UX Research Plans - 100 Days of Writing, Design & Emotions

I'm working on a UX project and I've been haphazardly jumping through research methods. I wouldn't recommend doing the same because... just trust me. It's not worth it.



Instead, I'm going to take a step back and create a research plan. So, I spent today learning about research planning through Udacity's UX nanodegree.



My goal is to break down the fuzzy, large project in my mind into clear, actionable steps. I'm learning that my brain needs to know what's coming next. It needs clarity otherwise I will freeze and feel scattered.



Note: today's post in less focused on emotions because today my emotions have gathered in a different section of my life. So, for the first time in a while, writing and learning have been relatively feeling free.



Research Planning 101





There are 6 sections to this research plan:

1. Background

2. Research goals

3. Research questions

4. Interview questions

5. Recruiting

6. Script



But first, a story from the Udacity UX course:







"Mega Monster Mike is looking for a mate. He wants to be ready for his very first date.



There is a girl he wants to impress. So, he wants to find the best way to dress.



‘What types of clothes fit my body well?', asks monster mike. 'This is something that is hard to tell.'



'Does this tie bring out my eye? Does my hair need a new dye?'



If Mike truly wants a happy date, his research plan has to be great."



I don't know about you but I love a good bed-time like story. Keep Mega Monster Mike in mind, we'll come back to him later.



Background

→ What is the project about?

→ What stage is the project in?

→ What do you want to get from user research?



Research goals

→ Why do you want to invest time and money into a research study?



It's good to have an idea of why you're about to sink the time into this study. Research for research's sake isn't useful.



Overarching research questions

→ What are the overarching research questions you want to use the interviews to find answers for?



My question: how do I make my personal website an enjoyable experience?



Interview questions

→ Specific questions to help you answer your overarching research question(s)

e.g. if the overarching question is: how can I make browsing a website an incredible experience?

• What's the most memorable personal website you've visited?

• What feature on a website brings a smile to your face?

• What's you biggest peeve with personal websites?



Recruiting Strategies

→ What criteria do potential participants need to meet?

→ How and where to find the participants?

→ What's the compensation? (gift cards are common practice)



Use a screener survey during research sign up to make sure the right people are recruited. Here's Google's UX research screener as an example. You can create your own screener using Google Forms



Script

The script is split into two parts:

Introduction:

• introduce yourself
• introduce the project: what you do and why you want to chat
• state the conversation will be confidential
• let participants know: 'you can leave at any time'
• ask if it's OK to record



Questions:

• warm-up questions to build rapport

• interview questions you planned in step 4



Phew!



Tomorrow I'll share the research plan for one of the projects I'm working on at the moment.

Exercise:

Here's an exercise to help the above stick

→ Take Mega Mike's story and fit it into the research planning stages. Which part of his story corresponds to which stage?