Inspired by insights from Optimal users, we’ve reimagined study creation to bring you a beautifully streamlined experience with the new Study Flow tab.

With the new Study Flow, you’ll: 

‍

⚡ Enjoy faster study set up: Messages & instructions and Questionnaire tabs are combined in a single tab - called Study Flow - for faster editing and settings customization.

‍

✨ See it all at a glance: Easily visualize and understand the participant experience—from the welcome message to the final thank-you screen—every step of the way. 

‍

🎯 Duplicate questions: Save time and quickly replicate questions for surveys, screening questions, and pre- and post-study questions. 

‍

⭐ Experience enhanced UI: Enjoy a modern, clean design with intuitive updates that minimize scrolling and reduce mental load.

‍

🗂️ Collapse and expand sections: Easily navigate studies by collapsing and expanding sections, making it easier to build out specific parts of your study.

‍

This Study Flow tab is available across all Optimal tools, except for Qualitative Insights. 

‍

What’s next?

‍

We’re not stopping there. We have some significant improvements on the horizon designed to give you even greater flexibility and control.

‍

Advanced logic: Enhanced logic capabilities is one of our most highly requested features, and we’re thrilled to introduce new capabilities to help you build your ideal study experience – available for surveys and other tools. We will first introduce “display logic”, allowing for: 

• If answer is X for Question Y, then hide/show Question Z.
• If answer is X for Question Y, then hide/show specific answer options.

‍

Customizable sections: Organize your questions into different sections to build a better study experience for your participants. For example, segment your questions into relevant groupings, such as demographics or product usage. With custom sections, you can add new sections, rename, reorder, duplicate, and move questions between different sections.* 

*Note: Questions cannot be moved to/from the screening questions section.

‍

These upcoming features will empower you to create dynamic, tailored study experiences for different audiences with ease for more valuable insights. 

‍

Start exploring the new Study Flow now.

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.

"Hi Optimal Work,I was wondering if there are some best practices you stick to when creating or sending out different UX research studies (i.e. Card sorts, Prototyye Test studies, etc)? Thank you! Mary"

‍

Indeed I do! Over the years I’ve learned a lot about creating remote research studies and engaging participants. That experience has taught me a lot about what works, what doesn’t and what leaves me refreshing my results screen eagerly anticipating participant responses and getting absolute zip. Here are my top tips for remote research study creation and launch success!

‍

‍

Creating remote research studies

‍

‍

Use screener questions and post-study questions wisely

‍

Screener questions are really useful for eliminating participants who may not fit the criteria you’re looking for but you can’t exactly stop them from being less than truthful in their responses. Now, I’m not saying all participants lie on the screener so they can get to the activity (and potentially claim an incentive) but I am saying it’s something you can’t control. To help manage this, I like to use the post-study questions to provide additional context and structure to the research.

‍

Depending on the study, I might ask questions to which the answers might confirm or exclude specific participants from a specific group. For example, if I’m doing research on people who live in a specific town or area, I’ll include a location based question after the study. Any participant who says they live somewhere else is getting excluded via that handy toggle option in the results section. Post-study questions are also great for capturing additional ideas and feedback after participants complete the activity as remote research limits your capacity to get those — you’re not there with them so you can’t just ask. Post-study questions can really help bridge this gap. Use no more than five post-study questions at a time and consider not making them compulsory.

‍

‍

Do a practice run

‍

No matter how careful I am, I always miss something! A typo, a card with a label in the wrong case, forgetting to update a new version of an information architecture after a change was made — stupid mistakes that we all make. By launching a practice version of your study and sharing it with your team or client, you can stop those errors dead in their tracks. It’s also a great way to get feedback from the team on your work before the real deal goes live. If you find an error, all you have to do is duplicate the study, fix the error and then launch. Just keep an eye on the naming conventions used for your studies to prevent the practice version and the final version from getting mixed up!

‍

Sending out remote research studies

‍

‍

Manage expectations about how long the study will be open for

‍

Something that has come back to bite me more than once is failing to clearly explain when the study will close. Understandably, participants can be left feeling pretty annoyed when they mentally commit to complete a study only to find it’s no longer available. There does come a point when you need to shut the study down to accurately report on quantitative data and you’re not going to be able to prevent every instance of this, but providing that information upfront will go a long way.

‍

‍

Provide contact details and be open to questions

‍

You may think you’re setting yourself up to be bombarded with emails, but I’ve found that isn’t necessarily the case. I’ve noticed I get around 1-3 participants contacting me per study. Sometimes they just want to tell me they completed it and potentially provide additional information and sometimes they have a question about the project itself. I’ve also found that sometimes they have something even more interesting to share such as the contact details of someone I may benefit from connecting with — or something else entirely! You never know what surprises they have up their sleeves and it’s important to be open to it. Providing an email address or social media contact details could open up a world of possibilities.

