Very brief overview of why and how to start doing UX research — in response to some common reasons "why not" to do UX research. Delivered at UX Talks 001 in London Ontario on April 6, 2016.

1. Why Research?
Brian Frank
• User Experience (UX) Researcher at ResIM
brian@res.im
@brian_frank

2. UX research informs design and business
decisions with rich insights into people’s
behaviours and needs.

3. Academic
Research
Market
Research
Tech
R & D
UX
Research

4. Why do UX
research?
Get new insights & ideas.
Promote clarity, confidence & agreement.
Mitigate biases, mistakes & failures.

5. Why not do UX
research?
“Customers don’t know what they want.”

6. “It isn't the consumer's job to know what they want.”
— Steve Jobs

7. Good UX researchers don’t ask people what they want.
Researchers observe, interpret & analyze.

8. Why not do UX
research? “We don’t have enough time.”
“Customers don’t know what they want.”

9. Much of what feels
like productivity is
really waste.
Debating ideas based on
guesses.
Making arbitrary changes.
Building things that don’t get
used.

10. Use research to reduce waste.

11. “We already know our customers.”
“We don’t have enough time.”
“Customers don’t know what they want.”Why not do UX
research?

12. Customers are getting older (and so are we).
Products and services are getting more complex.
Changes and disruptions are happening faster.
Digital products and services are entering every area of life.

13. You probably already do UX
research, just do it better.

14. How to start
doing UX
research.
Practice asking “why.”
Get regular user exposure.
Share the responsibility.
Develop a lean, flexible research
toolkit.

15. APPROACH
DATASOURCE
BehaviouralAttitudinal
Qualitative Quantitative
Analytics Reviews
A/B Testing
Moderated Usability Testing
Focus Groups
One-on-One Interviews
Surveys
Tree Testing
Contextual/Field Research
Unmoderated Usability Testing
Card Sorting
Participatory Design
Adapted from: https://www.nngroup.com/articles/which-ux-research-methods/

16. Thank you!
brian@res.im
@brian_frank