4 Tips on Planning UX Research
Everyday, we’re looking for answers to tons of questions that are essentially important to our products and services. How to develop effective marketing strategy to a younger audience? How to enhance our product so that users would stick more? Sometimes we think of several potential solutions but don’t know which one to pick. Or sometimes, we simply have no idea what to do. That’s why we need UX research.
When I first started my career as a UX researcher, I thought the key part is “doing” research itself, such as interviewing, publishing surveys and asking questions. However, I soon found out that the most important and challenging part is instead “planning” research. Planning UX research is not just about writing a research plan, but about structuring and framing the whole project before it even starts. Here’s what I’ve learned so far.
1. There’s no such thing as a perfect research plan.
“No battle plan ever survives contact with the enemy. “ — Helmuth von Moltke the Elder
It’s impossible to stick to an original research plan and follow every detail just as planned. Doing UX research is about embracing uncertainty. We’re dealing with humans with our changing product in a constantly changing market. Thus, plan your research with dynamic mindsets and enjoy the surprises that happen during the process. Make your judgments and decisions along the way based on what’s important for the project, flexibly adjust approaches and schedules and make sure to meet research goals anyway.
2. Before asking users why, ask yourself why.
When writing research plans, being able to explain the reason why we pick one approach other than another is more important than listing out brilliant research methodology terms. We need to keep project objectives and resources in mind all the time. What’s the project goal? What’s the research purpose? Will it make any difference with or without doing the research? What do we want to know? What answers do we expect to get? And what are better approaches to get the answers? Keep asking yourself questions to clarify the relationships between the plan, the goals and the outcomes. After all, research without clear purpose takes us nowhere.
3. Generating assumptions is like playing jigsaw puzzles.
To gain a better understanding of the project topic, we usually start with trend study and design research to look at the big picture, and break down into details by conducting expert reviews and analyzing behavioral data. During the process, we generate assumptions and structure the research map that can guide us on the way.
Assumptions and hypotheses help us identify areas of research, which lead to what questions to ask during interviews, where to look for participants and what to focus in the fields. Generating assumptions is like playing jigsaw puzzles. We might not know what exactly to look for and where the information we have will take us. But it’s ok. Let your mind run wild and collect as much information as possible. They could all end up as the key missing piece to frame up the whole picture.
I found it really helpful to brainstorm and organize initial research thoughts with mind maps:
4. Think backwards.
Most of the time we need to figure out answers to our research questions in weeks or even days. Within limited time resources, how can we make UX research more efficient and effective?
Knowing and expecting what to deliver definitely helps planning research. Just like it’s easier to do grocery shopping for ingredients when you already know what you’re cooking for dinner tonight. Therefore, try to think about these questions and plan your research backwards. What are the most urgent concerns that stakeholders are eager to know and solve? What are the most important questions to be answered in the report? What are the better ways to deliver findings and messages? Remember, it’s impossible to be 100% sure about the answers. Otherwise, we don’t need to do the research anymore, do we?
