Think your company is truly user-centric? Think again. Our groundbreaking report on UX Research (UXR) in 2024 shatters common assumptions about our industry.

We've uncovered a startling gap between what companies say about user-centricity and what they actually do. Prepare to have your perceptions challenged as we reveal the true state of UXR integration and its untapped potential in today's business landscape.

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The startling statistics 😅

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Here's a striking finding: only 16% of organizations have fully embedded UXR into their processes and culture. This disconnect between intention and implementation underscores the challenges in demonstrating and maximizing the true value of user research.

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What's inside the white paper 👀

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In this comprehensive white paper, we explore:

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• How companies use and value UX research
• Why it's hard to show how UX research helps businesses
• Why having UX champions in the company matters
• New ways to measure and show the worth of UX research
• How to share UX findings with different people in the company
• New trends changing how people see and use UX research

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Stats sneak peek 🤖

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- Only 16% of organizations have fully embedded UX Research (UXR) into their processes and culture. This highlights a significant gap between the perceived importance of user-centricity and its actual implementation in businesses.

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- 56% of organizations aren't measuring the impact of UXR at all. This lack of measurement makes it difficult for UX researchers to demonstrate the value of their work to stakeholders.

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- 68% of respondents believe that AI will have the greatest impact on the analysis and synthesis phase of UX research projects. This suggests that while AI is expected to play a significant role in UXR, it's seen more as a tool to augment human skills rather than replace researchers entirely.

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The UX research crossroads 🛣️

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As our field evolves with AI, automation, and democratized research, we face a critical juncture: how do we articulate and amplify the value of UXR in this rapidly changing landscape? We’d love to know what you think! So DM us in socials and let us know what you’re doing to bridge the gap.

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Are you ready to unlock the full potential of UXR in your organization? 🔐

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Download our white paper for invaluable insights and actionable strategies that will help you showcase and maximize the value of user research. In an era of digital transformation, understanding and leveraging UXR's true worth has never been more crucial.

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Download the white paper

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What's next?🔮

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Keep an eye out for our upcoming blog series, where we'll delve deeper into key findings and strategies from the report. Together, we'll navigate the evolving UX landscape and elevate the value of user insights in driving business success and exceptional user experiences.

Every day, people around the world use our research tools to craft better experiences for their users. Whether it’s a website for a new public library, an app for a self-driving car startup or even the layout of a physical retail store, our tools give researchers and designers everything they need to ensure the way people work, think and act are at the heart of every design decision.

We talk about our tools on a fairly regular basis (after all, we are quite proud of them), but this time we’re going to do something a little different. Here, we’re going to show you 17 creative ways to use OptimalSort, Treejack, Chalkmark, Reframer and Questions. Hopefully, we’ll inspire you to head off and start doing some more testing of your own. Let’s get started!

1. A/B test the structure of your website or mobile app

Tree testing is one of the best methods to assess the strength of your navigation structure, and Treejack is the best tool to execute this method. You can easily set up more than one Treejack study to run at the same time, allowing you to A/B test different navigation structures and pick a winner.

2. Run designs past your team

Ever struggle to get consensus from your team on a new logo or design? Use OptimalSort to solve the problem! Create a closed image sort with categories set up so your team can sort designs based on their preferences. You can then look at the results and determine the best path forward.

3. Improve your note-taking at conferences

Reframer is a powerful qualitative research tool, and most of what makes it so useful for usability tests and user interviews also makes it a great tool for taking notes at conferences. Once you’ve taken all of your notes, you can use tags to mark up different insights and then share the results with your coworkers.

4. Reduce the content on landing pages

Card sorting is a great way to work out if you have any redundant content on your landing pages. Let’s use the example of simplifying your homepage. You can ask participants to sort cards (containing homepage links) based on how often they use them. You could then compare this data with analytics from your homepage and see if people’s actual behavior and perception are well aligned.

5. Work out if your icons need labels

Determine if your icons are helping your users by testing whether they understand their purpose. Upload icons that you’re currently using (or even plan to use) to Chalkmark, and ask your participants to identify their meaning by using the post-task questions feature.

6. Use card sorting to build better stores

Card sorting isn’t just a technique for the digital realm. Run an open card sort with OptimalSort to figure out where items in a retail store should be grouped. If we use the example of a supermarket, the cards would be different food items and the ‘aisles’ would be the categories.

7. Make scheduling usability tests easier

You can use Questions as a scheduling tool by setting up a survey designed to ask people which times they’re available to come in for usability testing sessions. You can send out one link to every participant and view the results in a single location. Easy!

8. Test your information architecture (IA) in different countries

Did you know you can use our integrated recruitment panel to remotely research participants from all around the world? This is a great way to see how different languages, countries, cultures and backgrounds interact with your website.

