Weekly Challenge 4: Research in the design process

What is the purpose of an interview?

Collecting in-depth information on people's opinions, thoughts, experiences, and feelings

Which type of bias refers to looking for evidence to prove a hypothesis you have?

Confirmation bias

There are three key qualities that UX researchers usually possess. Which of the following helps UX researchers understand someone else's feelings or thoughts in a situation?

Empathy

What is the purpose of a usability study?

Evaluating a product by testing it on users

A design team finished developing a product and successfully pushed it to the market! Now they want to know what users think. Which type of research can best help the team answer their question?

Post-launch

A design team has finished developing a cat-sitter application for mobile users and they've launched the app. After multiple iterations of testing and prototypes, the team wants to see how real users have interacted with their product. At this stage, what kind of research in the product development life cycle should they employ?

Post-launch research

There are three key qualities that UX researchers usually possess. Which of these qualities helps UX researchers stay focused on the goal of the project as well as solve problems practically?

Pragmatism

UX research focuses on understanding user behaviors, needs, and motivations through observation and feedback.

True

What does UX research focus on?

Understanding user behaviors, needs, and motivations through observation and feedback

Imagine that a design team needs to evaluate a mobile app prototype before the next design iteration. They want to learn about user pain points and fix any problems before the product launches. What is the most appropriate research method?

Usability study

Which research method allows in-depth feedback and firsthand interaction, but only measures how easy it is to use a product?

Usability study

Which of the following are areas that a UX researcher focuses on? Select all that apply.

User behaviors User needs User motivations

When developing a product, what benefits does interview research provide for design teams? Select all that apply

Ask follow-up questions about the user's experience Understand what users think and why

The primacy bias refers to remembering the first participant most strongly. Identify a method that can help overcome primacy bias.

Interview each participant the same way and take detailed notes or recordings

A UX research team already has a good understanding of what they're going to build. They now want to answer the question "How do we build it?" Which type of research can best help the team answer their question?

Design

A design team is looking to build an application for mobile users who own cats. They did research and decided to build a cat sitting app to address a gap in the market. The design team needs to know how they should build the app. At this stage, what kind of research in the product development lifecycle should they employ?

Design research

When conducting interviews, is it a benefit or a drawback that the sample size is relatively small?

Drawback

Which type of bias is an overestimation of the number of people who will agree with an idea or design?

False consensus bias

Imagine that a design firm's research team knows about their users' pain points, but they need to answer a few specific questions before proceeding. To learn more, they decide to collect in-depth information on a handful of users' opinions. What is the most appropriate research method?

Interviews

Implicit bias refers to a collection of attitudes and stereotypes we associate to people without our conscious knowledge. Identify a method that can help overcome implicit bias.

Identify and articulate assumptions before interviews or conversations Take detailed notes or recordings and interview each participant the same way Reflect on behaviors and ask others to point out biases

Consider the following scenario: Imagine that a UX designer creates an app for saving, organizing, and streaming podcasts. To learn about users' experiences with their product, the designer conducts interviews with a select group of target users: podcast enthusiasts. The research team has a hypothesis that podcast enthusiasts prefer long-form, polished content — rather than talk radio and news — so they ask a series of questions about how users interact with this content. How can the researcher avoid the impact of confirmation bias? Select all that apply.

Interview a large group of users with diverse perspectives Ask open-ended questions and actively listen to respondents

Consider the following scenario: To decide what type of fitness app to design, the research team designs a survey to learn about gaps in the marketplace. They survey a group of fitness enthusiasts, and ask users to rate—from 1 (strongly dislike) to 5 (strongly like)—the top fitness apps on the market. Using this numeric data, the researchers calculate the average likability rating for each app. What type of research is the team conducting?

Quantitative research

Which type of bias refers to the ease of remembering the last thing that was heard in an interview or conversation?

Recency bias

A design team is designing a mobile app for a client. This client is in an industry the team is not familiar with. To better understand the industry, they do research in trade magazines and journals. What type of research is the design team conducting?

Secondary research

Consider the following scenario: Imagine that a UX designer creates an app for saving, organizing, and streaming podcasts. The designer begins to work on a tagging feature they've often struggled to find in other apps. The new feature is beneficial to the internal testers and the designer believes that everyone they interview will appreciate the feature too. When a few users are confused about the new feature, the designer dismisses these findings. How can the researcher avoid the impact of false consensus bias? Select all that apply.

Survey a large group of users with diverse perspectives Identify assumptions

Imagine that a design firm's research team has a basic understanding of their users' pain points. To learn more, they decide to investigate further with a large group of people. What is the most appropriate research method?

Surveys

The recency bias refers to bias where it's easier for a person to recall the last thing heard in an interview or conversation. Identify a method that can help overcome recency bias.

Take detailed notes or recordings and interview each participant the same way