‍

‍

Don’t forget to include the link!

‍

It might seem really obvious, but I can’t tell you how many emails I received (and have been guilty of sending out) that are missing the damn link to the study. It happens! You’re so focused on getting that delivery right and it becomes really easy to miss that final yet crucial piece of information.

‍

To avoid this irritating mishap, I always complete a checklist before hitting send:

‍

• Have I checked my spelling and grammar?
• Have I replaced all the template placeholder content with the correct information?
• Have I mentioned when the study will close?
• Have I included contact details?
• Have I launched my study and received confirmation that it is live?
• Have I included the link to the study in my communications to participants?
• Does the link work? (yep, I’ve broken it before)

‍

‍

‍

General tips for both creating and sending out remote research studies

‍

‍

Know your audience

‍

First and foremost, before you create or disseminate a remote research study, you need to understand who it’s going to and how they best receive this type of content. Posting it out when none of your followers are in your user group may not be the best approach. Do a quick brainstorm about the best way to reach them. For example if your users are internal staff, there might be an internal communications channel such as an all-staff newsletter, intranet or social media site that you can share the link and approach content to.

‍

‍

Keep it brief

‍

And by that I’m talking about both the engagement mechanism and the study itself. I learned this one the hard way. Time is everything and no matter your intentions, no one wants to spend more time than they have to. Even more so in situations where you’re unable to provide incentives (yep, I’ve been there). As a rule, I always stick to no more than 10 questions in a remote research study and for card sorts, I’ll never include more than 60 cards. Anything more than that will see a spike in abandonment rates and of course only serve to annoy and frustrate your participants. You need to ensure that you’re balancing your need to gain insights with their time constraints.

‍

As for the accompanying approach content, short and snappy equals happy! In the case of an email, website, other social media post, newsletter, carrier pigeon etc, keep your approach spiel to no more than a paragraph. Use an audience appropriate tone and stick to the basics such as: a high level sentence on what you’re doing, roughly how long the study will take participants to complete, details of any incentives on offer and of course don’t forget to thank them.

‍

‍

Set clear instructions

‍

The default instructions in Optimal Workshop’s suite of tools are really well designed and I’ve learned to borrow from them for my approach content when sending the link out. There’s no need for wheel reinvention and it usually just needs a slight tweak to suit the specific study. This also helps provide participants with a consistent experience and minimizes confusion allowing them to focus on sharing those valuable insights!

‍

‍

Create a template

‍

When you’re on to something that works — turn it into a template! Every time I create a study or send one out, I save it for future use. It still needs minor tweaks each time, but I use them to iterate my template.What are your top tips for creating and sending out remote user research studies? Comment below!

User research and design can be tough in this fast-moving world. Sometimes we can get so wrapped up in what we’re doing, or what we think we’re supposed to be doing, that we don’t take the time to look for other options and other ways to use the tools we already know and love. I’ve compiled this list over last few days (my brain hurts) by talking to a few customers and a few people around the office. I’m sure it's far from comprehensive. I’ve focused on quick wins and unique examples. I’ll start off with some obvious ones, and we’ll get a little more abstract, or niche, as we go. I hope you get some ideas flying as you read through, enjoy!
‍

‍

#1 Benchmark your information architecture (IA)

‍

Without a baseline for your information architecture, you can’t easily tell if any changes you make have a positive effect. If you haven’t done so, benchmark your existing website on Tree testing now. Upload your site structure and get results the same day. Now you’ll have IA scores to beat each month. Easy.
‍

‍

#2 Find out precisely where people get lost

‍

Use Tree testing Pietree to find out exactly where people are getting lost in your website structure and where they go instead. You can also use First-click testing for this if you’re only interested in the first click, and let’s face it, that is where you’ll get the biggest bang for your buck.
‍

‍

#3 Start at the start

‍

If you’re just not sure where to begin then take a screenshot of your homepage, or any page that you think might have some issues and get going with First-click testing. Write up a string of things that people might want to do when they find themselves on this page and use these as your tasks. Surprise all your colleagues with a maddening heatmap showing where people actually clicked in response to your tasks. Now you’ll know have a better idea of which area of your site to focus a tree test or card sort on for your next step.

