10 UX Research Techniques and Their Significance

UX Research Techniques

Strengths

Weaknesses

1. Analytics

– Google Analytics is a quick way to extract meaningful performance metrics of your web interface.

– The automated statistics enable UX researchers to focus more on other design stages.

– The major drawback of analytical data is that it only answers “what is wrong” and does not tell “how to improve it”.

– The parameters underlying automated analytics are not industry appropriate. Thus, they fall short in improving the user experience.

2. UX Benchmarking

– Useful in providing in-depth data about the usability of the design.

– Enables businesses to identify ideal industry practices and set benchmarks accordingly.

– A time-consuming and expensive method, not suitable for short deadlines.

– Requires UX research professionals who are adept in setting the necessary systems and tasks to conduct the survey.

3. Contextual Research

– It studies user behavior in a contextual manner. Thus giving businesses narrow-focused results about user needs and preferences.

– It is cost and time intensive which is unsuitable for projects with low budgets and/or tight deadlines.

4. User Experience Mapping

– A quick and easy method to experience the navigation through a user’s perspective.

–  Definite and well-defined user personas or stories are prerequisites of this method. Hence, becomes lengthy and time-consuming.

5. Ideation Workshops

– Developing a shared project vision for UX.

– Stakeholders and UX designers can collectively provide their inputs and formulate design strategies.

– Conducting workshops requires a planned set of arrangements.

– Depends on the availability of clients. In most cases, stakeholders prefer a long-distance approach, thus leaving designers to brainstorm among themselves.

6. Guerrilla Usability Tests

– Involves real users who interact with the existing site.

– Provides instant feedback about the needs, challenges, and preferences of the users.

– Difficult to match the interests of stakeholders and users.

– Provides specific results and may miss out on broader issues.

7. Information Architecture

– Outlines the content, functionality, and page alignment of web interfaces.

– It is essential to have a holistic view of the entire project before entering into the design phase.

– Designers may face challenges in creating the Information Architecture for large business set-ups that involve hundreds of pages and relative data.

8. Requirement Planning Workshops

– The best way to understand highly complex projects, clients and teams.

– Resource requirements are heavy and may not be useful for small budget/ or tight deadline projects.

9. Stakeholder Interviews

– Good for developing a thorough understanding of the project with inputs from decision makers. 

– Time-consuming and may be inappropriate for tight deadlines.– Complex project requirements and misleading inputs confuse the designers and results in Bad UX practices.

10. Task Modeling

– Provides a high degree of confidence in the UX.

– Gives strong insights into the process at the user level.