Learn the top 8 reasons why UX research is important and how beneficial it can be to the whole design process.
UX research stands for user experience research, which looks to understand people’s needs, motivations and behaviour through observational techniques such as ethnography and task analysis to provide helpful insights into the design of the product including website design.
UX research helps to reduce uncertainty around what users wants and needs are. That not only benefits the user but also the product on offer and the business. UX research is dependent on the process involved and the objectives that have been set in the first place. Described below are 8 reasons why UX research is important.
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1. Input for the rest of the design process
UX design research comes first at the start of the design process of a project as without it, the work will only be based on assumptions and personal experiences, which is not objective.
2. Understand users goals and motivations
UX research will help you gain knowledge about the users and their needs, motivations, goals and behaviour.
3. Learn of any potential problems
It helps to show you how they operate with a system, where they experience problems and their emotional state when interacting with a product.
4. Understand users behaviour
In looking at people’s behaviours, UX research helps to resolve everyday problems, use of product and more. It looks at specific deep insights about the user instead of broad data to give direction into the design of the product and to what extent users’ needs are met. Therefore, looking behind what people are actually saying through their actions.
5. Evidence based insights rather than relying on assumptions
Throughout each step of the design process UX research can be applied to provide insights in helping to identify and prove or disprove assumptions, recognise their needs, wants and mental state and to find commonalities amongst the target audience.
UX research can manipulate testing via time allocations, iterations, types of tests and other elements to achieve a complete picture of participants use of the product.
Usability tests can also be done online for cost and time benefits as well as measuring the ethnographic considerations for the whole development process, Pastel is one such example with website usability testing.
6. Enhancing user experience
Build designs that are easy to use and are engaging for the end user.
7. Developing designs that are relevant to the user
Producing designs that are relevant to the end user. Having a clear understanding of the user will allow this to happen. It will allow you to understand how and when the end user will interact with the product and resolve any potential issues. Plus, UX research is helpful when a business has to decide between different design solutions.
8. Better return of investment
The bottom line of the user experience design is understanding your return of investment (ROI). By initially incorporating the insights gained through research into design of a product, will allow businesses to reduce the time spent on product development, minimise the likelihood of redesign costs and raise user satisfaction.
Read more about UX research and how it can be applied in this post - UX Research Methods To Consider Using
Also there are some interesting blogs about market research below, you might like.
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