71323, 1157 PM ‘The ultimate UX Research cheat sheet | by Moritz Bkner | UX Collective You have 1 free member-only story left this month. Sign up for Medium and get an extra one. + Member-only story The ultimate UX Research cheat sheet How to combine UX Research and Design Thinking in a useful way. a Moritz Bittner - Follow ar Published in UX Collective 6minread - Sep 26,2020 Listen") Share UD 4 SHEET ‘TL;DR: This article has the following purpose: © List the top UX Research methods * Show when to use them in the Design Thinking Circle * Describe each one briefly Link to additional information for each method htpssfuxdesig.cethe-ulimate-ux-esearch-cheat-sheet-b70862c0865a6 a671323, 1157 PM ‘The ultimate UX Research cheat sheet | by Moritz Bkner | UX Collective his cheat sheet is intended to provide inspiration and guidance as to when T what kind of research is appropriate. However, it is important to understand that it is not a rigid structure. Sometimes things can shift or make more sense at a different point in time. Not all methods are always possible right away but can demand technical support (e.g. tracking, AB testing). Also, this is not a list of things you MUST do, it is a toolbox from which you can pick the tools that are most relevant for you and the environment you are working in. The overview consists of 3 connected levels: * Research phases * Design Thinking phases + Appropriate research methods fo 1 huetrueer Phase 1 — Understand htpssfuxdesig.cethe-ulimate-ux-esearch-cheat-sheet-b70862c0865a6 ane71323, 1157 PM ‘The ultimate UX Research cheat sheet | by Moritz Bkner | UX Collective ? . UNDERSTAND EMPATHIZE DEFINE We begin our journey in doing everything to better understand our customers. We want to learn everything about their needs and pain points. EMPATHIZE Conduct research in order to gain an empathic understanding of what your users do, say, think, and feel ‘st step of the Design Thinking Process In the first step, “Empathize”, we, therefore, want to be able to better put ourselves in the users’ shoes, experience what they say, think, feel and hence understand their basic needs and desires. This also includes a better understanding of our company and its underlying business needs. The following research methods are suitable for this: Customer Service Feedback — Speak to your Customer Service, they have one of the closest relationships to your users and know a lot about them and their problems. Usability heuristics — Jakob Nielsen's 10 general principles for good interaction design. Always a good start for evaluating a product. Analytics & KPI Review — Quantitative tracking of user behaviour (e.g. Google Analytics) like click-flows, time spent on-site, where your users enters your system and where they leave. htpssfuxdesig.cethe-ulimate-ux-esearch-cheat-sheet-b70862c0865a6 ane11328, 1187 PM Tre utmate UX Research cheat shoot |by Morte Biter | UX Colectve Stakeholder Interviews — By talking to your stakeholders you can collect and understand business needs and constraints. User Interviews —Conversations with current or potential customers to better understand what people think about a certain topic. Surveys about topics of interest. Specific scientifically proven surveys foster specific topics. E.g. SUS validates the usability of a system, KANO evaluates what features are potentially most valuable for your customers. — Avery powerful tool to quickly collect quantitative and/or qualitative data Field study — Study your customers using your product in its natural environment of use, e.g. their living room, in class, on a hike etc. Diary Studies — Participants document their use of your system over a longer period of time in their natural environment. DEFINE Combine all your research and synthesise your users’ problems 2nd step of the Design Thinking Process Next, we want to define the uncovered problems as well as our users more precisely. When and where do problems occur inside of our product? Who exactly are our user and how do they use our product. Appropriate research methods for this are: Competitive Testing — You do not need to reinvent the wheel. Get inspiration from your competition they very likely have to face similar problems as you do. User Stories Link 2 — A compact and easy way to describe parts of a functionality from the users’ point of view. htpssfuxdesig.cethe-ulimate-ux-esearch-cheat-sheet-b70862c0865a6 ane71923, 1157 PM ‘The ultimate UX Research cheat sheet by Most Biter | UX Golective User Journey — A visualization of an individual's relationships with a product over time and across different channels. User Personas — Fictional users of your product, created based on previous research to represent different user types. These can help to better focus on real user needs