User Experience or UX focuses on improving the experience of the end-user. Whether you’re building a website, developing software, or adding new features to an existing program, UX is now an integral part of the process. UX research becomes a consideration when you need to understand and improve the experiences of your users.
In essence, UX research involves studying how the end-user navigates the software of websites and what they are looking for. These insights enable the UX designer to improve the design process of a product or project. This way, a UX designer can develop a product that satisfies the user experience. In this post, we’ll take a closer look at what UX research is, who is a UX researcher, and what a UX researcher actually does.
What is UX Research?
As a UX designer, UX research is one of the things you need to do when working on a new design or improving the user experience of an existing product. The purpose of this is to improve the experience of your users.
Therefore, UX research is the process of systematically studying your target users to collect and analyze data that will help inform the design process of the product in question or a new one altogether. This is the job of a UX researcher.
Going by the increasing demand for UX researchers and UX/UI designers, UX research makes a perfect career path for anyone looking to venture into UX/UI design. With a 6-month certificate program, you can earn a UX certificate, which exposes you to the knowledge you need to succeed in this career. You can enroll in boot camps or beginner design programs to start a career in UX design.
So, What Does a UX Researcher Do?
In totality, a user researcher or UX researcher researches and discovers more insights that inform the design and application of new products or upgrade of existing designs. This task can be broken down into the following:
- Develop a detailed research plan with clear research objectives and strategy
- Onboard target end-users for specific UX studies
- Monitor and collect data from multiple usability sessions
- Gather insights from user behavior
- Analyze the information gathered from the study
- Interpret the analysis and provide data or advice to help improve the UX design process.
UX design requires certain skills for any designer to be successful. Skills like the ability to conduct quality research in the respective fields of interest, data collection, and analysis skills, as well as the ability to present this data in a meaningful way for design application.
At DevX School, we have a robust 6 months Bootcamp put together by seasoned experts, and designed to satire you with the skills you need to become a sought-after UX researcher. Feel free to schedule a call today to get started.