Qualitative user research is about exploration. Exploration is about the journey, not only the destination (or outcome). Gaining information and insights about your users through interviews, usability testing, contextual, observations and diary entries. Using these qualitative research methods to not only answer your direct queries, but to uncover and unravel your users ‘why’.

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It can be important to use qualitative research to really dig deep, get to know your users and get inside their heads, and their reasons. Creating intuitive and engaging products that deliver the best user experience. 

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What is qualitative research? 🔎

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The term ‘qualitative’ refers to things that cannot be measured numerically and qualitative user research is no exception. Qualitative research is primarily an exploratory research method that is typically done early in the design process and is useful for uncovering insights into people’s thoughts, opinions, and motivations. It allows us to gain a deeper understanding of problems and provides answers to questions we didn’t know we needed to ask. 

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Qualitative research could be considered the ‘why’. Where quantitative user research uncovers the how or the what users want. Qualitative user research will uncover why they make decisions (and possibly much more).

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Priorities ⚡⚡⚡⚡

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When undertaking user research it is great to do a mix of quantitative and qualitative research. Which will round out the numbers with human driven insights.

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Quantitative user research methods, such as card sorting or tree testing, will answer the ‘what’ your users want, and provide data to support this. These insights are number driven and are based on testing direct interaction with your product. This is super valuable to report to stakeholders. Hard data is difficult to argue what changes need to be made to how your information architecture (IA) is ordered, sorted or designed. To find out more about the quantitative research options, take a read.

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Qualitative user research, on the other hand, may uncover a deeper understanding of ‘why’ your users want the IA ordered, sorted or designed a certain way.  The devil is in the detail afterall and great user insights are discoverable. 

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Priorities for your qualitative research needs to be less about the numbers, and more on discovering your users ‘why’. Observing, listening, questioning and looking at reasons for users decisions will provide valuable insights for product design and ultimately improve user experience.

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Usability Testing - this research method is used to evaluate how easy and intuitive a product is to use.  Observing, noting and watching the participant complete tasks without interference or questions can uncover a lot of insights that data alone can’t give. This method can be done in a couple of ways, moderated or unmoderated. While it can be quicker to do unmoderated and easier to arrange, the deep insights will come out of moderated testing. 

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Observational - with this qualitative research method your insights will be uncovered from observing and noting what the participant is doing, paying particular attention to their non-verbal communication. Where do they demonstrate frustration, or turn away from the task, or change their approach? Factual note taking, meaning there shouldn’t be any opinions attached to what is being observed, is important to keep the insights unbiased.

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Contextual - paying attention to the context in which the interview or testing is done is important. Is it hot, loud, cold or is the screen of their laptop covered in post-its that make it difficult to see? Or do they struggle with navigating using the laptop tracker? All of this noted, in a factual manner, without personal inferring or added opinion based observations can give a window into why the participant struggled or was frustrated at any point.

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These research methods can be done as purely observational research (you don’t interview or converse with your participant) and noting how they interact (more interested in the process than the outcome of their product interaction). Or, these qualitative research methods can be coupled with an

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Interview - a series of questions asked around a particular task or product. Careful note taking around what the participant says as well as noting any observations. This method should allow a conversation to flow. Whilst the interviewer should be prepared with a list of questions around their topic, remain flexible enough to dig deeper where there might be details or insights of interest. An interviewer that is comfortable in getting to know their participants unpicks reservations and allows a flow of conversation, and generates amazing insights.

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With an interview it can be of use to have a second person in the room to act as the note taker. This can free up the interviewer to engage with the participant and unpick the insights.

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Using a great note taking side kick, like our Reframer, can take the pain out of recording all these juicy and deep insights. Time-stamping, audio or video recordings and notes all stored in one place. Easily accessed by the team, reviewed, reports generated and stored for later.

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Let’s consider 🤔

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You’re creating a new app to support your gym and it’s website. You’re looking to generate personal training bookings, allow members to book classes or have updates and personalise communication for your members. But before investing in final development it needs to be tested. How do your users interact with it? Why would they want to? Does it behave in a way that improves the user experience? Or does it simply not deliver? But why?

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First off, using quantitative research like Chalkmark would show how the interface is working. Where are users clicking, where do they go after that. Is it simple to use? You now have direct data that supports your questions, or possibly suggests a change of design to support quicker task completion, or further engagement.

