Best Practices vs. user research

1. What is the difference between user research and UX research?
2. What are the best user research methods?
3. What is best practice in qualitative research?
4. When should you not do user research?

What is the difference between user research and UX research?

Some say both are the same and some say User Research is more related to talking to people to know about their behaviors while UX Research is more about knowing about users' experiences with a product or a service.

What are the best user research methods?

Common UX research methods are usability testing, user interviews, surveys, card sorting, tree testing, field studies, and more.

What is best practice in qualitative research?

Be open and unbiased – both when you meet research participants and when you analyze data from your research. Be aware of your own preconceptions. Discuss your interpretation of data with others, or have others help with the data analysis.

When should you not do user research?

3. When you don't know what you want to learn, or how you'll use those learnings. Doing user research for the sake of doing user research isn't the best use of your time.