name suggests, are quantifiable. Using quantitative data, UX researchers answer questions such as “how many?”, “how much?”, and “how often?” Quantitative research provides hard data, and researchers working with quantitative methods often use resources like Google Analytics to track information such as user clicks, completion rates, and conversion rates, time spent on a platform, and the results from A/B testing, etc. In order for this type of research to be effective, it requires a large number of research participants so that enough data points can be generated and conclusions can be drawn about the statistical significance of the findings.

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Qualitative vs. Quantitative UX Research Methods: Which Should You Choose When?

Both qualitative and quantitative user research methods have their own strengths and weaknesses, and it’s important to choose the right method in order to maximize relevant data collection and glean the most useful qualitative and quantitative insights. Qualitative user research methods are best used to discover problems, investigate what is causing those problems, and find ways to fix them. Research methods such as focus groups, interviews, open-ended surveys, and observations can be done with as few as eight research participants and can help researchers identify problems that might not be evident from quantitative studies and big data. For example, an interview can shed light on why a particular web feature isn’t as popular as the design team thought it would be; an open-ended survey or observational study can explain why users stop short of checking out on an e-commerce platform, and small focus groups can tell researchers the reasons for a high or low click-through rate.

Quantitative user research met hods are best used to measure usability metrics. Research methods such as analytics, A/B testing, quantitative surveys, and quantitative usability testing can help researchers determine the priority or scale of a problem. For example, where a qualitative interview might reveal that a few people don’t click through to sign-up for service because they find the navigation inaccessible, quantitative research helps determine what proportion of users are affected by a particular problem and whether it’s widespread enough to warrant a design overhaul. Quant research is ideal for benchmarking and drawing comparisons, helping companies differentiate between trends and outliers.

How Is Data Collected in Qualitative and Quantitative UX Research Methods?

User experience researchers will often employ both qualitative and quantitative research methods in order to provide the most accurate assessment possible of how users are experiencing a product or service. Below are some of the common research methods used.

Quantitative methods

1. Technical analysis. One of the most common types of quantitative user research is the process of diving into user analytics to see whether any problems show up in the data. For example, Google Analytics collects troves of data ranging from when people visit a website to the time spent on a site, pages visited, referral details, task times, browser type, scroll depth, and errors, when users try to fill out a form. From this information, UX researchers can quickly identify trends and pinpoint where a problem might exist. 2. Mouse tracking analysis. Mouse tracking follows a user’s movement on a website. With enough research participants, this methodology can be used to generate a heat map that shows parts of a website where there is lots of activity and parts that get ignored. This is useful in identifying basic usability issues, such as whether users are mistaking certain graphics for clickable buttons, or whether they are trying to enter text into non-existent fields. It can also help researchers determine scroll depth—understanding how far most users scroll can help them figure out where they need to place the most important information. 3. Funnel analysis. Similar to technical analysis, funnel analysis focuses on how many users complete a workflow and drop-off percentages for each stage of the funnel. For example, when applied to an e-commerce platform, the funnel may include steps such as visiting the shopfront, browsing, adding items to a virtual shopping cart, filling out a check-out page, and completing an order. Funnel analysis allows UX researchers to zero in on where users might be falling off, which can lead to more specific analysis.

4. User testing. This method, which invites real users to offer feedback, can be used to collect both qualitative and quantitative data. In the latter, a researcher might record a user as they perform certain tasks, measuring how long it takes for them to complete a task and noting where a user runs into problems. The quantitative data collected can be used for benchmarking and determining whether a redesign is necessary, or whether recent changes made are an improvement.

Qualitative methods

1. User interviews. One-on-one interviews or focus groups with users are an effective way of gathering qualitative data that sheds light on user attitudes and behaviors. Where quantitative methods might pinpoint that a problem exists in the user funnel, speaking directly with users can explain the nature of that problem—are shoppers stopping short of checking out because of a glitch? Does the shipping cost cause them to change their mind? Is there something about the check-out page’s design that disrupts their shopping experience? Interviews give researchers the opportunity to go deep into the user experience.

2. User surveys. Surveys can be used in both qualitative and quantitative user research depending on the nature of the questions. Open-ended surveys are often used in qualitative research because the questions tend to be broad and invite users to go into detail about their experiences. In this sense, they are similar to user interviews and focus groups, with the added benefit of researchers being able to send them to a large number of people. 3. User testing. Where quant user testing might focus on how long it takes users to complete tasks, qualitative user testing asks users to narrate their experience as they navigate a website, platform, or app, offering their thoughts about how difficult it is to complete a task and how they perceive the website (e.g. Are they trying to click on a graphic because they think it’s a URL? Are they abandoning their shopping cart because of load times? Do they keep canceling a transaction because they are accidentally interacting with pop-ups?) 4. Diary studies. Diary studies track user behaviors over a period of time and allow researchers to collect data even when they are not actively interviewing or recording a user. Some of the upsides of diary studies are that they minimize the bias that comes with a researcher looking over a participant’s shoulder, they allow the user to participate in the study in their own time, and they provide data points collected from a longer period of time. Possible use cases of diary studies include having participants track each time they use an app to order take-out—what was their motivation for using Seamless or Grubhub instead of calling the restaurant directly? Why did they decide to get takeout instead of dining in or doing an in-restaurant pick-up? Participants might also track every time they order running shoes from a retailer—was the purchase inspired by a seasonal change? Does it align with a new year’s resolution? Is it intended as a gift? Understanding these kinds of user motivation can help a business better serve its customers.

4 Common Mistakes In Qualitative and Quantitative UX Research

User experience research can play a critical role in guiding the development of products and services toward success. But the wrong methodology, a biased researcher, or lack of data can also lead design and development teams astray. Some of the more common mistakes include: 1. Not having enough information. Quantitative UX research requires a large number of participants in order to generate enough data to show an accurate, statistical significance. If there are too few participants, it runs the risk of skewing research results. A similar idea applies to qualitative UX research—although fewer participants are required, it’s important for researchers to not assume that the few participants interviewed represent all users because that can also skew research findings and recommendations. 2. Asking leading questions. While researchers do their best to be as unbiased as possible, sometimes bias can sneak into a study through the form of leading questions. For example, if a qualitative UX researcher begins with a hypothesis that an e-commerce platform’s conversion is low because the site’s design is confusing, they might make the mistake of asking participants “What do you find confusing about this page?”, which would prompt the respondent to think negatively about the page. This kind of biased questioning can lead to researchers getting a result that simply reinforces their hypothesis, without actually addressing the real problem. 3. Using the wrong method. There’s a time and place for every kind of UX research methodology, but choosing the wrong one can lead to unusable results. For example, if an app user agrees to complete a survey on their phone, it’s better to keep the survey short and sweet because a person responding on a mobile device probably doesn’t want to spend too much time answering questions. Saddling a respondent with too many questions could result in user frustration, which could prompt the participant to input random responses just to get it over with . 4. Asking the user what they want. There’s an episode of The Simpsons where Homer is given free rein to design his dream car. When the carmaker asks him what he wants, he lists every feature under the sun. The result is The Homer —a disastrous invention that bankrupts the fictional automaker. UX researchers can run into a similar risk when they ask users what they want. Instead, researchers should come in with a hypothesis that they can test with participants, keeping their research as focused as possible.

Qualitative vs. Quantitative Research Methods: Which Is Better?

Instead of thinking of qualitative and quantitative research as being in competition with each other, it’s more accurate to think of them as serving different purposes. For example, if an organization wants to better understand the motivations behind user behaviors and attitudes, which in turn drive time spent on a page, devices used, referral links clicked, or user drop-offs, qualitative user research methods such as interviews and open-ended surveys are more likely to yield in-depth insights. Meanwhile, if an organization wants to quantify the user experience and measure load times, conversion rates, average time spent on pages, the kind of devices or browsers in use, referral links, or user drop-offs, quantitative user research methods such as analytics and user testing are more conducive to getting useful and relevant results.

Why Use Both Qualitative and Quantitative Research Methods?

It’s not unusual for UX researchers to use both qualitative and quantitative research methods because they often complement each other. Quantitative research might reveal that a certain design becomes unusable at a certain point, but qualitative research is then required to drill into the kinds of problems users encountered. Quantitative research can show that a particular problem isn’t a random outlier and is statistically significant enough to warrant fixing, but qualitative research will shed light on what changes should be made to improve the user experience.

“It is always good to use both qualitative and quantitative,” according to UX researcher, Dominic Rogers . “By using both, you can identify [a] hypothesis and then find measures and metrics that can then prove that hypothesis.”

This post was written by Tracey Lien.

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Quantitative UX Research: Overview

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The Complete Guide to UX Research Methods

UX research provides invaluable insight into product users and what they need and value. Not only will research reduce the risk of a miscalculated guess, it will uncover new opportunities for innovation.

By Miklos Philips

Miklos is a UX designer, product design strategist, author, and speaker with more than 18 years of experience in the design field.

PREVIOUSLY AT

“Empathy is at the heart of design. Without the understanding of what others see, feel, and experience, design is a pointless task.” —Tim Brown, CEO of the innovation and design firm IDEO

User experience (UX) design is the process of designing products that are useful, easy to use, and a pleasure to engage. It’s about enhancing the entire experience people have while interacting with a product and making sure they find value, satisfaction, and delight. If a mountain peak represents that goal, employing various types of UX research is the path UX designers use to get to the top of the mountain.

User experience research is one of the most misunderstood yet critical steps in UX design. Sometimes treated as an afterthought or an unaffordable luxury, UX research, and user testing should inform every design decision.

Every product, service, or user interface designers create in the safety and comfort of their workplaces has to survive and prosper in the real world. Countless people will engage our creations in an unpredictable environment over which designers have no control. UX research is the key to grounding ideas in reality and improving the odds of success, but research can be a scary word. It may sound like money we don’t have, time we can’t spare, and expertise we have to seek.

In order to do UX research effectively—to get a clear picture of what users think and why they do what they do—e.g., to “walk a mile in the user’s shoes” as a favorite UX maxim goes, it is essential that user experience designers and product teams conduct user research often and regularly. Contingent upon time, resources, and budget, the deeper they can dive the better.

What Is UX Research?

There is a long, comprehensive list of UX design research methods employed by user researchers , but at its center is the user and how they think and behave —their needs and motivations. Typically, UX research does this through observation techniques, task analysis, and other feedback methodologies.

There are two main types of user research: quantitative (statistics: can be calculated and computed; focuses on numbers and mathematical calculations) and qualitative (insights: concerned with descriptions, which can be observed but cannot be computed).

Quantitative research is primarily exploratory research and is used to quantify the problem by way of generating numerical data or data that can be transformed into usable statistics. Some common data collection methods include various forms of surveys – online surveys , paper surveys , mobile surveys and kiosk surveys , longitudinal studies, website interceptors, online polls, and systematic observations.

This user research method may also include analytics, such as Google Analytics .

Google Analytics is part of a suite of interconnected tools that help interpret data on your site’s visitors including Data Studio , a powerful data-visualization tool, and Google Optimize, for running and analyzing dynamic A/B testing.

Quantitative data from analytics platforms should ideally be balanced with qualitative insights gathered from other UX testing methods , such as focus groups or usability testing. The analytical data will show patterns that may be useful for deciding what assumptions to test further.

Qualitative user research is a direct assessment of behavior based on observation. It’s about understanding people’s beliefs and practices on their terms. It can involve several different methods including contextual observation, ethnographic studies, interviews, field studies, and moderated usability tests.

Jakob Nielsen of the Nielsen Norman Group feels that in the case of UX research, it is better to emphasize insights (qualitative research) and that although quant has some advantages, qualitative research breaks down complicated information so it’s easy to understand, and overall delivers better results more cost effectively—in other words, it is much cheaper to find and fix problems during the design phase before you start to build. Often the most important information is not quantifiable, and he goes on to suggest that “quantitative studies are often too narrow to be useful and are sometimes directly misleading.”

Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted. William Bruce Cameron

Design research is not typical of traditional science with ethnography being its closest equivalent—effective usability is contextual and depends on a broad understanding of human behavior if it is going to work.

Nevertheless, the types of user research you can or should perform will depend on the type of site, system or app you are developing, your timeline, and your environment.

Top UX Research Methods and When to Use Them

Here are some examples of the types of user research performed at each phase of a project.

Card Sorting : Allows users to group and sort a site’s information into a logical structure that will typically drive navigation and the site’s information architecture. This helps ensure that the site structure matches the way users think.

Contextual Interviews : Enables the observation of users in their natural environment, giving you a better understanding of the way users work.

First Click Testing : A testing method focused on navigation, which can be performed on a functioning website, a prototype, or a wireframe.

Focus Groups : Moderated discussion with a group of users, allowing insight into user attitudes, ideas, and desires.

Heuristic Evaluation/Expert Review : A group of usability experts evaluating a website against a list of established guidelines .

Interviews : One-on-one discussions with users show how a particular user works. They enable you to get detailed information about a user’s attitudes, desires, and experiences.

Parallel Design : A design methodology that involves several designers pursuing the same effort simultaneously but independently, with the intention to combine the best aspects of each for the ultimate solution.

Personas : The creation of a representative user based on available data and user interviews. Though the personal details of the persona may be fictional, the information used to create the user type is not.

Prototyping : Allows the design team to explore ideas before implementing them by creating a mock-up of the site. A prototype can range from a paper mock-up to interactive HTML pages.

Surveys : A series of questions asked to multiple users of your website that help you learn about the people who visit your site.

System Usability Scale (SUS) : SUS is a technology-independent ten-item scale for subjective evaluation of the usability.

Task Analysis : Involves learning about user goals, including what users want to do on your website, and helps you understand the tasks that users will perform on your site.

Usability Testing : Identifies user frustrations and problems with a site through one-on-one sessions where a “real-life” user performs tasks on the site being studied.

Use Cases : Provide a description of how users use a particular feature of your website. They provide a detailed look at how users interact with the site, including the steps users take to accomplish each task.

You can do user research at all stages or whatever stage you are in currently. However, the Nielsen Norman Group advises that most of it be done during the earlier phases when it will have the biggest impact. They also suggest it’s a good idea to save some of your budget for additional research that may become necessary (or helpful) later in the project.

Here is a diagram listing recommended options that can be done as a project moves through the design stages. The process will vary, and may only include a few things on the list during each phase. The most frequently used methods are shown in bold.

Reasons for Doing UX Research

Here are three great reasons for doing user research :

To create a product that is truly relevant to users

• If you don’t have a clear understanding of your users and their mental models, you have no way of knowing whether your design will be relevant. A design that is not relevant to its target audience will never be a success.

To create a product that is easy and pleasurable to use

• A favorite quote from Steve Jobs: “ If the user is having a problem, it’s our problem .” If your user experience is not optimal, chances are that people will move on to another product.

To have the return on investment (ROI) of user experience design validated and be able to show:

• An improvement in performance and credibility
• Increased exposure and sales—growth in customer base
• A reduced burden on resources—more efficient work processes

Aside from the reasons mentioned above, doing user research gives insight into which features to prioritize, and in general, helps develop clarity around a project.