9. Use heatmaps for first impressions

Chalkmark’s heatmap feature is an excellent way to get first impressions on your designs. You can see where your users clicked so you can get insights into what’s working (or not working) with your designs. It’s also fast, so it’s easy to iterate.

10. Run an empathy card sort

Empathy tests are a great way to find out whether your website, app or design is creating the right feelings with your users. Set up a closed card sort with a list of the words which could represent your design, then set up categories based on relevance. Show people your design and then ask them to sort the words into the categories which best match the experience.

11. Use Treejack to test your mobile IA

The number of people using smartphones to browse websites continues to grow, making the UX of mobile websites key. Use Treejack to test the mobile IA of your website so you can work out if people are getting stuck.

12. Find out how people get home

Use first-click testing to find out if a text link or an icon is the best choice for navigating back to the homepage of your website. A quick test in Chalkmark will improve your website and save you design work down the line!

13. Run multivariate testing

Ever heard of multivariate testing? It’s not too complicated. Basically, you just compare more than two versions of your studies to understand which version performs better with your audience. You can run this type of testing with Chalkmark and Treejack to determine the right design to iterate on.

14. Run a pizza card sort

Yep, you heard us. Running a card sort asking people which toppings are good for pizza and which ones aren’t is a great way to introduce people to the benefits of the card sorting method. Plus, it’s always fun to show off the results on a Friday afternoon in the office.

15. Use Treejack to improve your SEO

Search engine optimization (SEO) is an important part of any modern website, with an SEO-tuned website much more likely to show up in search results. There are many factors that go into SEO, but one of the most important is a website’s navigation. Use Treejack to improve how people navigate through your website and you’ll likely see your search engine ranking improve.

16. Use Reframer as a field assistant

Login to your Optimal Workshop account on your laptop and get out into the field with Reframer! When you’re out conducting usability tests or user interviews with people away from your office, having Reframer makes it much easier to collect all of the necessary data. Once you’re back, use Reframer’s analysis features to make sense of your findings.

17. Test your paper prototypes

How are you supposed to test your paper prototypes when your users are spread all around the world? Well, you can simply take a photo of your prototype and use Chalkmark to remote test it with your users. Easy.

Wrap up

So that’s our list of 17 creative ways to use our tools. Have you got any of your own? If you do, don’t hesitate to click the little Intercom chat bubble in the corner of your screen and let us know! We always love to hear from you.

If you haven’t yet had the chance to play around with our 5 tools, you can try them for free - forever - by signing up here (no credit card required). Don’t just take our word for it, either. Check out these case studies from Xero and Intercom to learn about how 2 organizations managed to significantly improve different areas of their businesses.

User interviews are a great research method you can use to gain qualitative data about your users, and understand what they think and feel. But they can be quite time consuming, which can sometimes put people off doing them altogether.They can be a bit of a logistical nightmare to organize. You need to recruit participants, nail down a time and place, bring your gear, and come up with a Plan B if people don’t show up. All of this can take up a fair bit of back and forthing between your research team and other people, and it’s a real headache when you have a deadline to work to.So, how can you reap the great rewards and insights that user interviews provide, while spending less time planning and organizing them? Here are 15 tips and tools to help get you started.

Preparation

1) Come up with a checklist

Checklists can be lifesavers, especially when your brain is running 100 miles an hour and you’re wondering if you’ve forgotten to even introduce yourself to your participant.Whether you’re doing your research remotely or in person, it always helps to have a list of all the tasks you need to do so you can check them off one by one.A great checklist should include:

• the items you need to bring to your sessions (notebooks, laptop, pens, water, and do NOT forget your laptop charger!)
• any links you need to send to your interviewee if speaking to them remotely (Google Hangouts, webex etc.)
• a reminder to get consent to record your interview session
• a reminder to hit the record button

Scripts are also useful for cutting down time. Instead of “umm-ing” and “ahh-ing” your way through your interview, you can have a general idea of what you’ll talk about. Scripts will likely change between each project, but having a loose template that you can chop and change pretty easily will help you save time in the future.Some basic things you’ll want to include in your script:

• an introduction of yourself, and some ice-breaker questions to build a rapport with your participant
• your research goals and objectives — what/who you’re doing this research for and why
• how your research will be used
• the questions you’re going to ask
• tying up loose ends — answering questions from your participant and thanking them very much for their time.

2) Build up a network of participants to choose from

This is another tip that requires a bit of legwork at the start, but saves lots of hassle later on. If you build up a great network of people willing to take part in your research, recruiting can become much easier.Perhaps you can set up a research panel that people can opt into through your website (something we’ve done here at Optimal Workshop that has been a huge help). If you’re working internally and need to interview users at your own company, you can do a similar thing. Reach out to managers or team leaders to get employees on board, get creative with incentives, reward people with thanks or cakes in public — there are loads of ideas.