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While all of this is great data for the design, does it dig deep enough to really get an understanding of why your users are frustrated? Do they find what they need quickly? Or get completely lost? Finding out these insights and improving on them can make the most of your users’ experience.

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When quantitative research is coupled with robust qualitative research that prioritizes an in-depth understanding of what your users need, ultimately the app can make the most of your users’ experience.

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Using moderated usability testing for your gym app, observations can be made about how the participant interacts with the interface. Where do they struggle, get lost, or where do they complete a task quickly and simply. This type of research enhances the quantitative data and gives insight into where and why the app is or isn't performing.

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Then interviewing participants about why they make decisions on the app, how they use it and why they would use it. These focussed questions, with some free flow conversation will round out your research. Giving valuable insights that can be reviewed, analyzed and reported to the product team and key stakeholders. Focussing the outcome, and designing a product that delivers on not just what users need, but in-depth understand of why. 

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Wrap Up 🥙

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Quantitative and qualitative user research do work hand in hand, each offering a side to the same coin. Hard number driven data with quantitative user research will deliver the what needs to be addressed. With focussed quantitative research it is possible to really get a handle on why your users interact with your product in a certain way, and how. 

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The Optimal Workshop platform has all the tools, research methods and even the note taking tools you need to get started with your user research, now, not next week! See you soon.

We take a look at three qualitative research methods which can be started quickly with a bit of planning, and minimal participants while delivering great data insights.

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What is qualitative research? 🤔

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The term ‘qualitative’ refers to things that cannot be measured numerically and qualitative research is no exception. Qualitative research is primarily an exploratory research method that is typically done early in the design process. It's useful for uncovering insights into people’s thoughts, opinions, and motivations. It allows us to gain a deeper understanding of problems and provides answers to questions we didn’t know we needed to ask. 

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Qualitative research can be viewed as the 'why' versus quantitative user research which uncovers the 'how' or the 'what' users want. Qualitative user research helps us uncover why people make decisions (and potentially much more).

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Here's three qualitative research exercises you can start today:

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1. Usability testing 👨🏼💻

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Usability testing is a research method designed to evaluate how easy something is to use by testing it with representative users. In most cases, this ‘something’ is a prototype of a website or interface. Or it could just as easily be an existing website or product that requires more understanding of how it is currently used to identify faults or issues.

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These tests typically involve observing a participant as they work through a series of tasks involving the product being tested. It’s a good idea to bring a notetaker along, so you can focus on asking questions. After you’ve conducted several usability tests, you can analyze your observations to identify the most common issues.

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This can be a very practical start to the user research process. Observing, questioning and noting how a user interacts with your product in a very real environment can offer up some fantastic insights. 

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How many participants do I need to get started?

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Usability testing is done in a real world environment which means you need your participant to complete tasks on a laptop or mobile phone. Ideally this is in a controlled environment, an office or space that can be managed. Usability testing relies on the facilitator being present. So, to start you only need five participants which helps as it isn't too many people to find and set up.

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What to note: Usability testing is a great way to get an understanding of how exactly the participant interacts with the product. Note how they complete tasks, where their frustrations may be. Also look beyond what they are saying and observing what they are doing.  This is invaluable to get the full picture of how they feel and analyzing the user experience.

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2. Contextual inquiry 👀

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Contextual inquiry is the observation of behaviours and reactions when users undertake specific tasks. By observing and paying attention to unspoken communication, you can uncover insights into behaviour and even expectations.

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Giving the participant a set of tasks and observing how they complete these can be quite enlightening. Often what we do can be quite different to what we say we are doing. 

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By noting all of this during the testing session, and keeping our notes factual, they can provide context for why the participant may have changed their decision in a task or even abandoned it entirely.  Ensuring that you don’t try and infer why they are feeling a certain way, and how that may influence their decisions is important to gaining insights.

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How many participants do I need to get started?

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Like usability testing this method only needs a minimal one-on-one environment to get started.  A facilitator sets the test and observes the participant interacting with the product. You can start with as few as five participants, which means getting started with qualitative testing can be very quick to implement.

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What to note: How they move or act while they complete tasks.   Do they cross their arms, scratch their head or  even sigh?  Little things like trouble using the keyboard, can be implicit in how well they interpret the website.

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3. User interviews 👩🏻💻📓✍🏻💡

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User interviews are one-on-one facilitated conversations that are used to gain in-depth understanding of behaviours, opinions, and attitudes towards a product.

