UX Foundations: Research

with Amanda Stockwell

Usability Testing
Usability testing is one of the most often used approaches in UX research. It evaluates how
easy it is to use an interface or product. Usability tests can be done on any live site or piece of
software, including competitors’, or on a prototype of any fidelity. You may focus on a single
product or test multiple versions to help you choose between design alternatives. These tests
are particularly effective for discovering issues that impede the experience.

For more information on usability testing, check out the following LinkedIn Learning course:
UX Deep Dive: Usability Testing.

Interviewing
Interviewing is a widely used technique to gather qualitative information from participants. Just
as it sounds, you sit down with a participant and ask them open-ended questions about their
needs, goals, and motivations.

When possible, perform the interview in the user’s natural environment, which is called an
ethnographic interview. Being in their normal context usually makes users more comfortable,
and you can observe conditions that might impact their experience. That said, conducting
interviews remotely might allow you to reach a broader audience and can save money. Either
way, interviews are a powerful way to learn about your users and their beliefs.

Interviews are used to learn about different types of users and the ways they think and gauge
their outlook or impressions of specific items. They are especially helpful as an input to creating
personas. However, interviews should not be used to dig into behavior or evaluate products.

For more information, check out the following LinkedIn Learning courses: UX Research Methods:
Interviewing and Conducting Remote UX Research Interviews.

Card Sorting
Card sorts are used to help determine categorization and hierarchy when determining
information architecture. There are two categories of card sorts: open and closed.

In an open card sort, you ask participants to categorize elements that you need to organize into
whatever groupings they think make sense and then label them. In a closed card sort, you give
people an existing category and ask them to place elements within the buckets.

Once you have your navigation structure set, you can perform what’s called a tree test, where
you ask people to find elements using your navigational structure. All these methods help you
define and refine your organizational structure.

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For more information on card sorts, you can check out the following resources:

• UX Research Methods: Cart Sorting

• “Card Sorting: Designing Usable Categories”
• “Card Sorting: Uncover Users’ Mental Models for Better Information Architecture”

Eye Tracking
Eye tracking can help you learn about how people are first engaging, what draws their attention, and
how they process information on a page or screen. This method uses equipment that creates a
reflection in a participant’s eyes and estimates the position and movement of their eyes.

Eye tracking gives you a true understanding of what actions users are taking without having to rely
on their memory or ability to self-report. You’ll learn things like where users looked, how long they
were looking, and their gaze pattern. However, eye tracking can’t tell you why users are looking or
interacting the way they are.

For more information, you can check out the following resource: “Setup of an Eyetracking Study.”

Multivariate and A/B Testing

Multivariate testing is a method where you create several different versions of something and
compare which one does the best job at hitting your goal. Multivariate testing means you change
more than one variable. A/B testing just refers to when you are only changing one thing. These
tests are designed to help you examine the real-world performance of different options in a live
product, site, or service.

You can choose to examine anything concretely measurable, like the number of clicks, average
order size, number of sign-ups, etc. You just need to keep in mind that optimizing one single goal
may disrupt the overall experience goals, so choose what you measure carefully.

For more information on multivariate testing, check out the following resources:
“Multivariate Testing 101: A Scientific Method Of Optimizing Design” and “Multivariate
vs. A/B Testing: Incremental vs. Radical Changes.”

Desirability Studies
Desirability studies allow you to ensure that your visuals match your brand goals and evoke the
desired emotional response. There are several variations, but the most common is that you show
participants variations of visual designs and ask them to select which words best describe each.
The list of words you give them is based on the words that best describe your brand goals and
their opposites. You can then analyze which of the designs evokes the most positive associations.

For more information on desirability studies, check out the following resources: “Rapid
Desirability Testing: A Case Study,” “Using the Microsoft Desirability Toolkit to Test Visual
Appeal,” and “Desirability Studies: Measuring Aesthetic Response to Visual Designs.”

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Expert Reviews
Expert reviews are detailed assessments of an interface, service, or product conducted by someone
trained in current user experience best practices. They are a quick way to see how well an interface
might match user expectations. You might also hear the term heuristic evaluation, which is the
process of directly comparing a product to specific heuristics, or predefined guiding principles.
An expert review might include a heuristic evaluation but will also include assessments and
recommendations based on general best practices and industry knowledge.

A traditional heuristic review requires several UX professionals to perform reviews and compare
notes, though in practice there is usually only time for one person to perform such a detailed
assessment.

For more information on heuristic reviews, check out the following resources: “How to Conduct a
Heuristic Evaluation” and “How to Run an Heuristic Evaluation.”

Surveys
Surveys used in the UX research world are no different than other surveys; you craft a list of
questions designed to gather certain facts or opinions from a targeted list of people. Many user
experience professionals integrate various types of questions into surveys, such as text
questions about demographics or first-click or desirability tests. You can quickly get data that is
either quantitative or qualitative using surveys.

For more information on surveys, check out the following resources:

• “Better User Research Through Surveys”

• “Useful Survey Questions for User Feedback Surveys”
• “10 Tips for Better UX Surveys”

Diary Studies
Diary studies are a kind of longitudinal study, which means that you look at the same variable
over time. Diary studies involve asking participants to record their behaviors, activities, or
thoughts on a given topic over time. Examples include asking people to record the time when
they use a specific app or give feedback on their experience with a product each day.

You can conduct a structured diary study which is when you provide the same set of tasks or
questions at regular times. Or you can just give them guidelines about how often they should be
providing updates. Diary studies can be used for anything from understanding the context of how
something is being used in real life to watching to see how habitual behaviors change over time.

For more information on diary studies, check out the following resources: “Diary Studies:
Understanding Long-Term User Behavior and Experiences” and “Dear Diary: Using Diaries to
Study User Experience.”

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Participatory Design
Participatory design workshops are collaboration sessions between users, designers,
developers, and other business decision makers. You might use a variety of different specific
exercises, but the goal is to have users actively involved in brainstorming and providing
immediate feedback on various ideas.

Generally, each party participates in co-creating a variety of solutions for a predefined problem
and ongoing conversations about user needs and issues, business considerations, and technical
limitations. The group works together to both ideate and refine solutions throughout the session.
Participatory design sessions can also be done remotely, but it takes a bit more planning and you
need to carefully consider how to make it easiest for each person to participate.

For more information on participatory design, check out the following resources: “UX Research:
Co-design Methods” and “Participatory Design in Practice.”

Personas
Personas aren’t a research method, but they are a tool that many UX researchers utilize to help
them describe the different types of users that an organization serves. UX professionals will
perform a variety of research tactics to understand their key user bases and the main differences
between their behaviors, goals, and identifying usage.

To create the personas, you need to pull data from your various research sources into a unified
story about users’ skills, goals, environments, key behaviors, and the context of your product in
their life. You’ll then refer to the personas as you make design decisions. You’ll typically create a
document that summarizes the personas’ key attributes and differentiation points. The goal is to
help everyone understand the different user bases to help guide decisions throughout the design
and development process.

For more information, check out the following resources: UX Design: 3 Creating Personas and
“Personas Make Users Memorable for Product Team Members.”

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