So, you want to do user/UX research. Where do you begin?

Here are the ten key steps to follow for a great user research study.

1. Determine the goals of the study

From the most simple to the most complex study, you should always have clear research goals or questions. You aren’t just trying to “see what you find.” A study can go in any number of directions depending on what you are trying to learn. It’s very important to hone in on this before you do anything else. The focus for participant recruiting, your moderator’s guide, data analysis, and reporting will all depend on this.

💡Examples of how to define and phrase your research goals are provided in our research plan template.

2. Choose a research method

Now, in order to answer your research questions, what method do you need? Usability testing? Interviews? Diary study? Spend some time considering methods and see if what you expect to get out of them will answer your research questions. Also, decide whether a remote/online study is doable or if it needs to be in person.

3. Decide on participants

What characteristics are important? Should they be users of your product? Of similar products? How old should they be? What type of prior knowledge should they have? The answer is never “anyone should be able to use it.” There are always primary users for any product or experience. Define these criteria as concretely as possible and seek out those people. Along the same lines, be sure to screen out for characteristics you don’t want.

How many participants should you recruit? For standard usability testing, there should be 8 completed sessions per main user segment. For other methods, you may want more. 💡 Oh, and don’t forget to recruit extra in case of no-shows!

4. Choose the stimuli

Unless you are only doing interviews, decide what you will be showing the user to get feedback. A website? Prototype? Hardware? Cards? What will they be evaluating, organizing, using, or reacting to? If designers or engineers are involved, include the time to work with them on optimizing the stimuli for your study.

👍 The great news is that you can evaluate almost anything from napkin sketches to live websites. So, don’t let the perfect prototype hold you back from doing research.

5. Create the moderator’s guide

The “mod” guide is the outline or script the research “moderator” will use as they speak with the participants. It should contain a good introduction and a list of questions, exercises, or discussion topics.

💡 One of my best tips is to make sure that each question or task ties back to at least one of the research goals. It is so easy to get carried away with extra questions that sound interesting but with the limited time you have, it really needs to be focused on getting the results and data you need.

5. Set a (realistic) timeline

Your project timeline should include each task and deliverable, the person responsible, and the date it will be completed. This would include everything from drafting the plan to the final report. A template for this is provided in the research plan.

6. Plan logistics

Make a list of all the items needed and the technical requirements. This will include your stimuli, NDA, lab set-up and requirements, etc. A mental walkthrough of how the session should go should help you pinpoint all of the requirements.

7. Recruit participants

Make sure you plan for this in your timeline as it can take anywhere from 2 days to 3 weeks depending on your recruiting method and requirements. There are many avenues for finding participants: a recruiting agency, online panel service, social media, advertising, and internal customer or employee lists. Don’t forget to account for a standard 20% no-show rate with backups and/or alternate sessions and have your compensation and legal documents (NDA’s, informed consent, etc.) in place.

8. Run the research sessions

The fun part, right? When running sessions, interact and phrase your questions in the least biased way that you can. Do a lot more listening than talking. For tips, check out our post What Not to Say to Participants During User Research.

Always run a pilot (practice) session allowing time to work out the kinks in your mod guide and anything else before running the remaining sessions. Make sure your notes are very organized (I use a spreadsheet) and ideally you should get recordings transcriptions of your sessions to go back and find data and quotes easily.
(Here is a video walking you through how I take notes during UX research.)

9 Analyze the Data

Qualitative data can be tricky to analyze. I recommend using your notes spreadsheet organized by question and topic to go back and see all of your responses to each question in one glance. Again, this is where the research goals come into play in a big way. Keep referring to them as you dig through the data to stay focused on answering them before you get into other things that may have come up.

10. Report

There are many formats and styles for reporting on research studies. Quick bullet points, debrief meetings, long graphical presentations, or some combination of both, are all great options here. Effective reports should always answer the research questions and provide recommendations that are as design-agnostic as possible (you don’t want to step on a designer’s toes!) Participant quotes are also great at illustrating points (and clients love them.)

ready, let’s do this!

A successful research study begins with a good plan. Start planning your study today with our free template (below) or get training, tools, and support with our UX research planning course.

How to write a UX research plan:

Start with the free ux research plan template

Our free UX research / usability testing plan template contains all the sections you need, instructions, and plenty of examples all in an unbranded Google Doc.