20 UX methods in brief

The UX expert Cristian has organized these different methodologies into a chart, A Landscape of User Research Methods, to help us to better understand them:

Here's a short description of the user research methods shown in the preceding chart, described by NNGroup:

• Usability Lab Studies: The participants are invited to do a few specific tasks in a lab with the researcher in a one-on-one.
• Ethnographic Field Studies: The researcher meets the participants in their natural environment, where they would most likely use the product or service.
• Participatory Design: The participants are invited to enter the creative process in design workshops by designing their ideal experience in a concrete way. It is a good approach to get stakeholders involved, for example.
• Focus Groups: The research mediates a group of 3-12 participants to give feedback about a set of topics through discussion and exercises.
• Interviews: It is a one-on-one session with participants to discuss in depth what they think about the topic in question.
• Eyetracking: By using a device or specific computer, you can precisely measure where the participants are looking while they perform a task.
• Usability Benchmarking (in lab): It doesn’t care about the why, but focuses on just measuring a predetermined user's performance and satisfaction.
• Moderated Remote Usability Studies: By using screen-sharing tools, the researcher can conduct usability tests remotely.
• Unmoderated Remote Panel Studies: Participants are recorded while doing usability tests with a specific and strict set of tasks; they are asked to think aloud during the sessions.
• Concept Testing: It is an investigation of potential consumers' reactions to a proposed design, product, or service before introducing it to the market and validating if it meets the needs of the target audience.
• Diary/Camera Studies: In the Diary Studies, the participants keep a journal describing their activities, behavior, and attitudes over a period of time. They can be asked to record it.
• Customer Feedback: Information coming directly from customers about the satisfaction or dissatisfaction through a feedback link, button, form, email, and so on.
• Desirability Studies: You can use this methodology to analyze emotional response to a design by giving the participants a list of product reaction words and asking them to select those that best describe the design.
• Card Sorting: Participants are asked to organize items into groups and assign categories to each group. This is a good way to, for example, validate or refine information architecture.
• Clickstream Analysis: Also known as clickpaths, they are recordings of the route that visitors choose when clicking or navigating through a site.
• A/B Testing: The users are randomly exposed to two (A or B) different versions of the designs, a good way to measure the best solution between both. It is also possible to test more than two versions, which is called multivariate testing.
• Unmoderated UX Studies: Automated method to capture participant behaviors and attitudes while they need to accomplish specific goals or tasks.
• True-Intent Studies: Aims at understanding a user’s objective and intentions while they are visiting the website or app, as well as to get actionable information about their experience.
• Intercept Surveys: While the users are on the site or application, a survey is triggered that they are invited to answer.
• Email Surveys: A group of participants receive a survey on their email to be answered.

If you are still not sure about which methods to use, you can consider:

• Quantitative research: Research generates numerical data to answer a question. Having such numbers helps prioritize resources, for example, to focus on issues with the biggest impact.
• Qualitative research: Research that generates non-numerical data, such as open-ended survey questions or interviews, helps to answer questions about why or how to fix a problem.
• Attitudinal research: Research aimed at determining how something is or will be perceived, focuses on understanding or measuring people's stated beliefs.
• Behavioral research: Research aimed at determining or predicting how people actually behave.

The following graph, by Christian Rohrer (twitter.com/christianrohrer), might help you better understand how to choose the best methodology when you consider BEHAVIORAL versus ATTITUDINAL and QUALITATIVE versus QUANTITIVE:

There are many other methodologies, not listed by Rohrer, that can also be considered, such as the contextual inquiry, contextual inquiry interview, when the researcher will watch the users during their normal activities, which will be discussed in a one-on-one interaction lasting about two hours. Another option is tree testing, a type of card-based classification to evaluate the findability of topics on a website, a way to measure how easily users can find items in this hierarchy (Wikipedia); or is multivariate testing, a specialized type of A/B testing that generates multiple versions of a page based on more than one variable and determines which version performs best. There are also heatmaps (similar to eye tracking), using online tools that visually represent user clicks, taps, and scrolling behavior. You will probably hear about many other methodologies.