‍

‍

#4 A/B test your site structure

‍

Tree testing is great for testing more than one content structure. It’s easy to run two separate Tree testing studies — even more than two. It’ll help you decide which structure you and your team should run with, and it won’t take you long to set them up. Learn more.
‍

‍

#5 Make collaborative design decisions

‍

Use Optimal Sort to get your team involved and let their feedback feed your designs — logos, icons, banners, images, the list goes on. By creating a closed image sort with categories where your team can group designs based on their preferences, you can get some quick feedback to help you figure out where you should focus your efforts.
‍

‍

#6 Do your (market) research

‍

Card sorting is a great UX research technique, but it can also be a fun way to involve your users in some market research. Get a better sense of what your users and customers actually want to see on your website, by conducting an image sort of potential products. By providing categories like ‘I would buy this’, ‘I wouldn’t buy this’ to indicate their preferences for each item, you can figure out what types of products appeal to your customers.
‍

‍

#7 Customer satisfaction surveys with surveys

‍

The thoughts and feelings of your users are always important. A simple survey can help you take a deeper look at your checkout process, a recently launched product or service, or even on the packaging your product arrives in — your options are endless.

‍

#8 Crowdsource content ideas

‍

Whether you’re running a blog or a UX conference, Questions can help you generate content ideas and understand any knowledge gaps that might be out there. Figure out what your users and attendees like to read on your blog, or what they want to hear about at your event, and let this feed into what you offer.
‍

‍

#9 Do some sociological research

‍

Using card sorting for sociological research is a great way to deepen your understanding of how different groups may categorize information. Rather than focusing solely on how your users interact with your product or service, consider broadening your research horizons to understand your audience’s mental models. For example, by looking at how young people group popular social media platforms, you can understand the relationships between them, and identify where your product may fit in the mix.
‍

‍

#10 Create tests to fit in your onboarding process

‍

Onboarding new customers is crucial to keeping them engaged with your product, especially if it involves your users learning how to use it. You can set up a quick study to help your users stay on track with onboarding. For example, say your company provided online email marketing software. You can set up a First-click testing study using a photo of your app, with a task asking your participants where they’d click to see the open rates for a particular email that went out.

‍

#11 Quantify the return on investment of UX

‍

Some people, including UX Agony Aunt, define return on UX as time saved, money made, and people engaged. By attaching a value to the time spent completing tasks, or to successful completion of tasks, you can approximate an ROI or at least illustrate the difference between two options.

‍

#12 Collate all your user testing notes using qualitative Insights

‍

Making sense of your notes from qualitative research activities can be simultaneously exciting and overwhelming. It’s fun being out on the field and jotting down observations on a notepad, or sitting in on user interviews and documenting observations into a spreadsheet. You can now easily import all your user research and give it some traceability.

‍

#13 Establish which tags or filters people consider to be the most important

‍

Create a card sort with your search filters or tags as labels, and have participants rank them according to how important they consider them to be. Analytics can tell you half of the story (where people actually click), so the card sort can give another side: a better idea of what people actually think or want.

‍

‍

#14 Reduce content on landing pages to what people access regularly

‍

Before you run an open card sort to generate new category ideas, you can run a closed card sort to find out if you have any redundant content. Say you wanted to simplify the homepage of your intranet. You can ask participants to sort cards (containing homepage links) based on how often they use them. You could compare this card sort data with analytics from your intranet and see if people’s actual behavior and perception are well aligned.

‍

‍

#15 Crowd-source the values you want your team/brand/product to represent

‍

Card sorting is a well-established technique in the ‘company values’ realm, and there are some great resources online to help you and your team brainstorm the values you represent. These ‘in-person’ brainstorm sessions are great, and you can run a remote closed card sort to support your findings. And if you want feedback from more than a small group of people (if your company has, say, more than 15 staff) you can run a remote closed card sort on its own. Use Microsoft’s Reaction Card Method as card inspiration.

‍

‍

#16 Input your learnings and observations from a UX conference with qualitative insights

‍

If you're lucky enough to attend a UX conference, you can now share the experience with your colleagues. You can easily jot down ideas quotes and key takeaways in a Reframer project and keep your notes organized by using a new session for each presenter Bonus — if you’re part of a team, they can watch the live feed rolling into Reframer!

‍

#17 Find out what actions people take across time

‍

Use card sorting to understand when your participants are most likely to perform certain activities over the course of a day, week, or over the space of a year. Create categories that represent time, for example, ‘January to March’, ‘April to June’, ‘July to September’, and ‘October to December’, and ask your participants to sort activities according to the time they are most likely to do them (go on vacation, do their taxes, make big purchases, and so on). While there may be more arduous and more accurate methods for gathering this data, sometimes you need quick insights to help you make the right decisions.

‍

#18 Gather quantitative data on prioritizing project tasks or product features

‍

Closed card sorting can give you data that you might usually gather in team meetings or in Post-its on the wall, or that you might get through support channels. You can model your method on other prioritization techniques, including Eisenhower’s Decision Matrix, for example.