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Building a relationship with the participant can be valuable, allowing the conversation to flow, and remove barriers. Interviews are an excellent opportunity to ask questions as well as dig deeper into the detail.   They allow for follow up if further clarification be needed. Interviews are usually semi-structured with a list of open questions that are flexible enough to allow the interviewer to cover the required topics but also go wherever the conversation leads. 

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Interviews are also quite flexible because they don’t necessarily have to be conducted face to face. If time and resources are tight, they work just as well over the phone or via skype. Sessions can be recorded through note taking audio or video recording.

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If you want to find out more about how to do a phone interview, have a read here. 

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There can be a flow over of observational insights. This can be as simple as noting throughout the session, how they react to certain set tasks. Are there moments that they are frustrated? Do they turn back and look for another way? Or do they seem irritated by the hardware, the laptop, mouse or even the reflection on the screen? All valuable (unspoken) information on how and why the participant makes decisions.

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How many participants do I need to get started?

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As with our three qualitative research methods you need a minimal number of participants to really get started with user interviews. They rely on a facilitator that does one-on-one interviews with a set of predetermined questions. You can start with as few as five participants, and depending on the research they can be from inside or outside your company. But they should be as relaxed, and natural as possible, to allow for real responses and observations.

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What to note: User interviews are far more conversational than the previous two methods. You should have a script to work from, which will intend to uncover why your participant will want to work with your product a certain way. However, the interview allows some flexibility, with the facilitator able to dig deeper if needed, or change tack. Note the flow of conversation, and the various responses, as well as observed behaviours in a factual way.

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Reviewing your research 🕵🏼

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After completing your session it is just as important to review it. Spend the time while it’s still fresh in your mind filling in any gaps in information by reviewing the audio and/or video. Great note taking is vital and using a digital note taking software (like our very own Reframer) can make the whole process much simpler and easier, to record, review, analyze and share your data.  If you want more tips on how to take great notes in qualitative user research have a look at this.

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Delivering your data 🎁

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So, you’ve gone ahead and researched your product and you’ve got some amazing insights and data. What now? You need to pull it all together in a cohesive manner that breaks down what you’ve discovered and what it means. If you use our digital note taking software, Reframer, this can be fairly straight forward and streamlined. Having all of your notes, audio and video recordings, timestamping and observations in one place will allow the data to be generated and reviewed (and shared) swiftly. Pull together a report that can be shared among key shareholders and product managers. Present it in a way that allows your insights to clearly show where changes are needed, or improvements to the user experience can be made. It’s hard to argue with well researched data!

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Wrap Up 🌯

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If you always thought that qualitative research was too hard, or took too long, think again. Take a look at the Optimal Workshop platform and we can help you through the whole process, taking the pain out, and putting the insights in. 

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Ready to get started finding out how your users really interact with your product? Get started now, and lots of our products mean you can start today!

Qualitative user research is just as important a part of rounding out your user research as quantitative. But unlike quantitative research, the data insights can only be as good as the note-taking. This can mean that the way you do your note-taking may have a huge impact on the insights that are taken from the data. We’ll take a look at what qualitative research is, the methods for recording notes in the session and some tips on making sure your notes are robust.

What is qualitative research

Quantitative research such as card sorting or tree testing looks at the 'what' and 'how' of users who want to use your product, qualitative research looks into the why.

Making the most of your users research means you shouldn't only look at what or how users want to experience your product but also why they made those decisions. This depth of knowledge and understanding can ultimately enrich the user experience (UX) and improve your product engagement.

The type of qualitative research that we’ll be talking about is primarily in-person interviews with participants. It includes behavioural observations while completing set tasks and responding to a set of questions relating to the product.

When interviewing participants it is important to have a script, and to stick to that script. This will help drive the interview and ensure you get to the bottom of ‘why’ users are making decisions. Your focus should be on your participant, noticing spoken responses as well as how they are behaving. To this end, it can be useful to have a second person present, whose sole role is note-taking. Video or audio recording a session can be a sure way to review your session in the future, ensuring you don’t miss anything.

Note-taking methods

Pen and paper

While digital tools dominate our usability testing methods, handwritten notes or post-its can still be useful to capture what is happening in a group. This method works the best one-on-one or for smaller groups with a limited amount of data. Trying to make notes with larger groups can quickly become unwieldy.