3) Do your interviews remotely

Remote user research is great. It allows you to talk to all types of people anywhere in the world, without having to spend time and money for travel to get to them.There are many different tools you can use to conduct your user interview remotely.Some easy to use and free ones are Google Hangouts and Skype. As a bonus, it’s likely your participants will already have one of these installed, saving them time and hassle — just don’t forget to record your session.Here are a couple of recording tools you can use:

• QuickTime
• iShowU HD
• Pamela for Skype

4) Rehearse, rehearse, rehearse

Make sure you’re not wasting any precious research time and rehearse your interview with a colleague or friend. This will help you figure out anything you’ve missed, or what could potentially go wrong that could cause you time delays and headaches on the day.

• Do your questions make sense, and are they the right kinds of questions?
• Test your responses — are you making sure you stay neutral so you don’t lead your participants along?
• Does your script flow naturally? Or does it sound too scripty?
• Are there any areas that technology could become a hindrance, and how can you make sure you avoid this?

5) Use scheduling tools to book sessions for you

Setting up meetings with colleagues can be difficult, but when you’re reaching out to participants who are volunteering their precious time it can be a nightmare.Make it easier for all involved and use an easy scheduling tool to get rid of most of the hard work.Simply enter in a few times that you’re free to host sessions, and your participants can select which ones work for them.Here are a couple of tools to get you started:

• Calendly
• NeedtoMeet
• Boomerang Calendar
• ScheduleOnce

Don’t forget to automate the reminder emails to save yourself some time. Some of the above tools can sort that out for you!

In-session

6) Avoid talking about yourself — stick to your script!

When you’re trying to build a rapport with your participant, it’s easy to go overboard, get off track and waste precious research time. Avoid talking about yourself too much, and focus on asking about your participant, how they feel, and what they think. Make sure you keep your script handy so you know if you’re heading in the wrong direction.

7) Record interviews, transcribe later

In many user interview scenarios, you’ll have a notetaker to jot down key observations as your session goes on. But if you don’t have the luxury of a notetaker, you’ll likely be relying on yourself to take notes. This can be really distracting when you’re interviewing someone, and will also take up precious research time. Instead, record your interview and only note down timestamps when you come across a key observation.

8) Don’t interrupt

Ever had something to say and started to explain it to someone, only to get interrupted then lose your train of thought? This can happen to your participants if you’re not careful, which can mean delays with getting the information you need. Stay quiet, and give your participant a few seconds before asking what they’re thinking.

9) Don’t get interrupted

If you’re hosting your interview at your office, let your coworkers know so they don’t interrupt you. Hang a sign up on the door of your meeting room and make sure you close the door. If you’re going out of your office, pick a location that’s quiet and secluded like a meeting room at a library, or a quiet corner in a cafe.

10) Take photos of the environment

If you’re interviewing users in their own environment, there are many little details that can help you with your research. But you could spend ages taking note of all these details in your session. You can get a good idea of what your participant’s day is like by snapping some images of their workstations, tech they use, and the office as a whole. Use your phone and pop these into Evernote or Dropbox to analyze later.

Analysis

11) Use Reframer to analyze your data

Qualitative research produces very powerful data, but it also produces a lot of it. It can take you and your team hours, even days, to go through it all.Use a qualitative research tool such as Reframer to tag your observations so you can easily build themes and find patterns in your data while saving hours of analysis. Tags might be related to a particular subject you’re discussing with a participant, a really valuable quote, or even certain problems your participants have encountered — it all depends on your project.

12) Make collaboration simple

Instead of spending hours writing up some of your findings on Post-it notes and sticking them up on a wall to discuss with your teammates, you can quickly and easily do this online with Trello or MURAL. This is definitely a big timesaver if you’ve got some team members who work remotely.

13) Make your findings easy to read

Presenting your findings to stakeholders can be difficult, and extremely time consuming if you need to explain it all in easy-to-understand terms. Save time and make it easier for your stakeholders by compiling your findings into an infographic, engaging data visualization, or slideshow presentation. Just make sure you bring all the stats you need to answer any questions from stakeholders.For more actionable tips and tricks from UX professionals all over the world, check out our latest ebook. Download and print out templates and checklists, and become a pro for your next user interview.Get our new ebook

Related reading

• "Individual interviews" - An article from Usability.gov explaining how, when, and why you should conduct user interviews with individuals.
• "Interviewing users" - A guide from Nielsen Norman Group showing us the situations in which user interviews are best suited, and the kind of information they can provide us.
• "Open-ended versus close-ended questions in user research" - Another article from Nielsen Norman Group explaining the differences in question types.