Getting started with design research

Joel Califa

Joel Califa

@notdetails

Design research is the systemic investigation of users and their needs. It employs various methodologies that will help you make more informed decisions when building your products. If you’ve heard about it before, chances are you know that it’s a good thing, but haven’t quite gotten around to doing it. Maybe you don’t feel like you have enough time to invest in it. Maybe you don’t know where to start, or you’re worried about doing it wrong. Here’s the good news: getting started with research is much easier than you think. Here’s more good news: it’s going to save you and your company time, money, and a lot of frustration. It’ll result in a better understanding of your users, and provide you with new opportunities you hadn’t considered. The bad news? There’s no bad news.

  1. The Case for Talking to Users in the Age of Big Data

    I really like the way the author breaks down the unique benefits of qualitative research. It’s a good primer for why this kind of research is worthwhile and why you should invest in reading the rest of these links.

  2. UX Research Cheat Sheet

    This short article from the Nielsen Norman Group provides a high level view of many valuable research methods, as well as some best practices. I suggest you start with usability testing, user interviews, and field studies.

  3. Techniques for Talking to Users

    A few handy tips for interviewing users without skewing their answers.

  4. Book: Rocket Surgery Made Easy

    This book outlines everything you need to know to get started with usability testing. It’ll take you less than a day to read and you’ll be able to apply what you learn right away. Once you get started testing your product, you’ll be surprised by how straightforward it is.

  5. How to Lead an Impactful Research Team

    It’s one thing to conduct a few ad-hoc interviews with users. It’s quite another to build research into your product development process. I’d like to end with this brilliant article explaining how to do just that. It was written with a dedicated research team in mind, but I think it applies to anyone trying to get their companies to buy into the importance of regular research.