- Find allies and experts to coordinate and collaborate with and obtain advice from  
- Involve stakeholders that are willing to contribute in substantial ways to the project., and involve them in the research process and share information with them
- Hunt for data sources that may have information useful to you
- Find ways to measure how well the system is working for its users.


Activities for the Discovering Phase

This used primarily to identify, validate, and discard with whatever assumptions, data or insights a team has.  This type of research should ideally be done in the early phases of a project.

- Competitive testing 
- Field Study 
- Diary Study 
- User Interview 
- Stakeholder Interview



University of Michigan - Ann Arbor

Augustana College (IL)

User Research can be done at any point during a project or design project as ongoing research activities can provide valuable information and insight that can always help improve a project, and come in multiple varieties.

- Discover
- Explore
- Test
- Listen



UX Research Cheat Sheet

Nielsen Norman Group. (n.d.). Retrieved April 10, 2022, from https://www.nngroup.com/ 

Nielsen Norman Group

User Experience Research Phases: Discover

Be open and attuned throughout the research and design cycle to help understand existing problems and identify new ones. Analyze data to identify patterns and trends.

- Survey
- Analytics review
- Search-log analysis
- Usability-bug review
- Frequently-asked-questions (FAQ) review


User Experience Research Phases: Listen

Testing and validation methods are for verifying and validating the functionality and use of a system in order to determine whether the system works as it was designed to work. 

- Qualitative usability testing (in-person or remote)
- Benchmark testing
- Accessibility evaluation


User Experience Research Phases: Test

Exploration methods are for understanding the problem space and design scope and addressing user needs.

- Competitive analysis
- Design review
- Persona building
- Task analysis
- Journey mapping
- Prototype feedback & testing (clickable or paper prototypes)
- Write user stories
- Card sorting


Learn Before

Related

Learn After