At Practical Insights we have a broad definition of user experience that includes all touchpoints of a customer with your product, service or brand. User experience research is the structured investigation of current, and prospective, customers at those touchpoints. Research provides an external view into who and how real people will adopt, use, and experience your product or service.
With roots in usability and web-interfaces, user experience research is often done on technology products, but the user-centered methodologies can be applied in many areas. As user experience researchers, we partner with UX design and product teams. As qualitative researchers, we partner with and share methodologies with customer insights teams in marketing. As trusted partners we can inform strategic decision makers wherever they are in the organization. Truly connecting creators with the people intended to benefit from their work means every part of your organization can benefit from user experience research.
Here are some of our thoughts on how to conduct effective user experience research: