Published on | Prototyping: From UX to Front End — Medium Hayden Slaughter

Each week I answer a question from my mentee on the subject of UX.

Q: Which research method should I use?

This post does not go into detail about individual research methods, scroll to the bottom for a link to the NNGroup if thats all you want, instead it looks at projects in a wider context and try’s to highlight some of the broader considerations of identifying the correct research method to use.

Often on projects it is not just about choosing the right research method for the job, rarely do we have the luxury or freedom to state the ideal method to provide the best outcome. Instead we are bound by time and money constraints and expected to squeeze into certain stages of the project whilst still providing optimal outcomes and results. Here is my rough guide to weighing up the realities of a project and identifying the research method that will best suit the constraints of a project.

Contents:

Why — Project outcomes and goals
Resources — How much time and resource do you have access to
Assumptions — Where are the biggest risks
When — Start, middle, end. What stage do you fit in to.
What — Outcomes and application.
How — The method that is right.

Why:

You need to understand why you are even looking to undertake research. Why do you need user input and why does it matter for this particular project? This why will inform your outlook and define where you are heading, even if you don’t know what the final destination looks like at this stage its important to at least head in the right direction, giving yourself something to aim for and to measure against.

Before you even go near a user make sure you understand the project goals and what success looks like for this piece of work. How does this part of the puzzle fit into the larger jigsaw?

Resources:

Look at the wider project and identify how much opportunity there will be to speak with users at various stages. What opportunities are there for understanding users and building a picture of their needs. Not just direct user interaction but other information such as analytics, past research, personas, user journeys, other department information etc. You are looking to understand where the biggest holes are and identify how best to fill them.

How much exposure you have to users throughout the project and the access to other information will shape which method is more beneficial, appropriate and best suited to helping achieve the why you identified at the start.

Assumptions:

Identify the riskiest assumptions, list them out and look at ways to address them. The highest risk assumptions don’t always get the most attention. You are looking to identify the areas of highest reward for the research you will conduct.

Example:

Risk 1 (Highest) : Is there demand for the product/feature?
Risk 2 : Team don’t fully understand the problem
Risk 3 : The interactions are complex
Risk 4 (Lowest) : Integrations with other systems

It could be tempting in this hypothetical situation to tackle Risk 1 by conducting user interviews to discover the desire for the intended product. But if you speak with the team and stakeholders the decision may have already been made that the company will be entering this space regardless. In this situation discovering demand will have little impact on the product you develop and use up valuable time and resource. Instead you could focus on Risk 2 and speak to users to better understand the problems they are facing and then try and guide the solution in a way that meets the real problem whilst still solving the business need.

When:

Once you’ve understood why the project is important, the resources you have available and identified your assumptions you need to consider where the research fits into the wider project. Which stage are you at now and at which stage will you be doing this research. How much other work comes before this and what impact does that have on your research. Some general criteria I start to work into decision making at this stage is:

Who else is involved?
Is there a preferred or desired outcome?
What happens if research goes against desired outcomes?
Can/will the outcomes be used?
What problems might we face?
Is the research dependent on other departments?
Are other departments dependent on the research?
What does the worst case scenario look like?
What happens if we don’t do it?
What is the team/ org understanding of UX/research?
Is there team/org buy in?

What:

By carrying out this research what are you hoping to achieve? It may be one or many of these and you may have your own but being aware of this will mean you have a much greater chance of providing useful and actionable outcomes when you do conduct your research.

Understand problem
Understand need
Explore options
Refine concepts
Present to team
Present to senior staff
Get buy in
Validate decisions
Validate direction
Benchmark against competition

How:

Once you have identified your why, resources, assumptions, when and what you should be in a position to make a well considered choice as to which research method is appropriate for your unique project constraints and desired outcomes.

The Nielsen Norman Group have a great article that explores the 20 most common UX research methods:

https://www.nngroup.com/articles/which-ux-research-methods/

Selecting the right UX research method was originally published in prototypr on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Selecting the right UX research method

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