Benefits

• The information can be collected in the moment and at the time. 
• With the physical nature of writing with pen and paper you are more likely to take fuller notes as your brain is engaged with the process. 
• No keyboard noise. Not having the physical barrier of the laptop can also help to relax the interviewee.

Downsides

• The data can’t be quickly collated into a digital format. 
• A lot of work needs to happen after the session to enter the information into a digital format that can sort and store the information for future analysis, sharing and search.

Text editor or spreadsheet

Using a text editor like Word or Google doc can be a quicker way to add the information into a digital format (skipping the step between pen and paper to digital). 

Benefits 

• The information and data can be entered quickly and accurately.
• No need to enter the information into another format after the session.
• Data can be searched quickly.

Downsides 

• The sound of the keyboard could be distracting.
• Taking notes digitally can be less engaging for the note taker.

Qualitative research tool

Using a dedicated qualitative research tool can facilitate and accelerate the interpretation of your data. A dedicated qualitative research tool, like Reframer, combines the advantages of a digital tool with special features for data analysis.

Benefits

• Speeding up the analysis process.
• Removing the need to copy data into other formats. 
• Making analysis, search and storing of the data swift and accurate.
• Ability to add audio or video recordings directly into the data, keeping everything in one place.
• Sharing notes and data is easy and quick and can include stakeholders throughout the process.
• Consistency across note-taking, with a reliable and consistent format.

Downsides of using a research tool are:

• The sound of the keyboard can be distracting.

While there are benefits to all of three of these methods, note-taking in general can be quite off-putting when undertaking user research.

To help take the pain out of the process, and ease the collection of information, we’ve got 6 tips for making the most of Reframer. 

During the session it is vital to take quality notes, and the outcome of your data, and ultimately insights will rely on these. And there is an art to taking the right notes. These notes can be taken directly by you, the interviewer, or a dedicated note taker could be used. Using a qualitative research tool can ensure that the notes that are taken are consistent and easy to manage. Using a qualitative research tool, Reframer, doesn’t rely on the same person taking the notes each time, helping the data output be consistent. 

9 tips to help you take great notes

Whether you are taking notes, manually or digitally there are a few tricks to help you take better notes, resulting in better data, and ultimately better insights. It can be valuable to have one person facilitating the interview, and able to focus on the participant, while the other is the notetaker, leaving you both to focus on your role is for the session.

Here's nine tips to make sure that your note-taking is as good as it can be:

1. Record your sessions (audio or video): If you can, record the audio and/or video of your session. You’ll be able to listen or watch the session later and pick up on anything you may have missed. Loading into Reframer is quick and easy, and means that the notes and the audio/video are kept together, timestamped and shared easily.
2. Note down timestamps during the session: Make a note of the time whenever something interesting happens. This will help you to jump back into the recording later and listen or watch the part again. 
3. Capture your observations during the session: Capturing observations during the session will allow a fuller understanding of behavioural observations as well as spoken responses. Reframer can help make this simpler with tags that can be quickly added at the time to make note-taking simpler.
4. Make a note of everything – even if it doesn’t seem to matter: Sometimes even the smallest things can have a significant impact on how a participant performs in a usability test. Note down if they’re having trouble with the laptop or device, for example.
5. Stay true to the facts:  Make sure you take the position of an objective observer and don’t make assumptions about how the participant’s thinking or feeling. If you do want to add conclusions or possible explanations of behavior clearly indicate this.
6. Be consistent with your format: Be consistent about your note taking perspective (1st or 3rd person), the style (bullet points vs. floating text) and the format of the timestamps. Clearly differentiate quotes from observations. This becomes simpler with the use of Reframer, meaning you can focus on the session.
7. Carefully paraphrase: Making sure that your notes are clear, and capture what is said and happening in the session is important. It's just as important not to write it down word for word, or to infer what you believe is happening.
8. Highlight missed or incomplete parts: Using time-stamping can become very useful when it comes to noting where there may be missed or incomplete sections. This allows post analysis to quickly find where information is missing and check against audio or video files to fill in the blanks. 
9. Recap after your session: Take time as soon as possible to review the session, while it is still fresh in your mind. Make edits, add missed parts and details. Using a qualitative research tool can mean that you can quickly review the audio or video and add tags and detail to sections quickly and easily. This makes review time quicker and capturing detail easier.

Wrap up

You want to get started with your qualitative research but it all feels a little tricky. Through the Optimal Workshop platform and with our Reframer tool you can get started quickly, and we can help guide you through the process of getting your research underway.

