Don’t get me wrong. I know that you get the best results when you combine the Quantitative results with the Qualitative results. You need the objective data to support the subjective results of the qualitative feedback, just as you need the subjective outputs to illuminate the objective data, which are meaningless on their own. But still. I am not a fan of quantitative research methods and why I prefer qualitative methods, while knowing I get the best results by doing both. Let’s start at the beginning. 🏃🏻♂️.
The reason I don’t like quantitative research
User experience (UX) or design research is a set of surveys, methods and techniques aimed at obtaining user feedback on selected elements of the design or the userflow in general. It’s meant to be a subtle process of sourcing information that helps designers like us change their projects and tweak them to the user’s liking. This can include applying a nearly finished product, prototype, or special bare-bones builds to customers, to test specific elements.
What Does a UX Researcher Do?
They are responsible for running tests, collecting feedback and turning it into data that can be used to improve the UX.They decide when to use which method, based on his professional knowledge and experience. The Researcher selects the users who will take part in the tests, because the most important part of UX Research is testing with the most representative users possible. This is to some extent essential as it provides unbiased information on how users use the product and where they experience problems using it. The UX researcher has to interact with end-users and elicit solid responses from them. They filter and transfer their responses to the stakeholder of the product/project.
Why Does UX Research Matter?
It’d be insane of us (or any designer, for that matter) to ask that we have some kind of innate knowledge of what any user wants. User behavior changes, preferences shift, and the target group can be completely different depending on the project you’re working on. Having UX research on your side means coming into any task with a lot more confidence, backup for future discussions with the stakeholder, and some understanding of what needs to be done. Sure, you can always take care of the basics without it if you’re a good designer, but this kind of thoroughness is what really takes UX to the next level.
How to do UX Research?
By conducting all this testing and surveying, we try to get a look at my design from the perspective of my users. It’s not about making them love our ideas, it’s about tailoring our ideas so that they can be loved by the user. The task is on the designer to do right for the user and, by analyzing the data from the design research, create excellent UX. It’s a way to improve our work and help us make sense of a project in a field that’s new to us.
The qualitative methods concerns answers to questions on user satisfaction and what prevents the user from having the best possible user experience. Pretty much a way to find out “why isn’t my desired userflow working?” Or “which elements stand out thanks to my design?”. It can be a little more difficult to back this up with data, as many users are hesitant when asked this question and cannot give an accurate answer because the end user is not thinking of the website in terms of elements.
Quantitative design research is about gathering data on the amount of visitors pages get, the number of clicks given to a button etc. You get the answer on how users are really using your product. They seem to be easier to interpret and can be turned into usable data with less effort. You get the results faster and cheaper, because qualitative research needs lots of time.
Why I prefer qualitative Methods
Any research that is done is better than none. You just have to be careful with the interpretation of the data. As Winston Churchill probably never said: “The only statistics you can trust are those you falsified yourself”. This collected data is good to get a notice that something is wrong, that you have to look at a specific part of the product.
But if you want to deeply understand the users actions you need to ask the user. Otherwise, you are about to make decisions based on assumptions of possible misleading data. I can understand why a user fails e.g. at a form; is it because of the descriptions of the fields; does he not understand why he has to fill out the form, or are the regulations for the password not clear enough explained. You don’t really see what the user sees. Maybe the UI is presenting him with all the information he needs, but he doesn’t recognize. Maybe it’s for a different reason. You only get to know the truth by qualitative user research.