‍

‍

#19 Test your FAQs page with new users

‍

Your support and knowledge base within your website can be just as important as any other core action on your website. If your support site is lacking in navigation and UX, this will no doubt increase support tickets and resources. Make sure your online support section is up to scratch. Here’s an article on how to do it quickly.

‍

‍

#20 Figure out if your icons need labels

‍

Figure out if your icons are doing their job by testing whether your users are understanding them as intended. Uploading icons you currently use, or plan to use in your interface to First-click testing, and ask your users to identify their meaning by making use of post-task questions.

‍

‍

#21 Give your users some handy quick tools

‍

In some cases, users may use your website with very specific goals in mind. Giving your users access to quick toos as soon as they land on your website is a great way to ensure they are able to get what they need done easily. Look at your analytics for things people do often that take several clicks to find, and check whether they can find your ‘quick tool’ in a single click using First-click testing.

‍

‍

#22 Benchmark the IA of your competition

‍

We all have some sort of competitors, and researchers also need to pay attention to what they get up too. Make life easy in your reporting by benchmarking their IA and then reviewing it each quarter for the board and leaders to be wowed with. Also, not a perfect comparison, as users and separate sites have different flows, but compare your success scores with theirs. Makes your work feel like the Olympics with the healthy competition going on.

‍

‍

#23 Improve website conversions

‍

Make the marketing team’s day by doing a fast improvement on some core conversions on your website. Now, there are loads of ways to improve conversions for a check out cart or signup form, but using First-click testing to test out ideas before you start going live A/B test can take mere minutes and give your B version a confidence boost.

‍

‍

#24 Reduce the bounce rates of certain sections of your website

‍

People jumping off your website and not continuing their experience is something (depending on the landing page) everyone tries to improve. The metric ‘time on site’ and ‘average page views’ is a metric that shows the value your whole website has to offer. Again, there are many different ways to do this, but one big reason for people jumping off the website is not being able to find what they’re looking for. That’s where our IA toolkit comes in.

‍

‍

#25 Test your website’s IA in different countries

‍

No, you don’t have to spend thousands of dollars to go to all these countries to test, although that’d be pretty sweet. You can remotely research participants from all over the world, using our integrated recruitment panel. Start seeing how different cultures, languages, and countries interact with your website.

‍

‍

#26 Run an empathy test (card sort)

‍

Empathy – the ability to understand and share the experience of another person – is central to the design process. An empathy test is another great tool to use in the design phase because it enables you to find out if you are creating the right kind of feelings with your user. Take your design and show it to users. Provide them with a variety of words that could represent the design – for example “minimalistic”, “dynamic”, or “professional” – and ask them to pick out which the words which they think are best suited to their experience.

‍

‍

#27 Recall test with first-click testing

‍

This is a technique that is a great way to find out if you have the correct visual hierarchy on the page. For example, a client may come to you and say you need to make the logo bigger as they are worried people won’t spot the branding. A recall test will test if this is correct and check whether people are seeing the things you want them to see on the page. Show your design to a user for a small amount of time (five seconds, for example) and ask them to recall what they see, and the order in which they recall it.

‍

‍

#28 Take Qualitative Insights into the field

‍

Get out of the office or the lab and observe social behaviour in the field. Use Qualitative Insights to input your observations on your field research. Then head back to your office to start making sense of the data in the Theme Builder.

‍

‍

#29 Use heatmaps to get the first impressions of designs

‍

Heatmaps in our First-click testing tool are a great way of getting first impressions of any design. You can see where people clicked (correctly and incorrectly), giving you insights on what works and doesn’t work with your designs. Because it’s so fast to test, you can iterate until your designs start singing.

‍

‍

#30 Multivariate testing

‍

Multivariate testing is when more than two versions of your studies are compared and allows you to understand which version performs better with your audience. Use multivariate testing with Tree testing and First-click testing to find the right design on which to focus and iterate.

‍

‍

#31 Improve your search engine optimization (SEO) with tree testing

‍

Yes, a good IA improves your SEO. Search engines want to know how your users navigate throughout your site. Make sure people can easily find what they’re looking for, and you’ll start to see improvement in your search engine ranking.

‍

‍

#32 Test your mobile information architecture

‍

As more and more people are using their smartphones for apps and to browse sites, you need to ensure its design gives your users a great experience. Test the IA of your mobile site to ensure people aren’t getting lost in the mobile version of your site. If you haven’t got a mobile-friendly design yet, now’s the time to start designing it!