Worried about finding participants? We have that sorted too. With 50+ million quality participants at your fingertips. 

User experience research is super important to developing a product that truly engages, compels and energises people. We all want a website that is easy to navigate, simple to follow and compels our users to finish their tasks. Or an app that supports and drives engagement.

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We’ve talked a lot about the various types of research tools that help improve these outcomes. 

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There is a rising research trend in 2021.

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Mixed method research - what is more compelling than these user research quantitative tools? Combining these with awesome qualitative research! Asking the same questions in various ways can provide deeper insights into how our users think and operate. Empowering you to develop products that truly talk to your users, answer their queries or even address their frustrations.

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Though it isn’t enough to simply ‘do research’, as with anything you need to approach it with strategy, focus and direction. This will funnel your time, money and energy into areas that will generate the best results.

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Mixed Method UX research is the research trend of 2021

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With the likes of Facebook, Amazon, Etsy, eBay, Ford and many more big organizations offering newly formed job openings for mixed methods researchers it becomes very obvious where the research trend is heading.

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It’s not only good to have, but now becoming imperative, to gather data, dive deeper and generate insights that provide more information on our users than ever before. And you don't need to be Facebook to reap the benefits. Mixed method research can be implemented across the board and can be as narrow as finding out how your homepage is performing through to analysing in depth the entirety of your product design.

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And with all of these massive organizations making the move to increase their data collection and research teams. Why wouldn’t you?

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The value in mixed method research is profound. Imagine understanding what, where, how and why your customers would want to use your service. And catering directly for them. The more we understand our customers, the deeper the relationship and the more likely we are to keep them engaged.

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Although of course by diving deep into the reasons our users like (or don’t like) how our products operate can drive your organization to target and operate better at a higher level. Gearing your energies to attracting and keeping the right type of customer, providing the right level of service and after care. Potentially reducing overheads, by not delivering to expected levels.

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What is mixed method research?

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Mixed methods research isn’t overly complicated, and doesn’t take years for you to master. It simply is a term used to refer to using a combination of quantitative and qualitative data. This may mean using a research tool such as card sorting alongside interviews with users. 

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Quantitative research is the tangible numbers and metrics that can be gathered through user research such as card sorting or tree testing.

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Qualitative research is research around users’ behaviour and experiences. This can be through usability tests, interviews or surveys.

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For instance you may be asking ‘how should I order the products on my site?’. With card sorting you can get the data insights that will inform how a user would like to see the products sorted. Coupled with interviews you will get the why.

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Understanding the thinking behind the order, and why one user likes to see gym shorts stored under shorts and another would like to see them under active wear. With a deeper understanding of how and why users decide how content should be sorted are made will create a highly intuitive website. 

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Another great reason for mixed method research would be to back up data insights for stakeholders. With a depth and breadth of qualitative and quantitative research informing decisions, it becomes clearer why changes may need to be made, or product designs need to be challenged.

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How to do mixed method research

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Take a look at our article for more examples of the uses of mixed method research. 

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Simply put mixed method research means coupling quantitative research, such as tree testing, card sorting or first click testing, with qualitative research such as surveys, interviews or diary entry.

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Say, for instance, the product manager has identified that there is an issue with keeping users engaged on the homepage of your website. We would start with asking where they get stuck, and when they are leaving.

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This can be done using a first-click tool, such as Chalkmark, which will map where users head when they land on your homepage and beyond. 

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This will give you the initial qualitative data. However, it may only give you some of the picture. Coupled with qualitative data, such as watching (and reporting on) body language. Or conducting interviews with users directly after their experience so we can understand why they found the process confusing or misleading.

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A fuller picture, means a better understanding.

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Key is to identify what your question is and honing in on this through both methods. Ultimately, we are answering your question from both sides of the coin.

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Upcoming research trends to watch

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Keeping an eye on the progression of the mixed method research trend, will mean keeping an eye on these:

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1. Integrated Surveys

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Rather than thinking of user surveys as being a one time, in person event, we’re seeing more and more often surveys being implemented through social media, on websites and through email. This means that data can be gathered frequently and across the board. This longitude data allows organizations to continuously analyse, interpret and improve products without really ever stopping. 

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Rather than relying on users' memories for events and experiences data can be gathered in the moment. At the time of purchase or interaction. Increasing the reliability and quality of the data collected. 

