UX research by itself, involves gathering information about target users and their needs in order to provide realistic contexts and insights into design processes. UX researchers apply a range of methods to uncover important facts that can be included in the design process in order to identify challenges and design opportunities.
The goal of creating a plan for UX research is to facilitate the process of managing your UX studies, make it easy for you to keep track of results as well as create a clear research strategy that you can follow.
Benefits of having a plan
- Helping you stay focused on the goals
- Engaging stakeholders in the process
- Keeping track of the results
Title: Every good project needs a name. Include the title of the project you’re working on in order for it to be identified.
Author: Add the name and contact of the person in charge of executing the plan. You may also include names of other persons to whom readers can send their feedback and inputs about the contents of the document.
Stakeholders information: Everybody involved in the study and all the people you’ll be sharing your research with. Include their roles and contact details.
Date: When the project has started. It’s also important to include revision dates so that everybody is aware of all the updates.
Project’s background: This should be a short summary paragraph where you explain your motivation – the reason why the research is being conducted, what are the problems that need to be resolved, and any other important background information to provide the reader with the required context.
The main goal: Explain your main objective in 1 sentence. What are you trying to achieve with your research? Keep it short and clear, try to choose a single most important goal instead of a number of small ones.
Research questions: What are the questions that you’re looking to get answered in your research? Writing them down will assist you in determining the research method you will use, what questions you’ll ask participants during the research, and what you’ll want to focus on while analyzing results. Planning your research questions helps you make sure you don’t forget anything important and that your UX research design corresponds well with your goals. Learn How to ask good questions in usability testing.
Research methods: There are tons of qualitative and quantitative methods to choose from. Include the ones you’re going to use in your studies, specify if it’s going to be moderated or unmoderated and how long it will take.
Information about the participants: In this part of your plan, define the target audience of your research (age, gender, potential customers/existing customers…) and specify where you’re going to recruit them. How many participants do you need? Is there one group or multiple segments?
Schedule: Make a schedule of when each study is going to be conducted as well as an estimation of how long the whole research process is going to take. It’s good to also add milestones to indicate the progress and see when each activity is due.
Supporting information: if there is any other relevant data that can influence the research project, don’t forget to mention it as well.
Tips to construct a better UX plan:
- Gather all your common knowledge, agreements, and understanding of what will occur, why, with whom, and when in a couple of sentences that will represent your main objective.
- Set the right expectations for all stakeholders, and make sure your research plan is focused on the main goal.
- Keep the plan short and simple so that all of your stakeholders can understand it. You can work from a more detailed plan, but for your stakeholders, the Interaction Design Foundation recommends a One Page User Research Plan.
- Make the UX research plan a team effort by incorporating all team members so that everyone understands it.
- The list of questions you’re aiming to answer is at the heart of the user research, choose the appropriate ones and avoid bias.
After user research plan:
Once you’re done with the user research plan consider how you’ll deliver the results of your study to your stakeholders and team. During the session, tell an engaging story and include quotations and videos from your participants to help stakeholders understand the effect of your research. After all is said and done, store your insights in a way that anybody can access and understand at any time. This will guarantee that your research leaves a lasting effect on your team and project.
Example Objectives
- Understand how users currently go about tracking orders on our website
- Understand what actions customers take when they consider buying a new [product we offer]
- Learn about competitor websites/apps customers are using to buy [product we offer]
- Evaluate pain points customers are experiencing in using our website/app
- And here are some examples to help you determine the success of your UX research plan.
Example Success Metrics
- What information are we trying to collect about users?
- What scales/documents/statistics do we intend to create?
- What decisions will these materials help to make?
Example Methodology
For this study, we’re conducting a 30-minute usability test to evaluate our user’s experience of our app/website. A secondary method will be to conduct one-on-one generative research interviews to better understand our customers and empathize with their needs.
Examples of good research plan:
https://www.figma.com/community/file/1113390322615257554
https://www.figma.com/community/file/992844865674063456
https://www.figma.com/community/file/1232324383363570092
https://www.figma.com/community/file/1365171879419484965
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