Discovery13% of the exam
Choosing a research method and planning the study
How to match a research question to a method (behavioral vs attitudinal, qualitative vs quantitative; surveys, interviews, contextual inquiry, focus groups, heuristic review), what a research plan contains, who to recruit and how many, and how to keep interviewer bias and the Hawthorne effect out of the data.
Provided with a set of business requirements, determine which research methodology and tools should be used to design a solution.
~8 min read · 12 practice questions ·
What the exam expects
- Pick a research method from the question being asked: what people do or say, and "why/how" versus "how much/how many".
- Choose between surveys, individual interviews, contextual inquiry, focus groups and a heuristic review given a scenario's scale, time and access to users.
- List what a research plan contains before the study starts, and what is only filled in afterwards.
- Recruit the right participants and size the study (interviews versus usability tests).
- Spot and remove bias: leading questions, training the participant, filling silences, generalities and the Hawthorne effect.
- Key terms: behavioral method (studies what people do); attitudinal method (studies what people say); contextual inquiry (observing people in their own environment); research plan (the agreed scope, timeline, recruits and methods); Hawthorne effect (people change behavior because they are being watched).
Key facts
Behavioral vs attitudinal
- Detail
- Behavioral = what people do; attitudinal = what people say
Qualitative vs quantitative
- Detail
- Qualitative answers why/how; quantitative answers how much/how many
Usability study size
- Detail
- At least 5 participants
Interview study size
- Detail
- Up to 30 users; start with 15 and check for patterns
Research plan contents
- Detail
- Scope (problem and prior research), timeline, recruitment list, methods
Resources section
- Detail
- Participants, questions, results summary; filled in after the study
Contextual inquiry parts
- Detail
- Context, partnership, interpretation, focus
Hawthorne effect
- Detail
- Stronger with a power difference; fades as rapport builds
Non-leading wording
- Detail
- Ask what users think, not what they like or feel
Heuristics
- Detail
- Rules of thumb designers use to evaluate quality, such as the Nielsen Norman 10
- Why is a self-estimate questionnaire weak evidence when reported and actual behavior disagree?
- When should you recruit more interview participants beyond the first 15?
- Which contextual inquiry principle has the researcher perform the user's tasks the way the user does them?
- Why should a researcher probe when a participant says "most people usually skip that"?
The questions are free to read. Answers with their sources and self-grading are included with the pack.
Keep reading with the Platform User Experience Designer pack
- Core concepts
- Exam traps
- Worked scenario
The pack includes:
- All 22 lessons of the Platform User Experience Designer guide, with reading progress
- Interactive decision walks and step-by-step sequence steppers
- Inline practice questions and one-click topic practice (12 questions for this lesson)
- An official source cited for every claim
- An AI tutor that answers from the guide
- Unlimited timed practice exams