November 19, 2024
4 min

UX research methods for each product phase

What is UX research? 🤔

User experience (UX) research, or user research as it’s commonly referred to, is an important part of the product design process. Primarily, UX research involves using different research methods to gather information about how your users interact with your product. It is an essential part of developing, building and launching a product that truly meets the requirements of your users. 

UX research is essential at all stages of a products' life cycle:

  1. Planning
  2. Building
  3. Introduction
  4. Growth & Maturity

While there is no one single time to conduct UX research it is best-practice to continuously gather information throughout the lifetime of your product. The good news is many of the UX research methods do not fit just one phase either, and can (and should) be used repeatedly. After all, there are always new pieces of functionality to test and new insights to discover. We introduce you to best-practice UX research methods for each lifecycle phase of your product.

1. Product planning phase 🗓️

While the planning phase it is about creating a product that fits your organization, your organization’s needs and meeting a gap in the market it’s also about meeting the needs, desires and requirements of your users. Through UX research you’ll learn which features are necessary to be aligned with your users. And of course, user research lets you test your UX design before you build, saving you time and money.

Qualitative Research Methods

Usability Testing - Observational

One of the best ways to learn about your users and how they interact with your product is to observe them in their own environment. Watch how they accomplish tasks, the order they do things, what frustrates them, and what makes the task easier and/or more enjoyable for your subject. The data can be collated to inform the usability of your product, improving intuitive design, and what resonates with users.

Competitive Analysis

Reviewing products already in the market can be a great start to the planning process. Why are your competitors’ products successful and how well do they behave for users. Learn from their successes, and even better build on where they may not be performing the best and find your niche in the market.

Quantitative Research Methods

Surveys and Questionnaires

Surveys are useful for collecting feedback or understanding attitudes. You can use the learnings from your survey of a subset of users to draw conclusions about a larger population of users.

There are two types of survey questions:

Closed questions are designed to capture quantitative information. Instead of asking users to write out answers, these questions often use multi-choice answers.

Open questions are designed to capture qualitative information such as motivations and context.  Typically, these questions require users to write out an answer in a text field.

2. Product building phase 🧱

Once you've completed your product planning research, you’re ready to begin the build phase for your product. User research studies undertaken during the build phase enable you to validate the UX team’s deliverables before investing in the technical development.

Qualitative Research Methods

Focus groups

Generally involve 5-10 participants and include demographically similar individuals. The study is set up so that members of the group can interact with one another and can be carried out in person or remotely.


Besides learning about the participants’ impressions and perceptions of your product, focus group findings also include what users believe to be a product’s most important features, problems they might encounter while using the product, as well as their experiences with other products, both good and bad.

Quantitative Research Methods

Card sorting gives insight into how users think. Tools like card sorting reveal where your users expect to find certain information or complete specific tasks. This is especially useful for products with complex or multiple navigations and contributes to the creation of an intuitive information architecture and user experience.

Tree testing gives insight into where users expect to find things and where they’re getting lost within your product. Tools like tree testing help you test your information architecture.
Card sorting and tree testing are often used together. Depending on the purpose of your research and where you are at with your product, they can provide a fully rounded view of your information architecture.

3. Product introduction phase 📦

You’ve launched your product, wahoo! And you’re ready for your first real life, real time users. Now it’s time to optimize your product experience. To do this, you’ll need to understand how your new users actually use your product.

Qualitative Research Methods

Usability testing involves testing a product with users. Typically it involves observing users as they try to follow and complete a series of tasks. As a result you can evaluate if the design is intuitive and if there are any usability problems.

User Interviews - A user interview is designed to get a deeper understanding of a particular topic. Unlike a usability test, where you’re more likely to be focused on how people use your product, a user interview is a guided conversation aimed at better understanding your users. This means you’ll be capturing details like their background, pain points, goals and motivations.

Quantitative Research Methods

A/B Testing is a way to compare two versions of a design in order to work out which is more effective. It’s typically used to test two versions of the same webpage, for example, using a different headline, image or call to action to see which one converts more effectively. This method offers a way to validate smaller design choices where you might not have the data to make an informed decision, like the color of a button or the layout of a particular image.

