#UserResearch Posts

What does a UX consultant do? More importantly, what does it take for a UX designer to become a consultant and thrive?

Being empathetic is not a selective practice. Designers know how to use empathy to uncover the behaviors and needs of a user. Those same methods and techniques can be used in client relationships.

Users shouldn’t need insider knowledge to find what they’re looking for on the web. Card sorting lets designers create intuitive UX by organizing content the way customers do in their minds.

Designers do not simply decorate, they create an experience of moving through content. There are various strategies available that align the client and team in creating content that will result in better designs.

Data-driven and generative design are two important design processes that can be exploited at the same time to create better product designs and user experiences.

The fundamental purpose of user testing is to better understand and empathize with people who are the core users of a digital product.

Intuition and experience without UX data lead to a dangerous assumption: Designer knows best. We’re drawing a line in the sand: If it’s not based on user research, it’s not UX design.

For decades, a design diploma was the golden ticket to career opportunity. As this path now faces scrutiny, we examine the issues plaguing design institutions and offer radical solutions for change.

There’s much confusion and hyperbole surrounding chatbots. The tech is promising, but the user experience is lacking. We examine five chatbot fails and share practical tips to improve their UX.

Bringing a digital product to a new market can feel like navigating uncharted territory. Cultural differences are hard to identify but essential to understanding when developing a localized user experience.

Data-driven UI design is both art and science. Understanding how to collect and analyze data and implement designs based on it is an important skill for beginner and expert designers alike.

On this week’s Design Talks we discuss research in action with Caitria O’Neill, a UX researcher at Airbnb. She studies people’s relationships with technology and how they behave with digital products.

Design thinking goes beyond the usual problem-solving focus of most UI and UX designers and adds the aspect of deep empathy for the user to the entire product design lifecycle, increasing the prospect of success.

How do product teams avoid wasting months of valuable time building something no one wants? Apply the iterative validation principles of Lean UX and create products that their end-users actually need.

How can designers move beyond personal insights to understand the problems users face? We introduce time-tested UX research methods that inspire user empathy and lead to better user experiences.

Learn the value of minimum viable prototypes (MVPr), a quick and affordable way to create, launch, test, and improve digital products based on real-world insights.

An illuminating infographic highlights ten eCommerce pain points that ruin the user experience and lead to shopping cart abandonment.

In product design, the jobs-to-be-done framework is a well-known approach that is designed to deconstruct the “job” a customer is trying to get done.

Even exciting product ideas can flop without an understanding of the user problem to solve. A design problem statement is an essential step in the design process for creating products that truly matter.

80% of businesses fail in their first year—a majority of these casualties are due to a lack of customer research. Effective customer development interviews can help validate product ideas before moving forward.

UX designers must understand the needs and goals of potential users, their tasks, and context of use. User research will shape and define the guidelines for creating a product with great user experience.

Net Promoter Score is a consumer insight method to track customer loyalty, but it falls short in many ways. Applying various user research methods gives a more complete picture of the user experience.

UX and usability testing analysis is a critical skill. How do you go about collecting data and analyze results? Here’s a way to stay sane during the process.