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2. Return to the social research

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Customer research is rooted in the focus group. The collection of participants in one space, that allows them to voice their opinions and reach insights collectively. This did used to be an overwhelming task with days or even weeks to analyse unstructured forums and group discussions.

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However, now with the advent of online research tools this can also be a way to round out mixed method research.

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3. Co-creation

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The ability to use your customers input to build better products. This has long been thought a way to increase innovative development. Until recently it too has been cumbersome and difficult to wrangle more than a few participants. But, there are a number of resources in development that will make co-creation the buzzword of the decade.

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4. Owned Panels & Community

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Beyond community engagement in the social sphere. There is a massive opportunity to utilise these engaged users in product development. Through a trusted forum, users are far more likely to actively and willingly participate in research. Providing insights into the community that will drive stronger product outcomes.

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What does this all mean for me

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So, there is a lot to keep in mind when conducting any effective user research. And there are a lot of very compelling reasons to do mixed method research and do it regularly. 

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To remain innovative, and ahead of the ball it remains very important to be engaged with your users and their needs. Using qualitative and qualitative research to inform product decisions means you can operate knowing a fuller picture.

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One of the biggest challenges with user research can be the coordination and participant recruitment. That’s where we come in.

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Taking the pain out of the process and streamlining your research. Take a look at our Qualitative Research option, Reframer. Giving you an insight into how we can help make your mixed method research easier and analyse your data efficiently and in a format that is easy to understand.

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User research doesn’t need to take weeks or months. With our participant recruitment we can provide reliable and quality participants across the board that will provide data you can rely on.

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Why not get in deeper with mixed method research today!

Getting stakeholders aligned and engaged with your research is rarely easy. In fact, it’s typically one of the hardest parts of being a user researcher.

I’ve seen it time and again: researchers pouring their hearts and souls into discovery and analysis projects, only to have leadership teams and different subject matter experts pay little or no attention to the outputs. There is one useful tool for stakeholder alignment, however, and when used correctly it can change how those aforementioned leadership teams and subject matter experts see your research.

Note-taking: A brief recap

The process of note-taking isn’t rocket science – and it’s exactly what it sounds like: Writing observations down during a user interview or other user test in order to identify any useful insights.

In more qualitative forms of research, the note-taking process is essential. It’s how you capture qualitative data. In a card sort, it’s more of an auxiliary exercise that can add another layer of insight.

The core skill with note-taking isn’t necessarily typing, it’s about the note-takers ability to transform observations that they’re making into readable and digestible text. Being a fast typer doesn’t always make for a good note-taker!

This is what makes note-taking an ideal tool for stakeholder engagement. It’s low effort and is an easy way to bring other people into the research process. This is time well spent, as the people who consume the outputs of your research should have an interest in the problems that you’re researching.

3 ways note-taking drives stakeholder engagement

Beyond being a tool to improve stakeholder engagement with your research, the added bonus of getting these people in the room with you as note-takers is that you’re free from the responsibility.

Whether it’s a card sort, user interview or usability test, you can focus on guiding your participants through the various tasks while your stakeholder jots down observations.

Here are 3 ways note-taking can help to drive stakeholder engagement in your research.

1. They get the chance to contribute to your research

Picture this. You’re at the end of your next research project, and you’re standing up at the front of a meeting room alongside a slide deck. It’s time to present your findings back to the original stakeholders of the project. Now consider how much more engaged they’ll be if they also had the opportunity to take part in the note-taking process.

Instead of simply reading your figures and findings, they’ll know exactly where they’ve come from and have a real connection to the data.

2. They can listen to real customers

It’s not often that stakeholders – typically those in leadership positions – get the chance to interact with customers. Usually, they hear about customer experiences second-hand from sales, marketing and customer service teams.

When you bring a stakeholder in as a note-taker, they’re able to hear from customers directly. Being in the room with customers as they try out new features or products is always interesting for those in the higher rungs of an organization.

3. You can generate insights together

Bringing stakeholders into your research sessions as note-takers means you can then collaborate with them to generate findings, thus helping you to reach a consensus quicker. Why does this work? Instead of simply taking a finalized set of findings to your stakeholders, they are with you in the room taking the notes and identifying insights together in the debrief session afterward.

The best tools for note-taking

Forget typing up notes in a document on a laptop – there are a significant number of qualitative note-taking tools available that make the process of note-taking and analysis much easier.

