Recall: What is UX research and why is it important?
User research is a process used to understand the user's needs, behaviors, motivations, and experience through qualitative and quantitative methods to understand the user's problems. Until you know your user and their emotions, feelings, struggles, etc, you cannot deliver a great user experience.
Qualitative Data vs Quantitative Data
We are essentially collecting data and making meaning of the data during the research process, which takes two types of forms: qualitative and quantitative.
Here are some examples:
- Qualitative: During the user testing, we observed that some participants had to re-read the first paragraph on the landing page before they understood the message.
- Quantitative: The average time spent on the checkout page is 17.3 seconds.
Qualitative data
We can use qualitative research by collecting, analyzing, and interpreting non-numerical data, such as language. Qualitative data is used to understand how an individual subjectively perceives and gives meaning to their experiences.
Qualitative approach involves asking "how" and "why" to users through various methods that includes:
- Interviews: Meet with study participants one-on-one to discuss topics around a product.
- Ethnographic field studies: Test participants in their own natural context (an environment where they would most likely encounter the product), observe how users interact with a product, and ask related questions.
- Diary studies. Participants are given a mechanism to record and describe aspects of their lives that are relevant to a product. The diary can be physical or online. Typically, test participants document their activities over a prolonged period.
- Focus groups: Focus groups are groups of 3-10 participants that discuss a specific topic under a researcher who leads the session.
- Moderated usability testing: During usability testing, participants are given tasks to complete, and the moderator observes the participants’ progress to dig deeper into points of interest.