How to Conduct User Research for Better UI/UX Design

Quick Summary: Do you want to create UI/UX designs for your digital products? User research is a vital part of the UI/UX design process to put it into context. It helps you discover a whole lot of things, such as users' problems, your target audience, why they should use your products, and what problem your app will solve. With all these reasons, there are a lot more that you need to explore, and this article will help do it. We have suggested proven ways to conduct user research for better product design outcomes.

Are you designing for your digital products? Do you know who your users are, what they need, and how this design will solve their problems? If not, you are deliberately messing up with your UI/UX of the product. You must know that bad UX can destroy your app, particularly if it fails to solve users' problems or your users have a bad experience. That means you need to conduct incisive user research, know the market, understand needs, explore users, understand their problems, and create appealing UI/UX for your projects. Yes, a successful design is how intensely and effectively you have conducted user research.

User research is one of the tools for design agencies to deliver design projects that perfectly align with clients' businesses, get them more users by keeping them engaged, and help them solve their problems. As TheFinch Design conducts user research for every project we create, we thought to explain the project and method means how we conduct user research and develop designs that earn 100% client satisfaction.

In this article, we are doing to discuss how to conduct user research for better UI/UX design and also explore the basics, such as;

• What is user research?
• How does it work?
• And how to conduct the research

Let’s explore each process and implement them into your new project, and if you are looking to create a design for your business projects, you can understand how the research is conducted. This will help you hire better UI/UX designers and get better design outputs. So, here we go.

What is User Research?

User research is a process of gathering user data thoroughly through various methods. It holds great importance when it comes to UI/UX designing, helping designers understand the user's needs, preferences, and expectations and anticipate them. User research is mostly conducted before and after the development of the UI/UX design. User research before designing helps understand what users are expecting from your digital products.

According to Statista, users seek various experiences when they are on the web. For example, around 20% of users seek inspiration, while 19% want to feel good.

Knowing their requirements, designers can implement the research-based findings into their product design.

How Does User Research Work?

User research puts your project idea into the user’s context to get the best out of it. Its work is to get an idea of users’ needs and anticipate them during different stages of development. It relies on multiple methods during developmental stages. User research consists of user interviews, defining goals, surveys, and usability testing. It is proven to be one of the most effective strategies for the development of UI/UX design. Even though it is one of the most effective strategies, it is also very cheap to implement.

Effectiveness Of User Research In UI/UX Design

When it comes to positive effects on UI/UX design, nothing can match the effectiveness of user research. User research helps researchers get a clear knowledge of users' expectations and needs. Sometimes, it also assists users in finding out what they actually expect from design. When users certainly know their preferences, they give the opinions and answers that prove to be most beneficial for the researchers. But all this transpires when you conduct user research adequately.

How To Conduct User Research For Better UI/UX Design

User research takes place in fields where users live in their natural environment; this caters the deep information about user concerns. User research should always be planned and implemented correctly without leaving any aspects. Poorly planned user research costs are designed in the future when churn rates increase. It can include a variety of methods, such as user interviews, surveys, usability testing, and more.

User research is majorly divided into two types of data groups: one is qualitative, and the other is quantitative.

• Qualitative research focuses on subjective insights to understand users’ reasons, motivations, and behaviors.
• At the same time, quantitative research involves collecting data and analyzing it to find patterns and trends.

Below we have defined the adequate to conduct user research.

Define your research goals and objectives

Research objectives are questions that summarise the intent of the study or test. You can follow specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART) objectives. SMART objectives cancel out all the unnecessary data and resources and ease the overall research methodology.

Research methodology provides a framework and guides every step of the research process, such as data collection, argument building, and end product development. It also helps researchers identify the most appropriate design, testing techniques, and analysis methods. It is easier to use this method before the beginning of the project.

User Interviews

User interviews, also known as in-depth interviews, are qualitative research that provides detailed knowledge about users. It is a one-to-one 30 to 60-minute interview. It involves open-ended guided discussions to gather in-depth insights about users’ experiences, needs, motivation, and behavior.

It is researchers’ responsibility to drive users to actual problems. That’s why they should start with a wide context, making sure that the questions don’t start with projects. You should implement this method at the start and the end of your project. In the beginning, to get in-depth insights, and in the end, it acts as a litmus test of your project.

Focus groups

A focus group is a qualitative research method involving a small group of 6 to 10 participants sharing their opinions and feedback on the topic. Focus groups can be effective when you choose a point of discussion, prepare your questions and discussion prompts, and recruit and appoint the most qualified participants.

Focus groups help you know how users perceive your product, the most important features of your product according to users, and what problems they experience. This method can be used when you are still formulating the idea or service to explore user preferences. Some researchers also employ focus groups post-launch to gather feedback and identify potential improvements.

Conduct surveys

Surveys are primarily used for quantitative research to understand users and gather insights. It also helps in collecting qualitative data to analyze patterns and trends depending on the open-ended or closed-ended questions. Close-ended questions format focuses on ratings, rankings, or multiple choices, resulting in quantitative data.

Another way open-ended questions are free to answer, giving insights about participants’ opinions and experiences. They can be conducted at any stage of design development. The specific timing depends on the project and research goals. It should be easy to understand, must include both open-ended and closed-ended questions, and you should avoid guiding users to answers in surveys.

Carry out usability testing

Usability testing is a method of evaluating your product. In this method, you observe people as they interact with the design and complete tasks. The goal of this testing is to identify areas where users may encounter difficulty and improve the design.

The usability testing tasks should include a realistic scenario description and actionable verbs. You should do usability testing at the very beginning and regularly in the process, such as when you build a prototype prior to launch and at regular intervals after the launch.

Initiate A/B testing

In this testing method, we select two or more versions of our webpage, interface or feature of design to determine which performs better. In the next step choose two small-similar groups of qualified participants and run the test for a longer period to get accurate conclusions. Analyze metrics of conversions and choose the best version.

It can be implemented at all the stages of design and development of UI/UX- whenever you confirm a suspicion or settle a design debate. It is an iterative approach that benefits the designing stages and the end product.

Conclusion

User research methods imply differently for different project goals and objectives. Conducting user research holds great importance in the design as companies who implement user research are found to have great ROI and become a success in the long run. We can help you in conducting the best user research with our experts and guides. Our guides cover all the details about user research and can be customized according to your project needs. You can contact us and book a demo to have a glance at the details of our guides and experts.