At Optimal Workshop, our tool for this job is Reframer, and it’s a powerful way to improve the qualitative note-taking process. With Reframer, you can log all your notes and observations in one place. After the research session is over, you can make sense of your findings quickly with easy-to-use analysis tools.

Wrap up

You don’t need to bring stakeholders in solely as note-takers. If they’d rather act as passive observers, there’s still immense value in having them in the room with you. Remember: It’s all about getting these people in sync with your research so that they’re better able to see the value of what you do, day to day!

Summary: A detailed UX research plan helps you keep your overarching research goals in mind as you work through the logistics of a research project.

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There’s nothing quite like the feeling of sitting down to interview one of your users, steering the conversation in interesting directions and taking note of valuable comments and insights. But, as every researcher knows, it’s also easy to get carried away. Sometimes, the very process of user research can be so engrossing that you forget the reason you’re there in the first place, or unexpected things that come up that can force you to change course or focus.

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This is where a UX research plan comes into play. Taking the time to set up a detailed overview of your high-level research goals, team, budget and timeframe will give your research the best chance of succeeding. It's also a good tool for fostering alignment - it can make sure everyone working on the project is clear on the objectives and timeframes. Over the course of your project, you can refer back to your plan – a single source of truth. After all, as Benjamin Franklin famously said: “By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail”.

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In this article, we’re going to take a look at the best way to put together a research plan.

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Your research recipe for success

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Any project needs a plan to be successful, and user research is no different. As we pointed out above, a solid plan will help to keep you focused and on track during your research – something that can understandably become quite tricky as you dive further down the research rabbit hole, pursuing interesting conversations during user interviews and running usability tests. Thought of another way, it’s really about accountability. Even if your initial goal is something quite broad like “find out what’s wrong with our website”, it’s important to have a plan that will help you to identify when you’ve actually discovered what’s wrong.

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So what does a UX research plan look like? It’s basically a document that outlines the where, why, who, how and what of your research project.

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It’s time to create your research plan! Here’s everything you need to consider when putting this plan together.

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Make a list of your stakeholders

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The first thing you need to do is work out who the stakeholders are on your project. These are the people who have a stake in your research and stand to benefit from the results. In those instances where you’ve been directed to carry out a piece of research you’ll likely know who these people are, but sometimes it can be a little tricky. Stakeholders could be C-level executives, your customer support team, sales people or product teams. If you’re working in an agency or you’re freelancing, these could be your clients.

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Make a list of everyone you think needs to be consulted and then start setting up catch-up sessions to get their input. Having a list of stakeholders also makes it easy to deliver insights back to these people at the end of your research project, as well as identify any possible avenues for further research. This also helps you identify who to involve in your research (not just report findings back to).

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Action: Make a list of all of your stakeholders.

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Write your research questions

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Before we get into timeframes and budgets you first need to determine your research questions, also known as your research objectives. These are the ‘why’ of your research. Why are you carrying out this research? What do you hope to achieve by doing all of this work? Your objectives should be informed by discussions with your stakeholders, as well as any other previous learnings you can uncover. Think of past customer support discussions and sales conversations with potential customers.

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Here are a few examples of basic research questions to get you thinking. These questions should be actionable and specific, like the examples we’ve listed here:

• “How do people currently use the wishlist feature on our website?”
• “How do our current customers go about tracking their orders?”
• “How do people make a decision on which power company to use?”
• “What actions do our customers take when they’re thinking about buying a new TV?”

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A good research question should be actionable in the sense that you can identify a clear way to attempt to answer it, and specific in that you’ll know when you’ve found the answer you’re looking for. It's also important to keep in mind that your research questions are not the questions you ask during your research sessions - they should be broad enough that they allow you to formulate a list of tasks or questions to help understand the problem space.

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Action: Create a list of possible research questions, then prioritize them after speaking with stakeholders.

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What is your budget?

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Your budget will play a role in how you conduct your research, and possibly the amount of data you're able to gather.

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Having a large budget will give you flexibility. You’ll be able to attract large numbers of participants, either by running paid recruitment campaigns on social media or using a dedicated participant recruitment service. A larger budget helps you target more people, but also target more specific people through dedicated participant services as well as recruitment agencies.

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Note that more money doesn't always equal better access to tools - e.g. if I work for a company that is super strict on security, I might not be able to use any tools at all. But it does make it easier to choose appropriate methods and that allow you to deliver quality insights. E.g. a big budget might allow you to travel, or do more in-person research which is otherwise quite expensive.

