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User Research

Through careful user research, we help identify where your opportunities lie.

Tell me more

Great design is backed up by solid research; without it, we’re left with design principles that are based on guesswork rather than informed judgment. We recommend that all projects start here.

The research phase helps us discover user pain points, collect insight from subject matter experts and analyse the data that sits behind your digital product. It provides the foundation for your project and is, in our experience, the single biggest success factor for any project.

Your research phase will be tailor-made to your particular project and will generate the data we need to report on and establish the criteria for the success of your app or website.

user research and analysis board
Research workshops include a variety of hands-on activities.

What does it involve

During this phase, we’ll use workshops, interviews and other information-gathering tools to harvest data from stakeholders and customers. As this data is gathered, it gets funneled into a continual review and analysis process, allowing us to present progress back to the client via a series of weekly reviews.

The insight gained during this stage helps everyone involved make informed decisions about the future shape of the digital product, creating and shaping the foundation of any development brief created later in the process.

Components within the research and analysis phase may include:

  • Market research and analysis – Quantitative and qualitative research to evaluate your user base, potential market response and strategic options
  • Analytics analysis – Review and analysis of your data to inform the decision-making process
  • Product audit If you have an existing product we’ll audit it to find the areas of weakness and opportunities for growth
  • User research and analysis – Organisation and facilitation of workshops to gather information directly from end-users
  • Stakeholder Interviews – Sit downs with internal stakeholders and subject matter experts to understand the project from all angles
  • Objectives and key results – Working to define the aims of the project and how success will be measured

From our side, the team will typically consist of a UI/UX designer, a product strategist, and, where necessary, a technical lead.

A person taking part in a user research process
Two colleagues work on Microsoft Office 365

What’s the outcome?

Typical deliverables from this phase of the project are:

  • An in-depth report of our findings, including recommendations for areas to focus
  • A comprehensive product audit (for existing products)
  • Strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats identified
  • A research store containing all interview recordings, transcripts, market research and data analysis
  • Documented project objectives and key results (OKRs)

The phase closes with a stakeholder presentation that often marks the start of the next phase of the project – ideation and validation.

Show me an example

To see how our research and analysis processes work in practice, have a read of our Mayor of London case study. The article details how we took on an existing platform and reinvigorated it by applying the findings of a deep research and product audit process.