The UX research phase with and on users is something that is often sacrificed in projects with a low budget available. There are many excuses that are raised to justify this choice, which almost always – however – is found to be counterproductive. In this post, we have collected the most common justifications trying to refute them one by one.
Perhaps, the most used phrase to exclude the UX research phase from a UX design process (or redesign process) of the product is linked to the lack of time. The constraints due to the tight timings of a project’s timeline – especially in a competitive context that evolves very quickly like the current one – often tend to penalize the role of UX research.
Yet, the idea that research on user experience takes a long time to be completed is not absolutely true: most of the survey techniques require two days to a week of work, to which there should be added a more or less similar elapsed time to achieve streamlined but complete report results.
A fundamental role in making UX research compatible with planning and development times is certainly what is covered by the correct planning of its execution times, starting from the preparation of the tests to the reporting phase.
Another very frequent reason that hinders the use of UX research is obviously linked to the limitations of the budget available. It is undoubtedly true that the survey methods such as usability tests and focus groups – which require expenses for the organization of the laboratory, for the recruitment of the users and to offer them a monetary incentive to participate – are solutions that are not always available to all projects.
However, it is equally true that there are other more inexpensive UX research techniques: from data analysis to surveys, from tests carried out online at a distance (with the user that can be guided by the researcher or carry out the test independently) up to less structured tests, such as the guerrilla research.
There is another economic aspect that should not be overlooked: oftentimes, failure to carry out the analysis and the UX research phase, since the initial steps of a project entail higher redesign costs to resolve the critical issues, is only identified as a posteriori.
These techniques do not allow complete control of the user and the test and often do not allow going too deep: the data analysis, for example, describes what happens during the user experience well but is less able to suggest the reason for some behaviors that occur.
However, the possibility of obtaining insights, even with a low level of detail, makes it possible to direct the efforts of design into the right path.
