The core value of UX Design is the practice of finding problems that impact business goals and designing intuitive solutions to solve them. Then finding problems in these designs, and coming up with intuitive designs to solve those problems, and repeating the cycle.
The problem with finding the problems is that it’s often overlooked, not done efficiently and effectively, or just skipped. I understand why. Creating new designs are exciting. If the problems are arbitrarily thought up, it adds a level of appeal, like a designer that tapped into a higher power and knew best.
This article will touch on different UX research methodologies that I’ve found to be the most effective and efficient, some of which I always tap into as the very first step when starting up a project with a client, whether they’re Fortune 100 or a startup. The idea isn’t to cover everything that’s textbook, the idea is to cover things that have worked for me in the real world over my 10 year career. The output of these various research methodologies provide clarity on what should be tackled and prioritized, and in turn determine the rest of the product design process.
This UX research strategy is effective for redesigns, as well as designing whole new features. Different combinations of each tool will uniquely be packaged based on what stage the software in question is at, its unique goals and access to various resources that are required to carry out the research. This article will have links to other blog posts I have written that further detail each methodology.
The alternative to following this type of UX Research strategy is working off of assumptions, which can lead to designs that solve the wrong problems, or fix what wasn’t broken. This wasted effort can be a huge expense that then needs to be fixed at a later point through another redesign effort, creating a cycle of bad design. A lot of tech companies reach out for my services after having made this mistake.
Given enough time, unaddressed UX issues accumulate and translate to a decrease in revenue or increase in costs. Small UX issues add up and end up being big business problems.
UX Research Methodologies for the real world
UX Listening Tour
What is it?
A listening tour consists of the UX Researcher identifying the key stakeholders and decision-makers for the software and interviewing them on one-on-one calls in free-flowing conversations. The interview format consists of specific questions with certain points of focus, with the researcher probing and digging in when necessary. A good listening tour feels like a great, informative and entertaining podcast episode.
What are the deliverables?
The deliverable is a document outlining key takeaways and discoveries that focus on stakeholder priorities, ideas, goals, and perceived challenges.
User Discovery Interviews
What is it?
User Discovery Interviews are similar to a listening tour but differ in the sense that they are focused on talking to existing users or potential users. Potential users are individuals who match a certain important persona trait, such as job title, expertise, or simple demographic information.
What are the deliverables?
The deliverable outlines key take-aways that focus on the status quo of how users (who are typically not using the software) are solving the problem at hand. Specific discoveries about the problem at hand are critical, such as how they perceive the problem, whether the problem actually exists, and how it impacts them. The deliverable might also include takeaways about how users (who are currently using the software) perceive the software on a high-level basis, with a focus on their perceptions of the problem at hand.
Remote Contextual Inquiry
What is it?
Remote Contextual Inquiry or User Shadow Sessions consist of connecting with potential users based on important persona data, such as expertise or job title, and having them do a screen-share while they go through their existing process to solve the problem at hand. Part of the shadow session includes pre-determined specific questions to identify more high level perceptions of the problems, but the focus is probing them as they go through their work flow to understand problems with their current solution. This research method is extremely powerful when it comes to designing SaaS applications, designing data visualization software and any software that solves business problems, as it will reveal a very thorough understanding of the existing processes that are in place for that industry.
What are the deliverables?
The deliverables consist of a document identifying points of frustration within their current work-flow, software and technology that’s currently used, which could be hacked together processes including phone calls, email, Excel to industry dominant software that no one likes. Clips from the screen-share sessions might also be shared with the stakeholders and viewed separately or in a watch party format, as different stakeholders might catch different issues based on their areas of expertise.
UX Audit
What is it?
A UX Audit consists of the UX Designer going through the existing implementation of the software, utilizing UX heuristics to identify usability issues at hand.
What are the deliverables?
A typical UX Audit deliverable consists of a PDF document with screenshots of the main happy-path user flow, overlaid with annotations identifying specific usability issues and points of friction.
Remote User Testing
What is it?
Remote Usability testing involves having users who have never seen the software before, but who fit the user persona, sharing their screen as they go through the software or a clickable prototype for the first time. The UX Researcher will have specific tasks, and questions, probing and digressing off-script in a free-flowing format when necessary. A great user test sounds like an informative yet entertaining podcast episode.
What are the deliverables?
The user testing deliverable might also include key user quotes from each iteration of the clickable prototype or version of the software that was tested, key learnings, new features tested, and potential barriers to adoption. An optional reel of the most important usability problems might also be included and viewed separately by stakeholders or in a watch party format as different stakeholders will catch different issues based on their respective domains of expertise.
UX Workshop
What is it?
UX workshops involve getting all stakeholders on the same page, literally, onto a collaborative whiteboard tool to align on business problems and potential solutions that should be further explored. The workshops might include certain frameworks for idea generation and certain methodologies to create focus and constraints amongst various stakeholders.
What are the deliverables?
The deliverables include the shared whiteboard, as well as a summary of the key takeaways, which usually include prioritized problems and prioritized high-level solutions.
User Analytics Tracking
What is it?
User Analytics testing is way bigger than just connecting Google Analytics, it requires creating an Analytics Tracking Plan, which indicates user’s actions that need to captured, and specific information about each user’s action. It also creates a naming convention so that this data then becomes legible for decision makers in the analytics tool. I will be writing more in depth about this topic in the future.
What are the deliverables?
The deliverable is the Analytics Tracking Plan, which is given to the developers to implement. Once implemented, every important user action can be tracked efficiently, in a way that is useful to making product decisions.
How to use these to form a UX Research Strategy
One or any combination of the above can be used to kick off software redesign and shed light on the steps forward for prioritizing these problems, designing solutions or whether further UX research is required in a different capacity. The produced outputs of the above will be referred to in conversations about new designs, specific design decisions and will align all the stakeholders. These outputs also serve as a great asset for the client and allow them to make intelligent Product Management decisions and adjust the overall product or startup strategy with less guesswork and concrete research.
Rules of thumb for which UX research methodology to use and when
B2B, industry specific products, products that solve business problems
Remote Contextual Inquiry / User Shadow Sessions
User Discovery Interviews
User Testing
UX Listening Tour
B2C and consumer products
User Analytics Tracking
User Surveys
UX Listening Tour
Redesigning existing software
UX Audit
UX Listening Tour
User Analytics Tracking
Designing new software from scratch
UX Listening Tour
User Discovery Interviews
UX Workshop
Remote Contextual Inquiry
UX Research Strategy leads to a prioritized UX Roadmap of what to design and how, so it is the pillar of how projects are approached at Cakewalk Labs, whether it’s for startups to Fortune 100. Reach out to learn about what combination would be uniquely packaged for your specific software goals. You can also read some of my UX research case studies.