how to plan a research design

How to write a research plan: Step-by-step guide

Last updated

30 January 2024

Reviewed by

Today’s businesses and institutions rely on data and analytics to inform their product and service decisions. These metrics influence how organizations stay competitive and inspire innovation. However, gathering data and insights requires carefully constructed research, and every research project needs a roadmap. This is where a research plan comes into play.

There’s general research planning; then there’s an official, well-executed research plan. Whatever data-driven research project you’re gearing up for, the research plan will be your framework for execution. The plan should also be detailed and thorough, with a diligent set of criteria to formulate your research efforts. Not including these key elements in your plan can be just as harmful as having no plan at all.

Read this step-by-step guide for writing a detailed research plan that can apply to any project, whether it’s scientific, educational, or business-related.

• What is a research plan?

A research plan is a documented overview of a project in its entirety, from end to end. It details the research efforts, participants, and methods needed, along with any anticipated results. It also outlines the project’s goals and mission, creating layers of steps to achieve those goals within a specified timeline.

Without a research plan, you and your team are flying blind, potentially wasting time and resources to pursue research without structured guidance.

The principal investigator, or PI, is responsible for facilitating the research oversight. They will create the research plan and inform team members and stakeholders of every detail relating to the project. The PI will also use the research plan to inform decision-making throughout the project.

• Why do you need a research plan?

Create a research plan before starting any official research to maximize every effort in pursuing and collecting the research data. Crucially, the plan will model the activities needed at each phase of the research project.

Like any roadmap, a research plan serves as a valuable tool providing direction for those involved in the project—both internally and externally. It will keep you and your immediate team organized and task-focused while also providing necessary definitions and timelines so you can execute your project initiatives with full understanding and transparency.

External stakeholders appreciate a working research plan because it’s a great communication tool, documenting progress and changing dynamics as they arise. Any participants of your planned research sessions will be informed about the purpose of your study, while the exercises will be based on the key messaging outlined in the official plan.

Here are some of the benefits of creating a research plan document for every project:

Project organization and structure

Well-informed participants

All stakeholders and teams align in support of the project

Clearly defined project definitions and purposes

Distractions are eliminated, prioritizing task focus

Timely management of individual task schedules and roles

Costly reworks are avoided

• What should a research plan include?

The different aspects of your research plan will depend on the nature of the project. However, most official research plan documents will include the core elements below. Each aims to define the problem statement, devising an official plan for seeking a solution.

Specific project goals and individual objectives

Ideal strategies or methods for reaching those goals

Required resources

Descriptions of the target audience, sample sizes, demographics, and scopes

Key performance indicators (KPIs)

Project background

Research and testing support

Preliminary studies and progress reporting mechanisms

Cost estimates and change order processes

Depending on the research project’s size and scope, your research plan could be brief—perhaps only a few pages of documented plans. Alternatively, it could be a fully comprehensive report. Either way, it’s an essential first step in dictating your project’s facilitation in the most efficient and effective way.

• How to write a research plan for your project

When you start writing your research plan, aim to be detailed about each step, requirement, and idea. The more time you spend curating your research plan, the more precise your research execution efforts will be.

Account for every potential scenario, and be sure to address each and every aspect of the research.

Consider following this flow to develop a great research plan for your project:

Define your project’s purpose

Start by defining your project’s purpose. Identify what your project aims to accomplish and what you are researching. Remember to use clear language.

Thinking about the project’s purpose will help you set realistic goals and inform how you divide tasks and assign responsibilities. These individual tasks will be your stepping stones to reach your overarching goal.

Additionally, you’ll want to identify the specific problem, the usability metrics needed, and the intended solutions.

Know the following three things about your project’s purpose before you outline anything else:

What you’re doing

Why you’re doing it

What you expect from it

Identify individual objectives

With your overarching project objectives in place, you can identify any individual goals or steps needed to reach those objectives. Break them down into phases or steps. You can work backward from the project goal and identify every process required to facilitate it.

Be mindful to identify each unique task so that you can assign responsibilities to various team members. At this point in your research plan development, you’ll also want to assign priority to those smaller, more manageable steps and phases that require more immediate or dedicated attention.