during the next phase. Phase 2 — Explore $ EXPLORE IDEATE PROTOTYPE 8rd and 4th step of the Design Thinking Process In the explore phase plenty of potential ideas (hypothesises) get created to satisfy the needs of our users. These ideas are then put on a first test bench to be validated. Appropriate research methods for this are: Card Sorting — A tool to built and evaluate the information architecture of a system. Participants organize cards labelled with topics into categories that make sense to them. E.g. “Football”, “Basketball” and “Tennisball” belong to the category “Ball” while “Football, Basketball and Tennis” could fit into “Sports”. Paper prototypes — Simple prototypes scribbled on paper to conduct early user testing. Interactive prototypes — High fidelity prototypes that come close to the final product, but are still based rather on designs than on code. Phase 3— Test htpssfuxdesig.cethe-ulimate-ux-esearch-cheat-sheet-b70862c0865a6 eneraza, 157 > ‘Te inate UX Reseach erat shet by Mont ner UX Caleive i 05 TEST Sth step of the Design Thinking Process During the testing phase, we validate our final designs with potential users. Appropriate research methods for this are: Qualitative Usability Testing —Observe real users performing different tasks using your product to identify weaknesses in its usability. Moderated Remote Usability Studies — Usability tests conducted with the use of tools such as screen-sharing software and remote control capabilities. Surveys — A very powerful tool to quickly collect quantitative and qualitative data about topics of interest. Specific scientifically proven surveys foster specific topics. E.g. SUS validates the usability of a system, KANO evaluates what features are potentially most valuable for your customers. Accessibility Evaluation — Test if your system is accessible for a broad range of people. People with disabilities, elderly people or even situational disabilities like a distracted driver, strong sunlight or loud noises. Phase 4— Monitor htpssfuxdesig.cethe-ulimate-ux-esearch-cheat-sheet-b70862c0865a6 ene71323, 1157 PM ‘The ulimate UX Research cheat sheet | by Moritz Bkner | UX Collective WY Ce) Thre) s} IMPLEMENT 6th step of the Design Thinking Process After a product is released, the research does not stop. While we have done a lot to satisfy the needs of our users in the best possible way, we shouldn't stop iterating and always have an open ear for what users say about our product. Therefore this phase is closely linked to the first phase of this cycle. This is also reflected in the existence of some of the same research methods as in the “Discover” phase. Appropriate research methods are: AB Testing (related to multivariate testing) — Test different version of a product randomly on your users and see which version performs better in regards to an intended goal. Benchmark Testing — Tracking the progress of certain indicators over a longer period of time to validate the success of a new design or feature, This could be e.g. number of purchases, retention rate, user engagement ete. Beta Testing — A software test of a product in the development stage (beta version), which is carried out by current users under as real as possible circumstances. Customer Service Feedback — Speak to your Customer Service, they have one of the closest relationships to your customers and know a lot about them and their problems. Analytics & KPI Review — Quantitative tracking of user behaviour (e.g. Google Analytics) like click-flows, time spent on-site, where your user enters your system and where they leave. Surveys — A very powerful tool to quickly collect quantitative and qualitative data about topics of interest. Specific scientifically proven surveys foster specific topics. htpssfuxdesig.cethe-ulimate-ux-esearch-cheat-sheet-b70862c0865a6 7671923, 1157 EM The ultimate UX Research cheat sheet by Motz Biiner |UX Collective E.g. SUS validates the usability of a system, KANO evaluates what features are potentially most valuable for your customers. Search Log Analysis — Analyze your users search terms, What are people looking for and how do they call things when they do. ‘Thanks for reading! Did I forget anything? Put something in the wrong collum? Added a wrong link? Let me know! :) This article would not have been possible without the great work from the people at Nielsen Normal Group. Probably the best collection of UX related articles in the world. Iwas inspired by their version of a UX Cheat Sheet — this article and especially the visualisation is an iteration of their work. I wanted to add an extra layer by combining the research methods with the common Design Thinking Circle and create an overall more compact version. 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