These different objectives require different user research methods and selecting the right method is very often a complicated task (i.e. should you do an ethnographic field study or a focus group to get inspiration for new product features?).

Christian Rohrer has written an article in Jakob Nielsen’s Alertbox with the title "When to Use Which User Experience Methods" which helps in selecting the right user experience research method.

Modern day user experience research methods can now answer a wide range of questions. Knowing when to use each method can be understood by mapping them in 3 key dimensions and across typical product development phases. [...] These three dimensions are Attitudinal vs. Behavioral, Qualitative vs. Quantitative and Context of Website or Product Use.

Especially interesting is the chart that illustrates where several popular user research methods appear along these dimensions:

Additionally the proposed guidelines differentiate between the different phases of product development suggesting typical methods for the strategize, optimize and assess phases in product development.

If you are looking for more information about user research methods you can find more information in the article "The 13 Most Popular Methods for User-Centered Design" as well as in "An Overview of Market Research Methods for Innovation Development".

Read the complete article.

Photo courtesy of Roebot

In this study the authors surveyed more than 100 experienced practitioners of UCD with at least three years of experience and who considered UCD as their primary job. The following table shows the key results of the survey (Ranging from 1 to 5, from the most important to the least important method):

The following links provide more information about the individual user centered design practices, collected from various sources.

Field Studies: The Best Tool to Discover User Needs (by User Interface Engineering)

The most valuable asset of a successful design team is the information they have about their users. When teams have the right information, the job of designing a powerful, intuitive, easy-to-use interface becomes tremendously easier. When they don’t, every little design decision becomes a struggle. Field studies get the team immersed in the environment of their users and allow them to observe critical details for which there is no other way of discovering.

Requirements Analysis – Characteristics of Good Requirements (by The University of Queensland)

Requirements analysis is a tool that can be used to ensure that designers capture all the whole-of-life needs of the product or system from the perspectives of all the stakeholders – the acquirer, the operator, the user, the maintainer and those who refurbish or dispose of the it at the end of it life. At the end of the process, the designers are left with a document listing the system requirements for a product design. From this document they can base much of their subsequent work.

Iterative User Interface Design (by Jacob Nielsen)

Redesigning user interfaces on the basis of user testing can substantially improve usability. In four case studies, the median improvement in overall usability was 165% from the first to the last iteration, and the median improvement per iteration was 38%. Iterating through at least three versions of the interface is recommended, since some usability measures often decrease in some versions if the usability engineering process has focused on improving other parameters.

Usability Evaluation (by Jean Scholtz, National Institute of Standards and Technology)

User-centered evaluations are accomplished by identifying representative users, representative tasks, and
developing a procedure for capturing the problems that users have in trying to apply a particular software
product in accomplishing these tasks. During the design/testing/development cycle of software
development, two types of user evaluations are carried out.

Task analysis methods (by UsabilityNet.org)

Task analysis analyses what a user is required to do in terms of actions and/or cognitive processes to achieve a task. A detailed task analysis can be conducted to understand the current system and the information flows within it. These information flows are important to the maintenance of the existing system and must be incorporated or substituted in any new system. Task analysis makes it possible to design and allocate tasks appropriately within the new system. The functions to be included within the system and the user interface can then be accurately specified.

Using Focus Groups for Evaluation (by The University of Arizona)

Focus groups were originally called “focused interviews” or “group depth interviews”. The technique was developed after World War II to evaluate audience response to radio programs (Stewart & Shamdasani, 1990). Since then social scientists and program evaluators have found focus groups to be useful in understanding how or why people hold certain beliefs about a topic or program of interest.

A focus group could be defined as a group of interacting individuals having some common interest or characteristics, brought together by a moderator, who uses the group and its interaction as a way to gain information about a specific or focused issue.

Heuristic Evaluation (by Usability Body of Knowledge)

A usability evaluation method in which one or more reviewers, preferably experts, compare a software, documentation, or hardware product to a list of design principles (commonly referred to as heuristics) and list where the product does not follow those principles.

Interviews (by UsabilityNet.org)

The interview is a method for discovering facts and opinions held by potential users of the system being designed. It is usually done by one interviewer speaking to one informant at a time. Reports of interviews have to be carefully analyzed and targeted to ensure they make their impact. Otherwise the effort is wasted.

Using Prototypes (by SAP Design Guild)

Prototypes can help to evaluate design alternatives at any stage of the development process. Here three approaches are introduced: storyboards, paper prototyping, and HTML prototyping. A listing of pros and cons is given for the prototyping approaches in order to facilitate the decision of which is best for your requirements.

User survey for design (by UsabilityNet.org)

User surveys are a means of finding out how the software or web site is likely to be used by a specific set of users, and who these users are likely to be. The answers user surveys provide must be relevant to the issues that are important to the design team. User surveys are traditionally carried out by post, but increasingly, the Internet is used for this purpose.

Expert reviews (by Cognitis)

Expert reviews are an opportunity for the design team to obtain the perspectives of designers who have been outside the development process. There is probably no single more cost-effective way to improve the quality of a product.

Perform Card Sorting (by Usability.gov)

Card sorting is a way to involve users in grouping information for a Web site. Participants in a card sorting session are asked to organize the content from your Web site in a way that makes sense to them. Participants review items from your Web site and then group these items into categories. Participants may even help you label these groups.

What is a Participatory Design workshop? (by Information & Design)

A Participatory Design (PD) workshop is one in which developers, business representatives and users work together to design a solution. PD workshops give users a voice in the design process, thus increasing the probability of a usable design.