What Results Can I Expect from UX Research?

In the words of Mike Kuniaysky, user research is “ the process of understanding the impact of design on an audience. ”

User research has been essential to the success of behemoths like USAA and Amazon ; Joe Gebbia, CEO of Airbnb is an enthusiastic proponent, testifying that its implementation helped turn things around for the company when it was floundering as an early startup.

Some of the results generated through UX research confirm that improving the usability of a site or app will:

• Increase conversion rates
• Increase sign-ups
• Increase NPS (net promoter score)
• Increase customer satisfaction
• Increase purchase rates
• Boost loyalty to the brand
• Reduce customer service calls

Additionally, and aside from benefiting the overall user experience, the integration of UX research into the development process can:

• Minimize development time
• Reduce production costs
• Uncover valuable insights about your audience
• Give an in-depth view into users’ mental models, pain points, and goals

User research is at the core of every exceptional user experience. As the name suggests, UX is subjective—the experience that a person goes through while using a product. Therefore, it is necessary to understand the needs and goals of potential users, the context, and their tasks which are unique for each product. By selecting appropriate UX research methods and applying them rigorously, designers can shape a product’s design and can come up with products that serve both customers and businesses more effectively.

Further Reading on the Toptal Blog:

• How to Conduct Effective UX Research: A Guide
• The Value of User Research
• UX Research Methods and the Path to User Empathy
• Design Talks: Research in Action with UX Researcher Caitria O'Neill
• Swipe Right: 3 Ways to Boost Safety in Dating App Design
• How to Avoid 5 Types of Cognitive Bias in User Research

Understanding the basics

How do you do user research in ux.

UX research includes two main types: quantitative (statistical data) and qualitative (insights that can be observed but not computed), done through observation techniques, task analysis, and other feedback methodologies. The UX research methods used depend on the type of site, system, or app being developed.

What are UX methods?

There is a long list of methods employed by user research, but at its center is the user and how they think, behave—their needs and motivations. Typically, UX research does this through observation techniques, task analysis, and other UX methodologies.

What is the best research methodology for user experience design?

The type of UX methodology depends on the type of site, system or app being developed, its timeline, and environment. There are 2 main types: quantitative (statistics) and qualitative (insights).

What does a UX researcher do?

A user researcher removes the need for false assumptions and guesswork by using observation techniques, task analysis, and other feedback methodologies to understand a user’s motivation, behavior, and needs.

Why is UX research important?

UX research will help create a product that is relevant to users and is easy and pleasurable to use while boosting a product’s ROI. Aside from these reasons, user research gives insight into which features to prioritize, and in general, helps develop clarity around a project.

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Miklos Philips

London, United Kingdom

Member since May 20, 2016

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World Leaders in Research-Based User Experience

Quantitative research: study guide.

August 29, 2021 2021-08-29

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The following tables contain links to some of our articles and videos related to quantitative user research. Within each section, the resources are in recommended reading order. 

Quantitative vs. Qualitative UX Research

In UX, we often use qualitative research to gather insights or observations about users. This type of research is useful for discovering problems and determining design solutions. (We also have a study guide for  qualitative usability testing .) 

With  quantitative research , our focus is different. We collect UX metrics — numerical representations of different aspects of the experience. Quantitative research is great for determining the scale or priority of design problems, benchmarking the experience, or comparing different design alternatives in an experimental way.

4-minute video:   Quantitative vs. Qualitative UX Research

In This Article:

Ux benchmarking and return on investment (roi), quantitative usability testing, analytics and a/b testing, card sorting and tree testing, analyzing quantitative data, visualizing and presenting quantitative data.

UX benchmarking  refers to evaluating a product or service’s user experience by using metrics to gauge its relative performance against a meaningful standard. Teams use benchmarking to track improvements to the user experience over time or to compare  against competitors. 

Benchmarking metrics are often also used to the calculate  return on investment (ROI)  of UX work; this type of calculation helps UX professionals prove their value and argue for more resources.

For more in-depth help, check out our report and full-day course. (Unlike the articles and videos in this study guide, these resources are not free.)

Report:  UX Metrics and ROI

Full-day course:  Measuring UX and ROI

In  quantitative usability testing,  researchers collect metrics (like time on task, success rates, and satisfaction scores) while participants perform tasks. This version of usability testing requires more participants and a more rigorous study structure than qualitative usability testing.

Analytics  data describe what people do with your live product — where they go, what they click on, what features they use, where they come from, and on which pages they decide to leave the site or app. This information can support a wide variety of UX activities —  it can help you monitor the performance of various content, UIs, or features in your product and identify what doesn’t work.

While you can use analytics metrics to monitor your product’s, you can also create experiments that detect how different UI designs affect those metrics — either through  A/B testing  or  multivariate testing .

Full-day course:  Analytics and User Experience

Quantitative  surveys  involve asking a large number of users to answer a standardized set of questions. These surveys often involve selecting a response on a rating scales and are used to quantify users’ perceptions. 

Card sorting and tree testing are both useful methods for assessing and improving your product’s information architecture.

In a  card-sorting  study, participants are given content items (sometimes written on index cards) and asked to group and label those items in a way that makes sense to them. This test can either be conducted in person, using physical cards, or remotely using a card-sorting platform. Card sorting can have qualitative and quantitative components.

In a  tree test , participants complete tasks using only the category structure of your site. It’s essentially a way to evaluate your information architecture by isolating it away from all other aspects of your UI.

Full-day course:  Information Architecture

To draw conclusion and interpret quantitative data, you’ll need to understand some statistics and study-design concepts. The following resources will introduce you to those concepts.

These resources won’t give you step-by-step instructions for calculating things like confidence intervals or statistical significance — these are too complex to be covered in a short article. If you want to learn those analysis procedures, please see our full-day course below.

Full day course:  How to Interpret UX Numbers

Related Courses

Measuring ux and roi.

Use metrics from quantitative research to demonstrate value

Statistics for UX

Calculate, interpret, and report the numbers from your quantitative UX studies

ResearchOps: Scaling User Research

Orchestrate and optimize research to amplify its impact

Related Topics

• Research Methods Research Methods
• Study Guides

Learn More:

Success Rate vs. Completion Rate

Tim Neusesser · 4 min

Product Instrumentation: 3 Benefits

Sara Paul · 4 min

Between-Subject vs. Within-Subject Study Design in User Research

Raluca Budiu · 5 min

Related Articles:

Net Promoter Score: What a Customer-Relations Metric Can Tell You About Your User Experience

Therese Fessenden · 8 min

Between-Subjects vs. Within-Subjects Study Design

Raluca Budiu · 8 min

Collecting Metrics During Qualitative Studies

Kate Moran · 3 min

Should You Run a Survey?

Maddie Brown · 6 min

Data Is More than Numbers: Why Qualitative Data Isn’t Just Opinions

Page Laubheimer · 9 min

Quantitative UX Research in Practice

Kate Moran · 7 min

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UX design research methods

Effective user experience design is intuitive, accessible, and engaging. But how do you design a delightful experience that meets your target audience’s needs? Conducting user experience research gives you a glimpse inside your users’ heads, so you can understand what they care about and the challenges they face.

In this article, Figma Designer Advocate Ana Boyer weighs in on:

• What user experience research is, and why your team needs it
• Different types of UX research that support product development
• UX design research methods made easier with Figma

What is user experience research?

User experience research helps design teams identify areas of opportunity to improve user interfaces and enhance the overall user experience. According to Ana, UX research can reveal insights about target users across all phases of product development—from strategy and planning to product launch and post-launch improvements. A robust UX research framework includes both quantitative and qualitative research.

Quantitative research

Using information gathered from larger sample sizes, quantitative research yields concrete numerical data that reveals what users are doing. Researchers run statistical analyses and review analytics to gain insights into user behavior. For example, Ana says, “you might try tracking the number of times users clicked a CTA button on a newly designed web page, compared to an old version."

Qualitative research

For qualitative research, researchers collect subjective and descriptive feedback directly from users, tapping into users’ personal feelings and experiences with a product or design.  "Qualitative research gives you a more thorough explanation of why someone is doing something in the context of a flow,” Ana says.

User-centered design research often covers two types of qualitative research: attitudinal and behavioral. Attitudinal research examines users’ self-reported beliefs and perceptions related to a user experience, while behavioral research focuses on observing first-hand what users do with a product.

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3 benefits of user experience research

According to Ana, with UX research you can:

• Validate your design. "You can learn whether or not your design is hitting project goals and your users are able to accomplish a task—for example, ordering an item from your platform.”
• Put your users front and center. UX research uncovers what users want and need, so you can deliver a product that delights customers.
• Save time and resources. Doing user research and testing early and often allows you to make smaller adjustments quickly and easily. That way, Ana says, “you can take a more iterative approach to design—without having to backtrack and redo your entire UX design.”

How to conduct  UX research

Most common UX research methodologies break down into these essential activities:

• Observe how users act and react . This not only includes clicks and scrolling onscreen, but also their body language and facial expressions. Careful observation helps you understand how users normally perform a task, what interactions users pick up easily or enjoy, where they get stuck in a flow, and more.
• Empathize with your users . To create a useful and usable product, you need to consider how users' context influences them as they interact with your design.
• Analyze information to surface common themes. “Tagging key user responses helps you pinpoint what needs the most work and refinement to improve the user experience," Ana advises

When to use key UX research methods—at a glance

Given all the UX research methods you can use for  product development, when is each most useful? Ana offers these pro tips.

• User personas help you understand your core users in the early stages of development. “If you don’t know who you’re building for, then the time you invest in building and creating something will be wasted,” Ana explains. FigJam’s user persona template will help you get the ball rolling.
• Interviews gather in-depth information directly from users to test your ideas, so you can lower the risk of building a product that misses the target. FigJam’s user interview template will help you lay the groundwork.
• Card sorting invites users to show you what they think is the most intuitive way to organize high-level information in your design. Try FigJam’s card-sorting tool to shape your product’s information architecture.
• Task analysis studies users as they use your site or app to complete tasks, or jobs to be done. Use it to validate your design, and ensure users can quickly and easily accomplish their goals. Get started with FigJam’s jobs to be done template .
• Eye tracking analyzes where users look, when, and how long as they interact with your product.
• Surveys indicate how useful and usable your design is. Surveys  can provide useful insights at any phase of product development, pinpointing where users are struggling with an interface, and revealing user sentiment about a product’s colors, fonts, and overall design.

Launch & post-launch

• A/B testing shows which version or iteration of a webpage, app screen, or CTA button performs better with your users.
• Analytics track KPIs like time spent on page, bounce rate, number of clicks on key CTAs, and more to see what’s working—and what isn’t. Analytics may also reveal useful insights about your users, including location, device usage, age, and gender.
• Usability bug testing identifies and helps fix usability issues that affect your product’s quality and ease of use. “Teams struggle to invest the time and process in doing this, but it can have a huge impact on quality,” Ana says.
• Diaries captured in writing or on video track users’ thoughts and impressions over a certain time period. This self-reporting approach reveals how a product fits into and enhances users’ daily lives.

Kick off user experience research with Figma

No matter where you are in the product development process, FigJam’s research plan template can help you define your research goals. Figma’s research and design templates help you conduct research with user interviews , user personas , card sorting , and Sprig study integration .

With the insights gained from your research, you're ready to design, develop, and prototype engaging user experiences. Use Figma’s UX design tool to:

• Give and receive instant feedback on designs or prototypes—and enjoy real-time collaboration with your team. Figma's Maze integration makes testing prototypes easy.
• Set up design libraries to quickly launch user research projects and improve UX design.
• Easily share assets between Figma and FigJam to help keep your projects moving forward.

To jumpstart your UX research, browse inspiring UX research resources shared by the Figma community .

Now you're ready to roll with UX research!

Go to next section

[1] https://www.nngroup.com/articles/which-ux-research-methods/

[2] https://www.uxbooth.com/articles/complete-beginners-guide-to-design-research/

Quantitative vs. Qualitative UX Research Methods: Strengths and Weaknesses

Zephaniah Galloway

Introduction

User experience research plays a crucial role in designing products and services that meet user needs and expectations. It is imperative to conduct research in order to save time and money. With the increasing expense of creating websites and apps, companies should be doing their best to not “put the cart before the horse” to achieve their goals. Two primary research approaches employed in UX design are quantitative and qualitative research. This article aims to compare and contrast the strengths and weaknesses of these two research methods while also highlighting their respective contributions to the UX design process. By understanding the nuances of quantitative and qualitative research, designers can make informed decisions about which method(s) to use in various stages of web and app development.

User experience design is a multidisciplinary field that seeks to improve the usability, accessibility, and overall satisfaction of users interacting with digital products and services. UX researchers employ various methods to gather data and insights, with quantitative and qualitative research being two dominant approaches.

Quantitative research relies on numerical data and statistical analysis, while qualitative research focuses on non-numerical data such as interviews, observations, and open-ended responses. Each approach has its own strengths and weaknesses, and the choice between them depends on research goals, context, and resources. Growing up, I learned to distinguish them by using the following idea: quaNtitative has the letter N, which represents numbers while quaLitative has the letter L, which represents looks (or observations).

To maximize the benefits of UX research, many designers and researchers combine both quantitative and qualitative methods, employing a mixed-methods approach. By doing so, they can leverage the strengths of each approach while mitigating their respective weaknesses, leading to more comprehensive and user-centered design solutions. Ultimately, the choice between quantitative and qualitative research should be driven by the overarching goals of the UX design process and the specific questions researchers aim to answer.

Each approach offers unique techniques and tools for understanding user behavior, preferences, and needs. Below, I’ll outline some common methods for both quantitative and qualitative UX research:

Quantitative Research Methods

Surveys : Surveys are structured questionnaires designed to collect numerical data from a large number of participants. They are useful for gathering information about user demographics, preferences, and satisfaction levels. Likert scale questions and multiple-choice questions are common in surveys.

Analytics and User Tracking : Tools like Google Analytics or heatmaps allow researchers to collect quantitative data on user behavior. This includes metrics such as page views, bounce rates, conversion rates, and click-through rates. These tools help in assessing how users navigate a website or application.

A/B Testing: A/B testing involves comparing two or more versions of a product or website to determine which performs better in terms of specific metrics (e.g., conversion rate, click-through rate). It helps in making data-driven design decisions.

Task Success Metrics: Quantitative metrics like task completion rates, error rates, and time on task are used to evaluate the usability of a product or interface. These metrics provide insights into how efficiently users can accomplish tasks.

Usage Metrics: Tracking user engagement, such as the frequency and duration of user visits, can provide quantitative insights into which features are most popular and which areas of a product are underutilized.

Objectivity and Generalizability: Quantitative research provides objective and measurable data that can be analyzed statistically. This data is often seen as more objective and can be generalized to a larger population, making it useful for identifying trends and patterns.

