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UX Research

UX research is the systematic study of target users to inform product design and business decisions. It bridges the gap between assumptions and evidence - replacing "we think users want X" with "users told us X because of Y." This skill covers the full research lifecycle: scoping a study, selecting methods, recruiting participants, collecting data, synthesizing findings, and communicating insights that drive action.

Good research is not about proving you are right. It is about reducing the cost of being wrong before you build. Five users in a moderated session will surface 80% of your usability problems for a fraction of what a failed launch costs.

When to use this skill

Trigger this skill when the user:

• Needs to plan a user research study or define research questions
• Wants to design or conduct user interviews or contextual inquiry
• Needs to run or script a moderated usability test
• Asks about creating user journey maps or experience maps
• Wants to design an A/B test, including hypothesis and sample size
• Needs to build a user survey or screener questionnaire
• Asks about creating personas from research data
• Wants to run card sorting or tree testing exercises
• Needs to synthesize qualitative data using affinity mapping
• Wants to write a research findings report or share-out

Do NOT trigger this skill for:

• Pure analytics or quantitative data analysis without a user behavior lens (use a data-analysis skill instead)
• UI/visual design decisions that are not grounded in a research question (use absolute-ui instead)

Key principles

1. Research questions before methods - Define what decisions your research must inform before choosing a method. "We will run interviews" is not a research plan. "We need to understand why users abandon the checkout flow" is.

2. 5 users find 80% of issues - Jakob Nielsen's landmark finding still holds for formative usability testing. Recruit 5 representative participants per distinct user segment. More sessions do not linearly increase insight - they surface the same issues repeatedly.

3. Triangulate across methods - No single method answers everything. Pair interviews (why) with analytics (how many) with usability tests (can they do it). Convergent findings across methods are high-confidence findings.

4. Recruit representative users - Recruiting convenience samples (colleagues, power users, friends) produces data that does not generalize. Screeners must filter for the behaviors and contexts that match your target segment, not just demographics.

5. Synthesis is where value lives - Raw notes and recordings are not insights. Value is created in the synthesis step: clustering observations into patterns, naming themes, and connecting evidence to design implications. Budget as much time for synthesis as for fieldwork.

Core concepts

Generative vs. evaluative research

Running evaluative research too early (testing mockups of unvalidated concepts) wastes cycles. Running generative research too late (interviewing users after building) surfaces insights you cannot act on.

Qualitative vs. quantitative

Neither is superior. Qualitative research generates hypotheses; quantitative research tests them at scale.

Research ops

Research operations (ResearchOps) is the infrastructure that makes research repeatable: participant panels, consent templates, recording tools, repositories, and synthesis workflows. Without it, research knowledge lives in individual researchers' heads and dissipates when they leave.

Bias types to mitigate

Common tasks

Plan a research study

Use this template before any study begins:

RESEARCH PLAN
=============
Project: [Name]
Date: [Start - End]
Researcher: [Name]

RESEARCH QUESTIONS
1. [Primary question the research must answer]
2. [Secondary questions]

DECISIONS THIS RESEARCH INFORMS
- [Specific product/design/business decision]

METHOD
[Selected method and why it fits the research questions]

PARTICIPANTS
- Target segment: [Description]
- Number: [N per segment]
- Screener criteria: [Behavioral criteria, not just demographics]

TIMELINE
- Recruiting: [Dates]
- Fieldwork: [Dates]
- Synthesis: [Dates]
- Share-out: [Date]

MATERIALS NEEDED
- [Discussion guide / task scenarios / prototype / survey link]

SUCCESS CRITERIA
[How will we know the research answered the questions?]

Conduct user interviews

Discussion guide structure:

1. Warm-up (5 min) - Rapport-building; ask about their role and context. Never start with your main topic.
2. Topic exploration (30-40 min) - Open-ended questions about behavior, not opinion.
3. Specific scenarios (10-15 min) - "Tell me about a time when..." to get concrete stories.
4. Wrap-up (5 min) - "Is there anything important I didn't ask about?"

Probing techniques:

Rules for interviewers:

• Ask one question at a time. Never stack questions.
• Never suggest an answer in the question.
• Prioritize "what did you do?" over "what would you do?"
• Take sparse notes during the session; full notes immediately after.

Run moderated usability tests

Task design rules:

• Tasks must be scenario-based, not feature-based. "You want to send $50 to a friend" not "Use the transfer feature."
• Tasks must have a clear, observable completion state.
• Order tasks from low to high complexity.
• Include one task you expect to fail - it will reveal the most.

Key metrics per task:

Think-aloud protocol: Ask participants to narrate their thoughts while working. Do not help them when they struggle - that is your signal. Only intervene if they are completely stuck for more than 3 minutes.

