UX research is an important step in the product development process that helps ensure a product launch, or product update, will be a success. It is a fundamental component of a user-centered design strategy and is integral to creating successful software products.
With a rigorous UX research process, a product team obtains a deep understanding of users and use cases, to facilitate easy adoption and application of a product. As part of this process, competitor research can be conducted to understand table stakes, or cutting-edge product features, learn from existing best practices, and obtain design inspiration.
At HelloInfo, we support clients across the UX design process to enable well-designed products that ensure a seamless customer experience.
Why conduct UX research?
There are a variety of benefits to conducting UX research, including benefits to the specific product, the users, and of course the business overall. Some benefits include:
- Better understanding of products and features worthy of resource investment.
- Faster time to launch through a more robust understanding of priority features and specific use cases to be accommodated.
- Customer satisfaction with features meeting expectations and matching product use cases.
- Decreased support costs after launch with fewer bugs and a more intuitive user experience.
While it can sometimes be hard to measure the benefits of ROI on UX research, McKinsey has attempted to quantify the benefits of high-quality design, of which UX research is an important component. The consultancy found that companies with top-quartile scores in the McKinsey Design Index as much as doubled revenue and return to shareholder growth compared to industry benchmarks. This is a compelling reason to ensure UX research is an integral component of a rigorous design process.
What methodologies are used in UX research?
Research methodologies for UX research are vast and can include both qualitative and quantitative methodologies that incorporate both behavioral and attitudinal approaches.
Typical methodologies for customer research include:
- User Surveys: Gathering information through questionnaires or online surveys to understand user needs, preferences, and behaviors.
- User Interviews: One-on-one conversations with users to gain insight into their thoughts and opinions on a product or service.
- User Testing: Observing users as they interact with a product or service to identify usability issues and gather feedback.
- Contextual Inquiry: Studying users in their natural environment to understand their work processes and goals.
- A/B Testing: Comparing two versions of a product to determine which design is more effective.
- Mining existing data: Leveraging usage data for analytics or mining insights from message boards and review sites.
Competitor research is also often conducted as part of UX research. In this case, methodologies include:
- Secondary research: Review of competitor websites, customer review sites, social media, analyst reviews).
- In-depth interviews: One-on-one conversations with competitors or competitor customers.
- Product testing: Use of a competitor product.
What outputs result from UX research?
As with many areas of strategic research, outputs for UX research are centered around the audience and the problem the research is trying to solve. These outputs vary significantly depending on the need. Typical outputs of UX research include:
- User personas: Representations of the target audience based on research findings.
- User journeys: A visual representation of a user’s experience with a product or service.
- User stories: Narratives that describe a user’s needs and goals.
- Insights and findings: A summary of the key insights, trends, and observations from the research (competitive or customer).
- Analysis and data files: More raw outputs such as quantitative data sets, interview transcripts, video boards/clips, and other outputs based on the data collection and analysis phases of the project.
- Benchmarking: Product, service, and feature benchmarking of competitive tools.
- Design recommendations: Suggestions for improving the design of a product or service based on user feedback.
What tools are used in UX research?
What tools are used in UX research?
The UX tool landscape is vast and covers a variety of categories such as:
- Participant recruitment and management (e.g. scheduling tools, panels, and incentive management tools).
- Research (e.g. survey tools, usability testing tools, and interview recording tools).
- Collaboration and analysis tools (e.g. for brainstorming and analysis tools).
User Interviews does a great job of rounding up tools on an annual basis and its current iteration has 800+ tools across many categories.
How can HelloInfo support UX research?
At HelloInfo we regularly support UX teams in engagements to support specific projects, as well as the organization of their function from a top level. HelloInfo focuses on attitudinal methodologies when conducting customer research and can support in all aspects of competitor research.
Examples of how HelloInfo has supported UX research teams include:
- A review of best practices used by leading SaaS companies in the development of design principles.
- Usability testing and user interviews for a SaaS platform looking to improve its user experience with key personas.
- In-depth customer interviews and persona creation to understand current and desired use of software functionality to inform product development.
- In-depth customer interviews to inform pricing and packaging strategy to increase customer use of a product suite.
- Assessment of adjacent software functionality to provide inspiration for our client’s software design process.
At HelloInfo, we are increasingly participating in, and driving impact for our UX clients. Does your company conduct UX research? Let’s discuss how HelloInfo can support you with customer and competitor insights. Schedule a meeting with us here.
