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      How to conduct design research and capture actionable insights?

      Jun 26, 2023

      Duration

      The time required to conduct design research may vary depending on the scope and goals of the research, the research methods, and sample size. Typically, it takes 1 to 3 weeks.

      Complexity

      Advanced

      Contributors

      Design researcher, UX designer, Design manager, UX writer, Product manager

      When ?

      Design research is conducted throughout the design process, from the initial stages of gathering insights and understanding user needs, to the final stages of evaluating and refining the design solution.


      Getting Started

      Design research is a user-focused approach to understand the users, their problems, and their needs. It helps designers to offer informed and inspired design solutions for the user needs. 


      How to?

      According to Erin Sanders’ research learning spiral, there are five main steps to conduct a design research:


      Types of Research Methods

      Through research methods, you observe the users, understand their mental model, and analyze the gathered insights to identify user patterns and trends. 

       

      Primary Research Methods

      1. One-on-one user interviews

      2. Focused group interviews

      3. Contextual inquiry

      4. Diary study

      5. Usability testing

      Secondary Research Methods

      1. Internal data

      2. Government data or statistics

      3. University research centers

      4. Respected magazines, newspapers, and journals

      Generative/Exploratory Research Methods

      1. User interviews

      2. Surveys

      3. Contextual inquiry

      Evaluative Research Methods

      1. Usability studies

      2. Summative research

      3. Formative research

      To know more about different types of research methods check out User Research Basics 


      When to use which research method? 

      Different research methods are used at different stages of a UX design process and for different intents. 

      Research methods to be used during each phase of the design process are:

      Phase

      Need

      Research Method

      Product Definition

      Defining the scope, getting requirements and prioritization

      Stakeholder interviews


      Good Questions for Stakeholder Interviews Template from IxDF
       

      Reviewing past product usage data to understand how people had been using the product

      Data Analysis
       

      Feedback from past version of the product

      Customer Satisfaction Survey

      Research

      Identify the target personas 

      Screener Surveys

      Survey & questionnaire templates & examples from Typeform
       

      Find out individual user’s pain points

      User Interviews 

      User Interviews Launch Kit from UserInterviews
       

      Find how users behave and work in their native work environment 

      Contextual Enquiry

      Shadowing (Observation)
       

      Know how people interact with a product / service over a period of time, going through different phases of usage 

      Diary Studies
       

      Understand users’ expectations, preferences, and responses while being a part of a group

      Focus Groups
       

      Find what other similar products are doing and how well they’re doing

      Competitor analysis

      Competitor Benchmarking
       

      Evaluating proposed Information architecture

      Card sorting

      Design

      Testing the low-fidelity design to check if it’s directionally good

      Guerilla Testing
       

      Evaluating an interim version of design

      Design Audit
       

      Check if the IA of a product is working for the users 

      Tree Testing
       

      Checking which one of the 2 variations of a feature/ flow is working better

      A/B Testing

      Validation

      Checking if the design is usable for the users

      Usability Testing

      • In-person 

      • Remote 
       

      Evaluate accessibility of a product

      Accessibility Testing
       

      Identify problems a user might be facing without actual user’s participation

      Cognitive Walkthrough 
       

      Check how a digital product is doing on a set of standard parameters

      Heuristic Evaluation

      Heuristic Evaluation Template from Figma community
       

      Which parts of the UI is being explored and interacted with the most 

      Mouse tracking & click tracking
       

      To find which parts of the UI are being seen most by the users

      Eyetracking
       

      Reviewing product usage data to understand how people had been using the product/ service

      Data Analysis

      Handover

      		    


      Synthesizing Data from Research

      After conducting the research, it is equally important to convert the data  into product requirements. Different methods are used to synthesize research data into actionable insights as below:

      Affinity Mapping

      Affinity mapping is one of the most used methods for deriving patterns from research data. In it, patterns are identified from received data and it’s best done together with the team. This is done in 3 steps:

      Ecosystem mapping

      Understand the relation of a target user with the system they operate in and use the product.

      User Journey mapping

      Analyzing the overall experience and identifying any gaps that need to be fixed. You might find new opportunities this way that you hadn't considered before.

      Task flow analysis

      Going through a task as a user would go through step by step.

      User Stories

      What tasks would user need to do while using a product.

      Translating Insights into Product Requirements

      From synthesis of research data, pointers can be classified under the following categories:

      Value proposition mapping

      It helps put together what the product should be and how it should address users' pain points.


      Do’s & Don'ts

      Do’s

      Dont’s

      • Be clear on the intent of each research activity.

      • Be well prepared.

      • Understand what the users are doing along with what they’re saying.

      • Use the most apt research method for the reason it’s being conducted.

      • Do a dry run before doing the method with invited participants.

      • Synthesize and process research data with the team and not alone.

      • Don’t overwhelm the research participants.

      • Don’t be biased.

      • Don’t prompt the users.

      • Don’t skip any received input from users

      • Don’t ignore user feedback.

       

      Templates 


      Suggested Tools 

      For Preparation & Planning

      For Conducting Surveys

      For Usability Testing

      For Research Synthesis

      For Sharing Documents


      References 


      Other Related Best Practices