Study smarter with Fiveable
Get study guides, practice questions, and cheatsheets for all your subjects. Join 500,000+ students with a 96% pass rate.
User research isn't just a checkbox in the design process—it's the foundation that separates products users love from products users abandon. You're being tested on your ability to select the right research method for specific design challenges, understand when qualitative insights trump quantitative data (and vice versa), and recognize how different techniques reveal different layers of user behavior. The core concepts here—generative vs. evaluative research, attitudinal vs. behavioral data, and the discovery-validation cycle—show up repeatedly in exam questions and real-world design decisions.
Think of these techniques as tools in a toolkit: a hammer is great for nails but terrible for screws. Similarly, running a survey when you need deep emotional insights will give you shallow, misleading data. The exam will test whether you know which tool to reach for and why. Don't just memorize what each technique does—know what type of data it produces, when in the design process it's most valuable, and how it compares to alternative methods.
These techniques help you discover what to build in the first place. Generative research explores the problem space before solutions exist, uncovering user needs, motivations, and contexts you didn't know to ask about.
Compare: Contextual Inquiry vs. Ethnographic Research—both observe users in natural settings, but contextual inquiry focuses on specific tasks during shorter sessions while ethnography requires extended immersion to capture cultural patterns. If an FRQ asks about understanding cultural influences on product adoption, ethnography is your answer.
Once you have a design direction, these techniques validate whether your solution actually works. Evaluative research tests specific designs against user expectations and abilities.
Compare: Usability Testing vs. A/B Testing—usability testing tells you why users struggle (qualitative), while A/B testing tells you which design performs better (quantitative). Use usability testing to diagnose problems, A/B testing to validate solutions at scale.
These techniques capture what users think, feel, and believe—their perceptions, preferences, and emotional responses. Attitudinal data explains the reasoning behind behavioral patterns.
Compare: Surveys vs. Focus Groups—surveys reach hundreds of users with standardized questions, while focus groups dive deep with small groups through dynamic conversation. Surveys quantify attitudes; focus groups explore the nuances behind them.
These techniques transform raw research data into actionable frameworks. Synthesis methods organize findings into tools that guide design decisions throughout the project.
Compare: Personas vs. Journey Maps—personas describe who your users are as people, while journey maps describe what they experience over time. Use personas to build empathy, journey maps to identify intervention points.
| Concept | Best Examples |
|---|---|
| Discovery/Generative Research | Interviews, Contextual Inquiry, Ethnographic Research |
| Evaluative/Validation Research | Usability Testing, A/B Testing |
| Qualitative Data Collection | Interviews, Contextual Inquiry, Focus Groups |
| Quantitative Data Collection | Surveys, A/B Testing |
| Attitudinal Insights | Surveys, Focus Groups, Interviews |
| Behavioral Insights | Usability Testing, A/B Testing, Contextual Inquiry |
| Research Synthesis Tools | Personas, User Journey Mapping |
| Information Architecture | Card Sorting |
You're designing a completely new product category and need to understand potential users' daily challenges before generating any solutions. Which two techniques would be most appropriate, and why are surveys insufficient at this stage?
Compare and contrast usability testing and A/B testing: What type of data does each produce, and at what stage of the design process is each most valuable?
A stakeholder insists that focus groups will tell you everything you need to know about user behavior. What's the flaw in this reasoning, and which technique would you recommend adding to capture behavioral data?
Your team created personas based on internal assumptions rather than research data. Explain why this undermines the purpose of personas and what research methods you'd use to build valid ones.
An FRQ asks you to recommend a research plan for improving an existing e-commerce checkout flow. Identify which techniques belong in the discovery phase versus the validation phase, and justify your sequencing.