Large Sample Sizes: Quantitative research can involve large sample sizes, which increases the statistical power of findings. This is particularly beneficial when trying to detect small but significant differences or trends.

Efficiency: Surveys and questionnaires, common tools in quantitative research, are efficient for collecting data from a large number of participants simultaneously.

Usability Metrics: Quantitative research can generate metrics like task completion rates, error rates, and time on task, which are valuable for evaluating the usability of a product.

Lack of Context: Quantitative research often lacks the depth of understanding provided by qualitative research because it does not explore the underlying reasons for user behaviors.

Limited Insight into Emotions and Motivations: It may struggle to capture the emotional aspects of the user experience and the motivations behind certain actions, which are crucial for UX designers.

Difficulty in Generating Hypotheses: It may not be suitable for generating hypotheses about user behavior or exploring novel ideas because it tends to rely on predefined variables and structured questions.

Qualitative Research in UX

User Interviews: Qualitative interviews involve one-on-one conversations with users. These open-ended discussions help researchers explore user experiences, attitudes, motivations, and pain points. Researchers can ask follow-up questions to gain deeper insights.

Usability Testing: Usability testing involves observing users as they interact with a product or prototype. Researchers can identify usability issues, gather feedback, and understand how users navigate the interface. Think-aloud protocols and post-test interviews are often used to capture user thoughts and feelings.

Card Sorting: Card sorting exercises help researchers understand how users categorize and organize information within a website or application. This method is particularly useful for information architecture and menu structure design.

Diary Studies: Diary studies ask participants to record their experiences and interactions with a product over an extended period. This method captures longitudinal data on user experiences and can reveal patterns and changes over time.

Focus Groups: Focus groups bring together a small group of participants to discuss their experiences, opinions, and perceptions of a product. This method can generate group dynamics and uncover collective insights.

*Persona Development: While not a research method in itself, persona development involves creating fictional user profiles based on qualitative research findings. Personas help design teams empathize with and design for specific user segments.

Rich Insights: Qualitative research allows for in-depth exploration of user attitudes, behaviors, and motivations. It provides rich, contextually relevant insights that help designers understand the “why” behind user actions.

Flexibility: Qualitative methods, such as interviews and usability testing with open-ended questions, can adapt to changing research objectives and provide unexpected insights.

Early-stage Exploration: Qualitative research is valuable in the early stages of product development when the focus is on understanding user needs and generating ideas.

Iterative Design: Qualitative feedback supports iterative design processes by uncovering issues early, leading to more efficient and user-centric design improvements.

Subjectivity: Qualitative research can be subjective, relying on the interpretation of researchers. This subjectivity can introduce bias into findings.

Limited Generalizability: Qualitative research often involves smaller sample sizes and is context-specific, making it challenging to generalize findings to broader populations.

Resource-Intensive: Conducting qualitative research, especially in-person interviews and extensive user testing, can be resource-intensive in terms of time and budget.

Quantitative and qualitative research in UX design each offer distinct advantages and limitations. The choice between them should be driven by research objectives, available resources, and the stage of the design process. Quantitative research excels in generating objective, generalizable data, making it suitable for assessing usability and identifying trends. On the other hand, qualitative research provides rich, context-specific insights into user behavior and motivations, making it invaluable in the early stages of design and for uncovering nuanced issues.

In practice, many UX research projects benefit from a combination of both quantitative and qualitative methods. This mixed-methods approach provides a more comprehensive understanding of user experiences by triangulating data from different sources. It allows researchers to answer both “what” (quantitative) and “why” (qualitative) questions, leading to more informed design decisions. The choice of methods should align with research goals, budget, and timeline constraints.

Written by Zephaniah Galloway

A UX Designer at the intersection of the humanities and technology

Text to speech

Table of Contents

A complete guide to qualitative vs quantitative ux research methods.

How can we build this product?

What can we do to improve this product?

Why are the conversion rates so low?

These are some of the burning questions that every organization faces. In today’s competitive world, understanding consumer behaviour is the quintessential ingredient for the recipe of success.

After all, users are at the heart of any experience of a product, and up to 90% of users are reported to leave using an application due to bad performance. Billions of dollars can be lost when businesses do not prioritize UX Research and turn to the guesswork game.

What is UX Research?

Also known as user experience research, it involves the study of user needs and preferences. While developing any product, platform, or service, it is imperative to understand the user's behaviour. With the help of UX Research, businesses can understand the different aspects of product development and customize it in a way that aligns with the user's needs. This process also helps in improving the product.

With the growing complexities of consumer demand and the rising need for customized products, understanding these changing trends is the need of the hour. One of the ways is to research and analyse consumer behaviour that can help in boosting experience, thus driving conversion.

Studies have proved that a good user experience can be rewarding to companies . Hence, companies are now actively investing in harnessing the power of UX Research. Moreover, with this surge of new technologies like ML and AI, it has become easier to understand the nuances of consumer preferences, thus ensuring better products and services.

  UX research has two subsets:

• Qualitative Research
• Quantitative Research

Qualitative and quantitative research methods are both crucial in understanding user experience (UX) that translates into informed design decisions. Each method offers unique insights and benefits, and often, they are used together to provide a comprehensive understanding of user needs and behaviours. 

This blog takes you through both these concepts and will unfold its key features and applications.

What is Quantitative Research in UX?

‍ Source: Image of Quantitative Research in UX

As the name highlights, this method of UX research focuses on tangible parameters to understand human behavior and assess the usability of a product. The focus of quantitative research in UX is to collect quantifiable data from a large sample and use it to analyze the trends in the market.

To measure user behaviour, preferences, choices, and experiences by analyzing numerical data.

It gives answers to questions such as "what" and "how much." For example:

What percentage of users were able to complete the task in under 2 minutes?

How many errors did the users face while completing this task?

Key Features of Quantitative Research in UX

Data collection.

Collecting data is a critical aspect of quantitative research. Hence, the researchers deploy different methods like surveys, A/B testing, and others to collect the data. This data is usually in the form of clicks or time spent on a webpage or product or satisfaction rates.

Focus on Measurable Data

The focus of this method is on collecting quantifiable data from a large set, such that this information can be analyzed and help in deriving accurate results.

Since quantitative research depends on measurable data, the results are more authentic and give substantial support for a change or improvement.

Large sample sizes

The method focuses on a larger sample size, which ensures that the results are statistically significant. Hence, we can generalize the results to the whole population.

‍Limitations of Quantitative Research in UX

Although quantitative research in UX can help in giving measurable outcomes, it cannot provide support for why the consumer is behaving in a particular way. To get a more sustainable proof, it is important to follow a combined strategy of using qualitative research methods.

It lacks the depth and context that the insights generated from the qualitative UX research bring to the table.Overall, quantitative research is a powerful tool for UX professionals.

By using data to measure user behaviour, you can create products that are not only useful but also enjoyable to use.

Some of the Common Quantitative UX Research Methods

Here's a breakdown of some popular quantitative UX research methods, including their descriptions, features, and examples:

This helps in gathering feedback through structured questions to quantify the preferences, opinions, or experiences of users with a product. However, it is important to mention that this method can also be used in qualitative testing based on the kind of questions it asks. For example, close-ended questions can be a part of the quantitative research method. Conversely, open-ended surveys allow users to provide detailed, narrative responses to gather their feedback and understand their sentiments, thus falling in the category of qualitative research.

• It focuses on a large audience
• The data points are measurable and hence is easy to analyze
• It helps in measuring user satisfaction with a new product, service, or website design
• Understand the interests of the consumer
• Tracking the consumer behaviour pertaining to a particular design

2. A/B testing

This compares two or more design variations to determine which performs better (leading to higher user engagement or conversion rates).

• It highlights the impact of specific design changes.
• Optimize user experience based on real user behaviour.
• Quantify the improvement in conversion rates or other metrics.
• Test two different headlines on a landing page to see which one drives more clicks.
• Compare two checkout form designs to see which one reduces cart abandonment rates.
• Experiment with different button colours to see which one gets more users to sign up.

3. Website Analytics

Understanding website analytics can unfold several patterns, like user behaviour on the website, engagement rate, clicks, and conversion rates. All these insights can help highlight trends and patterns.

• Get a detailed insight into the website traffic.
• Identify user engagement
• Highlights the popular trend on the website
• Assess the effectiveness of marketing campaigns.
• Find out the bounce rate of different web pages
• Highlight the popular content amongst the user

These are some of the common quantitative research methods. Using them, the researcher can gain valuable insights into consumer behavior that can help in improving the overall experience.‍

What is Qualitative Research in UX?

Source: Image of Qualitative Research in UX

Unlike quantitative research, qualitative research in UX design focuses on understanding the reason behind the consumer's behaviour or preference.

It focuses on collecting descriptive and non-numerical data points such as the motivation behind the purchase decision, the need, and the thought process of the consumers. Analogous to quantitative research, the qualitative methods force the subjective experience of the user.

To find out the underlying motivations, emotions, and perceptions of users.

It gives answers to questions such as "why" and "how." For example:

What challenges did the user face while signing up?

(This answers the question: Why the user took a longer time to sign up/ couldn't sign up)

What improvements could improve your experience of the app?

(This answers the question: How can we improve the user experience of the app)

Key Features of Qualitative Research in UX:

Focus on the "why".

As mentioned above, quantitative research deals with numbers, but qualitative research focuses on addressing the why behind the behavior of consumers. It helps the researcher understand the thought processes and emotions that drive the decisions of the consumers.

Uncover User Needs and Experiences

The qualitative research method helps to understand the needs of the consumers. It also sheds light on the challenges and overall experience of the consumers, which eventually helps build a product or service that is in coherence with the demands of the consumers. It relies on various methods like usability testing and interviews to gather this information.

In-depth Exploration

Understanding the nuances of consumer behavior is the foundation of qualitative research in UX. Focusing on smaller and more targeted users helps the researcher unfold the depth of a specific topic and gain detailed insight.

Flexibility

While using the qualitative research methods in UX, the researchers have flexibility in their approach.

Sample Size

The sample size is much smaller, typically till the saturation point, where the responses from the participants get repetitive. According to the NN Group, the recommended sample size so far has been between 5 to 50. The relatively smaller sample size allows for an in-depth exploration of user experiences.

Data Analysis

Thematic analysis, content analysis, or qualitative coding are used to identify the patterns, themes, and insights from the data collected.

Some of the Common Qualitative UX Research Method

Qualitative UX research methods help you understand the "why" behind user behavior. Here's a breakdown of some popular methods, including their descriptions, features, and examples:

1. User Interviews

This involves one-on-one conversations with users to understand their preferences, motivations, and experiences.

• Get in-depth insight into the user needs
• Highlight the reason behind user behavior
• Gain rich, detailed insights into user needs and motivations.
• Uncover unspoken thoughts and feelings that might not appear in surveys.
• Tailor questions to specific user segments.
• Interviewing e-commerce shoppers to understand their purchase decision process.
• Talking to new mobile app users to identify onboarding pain points.
• Discussing users' mental models for a complex software program.

2. Usability Testing

This involves observing the users as they interact with the product to find usability issues and gather feedback.

• Get first-hand information on how the user interacts with the designs
• Find out if the user is facing any confusion while using the website
• Testing the checkout flow of potential customers
• Watch how the user is completing a particular task within the app

3. Focus Group

This brings together a small group of participants to discuss their attitudes and perceptions regarding a product.

• Gain insights from group dynamics and user interactions.
• Identify common themes and concerns among a specific user segment.
• Spark new ideas and areas for exploration based on user feedback.
• Conducting a focus group with new parents to understand their needs for a baby monitoring app.
• Gathering feedback from experienced gamers on a new game concept.
• Discussing user expectations and pain points related to a new financial service platform.

By using these qualitative methods, UX researchers can build a comprehensive understanding of user needs, motivations, and behaviors.

Limitation of Qualitative UX Research Method

Such insights cannot be statistically validated and generalized to the larger population.

Summary of Qualitative Research vs Quantitative Research Methods

Qualitative UX Research

Quantitative UX Research

Type of Data

Focuses on non-numerical data.

Measurable and tangible data.

In-depth understanding

More generalized approach

Method of Data Collection

Interview, Focus Group, Usability Testing.

Surveys, A/B Testing, Website Analytics

Gives the reason behind the consumer behaviour and also highlights the user perception and motivation behind the decision.

Gives statistical validity and tangible reasons to support the decision and highlights the trend and patterns.

Limitations

It gives a more subjective outcome, and the process is time-consuming.

This method lacks depth and is not able to highlight the nuances of consumer behaviour. Also, there is a possibility of data biases.

Final Verdict: Qualitative vs Quantitative Research, Which is Better?

Both quantitative and qualitative research in UX have their pros and cons, offering the researcher different options. The right approach would be following mixed-methods research.

It is necessary for companies to recognize which methodology will be the most beneficial to their product success by asking the right questions. When successful UX research is conducted, it can lead to products and experiences that resonate with the diverse needs and stories of your users and user journey.

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The goal of quantitative research in UX is to measure user behavior, preferences, choices, and experiences by analyzing numerical data.

Quantitative research provides answers to questions such as "what" and "how much." For example, it can determine the percentage of users able to complete a task in under a certain time frame or the number of errors users face during a task.

Common methods include surveys, A/B testing, and behavioral data analysis. Surveys gather feedback through structured questions, A/B testing compares design variations, and behavioral data analysis examines user actions within a digital product.

The goal of qualitative research in UX is to uncover the underlying motivations, emotions, and perceptions of users.

Qualitative research typically involves a smaller sample size compared to quantitative research, allowing for in-depth exploration. Data analysis in qualitative research focuses on identifying patterns, themes, and insights through methods such as thematic analysis or content analysis.

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Using Quantitative and Qualitative Research in UX Design

UX designers often get stuck focusing on the wrong things.

They focus on details like the latest Figma techniques without understanding the bigger picture.

This poses a challenge to businesses and stakeholders. Because at the end of the day, they have targets to achieve.

They need team members (designers included) who know this and deliver output to make this happen.

And that starts with a UX research strategy.

An important step is uncovering the insights from two types of research: quantitative (which tells us "what" people do) and qualitative (which explains "why" they do it).

This guide will explain each kind of research and how they are used in UX research.

On its own, however, it won't get anywhere. Its value lies in knowing how to apply it in the real world.

In our UX research course , learn the exact processes and tactics that Michael Wong (Mizko) used to help build a UX agency that generated over $6 million in revenue.

What is quantitative research in UX design

Quantitative research focuses on gathering and evaluating numerical data. The goal is to identify trends, calculate averages, or find connections between data points.

For example, Google Analytics uses quantitative research to monitor the total number of site visits, inquiry counts, and bounce rates. With this data, you get insights into how users behave on your site and how it's performing.

Quantitative research in UX: Knowing when and why use it

Quantitative research can be super helpful at different stages, mainly because it gives you solid numbers to work with.