Flick-click testing shows you where people click first when trying to complete a task on a website. In most cases, first-click testing is performed on a very simple wireframe of a website, but it can also be carried out on a live website using a tool like first-time clicking.

4. Growth and maturity phase 🪴

If you’ve reached the growth stage, fantastic news! You’ve built a great product that’s been embraced by your users. Next on your to-do list is growing your product by increasing your user base and then eventually reaching maturity and making a profit on your hard work.

Growing your product involves building new or advanced features to satisfy specific customer segments. As you plan and build these enhancements, go through the same research and testing process you used to create the first release. The same holds true for enhancements as well as a new product build — user research ensures you’re building the right thing in the best way for your customers.

Qualitative research methods

User interviews will focus on how your product is working or if it’s missing any features, enriching your knowledge about your product and users.

It allows you to test your current features, discover new possibilities for additional features and think about discarding  existing ones. If your customers aren’t using certain features, it might be time to stop supporting them to reduce costs and help you grow your profits during the maturity stage.

Quantitative research methods

Surveys and questionnaires can help gather information around which features will work best for your product, enhancing and improving the user experience. 

A/B testing during growth and maturity occurs within your sales and onboarding processes. Making sure you have a smooth onboarding process increases your conversion rate and reduces wasted spend — improving your bottom line.

Wrap up 🌮

UX research testing throughout the lifecycle of your product helps you continuously evolve and develop a product that responds to what really matters - your users.

Talking to, testing, and knowing your users will allow you to push your product in ways that make sense with the data to back up decisions. Go forth and create the product that meets your organizations needs by delivering the very best user experience for your users.

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Democratizing UX research: empowering cross-functional teams

In today's fast-paced product development landscape, the ability to quickly gather and act on user insights is more critical than ever. While dedicated UX researchers play a crucial role, there's a growing trend towards democratizing UX research – empowering team members across various functions to contribute to and benefit from user insights. Let's explore how this approach can transform your organization's approach to user-centered design.

Benefits of a democratized UXR approach 🙌

Democratizing UX research is a transformative approach that empowers organizations to unlock the full potential of user insights. By breaking down traditional barriers and involving a broader range of team members in the research process, companies can foster a culture of user-centricity, accelerate decision-making, and drive innovation. This inclusive strategy not only enhances the depth and breadth of user understanding but also aligns diverse perspectives to create more impactful, user-friendly products and services. Here are a few of the benefits of this movement:

Increased research velocity 🏎️

By enabling more team members to conduct basic research, organizations can gather insights more frequently and rapidly. This means that instead of waiting for dedicated UX researchers to be available, product managers, designers, or marketers can quickly run simple surveys or usability tests. For example, a product manager could use a user-friendly tool to get quick feedback on a new feature idea, allowing the team to iterate faster. This increased velocity helps organizations stay agile and responsive to user needs in a fast-paced market.

Broader perspective 👁️

Cross-functional participation brings diverse viewpoints to research, potentially uncovering insights that might be missed by specialized researchers alone. A developer might ask questions from a technical feasibility standpoint, while a marketer might focus on brand perception. This diversity in approach can lead to richer, more comprehensive insights. For instance, during a user interview, a sales team member might pick up on specific pain points related to competitor products that a UX researcher might not have thought to explore.

Enhanced user-centricity 🔥

When more team members engage directly with users, it fosters a culture of user-centricity across the organization. This direct exposure to user feedback and behaviors helps all team members develop empathy for the user. As a result, user needs and preferences become a central consideration in all decision-making processes, not just in UX design. For example, seeing users struggle with a feature firsthand might motivate a developer to champion user-friendly improvements in future sprints.

Improved research adoption 🚀

Team members who participate in research are more likely to understand and act on the insights generated. When people are involved in gathering data, they have a deeper understanding of the context and nuances of the findings. This personal investment leads to greater buy-in and increases the likelihood that research insights will be applied in practical ways. For instance, a product manager who conducts user interviews is more likely to prioritize features based on actual user needs rather than assumptions.