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With a small budget, you’ll have to think carefully about how you’ll reward participants, as well as the number of participants you can test. You may also find that your budget limits the tools you can use for your testing. That said, you shouldn’t let your budget dictate your research. You just have to get creative!

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Action: Work out what the budget is for your research project. It’s also good to map out several cheaper alternatives that you can pursue if required.

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How long will your project take?

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How long do you think your user research project will take? This is a necessary consideration, especially if you’ve got people who are expecting to see the results of your research. For example, your organization’s marketing team may be waiting for some of your exploratory research in order to build customer personas. Or, a product team may be waiting to see the results of your first-click test before developing a new signup page on your website.

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It’s true that qualitative research often doesn’t have a clear end in the way that quantitative research does, for example as you identify new things to test and research. In this case, you may want to break up your research into different sub-projects and attach deadlines to each of them.

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Action: Figure out how long your research project is likely to take. If you’re mixing qualitative and quantitative research, split your project timeframe into sub-projects to make assigning deadlines easier.

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Understanding participant recruitment

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Who you recruit for your research comes from your research questions. Who can best give you the answers you need? While you can often find participants by working with your customer support, sales and marketing teams, certain research questions may require you to look further afield.

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The methods you use to carry out your research will also have a part to play in your participants, specifically in terms of the numbers required. For qualitative research methods like interviews and usability tests, you may find you’re able to gather enough useful data after speaking with 5 people. For quantitative methods like card sorts and tree tests, it’s best to have at least 30 participants. You can read more about participant numbers in this Nielsen Norman article.

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At this stage of the research plan process, you’ll also want to write some screening questions. These are what you’ll use to identify potential participants by asking about their characteristics and experience.

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Action: Define the participants you’ll need to include in your research project, and where you plan to source them. This may require going outside of your existing user base.

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Which research methods will you use?

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The research methods you use should be informed by your research questions. Some questions are best answered by quantitative research methods like surveys or A/B tests, with others by qualitative methods like contextual inquiries, user interviews and usability tests. You’ll also find that some questions are best answered by multiple methods, in what’s known as mixed methods research.

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If you’re not sure which method to use, carefully consider your question. If we go back to one of our earlier research question examples: “How do our current customers go about tracking their orders?”, we’d want to test the navigation pathways.

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If you’re not sure which method to use, it helps to carefully consider your research question. Let’s use one of our earlier examples: “Is it easy for users to check their order history in our iPhone app?” as en example. In this case, because we want to see how users move through our app, we need a method that’s suited to testing navigation pathways – like tree testing.

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For the question: “What actions do our customers take when they’re thinking about buying a new TV?”, we’d want to take a different approach. Because this is more of an exploratory question, we’re probably best to carry out a round of user interviews and ask questions about their process for buying a TV.

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Action: Before diving in and setting up a card sort, consider which method is best suited to answer your research question.

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Develop your research protocol

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A protocol is essentially a script for your user research. For the most part, it’s a list of the tasks and questions you want to cover in your in-person sessions. But, it doesn’t apply to all research types. For example, for a tree test, you might write your tasks, but this isn't really a script or protocol.

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Writing your protocol should start with actually thinking about what these questions will be and getting feedback on them, as well as:

• The tasks you want your participants to do (usability testing)
• How much time you’ve set aside for the session
• A script or description that you can use for every session
• Your process for recording the interviews, including how you’ll look after participant data.

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Action: This is essentially a research plan within a research plan – it’s what you’d take to every session.

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Happy researching!

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Related UX plan reading

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• What is mixed methods research? – Learn how a mixture of qualitative and quantitative research methods can set your research project up for success.
• How to encourage people to participate in your study – Attracting participants to your study can be a tough undertaking. We’ve got a few different approaches to help.
• Which comes first: card sorting or tree testing? – Card sorting, tree testing, which one should you use first? And why does it matter?
• How to write great questions for your research – Learn how you can craft effective questions for your next research project.
• 5 ways to increase user research in your organization – One of the best ways to get other teams and stakeholders on board with your own research projects is by helping to spread awareness of the benefits of user research.
• How to lead a UX team – With user-centered design continuing to grow in organizations across the globe, we’re going to need skilled UX leaders.
• How to benchmark your information architecture – Before embarking on any major information architecture projects, learn how you can benchmark your existing one.