‍

‍

#33 Run an Easter egg hunt using the correct areas in first-click testing

‍

Liven up the workday by creating a fun Easter egg hunt in Chalkmark. Simply upload a photo (like those really hard “spot the X” photos), set the correct area of your target, then send out your study with participant identifiers enabled. You can also send these out as competitions and have closing rules based on time, number of participants, or both.
‍

‍

#34 Keystroke level modeling

‍

When interface efficiency is important you'll want to measure how much a new design can improve task times. You can actually estimate time saved (or lost) using some well-tested approaches that are based on average human performance for typical computer-based operations like clicking, pointing and typing. Read more about measuring task times without users.

‍

‍

#35 Feature prioritization — get some help for your roadmap

‍

Find out what people think are the most important next steps for your team. Set up a card sort and ask people to categorize items and rank them in descending order of importance or impact on their work. This can also help you gauge their thoughts on potential new features for your site, and for bonus points compare team responses with customer responses.

‍

‍

#36 Tame your blog

‍

Get the tags and categories in your blog under control to make life easier for your readers. Set up a card sort and use all your tags and categories as card labels. Either use your existing ones or test a fresh set of new tags and categories.

‍

‍

#37 Test your home button

‍

Would an icon or text link work better for navigating to your home page? Before you go ahead and make changes to your site, you can find out by setting up a first-click testing test.

‍

‍

#38 Validate the designs in your head

‍

As designers, you’ve probably got umpteen designs floating around in your head at any one time. But which of these are really worth pursuing? Figure this out by using The Optimal Workshop Suite to test out wireframes of new designs before putting any more work into them.

‍

‍

#39 ‘Buy now’ button shopping cart visibility

‍

If you’re running an e-commerce site, ease of use and a great user experience are crucial. To see if your shopping cart and checkout processes are as good as they can be, run a first-click test.

‍

‍

#40 IA periodic health checks

‍

Raise the visibility of good IA by running periodic IA health checks using Tree testing and reporting the results. Management loves metrics and catching any issues early is good too!

‍

‍

#41 Focus groups with qualitative insights

‍

Thinking of launching a new product, app or website, or seeking opinions on an existing one? Focus groups can provide you with a lot of candid information that may help get your project off the ground. They’re also dangerous because they’re susceptible to groupthink, design by committee, and tunnel vision. Use with caution, but if you do then use with Qualitative Insights! Compare notes and find patterns across sessions. Pay attention to emotional triggers.

‍

‍

#42 Gather opinions with surveys

‍

Whether you want the opinions of your users or from members of your team, you can set up a quick and simple survey using Surveys. It’s super useful for getting opinions on new ideas (consider it almost like a mini-focus group), or even for brainstorming with teammates.

‍

‍

#43 Design a style guide with card sorting

‍

Style guides (for design and content) can take a lot of time and effort to create, especially when you need to get the guide proofed by various people in your company. To speed this up, simply create a card sort to find out what your guide should consist of. Find out the specifics in this article.

‍

‍

#44 Improve your company's CRM system

‍

As your company grows, oftentimes your CRM can become riddled with outdated information and turn into a giant mess, especially if you deal with a lot of customers every day. To help clear this up, you can use card sorting and tree testing to solve navigational issues and get rid of redundant features. Learn more.

‍

‍

#45 Sort your life out

‍

Let your creativity run wild, and get your team or family involved in organizing or prioritizing the things that matter. And the possibilities really are endless. Organize a long list of DIY projects, or ask the broader team how the functional pods should be re-organized. It’s up to you. How can card sorting help you in your work and daily life?

‍

‍

#46 Create an online diary study

‍

Whether it’s a product, app or website, finding out the long-term behaviour and thoughts of your users is important. That’s where diary studies come in. For those new to this concept, diary studies are a longitudinal research method, aimed at collecting insights about a participant’s needs and behaviors. Participants note down activities as they’re using a particular product, app, or website. Add your participants into a qualitative study and allow them to create their diary study with ease.

‍

‍

#47 Source-specific data with an online survey

‍

Online survey tools can complement your existing research by sourcing specific information from your participants. For example, if you need to find out more about how your participants use social media, which sites they use, and on which devices, you can do it all through a simple survey questionnaire. Additionally, if you need to identify usage patterns, device preferences or get information on what other products/websites your users are aware of/are using, a questionnaire is the ticket.

‍

‍

#48 Guerrilla testing with First-click testing

‍

For really quick first-click testing, take First-click testing on a tablet, mobile device or laptop to a local coffee shop. Ask people standing in line if they’d like to take part in your super quick test in exchange for a cup of joe. Easy!

‍

‍

#50 Ask post-task questions for tree testing and first-click testing

‍

You can now set specific task-related questions for both Tree testing and First-click testing. This is a great way to dive deeper into the mushy minds of your participants. Check out how to use this new(ish) feature here!