Resource optimization ⚙️

Democratization allows dedicated researchers to focus on more complex, high-value research initiatives. By offloading simpler research tasks to other team members, professional UX researchers can dedicate their expertise to more challenging projects, such as longitudinal studies, complex usability evaluations, or strategic research initiatives. This optimization ensures that specialized skills are applied where they can have the most significant impact.

Our survey revealed that organizations with a more democratized approach to UXR tend to have higher levels of research maturity and integration into product development processes. This correlation suggests that democratization not only increases the quantity of research conducted but also enhances its quality and impact. Organizations that empower cross-functional teams to participate in UXR often develop more sophisticated research practices over time.

For example, these organizations might:

  • Have better-defined research processes and guidelines
  • Integrate user insights more consistently into decision-making at all levels
  • Develop more advanced metrics for measuring the impact of UXR
  • Foster a culture where challenging assumptions with user data is the norm
  • Create more opportunities for collaboration between different departments around user insights

By democratizing UXR, organizations can create a virtuous cycle where increased participation leads to better research practices, which in turn drives more value from UXR activities. This approach helps to embed user-centricity deeply into the organizational culture, leading to better products and services that truly meet user needs.

Strategies for upskilling people who do research (PWDRs) 🎯

To successfully democratize UXR, it's crucial to provide proper training and support:

1. UXR basics workshops 🧰

Offer regular training sessions on fundamental research methods and best practices. These workshops should cover a range of topics, including:

  • Introduction to user research methodologies (e.g., interviews, surveys, usability testing)
  • Basics of research design and planning
  • Participant recruitment strategies
  • Data analysis techniques
  • Ethical considerations in user research

For example, a monthly "UXR 101" workshop could be organized, where different aspects of UX research are covered in depth. These sessions could be led by experienced researchers and include practical exercises to reinforce learning.

Check out our 101 Guides

2. Mentorship programs 🎓

Pair non-researchers with experienced UX researchers for guidance and support. This one-on-one relationship allows for personalized learning and hands-on guidance. 

Mentors can:

  • Provide feedback on research plans
  • Offer advice on challenging research scenarios
  • Share best practices and personal experiences
  • Help mentees navigate the complexities of user research in their specific organizational context

A formal mentorship program could be established with clear goals, regular check-ins, and a defined duration (e.g., 6 months), after which mentees could become mentors themselves, scaling the program.

3. Research playbooks 📖

Develop standardized templates and guidelines for common research activities. These playbooks serve as go-to resources for non-researchers, ensuring consistency and quality across studies. 

They might include:

  • Step-by-step guides for different research methods
  • Templates for research plans, screeners, and report structures
  • Best practices for participant interaction
  • Guidelines for data privacy and ethical considerations
  • Tips for presenting and socializing research findings

For instance, a "Usability Testing Playbook" could walk a product manager through the entire process of planning, conducting, and reporting on a usability test.

Check out Optimal Playbooks

4. Collaborative research 🧠

Involve non-researchers in studies led by experienced UX professionals to provide hands-on learning opportunities.

This approach allows non-researchers to:

  • Observe best practices in action
  • Contribute to real research projects
  • Understand the nuances and challenges of UX research
  • Build confidence in their research skills under expert guidance

For example, a designer could assist in a series of user interviews, gradually taking on more responsibility with each session under the researcher's supervision.

5. Continuous learning resources 📚

Provide access to online courses, webinars, and industry events to foster ongoing skill development. This could include:

  • Subscriptions to UX research platforms and tools
  • Access to online course libraries (e.g., Coursera, LinkedIn Learning)
  • Budget for attending UX conferences and workshops
  • Internal knowledge sharing sessions where team members present on recent learnings or projects

An internal UX research resource hub could be created, curating relevant articles, videos, and courses for easy access by team members.

As one UX leader in our study noted, "It's been exciting to see [UXR] evolve as a discipline and see where it is today, and to see the various backgrounds and research specialisms that [user] researchers have today is not something I'd have expected."

This quote highlights the dynamic nature of UX research and the diversity it now encompasses. The field has evolved to welcome practitioners from various backgrounds, each bringing unique perspectives and skills. This diversity enriches the discipline and makes it more adaptable to different organizational contexts.

