All UX Design Methods
Posted: Tue Dec 10, 2024 4:34 am
The goal of UX Design is to improve the user experience of digital products: website, mobile application, software, SaaS, platform, etc. To carry out this mission, the UX Designer can use the design thinking approach which is divided into 5 main stages, ranging from research into user needs to validation tests once the optimizations have been carried out.
Each of these phases corresponds to different methods that we have listed, defined and explained in this article. The idea is not to use them all for each project, but to choose the most relevant ones according to the context and needs.
Which UX Design methods should you choose for your project? In the photo, we see a man working on a whiteboard of UX mockups
User research: what methods in UX Design?
To improve the UX Design of your site, you must start by asking yourself about its users: how do they interact with the interface? What are their expectations? What is missing from their experience? To find out, you will need to gather a significant amount of data . Some will be quantitative , others qualitative .
However, it should be noted that user research work is not limited to the beginning of the project. It must be carried out continuously, because users and uses are constantly changing. If you want a high-performance interface today and tomorrow, you must therefore remain open to change .
Quantitative methods
A quantitative method allows you to collect numerical data, which will be easy to use, but not very detailed and incomplete. Its objective is to answer the question "how much?"
Here is a list of the ones you can use.
The statistical audit consists of looking at the metrics of your digital solution (number of visits per page, origin of visitors, time spent on each page, bounce rate, IT equipment used, etc.).
Behavior auditing includes techniques such as scrollmap, confetti map, and heatmap to identify the areas that attract the most attention from visitors. It is also possible to record entire sessions to analyze in detail the navigation path taken by users.
The ergonomic audit focuses on the usability of your digital product , that is to say the effectiveness of its architecture, the organization of menus, the layout of blocks and buttons, and its wording.
Polls and surveys are easy to set up and allow you to quickly gather a large amount of data from a specific target audience, all at a low cost. It would be a shame to do without them.
Qualitative methods
Quantitative methods are essential, but cannot do without their qualitative versions , the aim of which is to answer the questions "how?" and "why?".
What are qualitative methods?
UX benchmarking consists of observing what the competition is doing in order to draw inspiration from its strengths, but also to differentiate itself.
User interviews are essential to enrich the data obtained using quantitative methods. Used throughout the life of your web project, they are an opportunity to get users talking and understand what they like and what they have problems with. The user panel must include typical profiles, but also atypical profiles in order to understand in depth the different possible uses.
Focus groups are also interviews, but this time conducted in groups composed of a representative sample of users. They allow for rich and varied feedback on the product presented.
User testing is usually done after the product is finished, but it is worth running it throughout the project build to reduce remediation costs . It is also a good way to confidently move through each stage thanks to user confirmation.
User verbatims represent a basis for reflection to set the course for optimization. It is a question of noting the striking and recurring expressions , then formulating them in the form of problems.
Shadowing is a method that consists of observing the behavior of users without intervening so as not to influence it. It is possible to conduct an interview after the session to better interpret the actions performed.
Ethnographic research involves conducting an interview with zalo database one user at a time, while they interact with the digital product .
Ebook
Best User Experience Design Methods
Download the e-book
UX Design methods for defining personas and the user journey
Defining personas and the user journey is absolutely crucial to the success of your web project. This step will help you understand what type of people you are building your interface for and what path will be most effective in converting them. To do this work, here are the UX methods you can use.
The empathy map
As its name suggests, the empathy map is a tool that helps to better understand the feelings and emotions of the typical user. To complete it, you need to ask yourself the right questions:
Who is he?
What does he think?
What does he say?
What does he hear from those around him?
What are his goals, his desires, his fears, his deep aspirations?
What is his behavior?
Etc.
Creating personas
The elements collected on the empathy map then allow you to create different UX personas , i.e. typical profiles that represent your target. But that's not enough: you need to compare this data with information from the users themselves , through interviews or surveys for example.
Building the user journey
The user journey or Customer Journey represents the path that users will take to go from their first point of contact (the discovery of your site for example) to the point that you want them to reach (a purchase, a subscription or even a registration). Their journey can take very different forms and be more or less pleasant.
Thinking about the user journey means asking yourself how to make it easy, fluid and barrier-free. So you need to ask yourself questions about the ease of access to information , the different steps to take to get there, the markup, etc.