‍

‍

#51 Start testing prototypes

‍

Paper prototypes are great, but what happens when your users are scattered around the globe, and you can’t invite them to an in-person test? By scanning (or taking a photo) of your paper prototypes, you can use Chalkmark to test them with your users quickly and easily. Read more about our approach here.

‍

‍

#52 Take better notes for sense making

‍

Qualitative research involves a lot of note-taking. So naturally, to be better at this method, improving how you take notes is important. Reframer is designed to make note-taking easy but it can still be an art. Learn more.

‍

‍

#53 Make sure you get the user's first-click right

‍

Like most things, read a little, and then it’s all about practice.We’ve found that people who get the first click correct are almost three times as likely to complete a task successfully. Get your first clicks right in Treejack and Chalkmark and you’ll start seeing your customers smile.

‍

‍
#54 Run a cat survey. Yep, cats!

‍

We’ve gained some insight into how people intuitively group cats, and so can you (unless you’re a dog person). Honestly, doing something silly can be a useful way to introduce your team to a new method on a Friday afternoon. Remember to distribute the results!

‍

#55 Destroy evil attractors in your tree

‍

Evil attractors are those labels in your IA that attract unjustified clicks across tasks. This usually means the chosen label is ambiguous, or possibly a catch-all phrase like ‘Resources’. Read how to quickly identify evil attractors in the Destinations table of tree test results and how to fix them.

‍

‍

#56 Affinity map using card sorts

‍

We all love our Post-its and sticking things on walls. But sometimes you need something quicker and accessible for people in remote areas. Try out using Card Sorts for a distributed approach to making sense of all the notes. Plus, you can easily import any qualitative insights when creating cards in card sort. Easy.

‍

‍

#57 Preference test with first-click testing

‍

Whether you’re coming up with a new logo design, headline, featured image, or anything, you can preference test it with First-click testing. Create an image that shows the two designs side by side and upload it to First-click testing. From there, you can ask people to click whichever one they prefer!

‍

‍

#58 Add moderated card sort results to your card sort

‍

An excellent way of gathering valuable qualitative insights alongside the results of your remote card sorts is to run a moderated version of the sorts with a smaller group of participants. When you can observe and interact with your participants as they complete the sort, you’ll be able to ask questions and learn more about their mental models and the reasons why they have categorized things in a particular way. Learn more.

‍

‍

#59 Test search box variations with first-click clicking

‍

Case study by Viget: “One of the most heavily used features of the website is its keyword search, so we wanted to make absolutely certain that our redesigned search box didn’t make search harder for users to find and use.”

‍

‍

#60 Run an image card sort to organize products into groups

‍

You can add images to each card that allows you understand how your participants may organize and label particular items. Very useful if you want to organize some retail products and want to find out how other people would organize them given a visual including shape, color, and other potential context.

‍

‍

#61 Test your customers' perceptions of different logo and brand image designs

‍

Understand how customers perceive your brand by creating a closed card sort. Come up with a list of categories, and ask participants to sort images such as logos, and branded images.

‍

‍

#62 Run an open image card sort to classify images into groups based on the emotions they elicit

‍

Are these pictures exhilarating, or terrifying? Are they humoros, or offensive? Relaxing, or boring? Productive, or frantic? Happy memories, or a deep sigh?

‍

‍

#63 Run an image card sort to organize your library

‍

Whether it’s a physical library of books, or a digital drive full of ebooks, you can run a card sort to help organize them in a way that makes sense. Will it be by genre, author name, color or topic? Send out the study to your coworkers to get their input! You can also do this at home for your own personal library, and you can include music/CDs/vinyl records and movies!

‍

‍

#64 HR exercises to determine the motivations of your team

‍

It’s simple to ask your team about their thoughts, feelings, and motivations with a Questions survey. You can choose to leave participant identifiers blank (so responses are anonymous), or you can ask for a name/email address. As a bonus, you can set up a calendar reminder to send out a new survey in the next quarter. Duplicate the survey and send it out again!

‍

‍

#65 Designing physical environments

‍

If your company has a physical environment in which your customers visit, you can research new structures using a mixture of tools in The Optimal Workshop Suite. This especially comes in handy if your customers require certain information within the physical environment in order to make decisions. For example, picture a retail store. Are all the signs clear and communicate the right information? Are people overwhelmed by the physical environment?

‍

‍

#66 Use tree testing to refine an interactive phone menu system

‍

Similar to how you’d design an IA, you can create a tree test to design an automated phone system. Whether you’re designing from the ground up, or improving your existing system, you will be able to find out if people are getting lost.

