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UX Research Methods: Choose a Study for Your Decision

By Vadim Glazkov May 15, 2026 Updated Oct 15, 2026 3 min read

Choose UX research methods by the decision you need to make. Compare interviews, usability testing, surveys and field research, with a worked study plan.

UX research methods help you understand people, observe how they use a product and evaluate possible changes. Start with a decision and an uncertainty; then choose the evidence that could change your mind.

Choose a method by the question

Interviews reveal accounts and explanations; observing a task reveals behaviour in that setting. Neither automatically estimates how common a problem is. This distinction between attitudinal and behavioural evidence is central to NN/g’s research-methods framework.

Your uncertainty Useful starting method Evidence to collect What it cannot establish alone
Why people adopt or abandon a workflow User interviews Recent events, alternatives and constraints Population prevalence or actual task performance
Whether someone can complete a task Usability testing Success, errors, workarounds and recovery Why the wider market would buy
How work happens outside your interface Contextual inquiry Tools, interruptions and dependencies Behaviour in settings you did not observe
Whether labels and structure make sense Card sorting and tree testing Groupings, paths and mistaken destinations Complete usability of the rendered interface
How responses vary across a defined audience Survey design Answers from a documented sampling process Causation or representativeness of an opt-in sample
Whether an experience changes over time Diary studies Repeated episodes and changing circumstances Events participants omit or cannot recall

Use cognitive walkthroughs or heuristic evaluation to inspect a design before recruiting. Treat the resulting issues as expert predictions to investigate, rather than participant findings.

A worked study plan

Consider a hypothetical invoice product whose users often leave during account setup. The decision is whether to redesign the permissions step or change the information shown before it.

Planning field Example entry
Decision owner Product manager responsible for activation
Uncertainty Users may not understand the requested access, or may lack authority to grant it
Participants People who recently tried setup, including those who stopped and those who completed it
First activity Ask about the recent attempt; observe setup with safe test data
Evidence record Step, action, explanation, permission available, consequence and recovery
Possible decisions Improve the explanation; add an administrator handoff; investigate a different barrier
Follow-up Retest the changed step, then monitor completion alongside changes in audience and acquisition

This is an example plan, not a reported client result. A participant who cannot grant access has a different problem from someone who cannot find the button. Keep those observations separate in the research report.

Set the sample and stopping rule

For exploratory work, begin with the user groups and tasks that could lead to different decisions. Review what remains unanswered after each round. For a quantitative comparison, plan around the effect or precision you need and the sampling method; do not borrow a universal participant count from a qualitative study.

Record exclusions, recruitment channels and missing groups. A convenient panel of current enthusiasts may miss people who abandoned the product. Use a screener and plan inclusive sessions before recruitment begins.

Combine methods when the evidence needs it

An interview can suggest a reason for abandonment. A usability session can expose a recoverability problem. A subsequent experiment can test whether a specific change improves a measured outcome. These are complementary claims, not interchangeable proof.

Use the mixed-methods guide to connect stages, and the research plan template to document the decision, evidence and next action. The detailed guides below cover individual methods.

For a survey focused on which activities matter most to an audience, see top task analysis. Use the results to choose tasks for later observation, while keeping stated priorities separate from observed task success.

Glasgow Research helps B2B SaaS teams turn research into product decisions. Discuss your study.

Explore ux research methods

Choose the guide that matches your next research decision.

Author

About Vadim Glazkov

Vadim Glazkov is the founder of Glasgow Research and a product research expert working with founders and B2B SaaS teams on customer interviews, JTBD, market validation, and decision-ready research.

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