Here's why it's important in your UX research:

1. You'll spot trends or patterns

Before diving into the nitty-gritty details of your design, you might want to get a general sense of user behavior or preferences.

Example: For example, you could use surveys to determine what features users want the most or analyze website traffic to see where users spend their time. ‍

2. Test your concepts and assumptions

Once you have some design ideas or changes in mind, quantitative research can test if those ideas resonate with a wider audience.

Example:  This is where A/B testing comes in handy. You might create two versions of a page and see which one performs better in terms of clicks, engagement, or conversions. ‍

3. Validate or refine your designs

After implementing your designs, you’ll want to know if they match your desired results. It also helps pinpoint usability issues.

Example: Use Google Analytics or other analytics tools to track conversions and engagements to assess if your product meets your objectives.

Types of quantitative research methods in UX design

Let's explore the common quantitative research methods in UX:

1. Usability testing (Benchmarking)

• What is it: This method measures the usability of a product by quantifying user performance on specific tasks. Sample metrics include task success rate, time to complete a task, and error rate.
• Best used for: A starting point for usability and tracking progress over time. It's useful for objectively evaluating how design changes affect usability.
• Tools: Zoom, Maze.co , and Optimal Workshop. ‍

2. Web or app analytics

• What is it: Software that tracks and analyzes how users interact with a website or app. You can see what features people use the most, where they spend their time, and where they drop off.
• Best used for: Understanding user behavior on a large scale. It's great for spotting trends and patterns in how users navigate and interact with your product.
• Tools: Google Analytics, PostHog, MixPanel, Amplitude, FullStory, and HotJar. ‍

3. Visual heatmaps

• What is it: Mouse heatmaps show where users click, move their mouse, or scroll on a page. Radar-like color coding is used to indicate areas of high and low activity.
• Best used for: Visualizing user engagement and interest on specific webpage or app screen sections. It helps identify which areas attract the most attention and which are ignored.
• Tools: FullStory and Hotjar. ‍

4. Funnel analysis

• What is it: This method tracks users' steps towards a specific goal within your app or website. This includes making a purchase or signing up. It shows where users drop off in the process.
• Best used for: Identifying stages in the user journey where people are leaving or getting stuck. This is crucial for optimizing conversion rates.
• Tools: Google Analysis, Mixpanel, and Amplitude. ‍

5. Cohort analysis

• What is it: Cohort analysis involves grouping users based on shared characteristics or behaviors, such as sign-up date and tracking their actions over time.
• Best used for: Understanding how different groups of users engage with your product over their lifecycle. It's useful for spotting long-term trends and the impact of changes or features.
• When to use: Measuring user retention, engagement, and the effectiveness of updates or new features.
• Considerations: You'll need to decide how to segment your users into cohorts and what metrics to track for each group.
• Tools: Google Analytics. ‍

4. A/B testing

• What is it: A type of testing that shows two variants of a web page, app screen, or feature to different segments of users. This is done to determine which one performs better against a predefined goal.
• Best used for: Making data-driven decisions on design changes, new features, or content strategies. It helps determine what works best for your users.
• Tools: Mixpanel and Amplitude. ‍

5. Fixed-question surveys or questionnaires

• What is it: Research methods that collect feedback directly from users through answers to specific questions.
• Best used for: Gathering data that can be analyzed statistically for patterns or trends.  For instance, respondents may be asked to rate satisfaction on a scale of 1 to 5 or gather demographic details to see broader trends.
• Tools: Typeform and Google Forms.

Challenges of quantitative research in UX design

Here are the problems UX designers might face:

• Doesn't dig deep into complicated ideas: Quantitative research may not fully capture feelings and opinions. Numerical data alone can't express these complexities in detail.
• Overlooks the "why": It might overlook important reasons behind what users want and how they decide because it only looks at what they do, not why they do it.
• Limits on what people can say: Quantitative research has predetermined answer choices, so it might not capture every user's viewpoint. This can lead to participants choosing options that don't fully represent their thoughts.

What is qualitative research in UX design

Qualitative research gathers non-numerical data to understand concepts, thoughts, or experiences. It provides depth and context to user behaviors, motivations, and emotions.

Qualitative research in UX: When and why to use it

Qualitative UX research is all about understanding the stories, feelings, and thoughts behind user actions. You talk to users, watch how they interact with your design, or see their reactions to understand their experiences.

Here are the reasons why qualitative research is important in UX design:

1. To get inspired

Before you even start designing, talking to potential users can give you inspiration for what to build by understanding what they need or what problems they have. This can spark ideas for what to build.

Example: Before starting a new app for home gardeners, you talk to potential users and discover common pain points. They struggle with remembering watering schedules and managing pests organically. This feedback inspires the idea of an app that sends watering reminders and offers natural pest control tips. ‍

2. ​It gets to the heart of the problems

Hearing directly from users and understanding their experiences makes creating solutions that appeal to them easier. This includes understanding user needs, behaviors, and the context of their problems.

Example: Imagine you're developing a new fitness app. At this stage, you might interview users to understand their fitness routines, exercise motivations, and frustrations with current fitness apps. This can help you identify features your app should have, like personalized workout plans or motivation tracking. ‍

3. Improve something specific

Even after your design is out in the world, you’ll want to keep improving it. Talking to users can help you understand what’s working, what’s not, and why. It also builds industry insights and bridges knowledge gaps.

Example: When redesigning a public transportation app, holding focus groups could reveal that users want real-time updates about delays. ‍

Types of qualitative research methods in UX

1. user interviews.

• What is it: One-on-one conversations with users to explore their experiences, needs, and challenges. Unlike structured surveys, these interviews allow for open-ended responses and follow-up questions.
• Best used for: Gaining deep insights into user behaviors, motivations, and attitudes. They can help you understand the nuances of user needs and the context of their interactions with a product.
• Tools: Calendly, Zoom, Google Sheets, and ScreenApp. ‍

2. User observations

• What is it: This method involves watching users interact with a product in their natural environment to see how they use it without interference.
• Best used for: Identifying usability issues and understanding user behavior in a real-world context. Observations can reveal how intuitive a product is and how users navigate it.
• Tools: FigJam and Miro. ‍

3. Usability testing

• What is it: A method where users are asked to complete tasks using the product while observers or UX resarchers note where they encounter problems or confusion.
• Best used for: Directly assessing the functionality and user-friendliness of a product. It helps pinpoint specific areas where users struggle, informing targeted improvements.

4. Open-ended surveys

• What is it: Unlike fixed-choice surveys, these surveys primarily use open-ended questions to allow respondents to express their thoughts and feelings in detail.
• Best used for: Gathering qualitative data on user opinions, experiences, and suggestions. They offer rich, narrative data that can uncover new insights or deepen understanding of known issues.
• Tools: Typeform and Google Docs. ‍

5. Focus groups

• What is it: A moderated discussion with users about their experiences, perceptions, and opinions regarding a product or service.
• Best used for: Exploring diverse viewpoints on a topic, generating new ideas, and understanding user attitudes.
• Tools: Calendly, Zoom, and FigJam. ‍

6. Diary studies

• What is it: A research method where users record their experiences, thoughts, and frustrations while using a product.
• Best used for: Understanding long-term user behavior, experiences, and patterns that emerge over time. Diary studies capture how feelings and usage may change in different contexts.
• Tools: Journey, Daylio, and Google Sheets. ‍

7. Card sorting

• What is it: An interactive method where users organize topics into categories that make sense to them.
• Best used for: Structuring or reorganizing content on a website or app. It reveals how users conceptualize different information groups.
• Tools: Dovetail and OptimalSort. ‍

Challenges of qualitative research in UX design

While qualitative research in UX design offers deep insights, it comes with its own set of challenges:

• Limited scope of participants : While qualitative research goes deep, it does so with fewer participants. This means you hear from a relatively small group while you get detailed insights from each person. This limits how much you can extrapolate findings to represent a larger population.
• Requires a lot of time, effort, and resources to analyze: Breaking qualitative data into actionable insights can take much time and effort. Unlike quantitative data, it's not as straightforward to visualize through charts or graphs. This makes it harder to grasp or present findings quickly.
• Risk of bias from researchers : The subjective nature of qualitative research means it's more open to bias from the researcher or participants. Reproducing the exact results can be tricky since every interview or focus group may unfold differently.
• Generalization issues : Because qualitative studies typically include small group participants, applying the findings to larger trends or behaviors among users is hard.
• Privacy concerns: People might not always feel comfortable sharing their thoughts in settings where their identity is known, especially on sensitive topics. This might make people hold back or change their answers, making the data less genuine and helpful.

How quantitative and qualitative research work together in UX

Doing both qualitative and quantitative research methods in UX design is like having the best of both worlds.

Qualitative research digs into the "why" behind user actions, while quantitative research offers solid stats to back up your findings and spot trends.

Pairing these two methods gives you a full view of what's happening and why. Start with qualitative methods, like interviews, to get raw, in-depth feedback.

Next, conduct surveys or similar quantitative techniques to determine if those feelings or issues are common among your users.

Both research methods can sometimes uncover deeper insights that using one method alone might miss.

Let's take a look at a real-life case study from Spotify.

Case study: How Spotify used the mixed-method approach

Problem: Qualitative data revealed a discrepancy compared to the quantitative numbers from an A/B test on using a new feature that lets you skip ads.

They noticed users were engaging with the feature in different ways. However, when they talked to users directly, they realized there was confusion about how it worked, which the numbers alone didn't explain.

What Spotify did: Spotify's Product Insights team, which consisted of a mix of User Researchers and Data Scientists, adopted a mixed-methods research strategy known as " simultaneous triangulation ."

This approach involved:

• Clearly defining the research questions to focus the study effectively.
• Combining qualitative methods (user interviews and diary studies) with quantitative methods (A/B tests and data tracking) to gather insights.
• Using these methods together on the same group of users helps get a complete picture of how users behave and what they think.

How it helped: This integrated approach allowed Spotify to understand why there was a difference between user feedback and the data.

For example, they found that users they thought were "power skippers" were just confused about the rules for skipping ads. Only talking to users could reveal this, showing a full view of how people interacted with the feature.

Outcome: Using both user feedback and data, Spotify could fix misunderstandings.

They sent messages to users confused about whether there was a limit to skipping ads. They explained clearly that they could skip as many ads as they wanted. This clear communication messaging greatly improved how well the feature worked and doubled its feature success metrics.

By combining both research methods, Spotify solved the puzzle of mismatched insights and made better decisions for their product.

Boost your skills in 10+ hours and impress your stakeholders

To gain the confidence and trust of stakeholders, designers often focus on making their designs look prettier and on-trend.

That's the old way of thinking. Companies nowadays seek designers who go beyond that and bring more results.

And it starts with understanding their users.

To truly meet their needs and solve their problems, you need to dive deep into their world.

Understanding how your work fits the larger business objectives is crucial to stand out.

Learn how to master UX research in just 10+ hours with Mizko's Practical UX Research & Strategy Course .

This course is your bridge to knowing your users and truly understanding them. By the end of the course, you'll be able to know what type of research methods to use in your projects to uncover crucial insights.

Here’s what makes it stand out:

• Hands-on learning: Apply what you learn through real-world challenges. Knowing UX research is one thing, knowing how to apply it.
• Efficiency: Forget about sifting through countless pages or websites. Get straight to the heart of effective UX research methods.
• Expert guidance: Learn from Mizko, an experienced designer who successfully transitioned to an agency owner and startup advisor. Get exclusive access using the resources and templates that helped him succeed.
• Flexible learning: Study at your own pace without the stress of a fixed schedule.

You’ll also learn how to:

• Draw valuable insights to inform your designs.
• Choose the right participants for meaningful feedback.
• Visualize research findings for easy understanding.
• Prioritize insights into actionable design tasks.
• Clearly communicate your findings and recommendations to stakeholders.

This course has already helped over 6,800 designers from top tech companies like Google, Meta, and Squarespace to integrate UX research into their daily work.

Here's what some of them have to say:

"I'm 100% more confident when talking to stakeholders about User Research & Strategy and the importance of why it needs to be included in the process. I also have gained such a beautiful new understanding of my users that greatly influences my designs. " - UX/UI Designer Alyssa Durante

"The process in this course connects the dots and its easy to lead the clients through this process... + I can adapt the process based on the resources and the needs of the client. Life is now way easier to be honest because I have clear path to show to the clients even before we start the project because I can build expectations from the start." - UX/UI Designer Milosh Jakjimovski

"As I was struggling to find a high-level research framework for my day-to-day design work, I was able to fill many of the knowledge gaps because I took this course. It provides a well-structured research process that cuts out the "guesswork" that I'm adopting in my projects. Mizko covers his reasoning for every decision he took from start to end. Real-life examples and practical solutions throughout the course were incredibly helpful. Right now, I'm more confident than ever with my design decisions, presenting meaningful briefs to stakeholders, and so on." -  UX Designer Al Razi Siam

Go beyond learning Figma skills and deliver designs that drive business results.

Mizko, also known as Michael Wong, brings a 14-year track record as a Founder, Educator, Investor, and Designer. His career evolved from lead designer to freelancer, and ultimately to the owner of a successful agency, generating over $10M in revenue from Product (UX/UI) Design, Web Design, and No-code Development. His leadership at the agency contributed to the strategy and design for over 50 high-growth startups, aiding them in raising a combined total of over $400M+ in venture capital.

Notable projects include: Autotrader (Acquired. by eBay), PhoneWagon (Acquired by CallRails), Spaceship ($1B in managed funds), Archistar ($15M+ raised) and many more.

Table of contents

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New website, course and product updates - April 2024

A Complete Guide to Primary and Secondary Research in UX Design

10 Best Free Fonts for UI Design (2024 Edition)

The Ultimate Guide to UX/UI Design in 2024

16 Best UX Research Tools in 2024: Gather Faster & Better Insights

15 Most Effective UX Research Methods: Pros and Cons

The Ultimate Guide to Figma for Beginners (Updated 2024)

The Ultimate Guide to UX Research (Updated 2024)

5 Reasons Why You Need UX Research in 2024

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What Is User Research, and What Is Its Purpose?

User research, or UX research, is an absolutely vital part of the  user experience design process.

Typically done at the start of a project, it encompasses different types of research methodologies to gather valuable data and feedback. When conducting user research, you’ll engage with and observe your target users, getting to know their needs, behaviors, and pain points in relation to the product or service you’re designing.

Ultimately, user research means the difference between designing based on guesswork and assumptions, and actually creating something that solves a real user problem. In other words: Do not skip the research phase!

If you’re new to user research, fear not. We’re going to explain exactly what UX research is and why it’s so important. We’ll also show you how to plan your user research and introduce you to some key user research methods .

We’ve divided this rather comprehensive guide into the following sections. Feel free to skip ahead using the menu below:

• What is user research?
• What is the purpose of user research?
• How to plan your user research.
• An introduction to different research methods—and when to use them.

Ready? Let’s jump in.

