What is UX research? A Guide for UX Researchers

In today’s competitive world that we are living in, developing a product and promoting it in the market is not an easy task. There are an endless number of competitors out there that you must be fighting with, in order to make your product lucrative. To do so, there are a wide range of activities such as market research and marketing that must be done with care. There are a wide range of marketing techniques and methodologies, in order to promote a product, but at the end of the day, ordinary people are your final target to do business with. As such, understanding what your targeted audiences’ needs are and how they take action to fulfil their needs is the most important part of starting a business. Gathering such information needs research and market study. That is what is called UX or User Experience research. If you are after website development in Dubai to start your online business, this article helps you a lot, so read it to the end.

What is User Experience research?

UX research refers to studying the behavior of the targeted users and understanding their needs, taste, preferences and action, when they are in need of your product, in order to add precise insights into the design process to make it user-focused more. Assume that you are an entrepreneur who is planning to start an online store in Dubai. Obviously you need a website first! However, how would you expect a successful outcome, if you start your ecommerce web design in Dubai, without knowing who your targeted audiences are and how they behave, if they are in need of your product? It is nonsense, as your targeted audiences’ taste and behavior have not been taken into account at your design phase. Here is where the importance of implementing UX research comes up.

Why is UX research important? 

To stand out from the crowd and build a product that converts, there is no way other than design user-focused. In other words, to design a product that targeted audiences resonate with, you must engage users in the design  process. The best answer on how to design, is not with the designers and nor with the business owner. It’s with the people who are supposed to interact with the product. As such, it is crucial to do your homework and get a comprehensive UX research done beforehand, and once the outcome is in your hand, start your website design process and look for supplementary services like SEO in Dubai, accordingly.  

What are the main types of User Experience Research?

There are basically two main types for UX research as explained below:

• Qualitative and Quantitative research method

The main approach for a precise UX research is using the Qualitative and Quantitative methods. While the qualitative method focuses on gathering data from real users on why they take a specific action, the quantitative method works pretty much with numbers and statistics. Let’s dive deeper for a better understanding.

• Qualitative research

The method focuses on the reasons by asking questions starting with “Why”. For instance, why a user ignored taking a specific action on a corporate website. Why don’t they feel comfortable with a specific procedure or product? The responses that come from real users who have interacted with the product or a website before, would add a great value to the UX research.

• Quantitative research

The quantitative approach focuses on numbers as mentioned earlier. The research is pretty much after collecting data on numerical data such as how many users explore the website, what percentage of the users take an action, how long they have stayed on the website, etc.

It’s always a good idea to use qualitative and quantitative methods both together to get a meaningful outcome that works best for the design. 

• Attitudinal and Behavioral research method

Attitudinal method examines how people think or talk about a specific product or action, while the behavioral method focuses on how they really take action, as the thoughts and the action is different in many cases.

• Behavioral research

Behavioral research tends to observe how people take action when experiencing a particular situation or how they really interact with a product. 

• Attitudinal research 

Attitudinal research looks for how people think and what they say about a product or a design element of a website. It’s just about real users’ thoughts about a product.

Again, combining behavioral and attitudinal research results would give the designer a broad picture of how good the product is designed. 

Bottomline

The process of UX research is usually complicated and needs to be accomplished by well-educated UX researchers with a considerable level of market experience, in order to get the best result out of the research. Even though it costs you time and money., we would like to assure you that it is worth it, for the sake of developing a shining website.

Websima DMCC, as a leading digital service provider in the UAE and international market with extensive level of experience and proven track record of success is more than happy to help, if you are in need. Feel free to contact us and ask for a free consultation meeting with our talented team to discuss your project in detail. We will get back to you with a proper solution that suits your needs perfectly.