Select research methods

Research methods might include any of the following:

User interviews: this is a qualitative research method where researchers engage with participants in one-on-one or group conversations. The aim is to gather insights into their experiences, preferences, and opinions to uncover patterns, trends, and data.

Field studies: this approach allows for a contextual understanding of behaviors, interactions, and processes in real-world settings. It involves the researcher immersing themselves in the field, conducting observations, interviews, or experiments to gather in-depth insights.

Card sorting: participants categorize information by sorting content cards into groups based on their perceived similarities. You might use this process to gain insights into participants’ mental models and preferences when navigating or organizing information on websites, apps, or other systems.

Focus groups: use organized discussions among select groups of participants to provide relevant views and experiences about a particular topic.

Diary studies: ask participants to record their experiences, thoughts, and activities in a diary over a specified period. This method provides a deeper understanding of user experiences, uncovers patterns, and identifies areas for improvement.

Five-second testing: participants are shown a design, such as a web page or interface, for just five seconds. They then answer questions about their initial impressions and recall, allowing you to evaluate the design’s effectiveness.

Surveys: get feedback from participant groups with structured surveys. You can use online forms, telephone interviews, or paper questionnaires to reveal trends, patterns, and correlations.

Tree testing: tree testing involves researching web assets through the lens of findability and navigability. Participants are given a textual representation of the site’s hierarchy (the “tree”) and asked to locate specific information or complete tasks by selecting paths.

Usability testing: ask participants to interact with a product, website, or application to evaluate its ease of use. This method enables you to uncover areas for improvement in digital key feature functionality by observing participants using the product.

Live website testing: research and collect analytics that outlines the design, usability, and performance efficiencies of a website in real time.

There are no limits to the number of research methods you could use within your project. Just make sure your research methods help you determine the following:

What do you plan to do with the research findings?

What decisions will this research inform? How can your stakeholders leverage the research data and results?

Recruit participants and allocate tasks

Next, identify the participants needed to complete the research and the resources required to complete the tasks. Different people will be proficient at different tasks, and having a task allocation plan will allow everything to run smoothly.

Prepare a thorough project summary

Every well-designed research plan will feature a project summary. This official summary will guide your research alongside its communications or messaging. You’ll use the summary while recruiting participants and during stakeholder meetings. It can also be useful when conducting field studies.

Ensure this summary includes all the elements of your research project. Separate the steps into an easily explainable piece of text that includes the following:

An introduction: the message you’ll deliver to participants about the interview, pre-planned questioning, and testing tasks.

Interview questions: prepare questions you intend to ask participants as part of your research study, guiding the sessions from start to finish.

An exit message: draft messaging your teams will use to conclude testing or survey sessions. These should include the next steps and express gratitude for the participant’s time.

Create a realistic timeline

While your project might already have a deadline or a results timeline in place, you’ll need to consider the time needed to execute it effectively.

Realistically outline the time needed to properly execute each supporting phase of research and implementation. And, as you evaluate the necessary schedules, be sure to include additional time for achieving each milestone in case any changes or unexpected delays arise.

For this part of your research plan, you might find it helpful to create visuals to ensure your research team and stakeholders fully understand the information.

Determine how to present your results

A research plan must also describe how you intend to present your results. Depending on the nature of your project and its goals, you might dedicate one team member (the PI) or assume responsibility for communicating the findings yourself.

In this part of the research plan, you’ll articulate how you’ll share the results. Detail any materials you’ll use, such as:

Presentations and slides

A project report booklet

A project findings pamphlet

Documents with key takeaways and statistics

Graphic visuals to support your findings

• Format your research plan

As you create your research plan, you can enjoy a little creative freedom. A plan can assume many forms, so format it how you see fit. Determine the best layout based on your specific project, intended communications, and the preferences of your teams and stakeholders.

Find format inspiration among the following layouts:

Written outlines

Narrative storytelling

Visual mapping

Graphic timelines

Remember, the research plan format you choose will be subject to change and adaptation as your research and findings unfold. However, your final format should ideally outline questions, problems, opportunities, and expectations.

• Research plan example

Imagine you’ve been tasked with finding out how to get more customers to order takeout from an online food delivery platform. The goal is to improve satisfaction and retain existing customers. You set out to discover why more people aren’t ordering and what it is they do want to order or experience. 

