21 UX RESEARCH METHODS

A/B Testing

A/B testing requires you to use a third party piece of software that helps you set up two different web pages, where one page has an element that’s slightly altered from the other. For instance, if you can’t decide on the text for a ‘ button, you could use an A/B test to present one version of the button that says ‘add to cart’ to half your traffic, and the other version that says ’buy now’ to the other half of your traffic. Then you can then see whether or not changing the text of this button has made any difference to the number of people clicking on it.

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Card Sorting

In a card sort participants are presented with a list of items (for example, all the products featured in an online supermarket) and asked to group them in a way that makes the most logical sense to them. Depending on the type of card sort, participants can also choose names for the groups they’ve put together, forming the potential categories and subcategories of a website There are three types of card sort.

Open card sort.
Closed card sort
Hybrid card sort

Click Stream Analysis

Clickstreams are a record of the aggregated paths ( followed by participants during their navigation). Clickstreams allow you to view and analyze the paths participants took while performing their tasks, which percentages followed that path, and their final status ( error, abandon, or timeout). Certain software even allows you to analyze the heatmaps (the aggregated areas where users clicked on the page) on each page for further behavioral analysis.

Click Testing

Screenshot click tests are a quick and simple way to test static images to see where users would click. This can be used to validate site design, as well as test wireframe prototypes, by asking participants questions such as, “Where would you click to access specific content.” This can be done for everything from high-res images to scanned doodles on a bar napkin.

Concept Testing

Concepts or prototypes are inexpensive versions of a design for engineers to test how the real thing will function. For product team members, prototypes facilitate discussion and understanding users, also they can test prototypes with users to get early feedback before sinking resources into a bad design, In the long run, it will save you time, money, and headaches rather than doing all of your UX testings when a product is nearly complete Or, worse, doing no UX testing at all.

Customer Feedback

A Customer Feedback or VoC study is aimed at collecting data on participants who visit a site In general. Voice of the Customer studies are really just another way to round out the research you are already conducting by being ‘always on’ and gathering ongoing feedback for you in the background. This data can be used to segment visitors and create/flush out your user personas.

Desirability Study

Desirability studies help you identify and define some quality of your product or brand You will show your participants your product (whether it’s a prototype, live website, or even some marketing copy or images), you then ask them to describe what they see using a list of pre-selected words. With this data, you can see what percentage of your respondents consider your product to be “ or your tone of voice to be “weird.

Diary or Camera Study

Diary studies gather information about a user experience over an extended period of time. Participants write about their experiences with a particular product or service in a diary. They may also take photos or perform other activities to record their experiences. Once the study period is over, the researcher analyses the findings. Diary studies remove the influence of both the researcher and the unnatural out of the home setting, but they’re also useful for understanding long term behavior.

Ethnography Field Study

Ethnographic studies involve talking with people and observing them perform their tasks in their own natural context Its aim is not just to gather information on how people behave and interact, but also how their location, environment, and other contexts affect their day to day lives. UX designers take this ethnographic research and use it to solve a problem through a product or technology.

Focus Group

A group of participants from your target market is gathered together in one room with a moderator, where they discuss topics around your potential product or service These thoughts and feelings are collated and used to inform the direction of your product.

Information Architecture Testing

Information Architecture (refers to the way content is presented and accessed from any given page on your website whether through menus, breadcrumbs, categories, links whatever takes you from one page to another Information architecture testing can help you define navigation, improve information taxonomy and maximize findability across your website. This is usually done through both card sorting and tree testing.

Intercept Surveys

By adding a few lines of JavaScript code to your website or integrating your mobile app with an SDK, you are able to intercept site visitors on your site or app, with an automatically triggered survey. You can find out what your visitors are planning to do on your site if they are able to achieve what they came for, where they are thinking of going after their visit, who they are in general and if they are satisfied by the experience you provide.

Interviews

Participants meet with a researcher one on one to discuss topics around your potential product or service. These thoughts and feelings are collated and used to inform the direction of your product.