‍
‍

#67 Have your research team categorize and prioritize all these ideas

‍

Before you dig deeper into more of these ideas, ask the rest of the team to help you decide which one to focus on. Let’s not get in the way of your work. Start your quick wins and log into your account. Here’s a spreadsheet of this list to upload to card sort. Aaaaaaaaaaand that’s a wrap! *Takes out gym towel and wipes sweaty face.
*Got any more suggestions to add to this list? We’d love to hear them in our comments section — we might even add them into this list

At Optimal Workshop, we've always prided ourselves on being pioneers in the field of UX research tools. Since our inception, we've been the go-to platform for UX researchers and designers looking to conduct card sorting, tree testing, and other critical user research activities. Our tools have helped shape the digital experiences of some of the world's leading companies.

‍

The digital landscape is ever-changing, and with it, the needs of the professionals who create and optimize digital experiences. As we've grown and evolved alongside the industry, we've recognized the need to expand our reach and refine our value proposition to better serve not just UX researchers, but all professionals involved in delivering exceptional digital experiences.

‍

That's why we're excited to announce a significant brand refresh and value pivot for Optimal Workshop. This evolution isn't just about a new coat of paint – it's a fundamental shift in how we position ourselves and the value we provide to our users and the broader digital experience community.

‍

‍

Why fix it if it ain’t broke? 💔🔨

‍

‍

Expanding Our User Base

‍

While we've built a strong reputation among UX researchers, we've recognized that there's a broader audience of professionals who benefit from our tools and expertise. Product managers, marketers, customer experience specialists, and others involved in shaping digital experiences often lack access to professional-grade user research tools or the knowledge to effectively implement them.

‍

Our brand refresh aims to make Optimal Workshop more accessible and relevant to this wider circle of professionals, without losing the deep respect we've earned from UX experts.

‍

‍

Adapting to market changes

‍

The UX research landscape has evolved significantly since we first entered the market. With the proliferation of prototyping tools and the increasing speed of digital product development, there's been a shift away from extensive upfront research. However, we firmly believe that incorporating the voice of the customer throughout the development process is more critical than ever.

‍

Our pivot allows us to emphasize the importance of integrating user research and insights at various stages of the digital experience lifecycle, not just during initial design phases.

‍

‍

Leveraging our expertise

‍

As pioneers in the field, we have accumulated a wealth of knowledge about best practices in UX research and digital experience optimization. Our brand refresh positions us not just as a tool provider, but as a trusted partner and thought leader in the industry. We're doubling down on our commitment to sharing knowledge, standardizing best practices, and elevating the work of exceptional practitioners in the field.

‍

‍

Meeting evolving business needs through effective UX

‍

The UX industry is evolving rapidly, with increasing investment and a diverse range of roles getting involved. From junior designers leveraging AI to seasoned researchers with deep expertise, the landscape is rich with talent and tools. However, the true value lies in how effectively these resources translate into business outcomes.

‍

Optimal Workshop recognizes that exceptional digital experiences are no longer just nice-to-have – they're critical for engagement, conversion, and overall business success. Our tools bridge the gap between UX insights and tangible ROI by:

‍

• Democratizing research: Enabling teams across experience levels to gather valuable user data quickly and efficiently.
• Accelerating decision-making: Providing fast, actionable insights that reduce design iterations and time-to-market.
• Enhancing team effectiveness: Facilitating collaboration and knowledge sharing between junior and senior team members.
• Driving business value: Directly linking UX improvements to key performance indicators and bottom-line results.

‍

In a landscape where basic UX practices are becoming table stakes, Optimal Workshop empowers organizations to go beyond the basics. We help teams leverage the full spectrum of UX expertise – from AI-assisted analysis to seasoned human insight – to create digital experiences that truly set businesses apart and deliver measurable returns on UX investment.

‍

‍

What's changing at Optimal Workshop 🐛🦋

‍

1. Best-in-class research & insights platform

While our core tools remain a critical part of our offering, we're broadening our focus to position Optimal Workshop as a best-in-class research & insights platform for digital experience professionals. This means developing new tools, workflows, and integrations that cater to a wider range of use cases and user types.

‍

2. Accessibility without compromise

We're committed to making our professional-grade tools more accessible to a broader audience without sacrificing the depth and rigor that our expert users expect. This means developing new onboarding experiences, creating more intuitive interfaces, and providing educational resources to help users at all levels get the most out of our platform.

‍

3. Championing best practices

As part of our evolution, we're placing a greater emphasis on identifying, sharing, and standardizing best practices in digital experience research and optimization. Through case studies, partnerships with industry leaders, and our own thought leadership content, we aim to elevate the entire field of digital experience design.