To succeed in your Customer Journey , referencing all the points of contact is essential, because they all represent a potential blockage for the user. Then, various plausible scenarios must be imagined in order to anticipate malfunctions and propose solutions in accordance with user expectations . Their intervention is therefore inevitable: they must be involved in tests, evaluations and validations throughout the project.
Each of these phases corresponds to different methods that we have listed, defined and explained in this article. The idea is not to use them all for each project, but to choose the most relevant ones according to the context and needs.
Which UX Design methods should you choose for your project? In the photo, we see a man working on a whiteboard of UX mockups
User research: what methods in UX Design?
To improve the UX Design of your site, you must start by asking yourself about its users: how do they interact with the interface? What are their expectations? What is missing from their experience? To find out, you will need to gather a significant amount of data . Some will be quantitative , others qualitative .
However, it should be noted that user research work is not limited to the beginning of the project. It must be carried out continuously, because users and uses are constantly changing. If you want a high-performance interface today and tomorrow, you must therefore remain open to change .
Quantitative methods
A quantitative method allows you to collect numerical data, which will be easy to use, but not very detailed and incomplete. Its objective is to answer the question "how much?"
Here is a list of the ones you can use.
The statistical audit consists of looking at the metrics of your digital solution (number of visits per page, origin of visitors, time spent on each page, bounce rate, IT equipment used, etc.).
Behavior auditing includes techniques such as scrollmap, confetti map, and heatmap to identify the areas that attract the most attention from visitors. It is also possible to record entire sessions to analyze in detail the navigation path taken by users.
The ergonomic audit focuses on the usability of your digital product , that is to say the effectiveness of its architecture, the organization of menus, the layout of blocks and buttons, and its wording.
Polls and surveys are easy to set up and allow you to quickly gather a large amount of data from a specific target audience, all at a low cost. It would be a shame to do without them.
Qualitative methods
Quantitative methods are essential, but cannot do without their qualitative versions , the aim of which is to answer the questions "how?" and "why?".
What are qualitative methods?
UX benchmarking consists of observing what the competition is doing in order to draw inspiration from its strengths, but also to differentiate itself.
User interviews are essential to enrich the data obtained using quantitative methods. Used throughout the life of your web project, they are an opportunity to get users talking and understand what they like and what they have problems with. The user panel must include typical profiles, but also atypical profiles in order to understand in depth the different possible uses.
Focus groups are also interviews, but this time conducted in groups composed of a representative sample of users. They allow for rich and varied feedback on the product presented.
User testing is usually done after the product is finished, but it is worth running it throughout the project build to reduce remediation costs . It is also a good way to confidently move through each stage thanks to user confirmation.
User verbatims represent a basis for reflection to set the course for optimization. It is a question of noting the striking and recurring expressions , then formulating them in the form of problems.
Shadowing is a method that consists of observing the behavior of users without intervening so as not to influence it. It is possible to conduct an interview after the session to better interpret the actions performed.
Ethnographic research involves conducting an interview with zalo database one user at a time, while they interact with the digital product .
Ebook
Best User Experience Design Methods
Download the e-book
UX Design methods for defining personas and the user journey
Defining personas and the user journey is absolutely crucial to the success of your web project. This step will help you understand what type of people you are building your interface for and what path will be most effective in converting them. To do this work, here are the UX methods you can use.
The empathy map
As its name suggests, the empathy map is a tool that helps to better understand the feelings and emotions of the typical user. To complete it, you need to ask yourself the right questions:
Who is he?
What does he think?
What does he say?
What does he hear from those around him?
What are his goals, his desires, his fears, his deep aspirations?
What is his behavior?
Etc.
Creating personas
The elements collected on the empathy map then allow you to create different UX personas , i.e. typical profiles that represent your target. But that's not enough: you need to compare this data with information from the users themselves , through interviews or surveys for example.
Building the user journey
The user journey or Customer Journey represents the path that users will take to go from their first point of contact (the discovery of your site for example) to the point that you want them to reach (a purchase, a subscription or even a registration). Their journey can take very different forms and be more or less pleasant.
Thinking about the user journey means asking yourself how to make it easy, fluid and barrier-free. So you need to ask yourself questions about the ease of access to information , the different steps to take to get there, the markup, etc.
To succeed in your Customer Journey , referencing all the points of contact is essential, because they all represent a potential blockage for the user. Then, various plausible scenarios must be imagined in order to anticipate malfunctions and propose solutions in accordance with user expectations . Their intervention is therefore inevitable: they must be involved in tests, evaluations and validations throughout the project.