The Purpose & Value of UX Research Part 2

The Value of UX Research

In the previous article The Purpose & Value of UX Research Part 1, we discussed how a bad user experience can affect a user, then defined user experience research from a product perspective and its applications throughout the design process. Understanding what UX research is and how it can be applied is only half of the puzzle – the other half is understanding the value UX research provides and the return on investment (ROI).

UX research requires time and resources to accomplish. One of the biggest challenges in this field is acquiring that time and those resources. Stakeholders often assume that they know their users and what they want, therefore it is quicker and cheaper to use these assumptions rather than conducting research. However, these assumptions are often outdated, not contextually driven, or not backed by both qualitative and quantitative data. While it is important to advocate for the benefits research will have to its users, it is also crucial to be able to explain the benefits UX research provides to businesses and their processes.

What is the value of investing in UX Research?

The ROI of UX research seems like a paradox because it is more about what you lose if you do not invest in UX research. By not investing in UX research, you take the risk of your product not resonating with users, leading to a poor user experience. Bad user experiences may result in a poor perception of your organization and decrease the user’s willingness to use the digital product. More time and money is spent trying to figure out what the underlying problem is, as well as trying to determine a solution to fix it. Investing in UX research mitigates this risk and saves you time and money on the backend.

In one scenario, no UX research is done. A website is designed with business goals and certain user behaviors, such as conversions, in mind. Goals and KPIs are defined, and website analytics will be used to test the effectiveness of the design post-launch. The site is launched, but the outcome is not as intended – site analytics and conversions are going down. Still no UX research is done, therefore the designer or the stakeholder are making changes to the site, hoping one of them will resonate with the users and get those metrics back to the expected level. In that time of coming up with a solution and getting that solution implemented, valuable conversions are lost and the user’s perception of that organization can change drastically because of this poor user experience. Although the designer and/or stakeholder are going through this continual cycle of making changes that they “think” will resonate with the user, effectively they are wasting time and money betting on a change to work.

In the other scenario, UX research is done from the beginning of a project. The discovery phase of the research gives valuable insights on the users to drive the design. The design is validated with users before launch, ensuring that the flows that are imperative for business goals are a seamless user experience. Any changes made to the design are done prior to launch. Site analytics can still be used to monitor performance, but if an issue arises, user research is done to get a definitive solution backed by data, rather than betting on a solution to work. It becomes an iterative process, but the guess work is taken out of the equation. Time and money spent is saved post launch, which also saves those valuable conversions and the user’s perceived value of an organization.

An example of this was a medical diagnostic test company that came to PINT for the implementation of a website redesign as described in this blog post. One of the company’s goals of the project was to streamline the patient and physician user journey on the site so that each user group was able to find the information they needed and submit a Contact form. We conducted a usability study for the design provided to us with five users in the patient user group, and the results greatly impacted the design. When asked to find information about the main diagnostic test on the site, the users struggled to find information and went to an average of five separate pages on the site. Three out of five users ended up not finding any information about the test. All users felt confused and frustrated. On the other hand, the users quickly found the Contact Us form and were easily able to fill it out for their needs.

To make the information more findable and to negate the resulting frustration and confusion, we made the recommendation to change the navigation of the site. Rather than having “Patients” and “Physicians” on the global navigation, we separated out the site between the 2 diagnostic tests. From there, we had a progressive disclosure menu to show the “Patient” pages and the “Physician” pages. Following the launch of the redesigned site, we saw a 12% increase in users and an overall decrease of pageviews. This decrease in pageviews is a positive thing, as it indicates that the user journey for both patients and physicians is streamlined so each user group does not need to view multiple pages to find the information they need. Contact Us forms saw an 229% increase in submissions following the redesigned site’s launch, validating the findability and usability of the Contact Us form.

Had we not done UX research, we would have launched the site without knowing about the confusion and frustration the users felt when trying to find crucial information on the site. This confusion and frustration could have led users to bounce before filling out the contact form or to start to form a more negative association with the company, all due to a poor user experience. By focusing on site analytics post-launch, we might have missed this issue completely if the pageviews increased post-launch, as we often see increases as an indication of positive performance. All by conducting a usability study, we prevented poor user experiences from occurring on the site, limiting the frustration, confusion and any other negative emotions from being associated with the medical diagnostic tests and their company.

How to Incorporate UX Research into Your Process

If UX research was never integrated into your process, it may seem daunting to suddenly start to include it. But it doesn’t have to be. It is never too late or too early to start to incorporate UX research into your design process. Small incremental steps that yield impactful results can lead to stakeholder buy-in, resulting in more incorporation of human-centered design thinking and UX research.

There is no one-size fits all UX research plan. Depending on the design problem and circumstances, a quick research plan or method may suffice, while sometimes a more methodical, thought-out process needs to occur for the best results. For example, troubleshooting a quantitative analytics question, such as why engagement time on a page is low, may benefit from a quick usability study with a few users to find the underlying problem. On the other hand, a whole product or website redesign may involve several different methods that occur at all stages of the process: discovery, design, and post-launch. The earlier in the process that UX research is incorporated in the process, the more likely the site or product would be designed around the user’s behavior and goals, and the insights would be implemented in the design and development phases. This saves time and money post-launch to go back and diagnose why a user flow or design element isn’t resonating with the users as intended.

Conclusion

The incorporation of human-centered design and UX research into the product design process is crucial to ensure your product achieves its high-level business goals while maintaining a good, high-quality user experience. The investment in UX research yields valuable insights that result in a data-driven design and saves you money on the backend trying to solve an undefined problem. Whether you are thinking about a redesign or just improving parts of your product, UX research can bridge the gap between your high level business goals and the design of the product, producing positive returns for both your company and your users. Contact PINT here if you are interested in incorporating UX research into your latest project or into your web-development processes.