UX Research Course Online October 5, 2026

The importance of UX research

• The difference between research and UX specific research
• UX research vs usability research

• Where does research fit in the UX design process

• UX research goes beyond usability

• How research plays a role in the user’s satisfaction before, during, and after an experience

Why research

• Discover user goals

• Build for cognitive limitations

• Short-term, working, and long-term memory challenges and how to address them

• Grant permission to invest time in researching

What makes UX research different?

• UX research explores how users interact with a product or service to improve usability and experience

• Marketing research investigates market trends, consumer preferences, and purchase behavior to boost sales or brand positioning

Methods Used

• UX: Usability testing, user interviews, field studies, task analysis

• Marketing: Surveys, focus groups, A/B testing for messaging, market segmentation.

• UX: Design better, more intuitive products.

• Marketing: Understand and influence buying behavior

Building an objective and key results (OKR)

• Uses creative and critical thinking

• Considers cognitive processing

Difference between objective and hypothesis

• Creating a hypothesis vs an objective

• Is it testable, and can it be measured?

• Is it user-centered and invites exploration?

User research methodologies covered

• Researching existing data

• Observing

• Interviewing

• Card sorting

• Journey mapping

• Defining personas

Usability research methodologies covered

• One-click

• Guerilla testing

• Contextual interviews

• RITE testing

• Reverse tree sorting

• Cognitive alktrhoughs

• A/B testing

Techniques for coding and recording results

• Mapping, coding, and theming

• Analyzing data

• Articles and reports

• Locating resources

• Sourcing existing studies

• Locating forums, reviews, and other free resources

Tips for recruiting participants

• Methods researchers can use to recruit participants

• Legal rights of participants

Quantitative vs qualitative research

• Understanding the difference in research techniques and results

• Discovering user goals and challenges

• Observation, it’s what they do

• Diving deep into conversations

Types of interviews

• Stakeholder-setting expectations

• Field study and contextual interviews-What users do

• Closed interview-Traditional interview

• Stakeholder interviews

• What is the expected timeline in stakeholders’ minds? 

• Who are the intended users?

• What are the constraints/worries regarding this effort?

Field Studies

• Don’t trust what people say; watch what they do

• Ethnographic research

• Review of a study checklist 

Categorizing and creating themes

• Start with open coding

• Frequency isn’t everything

• Cluster Into Themes

• Look for consistent keywords

• Look for repeated challenges 

• Create an affinity map to categorize what you have discovered

Creating “How might we?” statements

• “How Might We” Questions shift from problems to solutions

• Translate your themes into opportunity statements:

• Deliverables after an interview

• Observations for each session

• Common needs and challenges are noted

• All commonalities are noted, how they typically completed a task

• A hierarchical visual of user needs, a mind map, an affinity chart, and a picture of post-its on a wall

Sketching solutions

• Brainstorm ways to fix or enhance the experience. Start rough!

• Preparing for an interview

• Recruit a representative sample of potential users 

• Prescreening is important

Creating interview scripts

• Explain the purpose of the interview – what are you trying to achieve?

• Explain how the person’s data will be used

• Keep leading questions to a minimum

• Keep it reasonably short

The master apprentice model

• The interviewer treats the user as the master while the interviewer is the apprentice

• Analyzing interview data

Surveys

• Source of quantitative information

• Inexpensive research and relatively easy

• Provides clear and powerful information

Creating survey questions

• Ensure your survey questions are neutral. Learn more about how to prevent bias from impacting your surveys.

• Creating a balanced set of answer choices

• Doing a test drive

• Using and analyzing Likert scales

Analyzing survey data

• Closed questions provide quantitative data that can be viewed as data visualizations

• Qualitative resources for textual responses in surveys

Card sorting

• Find out how your users think, vocabulary, groups and more

• Open card sorting and its benefits

• Open card sorting provides insight into how people think about content

• Mental models for the content

• Collecting and analyzing card sort results 

Journey maps

• Helps you see patterns by grouping sticky-note-style observations by similarity, which surfaces themes

• It’s visual and collaborative

• It declutters the chaos

• It leads to design decisions

Creating a Persona

• Describing a context or situation

• Illustrates challenges

• Launching point for design discussion

• Engages the imagination

Examples of personas

• Old school vs discreet personas

Scenario vs. Features

• Scenarios: Goals that users want to achieve using your app/website

• Features: The “means to an end” but not the ultimate goals

• Aligning features with scenarios

• Putting scenarios in order of hierarchy

Usability tests

• Start testing with an MVP

• Building a minimum viable product

Guerrilla usability testing 

• A fast and informal approach to user testing 

• Works well in an Agile environment as you can test at any stage

• Used in early design exploration

• Hypothesis validation: A quick way to test assumptions about user behavior. 

• Identifying critical issues: helps uncover major usability problems that could impact the user experience

Key benefits of first-click testing

• Insights into User Behavior: They provide valuable insights into how users interact with an interface. 

• Quick and efficient

• Provides early feedback

• Cost-effective

• Tools for first click

• Analyzing the results of a one-click study

5-second test

• A simple usability testing method used to gauge a user’s first impression of a design

• Used in early design stages to test design options

• Marketing material design to assess message clarity and memorability 

Rapid Iterative Testing and Evaluation (RITE)

• Evaluate a solution to a usability problem multiple times in a rapid and iterative manner

• How the RITE method works

• Performing a RITE study

• Use wireframes or high-fidelity prototypes. Both can come from Figma

• Have one person work with the participant, and have others observe

Contextual interviews

• Process for running a contextual interview

• Benefits and drawbacks

Discovering and describing requirements 

• Market requirement

• Organizational requirement

• User requirement

Presenting results

• Presenting important findings first

• Creating a deck presentation

• Creating an APA-formatted report

• Heuristics guide design decisions

• Some of Nielsen’s 10 Usability Heuristics include:

• Visibility of system status

• Match between system and the real world

• User control and freedom

• Consistency and standards

• These are rules of thumb designers use to make interfaces intuitive