For example:

  • A former teacher might excel at educational research for EdTech products
  • A psychologist could bring deep insights into user behavior and motivation
  • A data scientist might introduce advanced analytical techniques to UX research

By embracing this diversity and providing comprehensive support for skill development, organizations can create a rich ecosystem of UX research capabilities. This not only democratizes the practice but also elevates its overall quality and impact.

The key to successful democratization lies in balancing accessibility with rigor. While making UX research more widely practiced, it's crucial to maintain high standards and ethical practices. The strategies outlined above help achieve this balance by providing structure, guidance, and ongoing support to those new to UX research, while leveraging the expertise of experienced researchers to ensure quality and depth in the organization's overall research efforts.

Tools and platforms enabling broader participation 🛠️

The democratization of UXR has been greatly facilitated by comprehensive, user-friendly research platforms like Optimal Workshop. Our all-in-one solution offers a suite of tools designed to empower both seasoned researchers and non-researchers alike:

Surveys 📋

Our intuitive survey creation tool allows anyone in your organization to quickly design and distribute surveys. With customizable templates and an easy-to-use interface, gathering user feedback has never been simpler.

Tree Testing and Card Sorting ➤➤➤

These powerful tools simplify the process of conducting information architecture and card sorting studies. Non-researchers can easily set up and run tests to validate navigation structures and content organization.

Qualitative Insights 💥

Our powerful qualitative analysis tool enables team members across your organization to efficiently analyze and synthesize user interview data. With its user-friendly interface, our Qualitative Insights tool makes deriving meaningful insights from qualitative research accessible to researchers and non-researchers alike.

First-click Testing 👆🏻

This easy-to-use first-click testing tool empowers anyone in your team to quickly set up and run tests to evaluate the effectiveness of their designs. First-click Testing simplifies the process of gathering initial user impressions, allowing for rapid iteration and improvement of user interfaces.

These tools, integrated into a single, user-friendly platform, make it possible for non-researchers to conduct basic studies and contribute to the overall research effort without extensive training. The intuitive design of the Optimal Workshop UXR and insights platform ensures that team members across different functions can easily engage in user research activities, from planning and execution to analysis and sharing of insights.

By providing a comprehensive, accessible platform, Optimal Workshop plays a crucial role in democratizing UX research, enabling organizations to build a more user-centric culture and make data-driven decisions at all levels.

Balancing democratization with expertise ⚖️

While democratizing UXR offers numerous benefits, it's crucial to strike a balance with professional expertise. This balance involves establishing quality control measures, reserving complex research initiatives for trained professionals, maintaining strategic oversight by experienced researchers, providing clear guidelines on research ethics and data privacy, and leveraging dedicated researchers' expertise for insight synthesis. 

Our survey revealed that organizations successfully balancing democratization with expertise tend to see the highest impact from their UXR efforts. The goal of democratization is not to replace dedicated researchers but to expand the organization's capacity for generating user insights. By empowering cross-functional teams to participate in UXR, companies can foster a more user-centric culture, increase the velocity of insight generation, and ultimately create products that better meet user needs. 

As we look to the future, the trend towards democratization is likely to continue, and organizations that can effectively balance broad participation with professional expertise will be best positioned to thrive in an increasingly user-centric business landscape.

Ready to democratize your UX research? Optimal Workshop's platform empowers your entire team to contribute to user insights while maintaining professional quality. Our intuitive tools accelerate research velocity and foster a user-centric culture. 

Start your free trial today and transform your UXR practice. 

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Clara Kliman-Silver: AI & design: imagining the future of UX

In the last few years, the influence of AI has steadily been expanding into various aspects of design. In early 2023, that expansion exploded. AI tools and features are now everywhere, and there are two ways designers commonly react to it:

  • With enthusiasm for how they can use it to make their jobs easier
  • With skepticism over how reliable it is, or even fear that it could replace their jobs

Google UX researcher Clara Kliman-Silver is at the forefront of researching and understanding the potential impact of AI on design into the future. This is a hot topic that’s on the radar of many designers as they grapple with what the new normal is, and how it will change things in the coming years.