1. What is user research?

User experience research is the systematic investigation of your users in order to gather insights that will inform the design process. With the help of various user research techniques, you’ll set out to understand your users’ needs, attitudes, pain points, and behaviors (processes like task analyses look at how users actually navigate the product experience —not just how they should or how they say they do). 

Typically done at the start of a project—but also extremely valuable throughout—it encompasses different types of research methodology to gather both qualitative and quantitative data in relation to your product or service.

Before we continue, let’s consider the difference between qualitative and quantitative data .

Qualitative vs. Quantitative data: What’s the difference?

Qualitative UX research results in descriptive data which looks more at how people think and feel. It helps to find your users’ opinions, problems, reasons, and motivations. You can learn all about in-depth in this video by professional UX designer Maureen Herben:

Quantitative UX research , on the other hand, generally produces numerical data that can be measured and analyzed, looking more at the statistics. Quantitative data is used to quantify the opinions and behaviors of your users.

User research rarely relies on just one form of data collection and often uses both qualitative and quantitative research methods together to form a bigger picture. The data can be applied to an existing product to gain insight to help improve the product experiences, or it can be applied to an entirely new product or service, providing a baseline for UX, design, and development.

From the data gathered during your user research phase, you should be able to understand the following areas within the context of your product or service:

• Who your users are
• What their needs are
• What they want
• How they currently do things
• How they’d like to do them

As you consider the  why  of user research, remember that it’s easier than you might realize to overlook entire groups of users. It’s important to ensure that you’re conducting inclusive UX research and that starts in the earliest stages!

2. What is the purpose of user research?

The purpose of user research is to put your design project into context. It helps you understand the problem you’re trying to solve; it tells you who your users are, in what context they’ll be using your product or service, and ultimately, what they need from you, the designer! UX research ensures that you are designing with the user in mind, which is key if you want to create a successful product.

Throughout the design process, your UX research will aid you in many ways. It’ll help you identify problems and challenges, validate or invalidate your assumptions, find patterns and commonalities across your target user groups, and shed plenty of light on your users’ needs, goals, and mental models.

Why is this so important? Let’s find out.

Why is it so important to conduct user research?

Without UX research, you are essentially basing your designs on assumptions. If you don’t take the time to engage with real users, it’s virtually impossible to know what needs and pain-points your design should address.

Here’s why conducting user research is absolutely crucial:

User research helps you to design better products!

There’s a misconception that it’s ok to just do a bit of research and testing at the end of your project. The truth is that you need UX research first, followed by usability testing and iteration throughout.

This is because research makes the design better. The end goal is to create products and services that people want to use. The mantra in UX design is that some user research is always better than none .

It’s likely at some point in your UX career that you will come across the first challenge of any UX designer—convincing a client or your team to include user research in a project.

User research keeps user stories at the center of your design process.

All too often, the user research phase is seen as optional or merely “nice-to-have”—but in reality, it’s crucial from both a design and a business perspective. This brings us to our next point…

User research saves time and money!

If you (or your client) decide to skip the research phase altogether, the chances are you’ll end up spending time and money developing a product that, when launched, has loads of usability issues and design flaws, or simply doesn’t meet a real user need. Through UX research, you’ll uncover such issues early on—saving time, money, and lots of frustration!

The research phase ensures you’re designing with real insights and facts — not guesswork! Imagine you release a product that has the potential to fill a gap in the market but, due to a lack of user research, is full of bugs and usability issues. At best, you’ll have a lot of unnecessary work to do to get the product up to scratch. At worst, the brand’s reputation will suffer.

UX research gives the product a competitive edge. Research shows you how your product will perform in a real-world context, highlighting any issues that need to be ironed out before you go ahead and develop it.

User research can be done on a budget

There are ways that you can conduct faster and less costly user research , utilizing Guerrilla research outlined later on in this article (also handy if budget and time are an issue). Even the smallest amount of user research will save time and money in the long run.

The second challenge is how often businesses think they know their users without having done any research. You’ll be surprised at how often a client will tell you that user research is not necessary because they know their users!

In a 2005 survey completed by Bain, a large global management consulting firm, they found some startling results. 80% of businesses thought they knew best about what they were delivering. Only 8% of those businesses’ customers agreed.

The survey may be getting old, but the principle and misperception still persist.

In some cases, businesses genuinely do know their customers and there may be previous data on hand to utilize. However, more often than not, ‘knowing the users’ comes down to personal assumptions and opinions.

“It’s only natural to assume that everyone uses the Web the same way we do, and—like everyone else—we tend to think that our own behavior is much more orderly and sensible than it really is.” (Don’t Make Me Think ‘Revisited’, Steve Krug, 2014.) A must on every UX Designer’s bookshelf!

What we think a user wants is not the same as what a user thinks they want. Without research, we inadvertently make decisions for ourselves instead of for our target audience. To summarize, the purpose of user research is to help us design to fulfill the user’s actual needs, rather than our own assumptions of their needs.

In a nutshell, UX research informs and opens up the realm of design possibilities. It saves time and money, ensures a competitive edge, and helps you to be a more effective, efficient, user-centric designer.

3. How to plan your user research

When planning your user research , it’s good to have a mix of both qualitative and quantitative data to draw from so you don’t run into issues from the value-action gap, which can at times make qualitative data unreliable.

The value-action gap is a well-known psychology principle outlining that people genuinely don’t do what they say they would do, and is commonly referred to as what people say vs. what people do.

More than 60% of participants said they were “likely” or “very likely” to buy a kitchen appliance in the next 3 months. 8 months later, only 12% had. How Customers Think, Gerald Zaltman, 2003

When planning your user research, you need to do more than just User Focus Groups—observation of your users really is the key. You need to watch what your users do.

Part of being a great user researcher is to be an expert at setting up the right questions and getting unbiased answers from your users.

To do this we need to think like the user.

Put yourself in your user’s shoes without your own preconceptions and assumptions on how it should work and what it should be. For this, we need empathy (and good listening skills) allowing you to observe and challenge assumptions of what you already think you know about your users.

Be open to some surprises!

4. When to use different user research methods

There’s a variety of different qualitative and quantitative research methods out there. If you’ve been doing the CareerFoundry UX Design course , you may have already covered some of the list below in your course.

It isn’t an exhaustive list, but covers some of the more popular methods of research. Our student team lead runs through many of them in the video below.

Qualitative Methods:

• Guerrilla testing: Fast and low-cost testing methods such as on-the-street videos, field observations, reviews of paper sketches, or online tools for remote usability testing.
• Interviews: One-on-one interviews that follow a preset selection of questions prompting the user to describe their interactions, thoughts, and feelings in relation to a product or service, or even the environment of the product/service.
• Focus groups: Participatory groups that are led through a discussion and activities to gather data on a particular product or service. If you’ve ever watched Mad Men you’ll be familiar with the Ponds’ cold cream Focus Group !
• Field Studies: Heading into the user’s environment and observing while taking notes (and photographs or videos if possible).
• In-lab testing: Observations of users completing particular tasks in a controlled environment. Users are often asked to describe out loud their actions, thoughts, and feelings and are videoed for later analysis
• Card sorting : Used to help understand Information Architecture and naming conventions better. Can be really handy to sort large amounts of content into logical groupings for users.

Quantitative Methods:

• User surveys: Questionnaires with a structured format, targeting your specific user personas. These can be a great way to get a large amount of data. Surveymonkey is a popular online tool.
• First click testing: A test set up to analyse what a user would click on first in order to complete their intended task. This can be done with paper prototypes, interactive wireframes or an existing website.
• Eye tracking: Measures the gaze of the eye, allowing the observer to ‘see’ what the user sees. This can be an expensive test and heatmapping is a good cheaper alternative.
• Heatmapping: Visual mapping of data showing how users click and scroll through your prototype or website. The most well-known online tool to integrate would be Crazyegg.
• Web analytics: Data that is gathered from a website or prototype it is integrated with, allowing you to see the demographics of users, page views, and funnels of how users move through your site and where they drop off. The most well-known online tool to integrate would be Google Analytics .
• A/B testing: Comparing two versions of a web page to see which one converts users more. This is a great way to test button placements, colors, banners, and other elements in your UI.

Further reading

Now you know what user research is and why it’s so important. If you’re looking for a way to get trained in this particular discipline, there’s good news—owing to demand and popularity, there’s a growing number of UX research bootcamps out there.

If you’d like to learn more about UX research, you may find the following articles useful:

• What Does A UX Researcher Actually Do? The Ultimate Career Guide
• How to Conduct User Research Like a Professional
• How to Build a UX Research Portfolio (Step-by-Step Guide)

User research is the process of understanding the needs, behaviors, and attitudes of users to inform the design and development of products or services. It involves collecting and analyzing data about users through various methods such as surveys, interviews, and usability testing.

2. How to conduct user research?

User research can be conducted through various methods such as surveys, interviews, observations, and usability testing. The method chosen depends on the research goals and the resources available. Typically, user research involves defining research objectives, recruiting participants, creating research protocols, conducting research activities, analyzing data, and reporting findings.

3. Is user research the same as UX?

User research is a part of the broader UX (User Experience) field, but they are not the same. UX encompasses a wide range of activities such as design, testing, and evaluation, while user research specifically focuses on understanding user needs and behaviors to inform UX decisions.

4. What makes good user research?

Good user research is characterized by clear research goals, well-defined research protocols, appropriate sampling methods, unbiased data collection, and rigorous data analysis. It also involves effective communication of research findings to stakeholders, as well as using the findings to inform design and development decisions.

5. Is user research a good career?

User research is a growing field with many opportunities for career growth and development. With the increasing importance of user-centered design, there is a high demand for skilled user researchers in various industries such as tech, healthcare, and finance. A career in user research can be fulfilling for those interested in understanding human behavior and designing products that meet user needs.

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UX Research

What is ux research.

UX (user experience) research is the systematic study of target users and their requirements, to add realistic contexts and insights to design processes. UX researchers adopt various methods to uncover problems and design opportunities. Doing so, they reveal valuable information which can be fed into the design process.

See why UX research is a critical part of the UX design process.

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UX Research is about Finding Insights to Guide Successful Designs

When you do UX research, you’ll be better able to give users the best solutions—because you can discover exactly what they need. You can apply UX research at any stage of the design process. UX researchers often begin with qualitative measures, to determine users’ motivations and needs . Later, they might use quantitative measures to test their results . To do UX research well, you must take a structured approach when you gather data from your users. It’s vital to use methods that 1) are right for the purpose of your research and 2) will give you the clearest information. Then, you can interpret your findings so you can build valuable insights into your design .

“I get very uncomfortable when someone makes a design decision without customer contact.” – Dan Ritzenthaler, Senior Product Designer at HubSpot

We can divide UX research into two subsets:

Qualitative research – Using methods such as interviews and ethnographic field studies, you work to get an in-depth understanding of why users do what they do (e.g., why they missed a call to action, why they feel how they do about a website). For example, you can do user interviews with a small number of users and ask open-ended questions to get personal insights into their exercise habits. Another aspect of qualitative research is usability testing , to monitor (e.g.) users’ stress responses. You should do qualitative research carefully. As it involves collecting non-numerical data (e.g., opinions, motivations), there’s a risk that your personal opinions will influence findings.

Quantitative research – Using more-structured methods (e.g., surveys, analytics), you gather measurable data about what users do and test assumptions you drew from qualitative research. For example, you can give users an online survey to answer questions about their exercise habits (e.g., “How many hours do you work out per week?”). With this data, you can discover patterns among a large user group. If you have a large enough sample of representative test users, you’ll have a more statistically reliable way of assessing the population of target users. Whatever the method, with careful research design you can gather objective data that’s unbiased by your presence, personality or assumptions. However, quantitative data alone can’t reveal deeper human insights.

We can additionally divide UX research into two approaches:

Attitudinal – you listen to what users say—e.g., in interviews.

Behavioral – you see what users do through observational studies.

When you use a mix of both quantitative and qualitative research as well as a mix of attitudinal and behavioral approaches, you can usually get the clearest view of a design problem.

© Interaction Design Foundation, CC BY-SA 4.0

Use UX Research Methods throughout Development

The Nielsen Norman Group—an industry-leading UX consulting organization—identifies appropriate UX research methods which you can use during a project’s four stages . Key methods are:

Discover – Determine what is relevant for users.

Contextual inquiries – Interview suitable users in their own environment to see how they perform the task/s in question.

Diary studies – Have users record their daily interactions with a design or log their performance of activities.

Explore – Examine how to address all users’ needs.

Card sorting – Write words and phrases on cards; then let participants organize them in the most meaningful way and label categories to ensure that your design is structured in a logical way.

Customer journey maps – Create user journeys to expose potential pitfalls and crucial moments.

Test – Evaluate your designs.

Usability testing – Ensure your design is easy to use.

Accessibility evaluations – Test your design to ensure it’s accessible to everyone.

Listen – Put issues in perspective, find any new problems and notice trends.

Surveys/Questionnaires – Use these to track how users’ feel about your product.

Analytics – Collect analytics/metrics to chart (e.g.) website traffic and build reports.

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Whichever UX research method you choose, you need to consider the pros and cons of the different techniques . For instance, card sorting is cheap and easy, but you may find it time-consuming when it comes to analysis. Also, it might not give you in-depth contextual meaning. Another constraint is your available resources , which will dictate when, how much and which type of UX research you can do. So, decide carefully on the most relevant method/s for your research . Moreover, involve stakeholders from your organization early on . They can reveal valuable UX insights and help keep your research in line with business goals. Remember, a design team values UX research as a way to validate its assumptions about users in the field , slash the cost of the best deliverables and keep products in high demand —ahead of competitors’.

User research methods have different pros and cons,and vary from observations of users in context to controlled experiments in lab settings.

Learn More about UX Research

For a thorough grasp of UX research, take our course here: User Research – Methods and Best Practices

Read an extensive range of UX research considerations, discussed in Smashing Magazine: A Comprehensive Guide To UX Research

See the Nielsen Norman Group’s list of UX research tips: UX Research Cheat Sheet

Here’s a handy, example-rich catalog of UX research tools: 43 UX research tools for optimizing your product

Questions related to UX Research

UX research is a good career for those who enjoy working with a team and have strong communication skills. As a researcher, you play a crucial role in helping your team understand users and deliver valuable and delightful experiences. You will find a UX research career appealing if you enjoy scientific and creative pursuits. 

Start exploring this career option; see the User Researcher Learning Path .

Studies suggest that companies are also willing to pay well for research roles. The average salary for a UX researcher ranges from $92,000 to $146,000 per year.

In smaller companies, user research may be one of the responsibilities of a generalist UX designer. How much can your salary vary based on your region? Find out in UI & UX Designer Salaries: How Much Can I Earn .

Research is one part of the overall UX design process. UX research helps inform the design strategy and decisions made at every step of the design process. In smaller teams, a generalist designer may end up conducting research.

A UX researcher aims to understand users and their needs. A UX designer seeks to create a product that meets those needs.

A UX researcher gathers information. A UX designer uses that information to create a user-friendly and visually appealing product.