Debrief questions:

• "What was the most confusing part?"
• "If you could change one thing, what would it be?"
• "What did you expect to happen when you clicked X?"

Create user journey maps

Use this template for each journey:

JOURNEY MAP: [User goal / scenario]
=====================================
Persona: [Name and segment]
Scenario: [Context and starting point]

STAGES: [Awareness] → [Consideration] → [Decision] → [Use] → [Advocacy]

For each stage:
  ACTIONS:    What is the user doing?
  THOUGHTS:   What are they thinking?
  EMOTIONS:   [Frustrated / Neutral / Delighted] + why
  TOUCHPOINTS: [Channel: website / app / email / support / etc.]
  PAIN POINTS: What is going wrong or creating friction?
  OPPORTUNITIES: Design interventions to improve this stage

Tips:

• Base journeys on real research data, not assumptions. Every cell should be traceable to a quote or observation.
• Map the current-state journey before designing a future-state journey.
• Emotion is the most actionable row - peaks and valleys show where to invest.

Design an A/B test

Hypothesis template:

We believe that [change to control]
will result in [expected outcome]
for [target user segment]
because [rationale from research or data].

Null hypothesis: There is no difference between control and variant.

Metrics:

Sample size calculation:

Before running any test, calculate the required sample size using:

• Baseline conversion rate (from analytics)
• Minimum detectable effect (MDE) - the smallest change worth acting on
• Statistical power: 80% (standard)
• Significance level: 95% (p < 0.05)

Use a sample size calculator (e.g., Evan Miller's). A common mistake is ending a test as soon as significance is reached - this inflates false positives (peeking problem). Set the duration before the test starts and do not stop early.

Duration rule: Run for at least one full business cycle (usually 2 weeks) to capture weekly behavior variation, regardless of when significance is reached.

Synthesize findings with affinity mapping

1. Data dump - Write one observation per sticky note (physical or digital). Include a participant ID on each note.
2. Silent sort - Each team member groups notes without discussion.
3. Cluster and name - Groups become themes. Name themes as insights ("Users do not trust the price until they see a breakdown") not categories ("Pricing").
4. Count and rank - Note how many participants contributed to each theme. Themes supported by 4 of 5 participants are high-confidence.
5. Extract implications - For each theme, write: "This means we should consider [design implication]."

Write a research report

Template:

RESEARCH REPORT: [Study name]
==============================
Date: [Date]
Researcher: [Name]
Method: [Methods used]
Participants: [N, segment description]

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY (3-5 sentences)
[Most important finding and recommended action]

RESEARCH QUESTIONS
[Restate from the plan]

KEY FINDINGS
Finding 1: [Insight statement]
  Evidence: [Quotes and observations]
  Implication: [What this means for the product]

Finding 2: ...

RECOMMENDATIONS
Priority 1 (do now): [Specific action]
Priority 2 (consider): [Specific action]
Priority 3 (monitor): [Watch metric or re-research]

LIMITATIONS
[Sample size constraints, recruitment bias, prototype fidelity issues]

APPENDIX
- Discussion guide
- Participant screener
- Raw notes / recording links

Anti-patterns

Gotchas

1. Stopping an A/B test when significance is first reached inflates false positive rate - This is the "peeking problem." With continuous monitoring, you will reach p<0.05 by chance on roughly 1 in 20 tests even when there is no real effect. Set the test duration before launch based on sample size calculation and do not stop early regardless of when significance is reached.

2. Usability test participants who are too polite produce misleading data - Many participants will complete tasks while struggling rather than say they are confused, to avoid seeming incompetent. Watch behavior (hesitation, wrong clicks, backtracking) more than verbal reports. Silence or slow movement is a signal; "yeah, that was fine" may not be.

3. Journey maps built from assumptions rather than data entrench existing beliefs - A journey map created in a workshop without participant quotes attached to each cell is a hypothesis map, not a research artifact. Every pain point and emotion in a journey map must be traceable to a specific observation or quote.

4. Survey questions with "usually" or "typically" elicit aspirational, not actual behavior - "How do you typically research products before buying?" invites respondents to describe their ideal selves. Ask about the last specific instance: "Think about the last time you bought something over $50 online. Walk me through what you did before purchasing." Specific past behavior is more accurate than general habits.

5. Recruiting from your own user base misses non-users and churned users - If you only recruit current active users, you systematically exclude people who tried and left, people who never signed up, and people in adjacent segments. For generative research, recruit from the broader target population, not just existing customers.

References

For detailed content on specific topics, read the relevant file from references/:

• references/research-methods.md - Catalog of 15+ UX research methods with when-to-use, sample size, and effort level

Only load a references file if the current task requires deep detail on that topic.

Companion check

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