Clara’s background 

Clara Kliman-Silver spends her time studying design teams and systems, UX tools and designer-developer collaboration. She’s a specialist in participatory design and uses generative methods to investigate workflows, understand designer-developer experiences, and imagine ways to create UIs. In this work, Clara looks at how technology can be leveraged to help people make things, and do it more efficiently than they currently are.

In today’s context, that puts generative AI and machine learning right in her line of sight. The way this technology has boomed in recent times has many people scrambling to catch up - to identify the biggest opportunities and to understand the risks that come with it. Clara is a leader in assessing the implications of AI. She analyzes both the technology itself and the way people feel about it to forecast what it will mean into the future.

Contact Details:

You can find Clara in LinkedIn or on Twitter @cklimansilver

What role should artificial intelligence play in UX design process? 🤔

Clara’s expertise in understanding the role of AI in design comes from significant research and analysis of how the technology is being used currently and how industry experts feel about it. AI is everywhere in today’s world, from home devices to tech platforms and specific tools for various industries. In many cases, AI automation is used for productivity, where it can speed up processes with subtle, easy to use applications.

As mentioned above, the transformational capabilities of AI are met with equal parts of enthusiasm and skepticism. The way people use AI, and how they feel about it is important, because users need to be comfortable implementing the technology in order for it to make a difference. The question of what value AI brings to the design process is ongoing. On one hand, AI can help increase efficiency for systems and processes. On the other hand, it can exacerbate problems if the user's intentions are misunderstood.

Access for all 🦾

There’s no doubt that AI tools enable novices to perform tasks that, in years gone by, required a high level of expertise. For example, film editing was previously a manual task, where people would literally cut rolls of film and splice them together on a reel. It was something only a trained editor could do. Now, anyone with a smartphone has access to iMovie or a similar app, and they can edit film in seconds.

For film experts, digital technology allows them to speed up tedious tasks and focus on more sophisticated aspects of their work. Clara hypothesizes that AI is particularly valuable when it automates mundane tasks. AI enables more individuals to leverage digital technologies without requiring specialist training. Thus, AI has shifted the landscape of what it means to be an “expert” in a field. Expertise is about more than being able to simply do something - it includes having the knowledge and experience to do it for an informed reason. 

Research and testing 🔬

Clara performs a lot of concept testing, which involves recognizing the perceived value of an approach or method. Concept testing helps in scenarios where a solution may not address a problem or where the real problem is difficult to identify. In a recent survey, Clara describes two predominant benefits designers experienced from AI:

  1. Efficiency. Not only does AI expedite the problem solving process, it can also help efficiently identify problems. 
  2. Innovation. Generative AI can innovate on its own, developing ideas that designers themselves may not have thought of.

The design partnership 🤝🏽

Overall, Clara says UX designers tend to see AI as a creative partner. However, most users don’t yet trust AI enough to give it complete agency over the work it’s used for. The level of trust designers have exists on a continuum, where it depends on the nature of the work and the context of what they’re aiming to accomplish. Other factors such as where the tech comes from, who curated it and who’s training the model also influences trust. For now, AI is largely seen as a valued tool, and there is cautious optimism and tentative acceptance for its application. 

Why it matters 💡

AI presents as potentially one of the biggest game-changers to how people work in our generation. Although AI has widespread applications across sectors and systems, there are still many questions about it. In the design world, systems like DALL-E allow people to create AI-generated imagery, and auto layout in various tools allows designers to iterate more quickly and efficiently.

Like many other industries, designers are wondering where AI might go in the future and what it might look like. The answer to these questions has very real implications for the future of design jobs and whether they will exist. In practice, Clara describes the current mood towards AI as existing on a continuum between adherence and innovation:

  • Adherence is about how AI helps designers follow best practice
  • Innovation is at the other end of the spectrum, and involves using AI to figure out what’s possible

The current environment is extremely subjective, and there’s no agreed best practice. This makes it difficult to recommend a certain approach to adopting AI and creating permanent systems around it. Both the technology and the sentiment around it will evolve through time, and it’s something designers, like all people, will need to maintain good awareness of.

