UX2: Planning and running research
Choosing a research method
🎯You'll be able to
Match a research question to a method (interviews, usability testing, surveys or analytics) and say what each can and can't tell you.
🏠The everyday picture
A shopkeeper who wants to know why customers leave without buying can watch them in the aisles, ask a few of them, count how many leave, or read the complaints book. Each answers a different question.
📘What it really is
- Interviews (talking one to one, usually 30 to 60 minutes) find goals, habits, reasons and feelings. Best early, before designing.
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Usability testing (watching someone try tasks on a product or prototype, thinking aloud) finds where people get stuck and why. Five to eight people per round usually show the biggest problems.
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Surveys (many people answering the same questions) estimate how common something is: "79% of our respondents book on a phone". They're weak at "why".
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Analytics (counts of what people did in the live product) show where people drop out, at scale, but not their reasons.
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Two questions to sort methods: do you need to know what people do or what they say? And do you need why (few people, in depth) or how many (many people, less depth)?
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Mixing methods is normal: analytics shows where people drop out, testing shows why, a survey shows how widespread it is.
📝A worked example
Input: four questions the SehatSlot team has.
| Question | Method | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Why do people abandon the booking form? | Usability testing | Need to see what happens and hear why |
| How many patients book for a relative? | Survey | Need "how many" across many people |
| How do people choose a clinic today? | Interviews | Need habits and reasons, before designing |
| On which step do most people leave? | Analytics | Need counts from the live product |
Expected output: a method for each question, and a note that the kit's research uses usability testing (five sessions) and a survey (120 responses).
🌍Where it's used
- Banks combine app analytics with usability tests of new payment flows.
- Public health programmes interview community health workers before designing a reporting app.
- E-commerce uses surveys after checkout to measure satisfaction, and testing to explain low scores.
📝Case scenario
A transport app's analytics showed many people leaving the ticket screen. The team guessed the price was the problem and ran a discount. Nothing changed. Five usability sessions showed people couldn't find the "From" field after the keyboard opened. Moving it fixed the drop.
🖱️Try it
Write three questions you'd like answered about a service you use, and pick a method for each, with one reason. Success: at least one question needs "why" (interviews or testing) and one needs "how many" (survey or analytics).
⚠️Common mistakes
- Asking a survey to explain behaviour. Sign: "Why did you stop?" as a survey question with tick boxes. Fix: test or interview.
- Using five sessions to measure how common something is. Sign: percentages from five people. Fix: a survey or analytics.
- Only one method. Sign: every question answered by the same kind of study. Fix: choose per question.
🛠️For your project
Project 1 combines the five session notes (why) with the survey (how many); your findings should say which evidence came from which.
✅Quick check
Which method tells you why people get stuck on a screen?
Show the answer
Usability testing, where you watch them and hear them think aloud.
Which methods answer "how many"?
Show the answer
Surveys and analytics.