You identify the need for a research project that helps you understand what drives customer loyalty. But before you jump in and start calling past customers, you need to develop a research plan—the roadmap that provides focus, clarity, and realistic details to the project.

Here’s an example outline of a research plan you might put together:

Project title

Project members involved in the research plan

Purpose of the project (provide a summary of the research plan’s intent)

Objective 1 (provide a short description for each objective)

Objective 2

Objective 3

Proposed timeline

Audience (detail the group you want to research, such as customers or non-customers)

Budget (how much you think it might cost to do the research)

Risk factors/contingencies (any potential risk factors that may impact the project’s success)

Remember, your research plan doesn’t have to reinvent the wheel—it just needs to fit your project’s unique needs and aims.

Customizing a research plan template

Some companies offer research plan templates to help get you started. However, it may make more sense to develop your own customized plan template. Be sure to include the core elements of a great research plan with your template layout, including the following:

Introductions to participants and stakeholders

Background problems and needs statement

Significance, ethics, and purpose

Research methods, questions, and designs

Preliminary beliefs and expectations

Implications and intended outcomes

Realistic timelines for each phase

Conclusion and presentations

How many pages should a research plan be?

Generally, a research plan can vary in length between 500 to 1,500 words. This is roughly three pages of content. More substantial projects will be 2,000 to 3,500 words, taking up four to seven pages of planning documents.

What is the difference between a research plan and a research proposal?

A research plan is a roadmap to success for research teams. A research proposal, on the other hand, is a dissertation aimed at convincing or earning the support of others. Both are relevant in creating a guide to follow to complete a project goal.

What are the seven steps to developing a research plan?

While each research project is different, it’s best to follow these seven general steps to create your research plan:

Defining the problem

Identifying goals

Choosing research methods

Recruiting participants

Preparing the brief or summary

Establishing task timelines

Defining how you will present the findings

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Research Design 101

Everything You Need To Get Started (With Examples)

By: Derek Jansen (MBA) | Reviewers: Eunice Rautenbach (DTech) & Kerryn Warren (PhD) | April 2023

Navigating the world of research can be daunting, especially if you’re a first-time researcher. One concept you’re bound to run into fairly early in your research journey is that of “ research design ”. Here, we’ll guide you through the basics using practical examples , so that you can approach your research with confidence.

Overview: Research Design 101

What is research design.

• Research design types for quantitative studies
• Video explainer : quantitative research design
• Research design types for qualitative studies
• Video explainer : qualitative research design
• How to choose a research design
• Key takeaways

Research design refers to the overall plan, structure or strategy that guides a research project , from its conception to the final data analysis. A good research design serves as the blueprint for how you, as the researcher, will collect and analyse data while ensuring consistency, reliability and validity throughout your study.

Understanding different types of research designs is essential as helps ensure that your approach is suitable  given your research aims, objectives and questions , as well as the resources you have available to you. Without a clear big-picture view of how you’ll design your research, you run the risk of potentially making misaligned choices in terms of your methodology – especially your sampling , data collection and data analysis decisions.

The problem with defining research design…

One of the reasons students struggle with a clear definition of research design is because the term is used very loosely across the internet, and even within academia.

Some sources claim that the three research design types are qualitative, quantitative and mixed methods , which isn’t quite accurate (these just refer to the type of data that you’ll collect and analyse). Other sources state that research design refers to the sum of all your design choices, suggesting it’s more like a research methodology . Others run off on other less common tangents. No wonder there’s confusion!

In this article, we’ll clear up the confusion. We’ll explain the most common research design types for both qualitative and quantitative research projects, whether that is for a full dissertation or thesis, or a smaller research paper or article.

Research Design: Quantitative Studies

Quantitative research involves collecting and analysing data in a numerical form. Broadly speaking, there are four types of quantitative research designs: descriptive , correlational , experimental , and quasi-experimental . 

Descriptive Research Design

As the name suggests, descriptive research design focuses on describing existing conditions, behaviours, or characteristics by systematically gathering information without manipulating any variables. In other words, there is no intervention on the researcher’s part – only data collection.