Learn more about the relationship between UX research and UX design in the course:

User Experience: The Beginner’s Guide

If we consider a very broad definition of UX, then all user research is UX research.

However, in practice, there is a subtle difference between user research and UX research. While both involve understanding people, user research can involve users in any kind of research question, and some questions may not be that directly connected to user experience.

For example, you might do user research relating to a customer’s experience in relation to pricing, delivery or the experience across multiple channels.

Common UX research methods are usability testing, A/B testing, surveys, card sorting, user interviews, usage analytics and ethnographic research. Each method has its pros and cons and is useful in different scenarios. Hence, you must select the appropriate research method for the research question and target audience. Learn more about these methods in 7 Great, Tried and Tested UX Research Techniques .

Get started with user research. Download the User Research template bundle .

For a deep dive into usability testing—the most common research method, take the course Conducting Usability Testing .

Having a degree in a related field can give you an advantage. However, you don’t need a specific degree to become a UX researcher. A combination of relevant education, practical experience, and continuous learning can help you pursue a career in UX research. Many UX researchers come from diverse educational backgrounds, including psychology, statistics, human-computer interaction, information systems, design and anthropology.

Some employers may prefer candidates with at least a bachelor’s degree. However, it does not have to be in a UX-related field. There are relatively fewer degrees that focus solely on user research.

Data-Driven Design: Quantitative Research for UX

User Research – Methods and Best Practices

Every research project will vary. However, there are some common steps in conducting research, no matter which method or tool you decide to use: 

Define the research question

Select the appropriate research method

Recruit participants

Conduct the research

Analyze the data

Present the findings

You can choose from various UX research tools . Your choice depends on your research question, how you're researching, the size of your organization, and your project. For instance:

Survey tools such as Typeform and Google Forms.

Card sorting tools such as Maze and UXtweak.

Heatmap tools such as HotJar and CrazyEgg

Usability testing (through first-click testing and tree-testing) tools such as Optimal Workshop and Loop 11

Diagramming applications such as Miro and Whimsical to analyze qualitative data through affinity diagramming.

Spreadsheet tools such as Google Sheets and Microsoft Excel for quantitative data analysis

Interface design and prototyping tools like Figma, Adobe XD, Sketch and Marvel to conduct usability testing.

Presentation tools such as Keynote, Google Slides and Microsoft PowerPoint.

Many of these tools offer additional features you can leverage for multiple purposes. To understand how you can make the most of these tools, we recommend these courses:

There are relatively fewer degrees that focus solely on user research.

While there are no universal research case study formats, here’s one suggested outline: 

An overview of the project: Include the problem statement, goals and objectives.

The research methods and methodology: For example, surveys, interviews, or usability testing).

Research findings

The design process: How the research findings led to design decisions.

Impact of design decisions on users and the business: Include metrics such as conversion and error rates to demonstrate the impact.

Optionally, include notes on what you learned and how you can improve the process in the future.

Learn how to showcase your portfolio to wow your future employer/client in the How to Create a UX Portfolio course.

While AI can help automate tasks and help UX researchers, it will not completely replace them. AI lacks the creativity and empathy that human designers bring to the table.

Human researchers are better at understanding the nuances of human behavior and emotions. They can also think outside the box and develop creative solutions that AI cannot. So, AI can help researchers be more efficient and effective through data analysis, smart suggestions and automation. But it cannot replace them.

Watch AI-Powered UX Design: How to Elevate Your UX Career to learn how you can work with AI.

Agile teams often struggle to incorporate user research in their workflows due to the time pressure of short sprints. However, that doesn’t mean agile teams can’t conduct research. Instead of seeing research as one big project, teams can break it into bite-sized chunks. Researchers regularly conduct research and share their findings in every sprint.

Researchers can involve engineers and other stakeholders in decision-making to give everyone the context they need to make better decisions. When engineers participate in the decision-making process, they can ensure that the design will be technically feasible. There will also be lower chances of errors when the team actually builds the feature. Here’s more on how to make research a team effort .

For more on bite-sized research, see this Master Class: Continuous Product Discovery: The What and Why

For more practical tips and methods to work in an agile environment, take our Agile Methods for UX Design course.

User research is very important in designing products people will want and use. It helps us avoid designing based on what we think instead of what users actually want.

UX research helps designers understand their users’ needs, behaviors, attitudes and how they interact with a product or service. Research helps identify usability problems, gather feedback on design concepts, and validate design decisions. This ultimately benefits businesses by improving the product, brand reputation and loyalty. A good user experience provides a competitive edge and reduces the risk of product failure.

Learn more about the importance of user research in the design process in these courses:

Design Thinking: The Ultimate Guide

Answer a Short Quiz to Earn a Gift

What is the primary purpose of UX research in design processes?

• To ensure the product is visually appealing.
• To reduce the cost of marketing the product.
• To understand user needs and enhance design decisions.

Which type of UX research do designers use to collect non-numerical data such as opinions and motivations?

• Behavioral research
• Qualitative research
• Quantitative research

Which UX research method involves users sorting terms into categories to help structure design logically?

• Card sorting
• Information architecture
• Usability testing

What is a potential drawback of using card sorting in UX research?

• It can be expensive and requires special software.
• It may not provide deep contextual insights.
• It only works for digital products.

How does UX research primarily benefit a design team in a business context?

• It focuses exclusively on the aesthetic aspects of product design.
• It reduces dependency on technology.
• It validates design assumptions and keeps products competitive.

Better luck next time!

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Literature on UX Research

Here’s the entire UX literature on UX Research by the Interaction Design Foundation, collated in one place:

Learn more about UX Research

Take a deep dive into UX Research with our course User Research – Methods and Best Practices .

How do you plan to design a product or service that your users will love , if you don't know what they want in the first place? As a user experience designer, you shouldn't leave it to chance to design something outstanding; you should make the effort to understand your users and build on that knowledge from the outset. User research is the way to do this, and it can therefore be thought of as the largest part of user experience design .

In fact, user research is often the first step of a UX design process—after all, you cannot begin to design a product or service without first understanding what your users want! As you gain the skills required, and learn about the best practices in user research, you’ll get first-hand knowledge of your users and be able to design the optimal product—one that’s truly relevant for your users and, subsequently, outperforms your competitors’ .

This course will give you insights into the most essential qualitative research methods around and will teach you how to put them into practice in your design work. You’ll also have the opportunity to embark on three practical projects where you can apply what you’ve learned to carry out user research in the real world . You’ll learn details about how to plan user research projects and fit them into your own work processes in a way that maximizes the impact your research can have on your designs. On top of that, you’ll gain practice with different methods that will help you analyze the results of your research and communicate your findings to your clients and stakeholders—workshops, user journeys and personas, just to name a few!

By the end of the course, you’ll have not only a Course Certificate but also three case studies to add to your portfolio. And remember, a portfolio with engaging case studies is invaluable if you are looking to break into a career in UX design or user research!

We believe you should learn from the best, so we’ve gathered a team of experts to help teach this course alongside our own course instructors. That means you’ll meet a new instructor in each of the lessons on research methods who is an expert in their field—we hope you enjoy what they have in store for you!

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Quantitative vs. qualitative research

In this post, we’ll delve into the differences between quantitative vs. qualitative research and the benefits and drawbacks of using each one

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UX designers strive to create the most user-friendly products and services possible. But without speaking directly to users about what they want and need, UX designers can only guess what the best user experience will be. This is why UX research is such an essential part of the UX design process. 

UX research involves asking users to identify what problems a product or service can help them solve and provides insights into the best ways to do so. There are a wide variety of methods a UX researcher can use, but in general, each of these UX research methods will fall under the umbrella of either quantitative research or qualitative research. 

In this post, we’ll delve into the differences between quantitative vs. qualitative research and the benefits and drawbacks of using each one by discussing the following topics:

What is quantitative research?

What is qualitative research, examples of quantitative research, examples of qualitative research, which method should you choose, presenting quantitative versus qualitative research.

[GET CERTIFIED IN USER RESEARCH]

Quantitative research answers questions about quantity such as:

For example, you might want to conduct a quantitative study to find out how often people use a product, how much time they spend with the product, and how many features of the product they use. 

Quantitative methods involve collecting numerical data that can be analyzed using statistics. This means quantitative studies are often straightforward to implement and can be easily automated and conducted remotely, however they also require enough participants to ensure they yield statistically significant results.

• Studies are quick to implement and cost effective
• Analysis is fast
• Results are statistically significant and considered objective
• Numeric results are often easy to understand and use to improve a product’s UX

Disadvantages

• A large number of participants ( at least 20 ) are required to ensure statistical significance
• Someone of the team must have expertise in statistical analysis
• Results lack context, so they can reveal what people did but not their reasoning

Qualitative research answers questions about quality such as how users feel about an experience, why they like or dislike a feature, and why they make certain decisions when completing tasks. Ultimately the goal of qualitative research is to delve into users’ thinking to find out “why.”

Qualitative methods involve collecting data in the form of written or spoken words that are then analyzed for prominent themes and patterns. As a result, both the data collection and analysis of qualitative studies can be time-consuming and labor-intensive. On the other hand, only a few participants are required to arrive at valuable results that can provide nuanced insights into users’ thoughts and feelings about a product.

• Only a small number of participants (usually around 5) are required
• Provides detailed, first-hand insight into UX issues 
• Allows for flexibility during data collection
• Results in compelling stories that help stakeholders foster empathy for users 
• May identify unexpected information about the user’s experience with the product 
• Time consuming to plan, run, and analyze
• Tends to cost more than quantitative studies due to the time commitment required
• Analysis is subjective and therefore results may be influenced by researcher bias

[GET CERTIFIED IN UX]

Quantitative research includes any studies and tests that yield numerical data, such as: 

• First-click tests
• Surveys with yes/no and multiple choice questions

Many of these methods can be implemented remotely with a growing group of UX research tools . For example, first-click tests and surveys can be run through Optimal Workshop , Google Analytics can provide any required analytics data, and Hotjar can record user interactions with your product in order to generate heatmaps of how users navigate through it. You’ll also use software, such as SPSS (or plug formulas into a Google or Excel spreadsheet) to statistically analyse quantitative results.

Qualitative research is often carried out in person either in a lab where users come to participate in the study or in the field where researchers go to where users are. It can include the following methods:

• User interviews
• Focus groups
• Ethnographic studies
• Shadow sessions
• Surveys with open-ended questions

Qualitative studies usually require at least one researcher to be there to perform tasks such as asking users questions during user interviews or observing users during ethnographic studies. However, there are some tools that enable researchers to run qualitative studies remotely. For example, video research platform Lookback enables researchers to run either moderated or unmoderated remote interviews. 

Furthermore, while analysing qualitative data is a very hands-on process, researchers can use platforms like Rev to transcribe things like interview recordings and programs like Dedoose , NVivo , and Reframer to organize, synthesize, and analyze the large amount of text data qualitative studies inevitably yield.

Qualitative and quantitative research can be used at pretty much any point in the design process but each method is most useful at different times.

Quantitative research tends to be most valuable during the design phase of the UX process when it can quickly uncover if the UX solutions being designed are working the way the UX team intends. Quantitative studies are also helpful to validate the final design of a product before it goes live. At this point, quantitative research can confirm the design is ready to go to clients and stakeholders or point to the tweaks that need to be made to ensure the product is the best it can be.

Quantitative research, often with Google Analytics, is also utilized once a product goes live to evaluate the product’s ongoing usability, compare it to competitors, and track its return on investment. 

On the other hand, qualitative research is most valuable during the discovery phase of the UX process when it can provide extensive insight into users’ thoughts and feelings about the product the UX team is getting ready to design or redesign. Qualitative studies can also be valuable during the design phase when the UX team wants to understand how users feel about key user experience features, especially if they’re unique or unusual. Findings from such studies can help the UX team determine if it’s pursuing the best possible solutions.

Combining quantitative and qualitative research

While it can make sense to focus on either quantitative or qualitative research in some circumstances, more often than not, it can be incredibly valuable to combine them to conduct a mixed methods study. That’s because quantitative and qualitative methods are complementary approaches. For example, a survey can include a series of quantitative multiple choice questions that help point to how much users like a product’s different features, as well as several qualitative questions that enable participants to explain the reasons for their answers to the multiple choice questions. 

Mixed methods research is the best of both worlds, ensuring you can answer not only the questions of how much and how many but also why. This provides results that have both statistical weight and depth of insight, with the findings of each method strengthening the other. 

Some examples of mixed method research include:

• Card sorting where users explain their reasoning as they organize the cards
• Tree testing where users describe their decisions out loud
• Surveys that include multiple choice and open-ended questions

Whether you performed quantitative, qualitative, or mixed method research, each UX research report should follow the same basic outline: 

• An introduction
• Research goals
• Business value
• Methodology
• Key learnings
• Recommendations

Most of these sections involve explaining what you did and why you did it, but in the key learnings section, where you’ll present the findings from your research, the data and artefacts you present will depend on the research methods you used. 

For instance, if you performed a quantitative study, this is where you’ll present any relevant statistics you found, such as the percentage of participants who preferred one UX design solution over another. If you performed a qualitative study, there are more ways to present your findings and you’ll have to decide which ones best represent your results. Options can include sharing the main themes or patterns you found in the qualitative data, illustrative quotes from participants, or artefacts like personas, journey maps, affinity diagrams, or storyboards. 

To present the best key learnings section, it helps to combine qualitative and quantitative results whenever possible. This provides an opportunity for you to back up the statistical results uncovered by your quantitative research with quotes, personas, affinity maps, or other findings from your qualitative research. Not only does this create a convincing demonstration of the value of your research, it makes a stronger case for your findings and fosters greater empathy for your products’ users.

Both quantitative and qualitative UX research has strengths and weaknesses. As a result, UX researchers must think carefully about the goals of the research studies they’re conducting before deciding which method to utilize. No matter which one you choose, however, the results of UX research can make an invaluable contribution to the success of the user experience of any product. 

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3 September 2024

• Research + Insights
• UX Research
• UX Research Methods and Techniques [2024 Guide]

UX Research Methods and Techniques

Explore 16 of the most common quantitative and qualitative methods for making informed decisions and generating actionable human insights

Introduction to UX Research Methods

What are ux research methods.

UX research methods are the family of experimental protocols design teams use to study users and test prototypes. They include everything from simple interviews to specialized scorecards, and can be either moderated (ex. interviews) or unmoderated (ex. surveys).

While conducting UX research should generally be left to experienced designers, every member of a Design Thinking team can benefit from a deeper appreciation of the established techniques and rich insights they provide.

What are the types of UX Research methods?

For the sake of simplicity, this guide categorizes common UX research methods into three types based on the data they commonly provide: Quantitative, Qualitative, or Mixed.

Quantitative UX Research Methods Best for benchmarking, prioritization and forecasting

Qualitative UX Research Methods Best for modelling user experiences and inspiring ideas

Mixed UX Research Methods Can be used to deliver both quantitative and qualitative data

The UX Research Methods Matrix

X-dimension: situation vs solution.

