Why UX research is more than just user testing

While doing usability testing is a key part of our user research toolkit, it’s good practice to use a mix of methods to gain a fresh and fuller perspective. 

Observing a usability test will help us identify behavioural patterns that will ultimately help shape the design of a product or service. Although it's generally a pretty reliable indicator, it’s important to remember a lab or prototype isn’t a natural setting, so there may be much more to learn. 

By looking at other data sources such as web analytics or survey data, we can begin to see a more fuller picture of how people are using our products or services in the real world. Using this approach can help build on or validate existing research with your users. Or in some cases, it can even disprove what we’ve observed. 

If we’re too focussed on a singular perspective, it’s easy to fall into a habitual trap of seeing and designing things through our own biased view of the world. Sometimes the answer could be right in front of us, but we just need to take a step back and look at things from another view or do research with another audience segment or tool. This technique is known in social-science research circles as triangulation but it’s no different from the mixed-methods approach used by user researchers today.