An online survey is a structured questionnaire that your target audience completes over the internet generally through a filling out a form.

A caveat: while closed questions are less likely to elicit wordy answers, they are easier for users than open-ended questions. Sometimes, you can precede an open-ended question with a closed one to ease the user into a topic or protect users from feeling stupid when they don’t remember an event.

(This type of question sequence is okay during a user interview, but is less appropriate in a usability test, where we want to limit interaction with the user as much as possible.)

However, sometimes getting people out of their usual environments can help them think freely and creatively.

Attitudinal vs. Behavioral Qualitative vs. Quantitative Context of Use

This distinction can be summed up by contrasting "what people say" versus "what people do"

The purpose of attitudinal research is usually to understand or measure people's stated beliefs, but it is limited by what people are aware of and willing to report.

Secondary research is a common approach to a systematic investigation in which the researcher depends solely on existing data in the course of the research process.

Quantitative data gathering methods include online questionnaires and surveys, reports about trends plus statistics about different areas of a business or industry.

Qualitative research methods include relying on previous interviews and data gathered through focus groups which helps an organization to understand the needs of its customers and plan to fulfill these needs. It also helps businesses to measure the level of employee satisfaction with organizational policies.

Task wording is very important in usability testing. Small errors in the phrasing of a task can cause the participant to misunderstand what they’re asked to do or can influence how participants perform the task (a psychological phenomenon called priming).

In a usability-testing session, a researcher (called a “facilitator” or a “moderator”) asks a participant to perform tasks, usually using one or more specific user interfaces. While the participant completes each task, the researcher observes the participant’s behavior and listens for feedback.

Identifying problems in the design of the product or service Uncovering opportunities to improve Learning about the target user’s behavior and preferences

There are two key parts to every UX design project: conducting research to learn about the users you’re designing for, and gathering feedback about their perspectives.

UX research focuses on understanding user behaviors, needs, and motivations through observation and feedback.

UX research aligns what you, as the designer, think the user needs with what the user actually needs.

This eliminates concerns about causing offense and reduces the chance of groupthink. Groupthink can occur in a group discussion when one person shares an opinion and everyone immediately agrees with the opinion, instead of sharing their own feelings about a topic. Groupthink prevents each person from having an equal say, and it might mean certain areas for improvement are overlooked.

understand, ideate, decide, prototype, and test

A retrospective is a collaborative critique of the design sprint.

a platform is the medium that users experience your product on

framework is a conceptual tool that provides guidance on the best practices and processes for solving  problems and building solutions that solve the problems of real users.

The Design Thinking framework is a user-centered approach to problem-solving that includes activities like research, prototyping, and testing to help you understand who your user is, what their problems are, and what your design should include.