Planning & Objectives
Before diving into research, clarity is everything. Unclear goals may lead to inefficient use of time, budget, and energy and might result in answers that do not address the correct issues.
Start by framing your research question: what do you want to learn? For example, “Why are users abandoning the checkout page?” is much more actionable than “How do users feel about our website?”
Next, set SMART objectives (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound). Instead of stating, “We want to improve onboarding,” focus on the following:
- Specific: Improve onboarding flow for first-time users.
- Measurable: Increase onboarding completion rate by 25%.
- Achievable: Based on past improvements, this is realistic.
- Relevant: Tied directly to user growth.
- Time-bound: Within the next 90 days.
Finally, determine success metrics. This could be task completion rate, time on task, or reduction in support tickets. Clearly defining this early on helps avoid changing the objectives later on.
Recruitment & Participants
Your research is only as effective as the people you study. Testing the wrong people can be worse than not testing at all, as it gives a false sense of confidence.
Recruit users who represent your actual audience. For instance, if you’re designing a healthcare portal for seniors, college students aren’t the right participants. Screening questions are key here—ask about behaviors, not just demographics. Instead of asking, “How old are you?” ask, “How often do you use telehealth services?”
Keep sample sizes lean but effective. Nielsen Norman Group’s classic research shows that 5 users uncover 80% of usability issues. For broader validation, you can scale up to 15–20 participants, but for initial usability testing, start small.
Pro Tip: Use remote testing platforms like UserTesting, Maze, or PlaybookUX to save time. If you need niche users, consider specialized recruitment agencies.
Research Methods
Picking the wrong method is like using a hammer for every job. Each research method serves a different purpose:
- User Interviews: Great for early-stage discovery, gathering attitudes, and uncovering motivations.
- Surveys: Useful for reaching large samples, but questions must be carefully worded to avoid bias.
- Usability Testing: Ideal for spotting friction in flows, like confusing navigation or broken CTAs.
- A/B Testing: Perfect when you need hard data on design variations.
- Field Studies/Ethnography: Useful when you want to observe behavior in the real world.
Example: Spotify used A/B testing to compare new layouts but relied on interviews to understand why users preferred one over another. Together, this gave them both data and context.
Conducting the Research
Execution is where theory meets practice. Poorly run sessions can lead to misleading results.
Prepare a test script—this ensures each participant receives the same questions and tasks. For instance, instead of saying, “Can you log in?” ask, “Please show me how you would sign into your account.” (Notice how this avoids hinting at the answer).
Stay neutral. It’s tempting to explain or guide, but that defeats the purpose. If a user struggles, resist the urge to “rescue” them. Observing their struggle is an insight.
Capture data in multiple formats: video recordings, screen shares, audio notes, and observer notes. This redundancy ensures nothing is missed and makes it easier to revisit findings later.
Synthesizing Findings
Raw data is messy. The value of research lies in how you interpret it.
Start with affinity mapping—group sticky notes (or digital tags) by theme. For example, if multiple users struggled with the same form field, group those observations together.
Balance qualitative insights (“Users felt overwhelmed by too many options”) with quantitative metrics (e.g., “60% of participants abandoned the form at Step 3”). Combining both makes insights harder to ignore.
Highlight patterns but also note outliers. Sometimes, edge cases (like a user with accessibility needs) reveal overlooked design flaws.
Communicating Results
Even the best research won’t drive change if stakeholders ignore it.
Package insights into stories, not just spreadsheets. Use user quotes (“I feel lost here”) and video clips (watching frustration in real time is powerful). Pair these with visuals like journey maps and heatmaps.
Always prioritize issues. A lengthy list can be overwhelming for teams. Instead, rank by severity and impact. For example:
- Critical: Users cannot complete checkout.
- High: Navigation labels confuse 70% of participants.
- Medium: Visual hierarchy slows scanning.
Tailor your reporting. Executives want to impact business KPIs. Designers want actionable UI feedback. PMs want clear roadmap implications.
Applying Insights to Product Decisions
The most common mistake? Research is often viewed as the ultimate output, rather than serving as the foundation for continuous improvement.
Feed insights directly into your design backlog. Instead of vague notes like “Users found search confusing,” write action items like “Redesign search bar to include predictive suggestions.”
Use research to prioritize features. If users repeatedly request “save for later,” that’s a stronger case than adding a flashy but unvalidated feature.
Most importantly, measure after changes. Did your improvements reduce task time? Did satisfaction scores rise? Treat UX as a continuous loop: Research → Design → Test → Refine → Repeat.
Strong UX doesn’t happen by accident—it’s the result of disciplined research, careful testing, and smart application of insights. This checklist provides you a structured framework to follow so you’re never guessing, always learning, and constantly improving.
