UX Research Method
Crash Course

Research Methods

Gathers user insights through interviews, tests, and surveys in controlled or remote settings.

Field Methods

Observes people using products in their real-life environments.

Usability Research

Usability research does more than locate broken buttons or awkward labels

  • Reduce risk by catching issues before launch.

  • Align around real user needs instead of internal opinions.

  • Build trust and shared understanding inside the team, because decisions are grounded in observed behavior.

  • Develop empathy for users, which improves future design decisions.

AI Research Assistant

  • Helping you author a moderation guide with clear tasks and neutral prompts.

  • Generating transcripts or summaries from audio or video recordings, provided you have explicit consent.

5 Users (Qualitative) is all you need

Talking to 5 users reveals ~85% of major usability issues, because the most serious problems appear repeatedly across different people. After a point, you see the same patterns again, which is a sign of diminishing returns.*

*Based on Jakob Nielsen’s analysis of problem discovery curves in small-sample usability tests, as described in “Why You Only Need to Test with 5 Users” (Nielsen Norman Group, 2000).

Interview etiquette and trust

  • Be kind and curious. Share realistic scope and time estimates. You may need to sign NDAs or consent forms.

  • Do not correct or educate them. Ask permission before writing anything very personal in the form.

  • “If you ever want to skip a question, you can simply say so.”

  • Good user research builds trust. The goal is to understand people’s reality, not to push them toward a particular answer.

System Usability Score (SUS)

Qualitative insights tell you what to fix; the SUS score shows how much you have improved and how usable your product is relative to industry benchmarks.

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User Interviews

Uncover motivations, expectations, and mental models that analytics alone cannot show.

  • Clarify how people understand the problem space.

  • Explore decision making, workarounds, and constraints.

  • Identify what you should later validate through usability testing.

1:1 Interviews & Focus Groups

Avoid loaded questions such as “You like this, right” or “That was confusing, correct”.

  1. Use neutral prompts: “What were you expecting to happen here”, “How did you decide what to do next”, “What stood out to you on this screen”.

  2. Allow silence. A quiet few seconds often encourages participants to add more detail and deeper reflection.

Research Methods

  • Usability Testing

    Usability testing identifies points of confusion, friction, inefficiency, and breakdown in an experience.

    Use this method to evaluate how well a design supports the intended task and whether users can complete workflows with clarity and confidence.

    Small samples are effective because the goal is to observe patterns in behavior, not to generalize statistically.

  • Surveys

    Surveys gather structured, scalable feedback that can help validate themes emerging from qualitative work.

    Use this method to understand broad sentiment, preferences, or perceived value, especially when reaching a wider audience.

    Surveys must be carefully written to avoid bias and misinterpretation, since self-reported behavior is not always reliable.

  • Card Sorting

    Card sorting reveals how users organize and categorize information in their minds.

    Use this method when developing or revising an information architecture so your structure reflects natural mental models.

    Open sorts help you discover new groupings, while closed sorts help you test the structure you already have.

  • A/B Testing

    A/B tests compare two or more variants to determine which one performs more effectively based on quantitative metrics.

    Use this method when optimizing at scale or refining a specific interaction.

    Meaningful results require adequate traffic, clearly defined metrics, and controlled variables.

  • Contextual Inquiry

    Field studies allow you to observe behavior in real-world environments, providing rich insight into context, workflow, and constraints.

    Use this method to understand tasks that are influenced by physical space, social dynamics, or environmental conditions.

    The researcher observes and occasionally probes, allowing users to demonstrate their authentic practices.

  • Ethnography

    Ethnographic research involves extended immersion to understand culture, values, routines, and underlying social dynamics.

    Use this method for complex problems where behavior is deeply shaped by context or when studying communities with unique practices.

    It is time-intensive but produces powerful insights into why people act the way they do.

Participatory Design

Participatory design brings users directly into the generative phase, allowing them to contribute ideas, sketches, scenarios, or prototypes.

Use this method when you aim to co-create with participants, especially in domains where users hold specialized knowledge.

This approach builds shared ownership and often uncovers solutions that experts alone would overlook.

We’re Designing a Suitcase

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