The X-dimension separates methods based on what they are typically used to study: Either the situation as a whole (like a literature review or diary study), or the solution being created (like concept testing or an intercept survey). UX research methods are leveraged throughout the complete project cycle — they don’t end when the interviews are over.

Y-Dimension: Qualitative vs Quantitative

The Y-dimension separates methods based on the type of data they typically output: Either more qualitative (like focus groups or concept testing), or more quantitative (like user surveys or A/B testing). Relying on only one type of data can be dangerous: Robust research projects should include a mix of both, as they provide different perspectives on the experience.

Which UX Research Methods should I use?

Typically, UX research methods are stacked together to create an overall UX research plan . That means that the selection of your methods is based on what stage of the plan you are in, and what questions you need to answer. Keep the following factors in mind as you browse the guide:

Three factors to consider when selecting a research method

• Questions: What do we need to find out specifically?
• Resources: How much time/talent/budget do we have?
• Risk tolerance: What are the risks of incorrect assumptions?

If it doesn’t agree with experiment, it’s wrong.

Qualitative UX Research Methods

Qualitative UX Research Methods are powerful sources of inspiration. They bring the voice of the customer directly into the design process, and answer critical questions about the goals and behaviors that solutions can support.

UX research methods in this section:

• User interviews
• Focus groups
• Diary studies
• Literature review
• Participatory design
• Remote walkthrough

User Interviews

User Interviews are the bread and butter of qualitative UX research methods. When designing user-centered solutions, there is no substitute for speaking with real users. While user interviews can take many forms and can integrate multiple methods (such as card sorting and concept testing), the quality of any interview is determined by the quality of its questions.

When planning user interviews, extreme care must be taken to develop questions that are most likely to make interviewees comfortable and actively engaged. If you have ever conducted user interviews before, you will appreciate how difficult this can be in formal settings.

User interviews help to answer

• Who are our primary and secondary personas?
• What do they think and do? Say and feel?
• What are their major pains and gains?
• Who else should we be talking to?

Focus Groups

Focus groups are like user interviews conducted with a group of 5-10 people at once. While they can help expedite the research process , they require significant planning and expert moderation to conduct effectively. Because of this, focus groups are typically conducted by research firms experienced at building group discussion guides that balance personalities and ensure all participants are able to share their feelings openly and evenly.

Focus groups help to answer

• What do teams think about a topic/solution?
• What information gaps exist in the field?
• Which disciplines should we be talking to?
• Does our messaging spark controversy? Conversation?

Diary Studies

Diary studies are an ethnographic UX research method that provide rich qualitative insights. The basic premise of a diary study is to ask potential users to record their experiences in a diary, which is then collected by researchers upon completion.

Diary studies can be recorded as guided journal entries or photo essays, and typically aim to describe a “ day in the life ” of a particular person. Diary studies add a level of realism that can’t be achieved in controlled settings, and are a great way to gain the type of detailed insights that inspire genuine innovations. Note that due to their revealing nature, protecting user privacy is especially important to consider with this method.

Diary studies help to answer

• What does a typical day look like?
• Who do our users rely on and when?
• When/where do our users engage with us?
• What other factors influence the experience?

Literature Review

Also called secondary or desk research, Literature Reviews are a method for exploring available information to gain context about a specific domain. While the rigor required varies with every solution, every design project is likely to benefit from at least a cursory review of existing research. When conducting literature reviews, it is critical to consider the credibility and bias of the source. Government statistics and peer-reviewed publications are typically the most robust sources, with surveys, articles and other sources requiring additional caution.

Literature reviews help to answer

• What cultural trends are influencing our users?
• How has our demographic evolved over time?
• What does science say about the unmet need?
• How are other related solutions experienced?
• What else do we know about our users?

Participatory Design

Participatory design is when teams integrate one or more users directly into their design process. This can be particularly helpful when designing enterprise solutions for specific roles, where deep domain knowledge is needed to appreciate the complexities of required tasks. It also helps to create external “champions” of the solution, who will then help train users and improve adoption.

While the benefit of having instant access to real user feedback can help remove bias and align teams, it is not without risks. The power of user personas is that they represent the collective goals and behaviors of target groups. Relying on n=1 comes with risks.

Participatory design helps to answer

• What would the user do/think?
• What challenges a decision cause?
• Which feature is most important?
• How do these experiences compare?

Remote Walkthrough

A remote walkthrough, also called a Touchstone Tour or simply “shadowing”, puts users in the driver seat as they walk design teams through their environment. For example, if you were designing a new video editing application, you may recruit current video editors to walk you through their daily tasks within the software. Thanks to modern video conferencing tools like Slack or Zoom, it’s easy to conduct and record remote walkthroughs alongside other ux research methods.

Remote walkthroughs help to answer

• What tasks are required to complete their goals?
• How do users complete these tasks?
• What UX challenges do they face along the way?
• Do they use any shortcuts? Customizations?
• How comfortable are users in their environment?

Quantitative UX Research Methods

Today, digital “desire lines” are everywhere — but only if you know where to look. Whether you are improving an app used by millions, or building a service for select specialists, being able to parse big data into actionable insights is a mandatory skill for all UX researchers.

• Behavioral analytics
• User surveys
• Intercept surveys
• Click tracking
• Eye tracking
• A/B testing

Behavioral Analytics

Behavioral analytics help model how users are engaging with an existing system or solution. The process of determining which metrics are the best proxy for the experience, and what the current data says about the solution, is where this UX research method shines.

Typically, the analysis is completed by a core research team and shared with the broader cross functional team during design thinking workshops to inform and inspire ideas. Common behavioral metrics include bounce rate, conversion rate, time to completion, time on task, or other digital/physical desire lines.

Behavioral analytics help to answer

• Where are our users coming from?
• Are they finding what they want?
• How long are they spending with us?
• What do they search for most?
• How often do they engage with us?

User Surveys

Surveys are an established research method adopted by myriad disciplines to collect hard data from groups of people. Data are then analyzed by statistical methods to generate “significant” insights that are unlikely to be due to chance. The power to discern signal from noise is the product of the size of the survey sample: The more people you ask, the more confident the statistics will be.

Like user interviews, the quality of a user survey relies on recruiting the right people and asking the right questions. But unlike interviews, these questions need to be formatted in a way that can be answered using a sliding scale or multiple choice — at least until natural language processing simplifies the analysis of free-text responses.

User surveys help to answer

• Who are our users?
• What challenges do they face?
• What goals and behaviors do they share?
• Where should we focus our design efforts?
• What do they think about a situation or solution?

Intercept Surveys

Intercept surveys, also called feedback surveys, are a simplified form of user survey deployed in the wild where interactions occur. Intercept surveys are commonly found on websites and in emails, and can be as simple as asking “Was this information helpful?”. In practice, intercept surveys are best when limited to only a single question that is easy to understand and effortless to answer.

Intercept surveys help to answer

• What are the biggest challenges users face?
• Where does the experience go wrong?
• Why are users dropping off at this point?
• How is our current solution being received?

Click Tracking

Click Tracking is a specialized ux research method that lets designers observe and analyze everywhere users click or tap when visiting a website. While digital marketers have been using scroll depth and CTA conversion rates for years, modern click-tracking tools like HotJar can now passively record real user visits and generate cumulative heat maps for your pages. These heat maps show where users are (and aren’t) clicking. In fact, HotJar will automatically generate three different layers of heat maps to capture all clicks, moves and scrolls. Together, these session-tracking maps help designers present findings to stakeholders and improve on-page conversions.

Click tracking helps to answer

• Is this button/content getting lost?
• Are users trying to click the wrong thing?
• How are users engaging with our pages?
• What effect did this design update have?

Eye Tracking

Eye tracking is a specialized UX research method that records where your test users are looking — not just where they scroll or click to. Unlike click tracking which can be installed on a live website, eye tracking studies require controlled settings with user opt-in. In the past, eye tracking was prohibitively expensive due to the technology required; however, accurate, webcam-based tools like Real Eye have greatly reduced the barrier to entry.

Today, eye tracking studies are frequently used as a form of unmoderated usability testing that participants can complete on their own time. This dramatically simplifies the logistics and reduces the guesswork in major decision decisions.

Eye tracking helps to answer

• Where do users look first?
• What design is more attractive?
• Is our message being missed?
• Are we confusing our users?

A/B Testing

A/B Testing is a data-driven way to determine which of two (or more) options is the most effective at achieving a specific goal. A/B testing is used in a variety of industries, especially in digital marketing, where optimizing conversion rates is of critical importance. In user experience design , A/B testing can be used to optimize specific aspects of an existing solution, or to determine which of two designs to pursue.

A/B testing helps to answer

• What experience converts best?
• How can we optimize the experience?
• What direction should we pursue?
• What do our users prefer?

Mixed UX Research Methods

Mixed UX Research methods can be used to generate human insights and hard data . They allow for both direct observation of user behaviors, while also generating data that can be subject to statistical analysis.

UX research methods described in this section:

• Heuristic evaluation
• Concept testing
• Tree testing
• Card sorting
• Usability testing

Heuristic Evaluation

Heuristic evaluation is effectively a “pragmatic review” of a user experience by design experts. When applied formally, it uses a point-based scoring system akin to those used to judge athletic performances (like gymnastics or diving). Using predefined criteria and scorecards helps to reduce bias and make scalable decisions in situations where direct usability testing is not possible or necessary.

Of course, the quality of a heuristic evaluation is determined by the experience of the reviewers, and their ability to make unbiased judgements from a user’s point of view. Having a validated set of personas helps improve the output of a heuristic evaluation, and the same interfaces can (and should) be reviewed from the perspective of multiple user personas.

Web users ultimately want to get at data quickly and easily.

Heuristic evaluation helps to answer

• Which design is more user friendly?
• How much have we improved our UX?
• Do we need to redesign this solution?
• What quick wins can we start with?

Concept Testing

Concept testing is exactly that: Testing concepts/prototypes with users to see what they say. Concept testing is common when developing marketing campaigns or other mass-market creative ideas where it is difficult or impossible to predict how people will respond. Concept testing and usability testing are quite similar in this sense; however, concept testing is concerned with deciding which concept (or “big idea”) to pursue, while usability testing is conducted with high-fidelity designs to validate decisions or make minor improvements. Concept testing is commonly integrated with other techniques to streamline the research efforts, and can use card sorting and scorecards to support data-informed decisions.

Concept testing helps to answer

• What tasks are required to complete a user’s goal?

Tree Testing

Tree testing is a specialized UX research method for assessing how intuitive an information architecture is. In its simplest form, tree testing involves watching users interact with a prototype menu within a controlled setting (i.e., no content or visuals included, only the menu itself).

By prompting users to complete specific tasks by clicking through the menu (ex: Where would you go to find X or do Y), researchers can see how their architecture relates to their user’s mental models. This allows teams to optimize critical structural elements early in the design process, avoiding more expensive updates downstream.

Tree testing helps to answer

• Is our information architecture intuitive?
• Are we using the right labels?
• Where are users getting lost?
• Which sitemap is more effective?
• How can we optimize click depth?

Card Sorting

Card sorting is a fundamental UX research method applied throughout the design process . In essence, card sorting is exactly that: Sorting a stack of cue cards that have words on them into piles that make sense to the sorter. For example, you may have a stack of 30 cards with the names of different foods on them.

If you asked someone to sort them into piles according to their most vs. least favorite items, you would learn more about their preferences than if you simply asked them their favorite foods. This basic card sorting theory can be applied to any situation, and augmenting the prompts and piles lets UX researchers answer a variety of questions about the opportunity.

Card sorting helps to answer

• How do our users think about this domain?
• What items belong together? Apart?
• What navigation will work best?
• Where will they look for this content?
• Which experiences should we prioritize?

Usability Testing

Usability testing is used to assess how user friendly a higher-fidelity prototype is with your target users. Usability tests are typically used later in the design process, before shifting to the Implementation step of the design thinking process. Usability testing is conducted similar to other ux research methods such as Tree Testing or Card Sorting, where users are asked to complete specific tasks within a controlled environment. Because usability testing is performed with fully functional prototypes (or the minimum viable product), UX researchers are able to benchmark quantitative metrics such as Time to Completion (TTC) in addition to other qualitative metrics. This makes usability testing a powerful tool for demonstrating business impact and deciding what areas to work on in future updates.

Usability testing helps to answer

• How user friendly is our solution?
• How much time/effort does our solution save?
• What impact can we expect our solution to have?
• What should we focus on in the next release?

So what are UX research methods?

UX Research methods describe the established protocols and best practices designed to help teams understand users and improve real experiences . They range from simple surveys to rich ethnographic field studies, and furnish teams with the actionable insights they need throughout the development process.

While UX research methods were once confined to specialized labs, the rise of cloud-based solutions has dramatically simplified the methodologies and reduced the overhead. Today, teams of all sizes can leverage UX Research methods to improve their solutions

UX Research Methods

• Describes set of research protocols and best practices
• Used to study both users, situations and solutions
• Output quantitative or qualitative data
• Helps develop personas and optimize prototypes
• Support end-to-end Design Thinking process
• Major methods include User Interviews, Usability Testing, Card Sorting, Surveys and Behavioral Analytics

Quantitative research in UX

Quantitative research answers the questions: how much, how many, and allows you to establish in a specific and measurable manner the size, extent, scope, frequency, and intensity of a given phenomenon.

Quantitative and qualitative research (e.g., focus groups, expert audits, and heuristic analysis) should be a permanent element of every digital product design.

The use of the potential of both types of research allows you to learn about the needs of end users (e.g., customers in an online store ) in a more profound, multidimensional, and reliable way.

It allows you to create solutions that are adequate to the needs of end users.

It enables you to adjust the design of a website or mobile application to their specific and discovered, through research, preferences.

Quantitative and qualitative research should be treated as complementary approaches and not as opposing ones.

What is the fundamental difference between quantitative and qualitative research? How do these user research methods differ?

Qualitative data provides answers to the following questions: Why? In what way? When? Where?

In turn, quantitative data provides answers to questions: How frequently? How much?

It may seem that qualitative research is more appropriate for user experience problems.

The quality of experiences and problems with usability refers to the impressions, opinions, emotions, attitudes, biases, and behavioral issues that are much more easily captured by this method.

So, is quantitative research even useful in UX /UI design and offering a positive user experience?

What value can quantitative user research bring to research, design, and optimization processes? How can you use quantitative methods in UX? What are the examples of qualitative and quantitative research methods?

Today, we'll introduce you to the issue of quantitative UX research. It's worth familiarizing yourself with it because it's an essential supplement to qualitative research.

It allows you to obtain a more complex, multidimensional, and complete picture of usability problems. It gives you insight into their scope and intensity.

As always, we cordially invite you to read the article!

Do you want to perform UX Research?

Quantitative research — what is it?