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Bear Liu: How visual thinking can improve communications in design workplaces

When Bear Liu was teaching himself design, he struggled remembering concepts since English wasn’t his first language. To help, he started doodling. By drawing pictures that related to what he was learning, he found he could not only remember them better, he could understand and communicate more effectively too. Ever since, he’s used the power of drawings and pictures to relay information in ways people can use.

Bear gives examples of how visual communication can help design workplaces to relay information in a more memorable and usable way. It may only seem like a minor change, but the difference can be significant.

Bear’s background 🎤

Bear Liu is a Product Designer at Xero, an online accounting platform that’s used all over the world. He’s also a Design Mentor at Springboard and CareerFoundry, and an Apple Award-Winning podcast host at BearTalk.

His background is in science education. As a self-taught designer, Bear has helped a raft of large and small businesses with digital products over the last 16 years. His clients come from diverse backgrounds and industries across the globe. Bear's professional passions also carry over into his hobbies. Outside of work he enjoys reading, drawing, and producing videos & podcasts on tech and design.

Contact Details:

You can find Bear on LinkedIn, or listen to his podcast, BearTalk.

Unleash your visual superpower as a communication pro 🦸🏻

When it comes to addressing business challenges it is important to keep these three aspects in mind: 

  1. Understanding - break down complex problems and solutions so everyone can understand. 
  2. Memory - retaining information in your mind is difficult even with note taking.
  3. Communication- People relate to words differently, and the meaning of something can easily get lost in translation. This issue is more prevalent with remote work.

Bear Liu strongly believes that visual communication helps people understand, remember and communicate information more effectively. Why?

  • It helps to focus. Pictures remove distractions and draw attention to where it’s desired.
  • It’s a token. A picture is universal - a house or a smiley face means the same thing to people that speak different languages. 
  • Most people are visual thinkers. Studies have found humans are hard-wired to process visual information faster. We are better at storing information in images, rather than numbers and letters.

But what if I can’t draw? This is a common issue Bear finds when talking to people about this. It’s not about the quality of the drawing itself, it’s about what it means. By delivering a message through a picture, it becomes understandable. Many of Bear’s drawings only ever remain in draft form. Even simple doodles can have meanings that make concepts clear.

In his design work at Xero, Bear has used drawing and sketches to great effect in a range of instances:

  • The accessibility tree was a complex, abstract system, but by drawing it (on a literal tree), and adding a few notes alongside it, the terminology became much more understandable.
  • Sketching how customers work made it easier to describe how Xero could help them. It was much more memorable than writing it out in paragraphs.
  • Wrapping the year in product design. A written summary of a year’s work is long-winded. Instead, Bear drew a tree and pinned key words, quotes and achievements to communicate the highlights.
  • UX terminology explanations can be difficult for those outside the industry to comprehend. Bear challenged himself to share 1 minute videos that accompanied simple drawings to help colleagues understand them, and had rave reviews.
  • Sketching notes is a great alternative to writing notes at conferences or meetings. Presenters can draw to help audiences follow along, and people in the audience themselves can also sketch their own notes.

Why it matters  🔥

Bear has adapted visual thinking to his own product design process and has seen a noticeable improvement in communication as a result.

People are busy - their brains are packed with all sorts of information, and they’re easily distracted by other things they have on their minds. By delivering information in a way that helps them to focus on it, remember and understand it, designers can achieve their ultimate goals.

As Bear also notes, drawing is fun. It’s much more rewarding than using words, as well as much more effective.

Bear used the example of his talk at UX New Zealand 2023 as a great place to use a drawing. Rather than follow along with his message by scribbling notes the whole way through, those in the audience could capture the biggest lessons easily in one simple drawing.

  • First, Bear drew one stick figure to represent himself as a speaker. He drew three speech bubbles, where audience members could write the most notable points he said.
  • Then he drew another stick figure, which represented the audience member listening to him. They had three thought bubbles, which people could populate with their biggest takeaways from the speech.

That one simple drawing is a template that can be used in any speech or meeting to remember the key points.

Seeing is believing

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