user research

Studying your customers

User research is the practice of studying how people actually use products, services, or systems—through interviews, observation, surveys, and testing.

The goal is to understand user needs, behaviors, and pain points before or during design: We conducted user research to find out why customers were abandoning their carts.

Common in software development and product design, where assumptions about users often prove wrong.

Related

testing · insights · participants · empathy · feedback · ethnography · field studies · observations · prototypes · qualitative · quantitative · journey · pain points · discovery · synthesis · affinity · recruitment · moderation

Opposites
design methodology

user researchguesswork

Conclusions drawn without proof

gut feeling · speculation · conjecture · expert opinion · presumption

knowledge source

user researchmarket trends

Patterns in trading activity

development philosophy

user researchsolution in search of a problem

Fix that lacks justification

Family

user, research, use, uses, used, using, usable, usability, usage

Familiarity
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Used worldwide · Timeless · Rated G