Creating a UX Research Plan

STEP ONE: Make a list of stakeholders.

The list should include anyone who should be consulted prior to and during the research process. Having this list makes it easy to deliver insights back at the end of the research project.

Working with stakeholders is especially important for anyone carrying out user research as you need to know both what they already know about a particular problem and what they need to find out. Understandably, strong communication throughout the research process is key

Here is a basic outline of the critical stakeholders in this process and the questions we’re intending to ask of them as it pertains to our study:

• What would you like to know about user habits in the Digital Collections?

• What do you hope a user is able to accomplish in the Digital Collections as it pertains to your position at the Institute?

• How do the Digital Collections ideally align with the strategic plan of the Institute?

• What would you like to know about user habits in the Digital Collections?

• What do you hope a user is able to do in the Digital Collections as it pertains to your collecting area/position at the Institute?

• What changes to the interface could you see being more or less helpful?

• Are there any specific questions or ideas that should be explored in this first pass of user testing?

• Will these proposed studies and prompts provide you with insight into user needs?

• Will the proposed studies provide direction to your work at the Institute?

STEP TWO: Identify known data.

What do we already know?

• Any quantitative metrics of the Digital Collections use can be found on Google Analytics: https://analytics.google.com/analytics/web/?authuser=1#/report-home/a326869w144740760p168958592

General Trends:

• Oral Histories are very popular.

• Rare books are some of our most accessed materials.

• Most of our users find our pages through Google searches.

• Mostly accessed from the United States, but used internationally.

• Users spend less than 2 minutes per page.

STEP THREE: Write research questions/objectives.

See Research Questions

The why of the research. Actionable and specific. E.g.,
“How do people currently use the wishlist feature on our website?”
“How do our current customers go about tracking their orders?”
“How do people make a decision on which power company to use?”
“What actions do our customers take when they’re thinking about buying a new TV?”
These are NOT the questions asked during the sessions - broad enough to allow you to formulate a list of tasks or questions to help understand.

• Can people find the information they need?

• Can they accomplish their goals?

• Can people understand the content?

• Are people getting lost or confused?

STEP FOUR: Develop a research approach.

See Usability Testing and Survey

Research objectives are the ‘why’ of your research project. These should be informed by the existing data you’ve uncovered as well as discussions with your stakeholders.

When formulating your research questions, keep in mind that these are not the same questions you should be asking your users. Basically, they should be broad enough that you can use them to then generate tasks or questions for your users, the outputs of which should hopefully shed a little more light on the problem you’re working on.

Research Method Options:

1. Survey with Questions

2. First Click Testing with Chalkmark to test first impressions of mockups.

3. Test information architecture with Treejack or Optimal Sort

4. Usability testing using Reframer (moderated vs. unmoderated)

Open

To-Do:

• Decide who will be involved and what their roles are during the sessions.

• Discuss what the script used during your sessions will contain.

• Decide where sessions will take place and what equipment you’ll need.

• Discuss the kinds of participants you require.

OTHER RESOURCES

• How to Create Fast, Searchable Notes for Real-Time Research | Viget

• RKA Impact Framework outlining Institue audiences

• When to Use Which User-Experience Research Methods

• Optimal Workshop Dashboard