Lab Study

In a traditional lab-based study, between 6-10 users (varying according to needs and perspective) are brought into an environment to run through a series of tasks. Participants work on a pre-configured computer or mobile device while being observed in a separate room either via a monitor or through a one-way mirror. During the study, participants are given tasks and asked to perform them with a researcher sitting next to them or in the other room If using think-aloud protocol participants are asked to express their thoughts out loud and the researcher can feel free to probe or ask further questions while the participant is walking through their task and after.

Participatory Design

As UX mag states, Participatory design brings customers into the heart of the design process Also known as “co-creation”, “co-design”, or “cooperative design”, the and users of a product, service, or experience take an active role in co-designing solutions for themselves.

Remote Usability Study

When carrying out remote moderated usability testing, also referred to as online moderated research, you are live online with participants but from your own location, connected to them with screen share technology and an audio bridge. Other than that it’s the same premise as in person or in lab testing. The moderator is there to ask participants questions, respond to their questions and feedback, and guide them through the tasks. The testing software will collect the quantitative and/or qualitative data as participants go through your test It will also allow you to collect and triangulate different kinds of data and allows for the combination of different kinds of methodologies within a single study.

Biometrics for User Research
EEG (Electroencephalography)

It detects cognitive processes to understand more about how consumers think and behave. The electroencephalogram is a portable and relatively economical device, provides valuable information on brain activity. Using this technique, the electrical activity of the brain is analyzed and recorded by an EEG headset or headband with small sensors placed on the scalp. This method identifies changes in the electrical currents of brain waves EEG measures electrical changes on the surface of the brain not deep within particular brain structures. This means that EEG can’t tell you that a particular part of the brain is active. It can only tell you when there is more or less brain activity EEG measures whether a person is engaged and paying attention EEG measurements are particularly good at showing you activity by seconds or even parts of a second.

Facial Coding

Facial expression analysis is an indirect measurement technology. It measures and records voluntary and involuntary movements of facial muscles, but does not use sensors. The facial expression analysis allows you to test the impact of any content, product, or service that is intended to produce emotional and facial reactions.
The key difference is that there is no need to mount sensors on the participant's face because a web camera is responsible for capturing facial micro-expressions (voluntary and involuntary) related to specific cognitive and emotional states when participants are exposed to usability studies. Such performance measures have values of probability to reflect the likelihood of expressing the desired emotion It also offers summary scores of engagement and valence, giving you an overview of the overall response expressed.

Eye Tracking

It tracks the position of the eyes and the movement for visual attention. You get an understanding of what draws immediate attention with eye tracking, which elements are overlooked by the user, in which order elements are observed, and how elements compare with one another. Eye-tracking (ET) is a technique that monitors and records eye movements by using infrared light (which is completely harmless) or an integrated web camera to determine the pupil's position and gaze
on the screen. The eye movements are observed and the participants ' gaze patterns are registered. Eye trackers detect and record visual patterns to clarify the visual path as a response to a particular stimulus and thus obtain visual attention data.

GSR (Galvanic Skin Response)

GSR is also called “electrodermal activity” or EDA. A typical GSR measurement device is a relatively small, unobtrusive sensor that is connected to the skin of your finger or hand. Sweat glands on the hands are very sensitive to changes in your emotional state. If you become emotionally aroused either positively or negatively then you will release more sweat in your hands. Sometimes, these are very small changes that you may not notice. This is what a GSR monitor is measuring. The GSR monitor can’t tell if you are happy, sad, scared, and so on, but it can tell if you are becoming more or less emotional.

Neuroscience and AI for UX Research
Predictive Eye Tracking

All of us are familiar with different types of heat map but there are a lot of them and it’s no wonder people get confused with all. Attention heat map by Dhiti shows which content of your design is most likely to catch users' eyes when they first arrive on the webpage. As compared to traditional heat maps generated with actual eye-tracking studies with live participants, Dhiti AI’s heat map is equivalent to a 5 seconds eye tracking session of 50 participants. It shows the most and least eye-catching content for users when they first see it. The results from Dhiti are 90% as accurate as lab-based eye tracking. The Heat map displays the most attractive elements of the image for viewers in the form of and spots creating so-called heat map utilizes thousands of data points and convert them into visual representation over top of your design. Designers use it as a feedback tool to design easy to use webpages, especially the homepage.

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