Introduction

• UX Research Core Focus

  • “Understand user behaviors, needs, motivations”
  • Key Goals:
    • Prioritize user needs
    • Meet business needs
    • “Bridge gap between business assumptions and user needs”

• Research in Development Lifecycle

  • Foundational Research (Pre-Design)

    • Also called strategic/generative
    • Key Question: “What should we build?”
    • Purpose:
      • Define problem
      • Identify pain points
      • “Reveal unexpected opportunities”

  • Design Research (During Design)

    • Also called tactical
    • Key Question: “How should we build it?”
    • Focus Areas:
      • Prototype experience
      • Usage difficulty
      • User challenges
      • “Reduce interaction problems”

  • Post-Launch Research

    • Key Question: “Did we succeed?”
    • Evaluates:
      • Feature effectiveness
      • User experience quality
      • Competition comparison

• UX Research Role Variations

  • Large Companies
    • Dedicated research partners
    • Limited designer research
  • Small Companies
    • “One UX designer might do both research and design”
    • Research skills “enticing to hiring companies”

• Key Researcher Qualities

  • Empathy: “Understand others’ feelings/thoughts”
  • Pragmatism: “Practical approach to problem-solving”
  • Collaboration: “Work with range of people/styles”