‍

4. Fostering a community of excellence

We're doubling down on our commitment to building and nurturing a community of digital experience professionals. This includes expanding our educational offerings, hosting more events and webinars, and creating opportunities for our users to connect and learn from each other. 

‍

5. Emphasizing outcomes and ROI

We're aligning our messaging and product development with the real-world impact our users are seeking. That’s why the new names for our tools emphasize what each tool helps you achieve, rather than the technical methodology behind it. This outcome-focused approach helps users quickly identify which tool is right for their specific needs.

‍

‍

How our evolution benefits you 🚀

‍

For our long-time users, rest assured that the tools and features you know and love aren't going anywhere, but their names are changing to plain English terms to be more approachable for professionals who may not have a background in UX research. In fact, our UXR platform is only going to get better as we invest in improvements and new capabilities. You'll also benefit from an expanded community of practitioners and a wealth of new resources to help you continue to grow and excel in your field.

‍

For professionals who may be new to Optimal Workshop or to formalized user research in general, our refresh means it's easier than ever to get started with professional-grade tools and methodologies. We're here to support you at every step, from your first card sort to building a comprehensive, data-driven approach to optimizing digital experiences.

‍

‍

Join us in shaping tomorrow's digital experiences 🌟

‍

This brand refresh and value pivot mark an exciting new chapter for Optimal Workshop. We're committed to continuing our tradition of excellence while expanding our reach and impact in the world of digital experiences.

‍

As we move forward, we'll be rolling out new features, resources, and initiatives that align with our refreshed brand and value proposition. We're excited to partner with our users – both new and long-standing – to push the boundaries of what's possible in creating truly exceptional digital experiences.

‍

Thank you for being part of the Optimal Workshop community. Whether you're a UX research veteran or just starting your journey in optimizing digital experiences, we're here to support you with the best tools, knowledge, and community in the industry. Together, we can shape the future of digital experiences and make the online world more intuitive, efficient, and enjoyable for everyone.

‍

Onwards and upwards,

‍

Alex Burke, CEO Optimal Workshop

‍

At Optimal Workshop, we're dedicated to building the best user research platform to empower you with the tools to better understand your customers and create intuitive digital experiences. We're thrilled to announce some game-changing updates and new products that are on the horizon to help elevate the way you gather insights and keep customers at the heart of everything you do. 

‍

What’s new…

‍

Integration with Figma 🚀

‍

Last month, we joined forces with design powerhouse Figma to launch our integration. You can import images from Figma into Chalkmark (our click-testing tool) in just a few clicks, streamlining your workflows and getting insights to make decisions based on data not hunches and opinions.  

‍

What’s coming next…

‍

Session Replays 🧑‍💻

‍

With session replay you can focus on other tasks while Optimal Workshop automatically captures card sort sessions for you to watch in your own time.  Gain valuable insights into how participants engage and interpret a card sort without the hassle of running moderated sessions. The first iteration of session replays captures the study interactions, and will not include audio or face recording, but this is something we are exploring for future iterations. Session replays will be available in tree testing and click-testing later in 2024.  

‍

Reframer Transcripts 🔍

‍

Say goodbye to juggling note-taking and hello to more efficient ways of working with Transcripts! We're continuing to add more capability to Reframer, our qualitative research tool, to now include the importing of interview transcripts. Save time, reduce human errors and oversights by importing transcripts, tagging and analyzing observations all within Reframer. We’re committed to build on transcripts with video and audio transcription capability in the future,  we’ll keep you in the loop and when to expect those releases. 

‍

Prototype testing 🧪

‍

The team is fizzing to be working on a new Prototype testing product designed to expand your research methods and help test prototypes easily from the Optimal Workshop platform. Testing prototypes early and often is an important step in the design process, saving you time and money before you invest too heavily in the build. We are working with customers and on delivering the first iteration of this exciting new product. Stay tuned for Prototypes coming in the second quarter of 2024.   

‍

Workspaces 🎉

‍

Making Optimal Workshop easier for large organizations to manage teams and collaborate more effectively on projects is a big focus for 2024. Workspaces are the first step towards empowering organizations to better manage multiple teams with projects. Projects will allow greater flexibility on who can see what, encouraging working in the open and collaboration alongside the ability to make projects private. The privacy feature is available on Enterprise plans.

‍

Questions upgrade❓

‍

Our survey product Questions is in for a glow up in 2024 💅. The team are enjoying working with customers, collecting and reviewing feedback on how to improve Questions and will be sharing more on this in the coming months. 

‍

Help us build a better Optimal Workshop

We are looking for new customers to join our research panel to help influence product development. From time to time, you’ll be invited to join us for interviews or surveys, and you’ll be rewarded for your time with a thank-you gift.  If you’d like to join the team, email product@optimalworkshop.com