Admittedly, quantitative research doesn't answer why a given phenomenon occurs, its causes, or under what conditions it happens, but it shows for how many users a given problem is real. It provides numerical data and insight into user behavior.

Therefore it allows you to estimate the scale of a phenomenon.

What is qualitative research? For example, qualitative research can explain why a contact form has a low conversion rate.

The reason might be too many fields or incomprehensible labels.

In turn, quantitative research determines how many people consider the number of form fields problematic.

It also enables you to identify the change during the optimization process when the number of fields is reduced.

By repeating quantitative research regarding this issue, you will discover if the number of users facing this problem has increased or decreased.

Objective results will replace assumptions and unrealistic results.

Only the combined results of qualitative and quantitative research (which, unfortunately, are not achievable in the short term) will enable you to make more rational and justified decisions regarding optimization.

The most essential quantitative UX research methods include the following:

• Benchmarking
• Web analytics
• A/B tests in UX
• Card sorting
• Eye-tracking

In turn, qualitative methods of UX research include activities such as user interviews, focus groups, five-second testing, and diary studies.

Qualitative research methods are useful when you need to understand the emotions, behaviors, and attitudes of a digital product user more deeply.

Thanks to these research methods, UX/UI designers can improve the user experience of a digital product and help build applications that meet user needs.

Every UX research method is characterized by its own specificity in the following aspects:

• Scope of application
• Difficulty in acquiring data and recruiting respondents
• Problems involved in analytical and interpretative work
• Context and conditions in which the study is performed
• Research utility and ability to compile results with other methods, types of research
• Research goals
• Time required to perform a study
• Exploratory value

For example, card sorting is a method that gives you insight into the mental models of the website's users.

In particular, it allows you to see how they categorize and name phenomena.

Card sorting allows you to learn the terminology users use to describe and group phenomena and determine what a product is.

This method determines the most optimal wording and forms of labels and information and architecture structures used in digital products.

It is very affordable, and data collection is uncomplicated. Card sorting doesn't cause many problems regarding interpretation.

Currently, it's possible to conduct this type of research on users in stationary conditions and remotely through a dedicated tool.

Card Sorting is sometimes called an indirect method because it gives you both quantitative and qualitative results.

It allows you to learn the names, terminologies, and categories and will enable you to determine the frequency of their use.

It's extremely useful in designing information architecture and, above all, creating categories and names in menus that will better suit users' mental models.

Significant advantages of quantitative research

Naturally, the advantages of quantitative research are much broader and diverse.

By performing quantitative research, you gain insight into a given phenomenon in the following ways:

• Objective, through tools and tasks that are standardized
• Possible to compare results over time
• Statistically relevant, hence the credibility of this research is high

In UX research, quantitative research usually means performing quantitative usability tests. Quantitative usability testing involves performing tasks defined by researchers on a website.

Adopted by a researcher, UX metrics allow them to express the efficiency of task performance in numerical form. A metric or UX indicator can be time or amount.

Respondents are usually asked to perform various tasks on a website (e.g., find a product page , or use a contact form).

The UX metrics that allow you to indirectly evaluate usability most often include the following:

• Time of performing a task
• Number of completed tasks
• Number of made mistakes during a task
• Quantified user satisfaction ratings for websites or mobile apps

Admittedly, metrics won't indicate the causes. Still, they help you check or confront usability with competitive solutions (or previous designs) and thus determine whether the attractiveness for users increases or decreases.

As we've already mentioned, a limitation of quantitative research is the inability to discover the causes of quantitative results.

The conclusion you will draw will only relate to the frequency of the behavior.

Quantitative research results don't determine or define the problems users encounter. They don't suggest solutions.

This kind of insight and knowledge can be gained from qualitative user research.

Furthermore, quantitative research requires more respondents, which, of course, raises the cost, increases the time needed to perform it, and raises organizational issues.

It also poses challenges for UX researchers to statistically process and interpret the results.

Nevertheless, an advantage that can't be underestimated is the far greater objectivity of this kind of research.

The randomness and low credibility of results are reduced by well-proven techniques for performing research and a whole background of mathematical and statistical knowledge that helps guarantee the expected credibility.

It's also worth remembering Kate Moran's remarks in the article " Quantitative User-Research Methodologies: An Overview ."

The researcher associated with Nielsen Norman Group observes very aptly that quantitative research should be an inseparable element of every UX researcher's toolkit.

The justification for this belief and approach sounds very compelling.

According to Kate Moran, quantitative research enables you to:

• Obtain data that are significant in the decision-making process and make it possible to convince various stakeholders in a more concrete way
• Compare, estimate, evaluate, and rank
• Calculate and estimate the ROI level, which is especially important in optimization work.

Quantitative research also measures the following:

• Effectiveness and efficiency of a digital product — most often, an indicator of high efficiency is the short time required to complete a task because time correlates with ease and intuitiveness of use.
• User satisfaction during the product use — it's measured just after performing a task, e.g., through a Subjective Mental Effort Questionnaire (SMEQ).
• Effectiveness (accuracy and completeness) — indicated by success rate and the number of mistakes made during a task.

Disadvantages of quantitative research

No user research method is perfect, and quantitative UX research is no exception. While it has many advantages and helpful uses, it also has some drawbacks.

As mentioned, quantitative data can tell you where the problem is and how common it is, but it won't reveal its cause or provide a solution.

This type of research method can also be tainted by confirmation bias, which occurs when researchers tend to interpret the data they receive according to their beliefs instead of results. Therefore, it's important to be wary of this.

Quantitative data lacks context because research participants also lack it. Respondents can't justify their responses or ask clarifying questions.

During the analysis of obtained data, researchers need to make a lot of assumptions about the ways users think and what prompted them to give a certain response. This issue ties in with the above-mentioned absence of context.

We've also already said that quantitative UX research requires a large sample size to achieve statistical significance. Because of that, it's very costly and cumbersome to organize and perform.

UX researchers must possess strong analytical skills to ensure that data are interpreted correctly and unbiasedly. An insufficient amount of knowledge can negatively impact the accuracy of the results.

When to perform quantitative UX research?

You can use quantitative research to:

• Evaluate and analyze key performance indicators
• Find new ideas
• Compare your products with the competition
• Determine which design variant is better
• Understand customer needs
• Discover design problems.

Other differences between qualitative and quantitative research

In the most general sense, the main difference between qualitative and quantitative research is its scope and depth.

Quantitative research, compared to qualitative research, provides the following:

• Larger scope
• But lower depth.

Moreover, both types of research pose other challenges to researchers in terms of the following:

• Size of the sample
• Recruitment
• Organization or performance of research
• Research tools
• Methods of analyzing and interpreting
• Time required to conduct it
• Moment — the performance of quantitative research is recommended at later stages of the design process because, with its help, the performance of a website or mobile application is tested

The reason behind doing quantitative research at later stages of the design is also its cost.

Usually, to ensure statistical significance in quantitative research, you need at least several dozen respondents, while for qualitative research, you only need a few (at least 5).

It's also worth remembering, as Raluca Budiu, the author associated with NN Group, states in the article " Quantitative vs. Qualitative Usability Testing ," that qualitative research results usually allow you to:

• Gain insight into the strong and weak sides of the design
• Prioritize problems.

And simultaneously, they:

• Depend on the knowledge, experience, and reliability of a researcher
• Are susceptible to the evaluation effect — various research will identify different sets (sometimes overlapping) of problems with usability.

Raluca Budiu also writes that both types of research must provide the following:

• External validity — respondents need to be a representative group, and the course of the research should be as close to the natural conditions in which the tasks are performed as possible.
• Internal validity — research should be conducted in precisely the same conditions, circumstances, and contexts to avoid the influence of unknown and uncontrollable variables.

How to conduct quantitative research on user experience?

The choice of the research method is naturally crucial.

Nevertheless, if you want to find out how frequently a given problem occurs, you need to define what problem you have in mind.

Focusing the study on a specific research goal enables you to obtain much more reliable results.

When you know what you want to study, you can proceed to the next step, in which you have to match the adequate metrics to the research problem that will be able to capture the scale of the issue.

Standard indicators, such as the average time needed to finish a task or the number of mistakes, can be combined with more study-specific ones.

Determining indicators can be difficult, especially for researchers with little experience.

A tool, namely Google's framework — Heart — recommended in the article " Google's HEART Framework for Measuring UX " written by Interaction Design Foundation may prove helpful.

Quantitative research, as well as qualitative research, can be performed stationary or remotely or be moderated or unmoderated.

The choice of a particular configuration depends on the following:

• Research problem — its complexity and difficulty
• Time scheduled for performing a task
• Experience and competencies of researchers
• Available research tools

In the next step, it's necessary to create a research scenario, a detailed plan, in which you should define tasks, goals, tools, and contexts.

With a ready UX research scenario , you can proceed to the phase of recruiting respondents according to the adopted criteria.

In particular, you should consider the representativeness of participants and the size of the sample—usually, it shouldn't be smaller than 30 respondents.

The last phases include performing the research and preparing results in a statistical sense.

Remember that recruitment in quantitative research is one of the biggest challenges UX researchers face due to the sample size.

UX research requires thorough preparation. The choice of a research method is the core of the researcher's work, but the most challenging task is the selection of the sample. It's problematic regarding representativeness, gratification, and availability of respondents within the scheduled period.

In any research project, you should bet on optimal solutions and match the research method to the research problem, but you shouldn't exclude different methods if you have a limited budget and time.

It's also important to remember that while conducting quantitative research on UX, the most important, according to the article " Usability Testing ," factors that condition the size of the budget include the following:

• The size of a research team
• Number of respondents
• Number of days necessary to study all of the participants
• Costs of recruitment (e.g., costs of the specialized companies that recruit respondents according to imposed criteria)
• Remuneration for participants
• Costs of a laboratory and/or dedicated access to research platforms

How to recruit participants for quantitative research?

Since quantitative UX research requires a large sample, this type of research method is challenging to organize. To maintain the reliability and accuracy of results, you can't just pick random respondents. So, how to choose a suitable sample?

First, you need to choose a large, general "population," such as users of mobile applications. Then, you need to pick a group called a sample from among them that will match your research criteria. For example, one such criterion can be "users of mobile applications between the ages of 18-25."

Remember that your requirements for research participants should be adequate to the research goals you want to achieve. Additionally, your sampling method should generate a random sample to obtain relevant results.

Quantitative research in UX. Summary

• UX research, quantitative and qualitative research should be performed simultaneously during the design process or when creating websites or mobile applications.
• UX research (qualitative and quantitative methods) should be treated as complementary approaches.
• UX research, especially quantitative UX research, allows you to determine the phenomenon's size, scope, frequency, and intensity.
• The combined results of qualitative and quantitative research provide the most reliable, credible, and exhaustive approach to making rational design decisions.
• Quantitative UX research methods include benchmarking, A/B tests, card sorting, surveys, and eye-tracking.
• Qualitative user research methods include user interviews, focus groups, five-second testing, and diary studies.
• Performing quantitative research gives you insight into a phenomenon in an objective, comparable, statistically relevant way.
• Quantitative research most often involves conducting quantitative usability tests in practice.
• User experience research, or quantitative usability tests, consists of performing tasks defined by researchers on a website or mobile application.
• Quantitative research results don't determine or define the problems users encounter.
• Using mathematical and statistical knowledge reduces randomness and low credibility of results.
• Quantitative methods allow you to compare, estimate, evaluate, rank, and calculate the level of ROI.
• Compared to qualitative research, quantitative research provides a larger scope but lower depth.
• Although quantitative UX research has many benefits, it also has some drawbacks that you should keep in mind.

Next article

Exploratory research

• HEART Framework
• How to Use Google’s HEART Framework to Make Product Decisions
• Measuring UX and ROI
• Understanding Statistical Significance
• What Does Statistically Significant Mean?
• Quantitative Studies: How Many Users to Test?
• Quantitative Research
• A Beginner’s Guide to Quantitative UX Research
• Quantitative vs. Qualitative UX Research Methods
• Qualitative vs. quantitative user research: the answers you will (and won’t) get from each
• The “Why” Behind Qualitative User Research
• Qualitative vs. Quantitative Research

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Some Thoughts on Quantitative vs. Qualitative Research in UX Design

Ben Swofford

I’ve been thinking about the pros and cons of Qual vs. Quant lately. It’s hard not to, considering the company I work for “quantifies everything,” but many of my UX courses focus on in-person user interviews, fly-on-the-wall observations, and related ilk.

Both pursuits, obviously, have their place and their own strengths and weaknesses, but each method also has the same goal: to discover (and communicate) the truth .

In user experience design, research tends to focus on how users interact with a system, whether it’s one that has already been designed and requires refining or a system that you intend to improve with a new product of some sort. Either way, this is a crucial phase. Without good user research, you can’t actually design for the people who are going to use the product. You can only design based on your own experience + assumptions (and we all know what happens when you assume).

UX, it seems, tends to focus on qualitative research methods, at least when you’re designing something new. If you need deep understandings of the motivations, problems and past experiences that explain someone’s behavior, you probably won’t be happy with the results of quantitative methods. You won’t necessarily trust what surveys are telling you. You’re going to want to hear from those users directly, ask them questions, and actually observe what they’re doing.

The problem here is that insights from qualitative methods are so focused that they might not be applicable to most users. You might discover something really interesting that then sends you in the completely wrong direction.

On the flip side, data trends from web analytics, survey feedback, or other sources can give you a quick and trustworthy understanding of user behavior. This is especially helpful when trying to solve a UX problem with an existing system. If the metrics are significant, this approach allows reasonable assurance that you’re focusing on something that most users are experiencing (e.g. if 64% of people who visit a certain webpage will then use the search bar, that’s a strong indication that they aren’t finding what they need on that page).

However, it’s important to remember that even quantified data insights are still somewhat biased. Numbers give us comfort because they appear to communicate absolute truths, but every data report is prepared by people who choose how to display the information, what to emphasize, what not to show, etc. Data can also be just plain wrong if your source isn’t reliable.

Quantitative research seems to be the most appropriate method for business decisions, since decision makers are more apt to trust verifiable trends. Still, it can be difficult to get to the “why” just by looking at data. For example, you might know that an app’s users tend to log on at specific times of day, but you don’t really know why they do that until you get a chance to ask some of them. Sure, you can ask people using online forms, but the quality of that feedback pales in comparison to the intelligence gained from actually talking to them about it.

In an ideal world, we would be able to speak individually to a large segment of a user base, teasing out qualitative insights from a large enough number of people that the qualitative findings can then become quantifiable data covering a statistically weighty segment of the user population. Unfortunately, no one has the time or resources to accomplish this.

So I guess my conclusion here takes me back to where I started: both qualitative and quantitative research have a time and a place , with their own strengths and weaknesses. It just comes down to figuring out what your resources are, understanding the goals, and employing a healthy bit of skepticism when consuming either method’s results.

Written by Ben Swofford

UX, content strategy, SEO, and other evidence-based experience design. I read frequently and occasionally write stuff, too. | linkedin.com/in/benswofford

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