For example, if you’re studying smartphone addiction among adolescents in your community, you could deploy a survey to a sample of teens asking them to rate their agreement with certain statements that relate to smartphone addiction. The collected data would then provide insight regarding how widespread the issue may be – in other words, it would describe the situation.

The key defining attribute of this type of research design is that it purely describes the situation . In other words, descriptive research design does not explore potential relationships between different variables or the causes that may underlie those relationships. Therefore, descriptive research is useful for generating insight into a research problem by describing its characteristics . By doing so, it can provide valuable insights and is often used as a precursor to other research design types.

Correlational Research Design

Correlational design is a popular choice for researchers aiming to identify and measure the relationship between two or more variables without manipulating them . In other words, this type of research design is useful when you want to know whether a change in one thing tends to be accompanied by a change in another thing.

For example, if you wanted to explore the relationship between exercise frequency and overall health, you could use a correlational design to help you achieve this. In this case, you might gather data on participants’ exercise habits, as well as records of their health indicators like blood pressure, heart rate, or body mass index. Thereafter, you’d use a statistical test to assess whether there’s a relationship between the two variables (exercise frequency and health).

As you can see, correlational research design is useful when you want to explore potential relationships between variables that cannot be manipulated or controlled for ethical, practical, or logistical reasons. It is particularly helpful in terms of developing predictions , and given that it doesn’t involve the manipulation of variables, it can be implemented at a large scale more easily than experimental designs (which will look at next).

That said, it’s important to keep in mind that correlational research design has limitations – most notably that it cannot be used to establish causality . In other words, correlation does not equal causation . To establish causality, you’ll need to move into the realm of experimental design, coming up next…

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Experimental Research Design

Experimental research design is used to determine if there is a causal relationship between two or more variables . With this type of research design, you, as the researcher, manipulate one variable (the independent variable) while controlling others (dependent variables). Doing so allows you to observe the effect of the former on the latter and draw conclusions about potential causality.

For example, if you wanted to measure if/how different types of fertiliser affect plant growth, you could set up several groups of plants, with each group receiving a different type of fertiliser, as well as one with no fertiliser at all. You could then measure how much each plant group grew (on average) over time and compare the results from the different groups to see which fertiliser was most effective.

Overall, experimental research design provides researchers with a powerful way to identify and measure causal relationships (and the direction of causality) between variables. However, developing a rigorous experimental design can be challenging as it’s not always easy to control all the variables in a study. This often results in smaller sample sizes , which can reduce the statistical power and generalisability of the results.

Moreover, experimental research design requires random assignment . This means that the researcher needs to assign participants to different groups or conditions in a way that each participant has an equal chance of being assigned to any group (note that this is not the same as random sampling ). Doing so helps reduce the potential for bias and confounding variables . This need for random assignment can lead to ethics-related issues . For example, withholding a potentially beneficial medical treatment from a control group may be considered unethical in certain situations.

Quasi-Experimental Research Design

Quasi-experimental research design is used when the research aims involve identifying causal relations , but one cannot (or doesn’t want to) randomly assign participants to different groups (for practical or ethical reasons). Instead, with a quasi-experimental research design, the researcher relies on existing groups or pre-existing conditions to form groups for comparison.

For example, if you were studying the effects of a new teaching method on student achievement in a particular school district, you may be unable to randomly assign students to either group and instead have to choose classes or schools that already use different teaching methods. This way, you still achieve separate groups, without having to assign participants to specific groups yourself.

Naturally, quasi-experimental research designs have limitations when compared to experimental designs. Given that participant assignment is not random, it’s more difficult to confidently establish causality between variables, and, as a researcher, you have less control over other variables that may impact findings.

All that said, quasi-experimental designs can still be valuable in research contexts where random assignment is not possible and can often be undertaken on a much larger scale than experimental research, thus increasing the statistical power of the results. What’s important is that you, as the researcher, understand the limitations of the design and conduct your quasi-experiment as rigorously as possible, paying careful attention to any potential confounding variables .

Research Design: Qualitative Studies

There are many different research design types when it comes to qualitative studies, but here we’ll narrow our focus to explore the “Big 4”. Specifically, we’ll look at phenomenological design, grounded theory design, ethnographic design, and case study design.

Phenomenological Research Design

Phenomenological design involves exploring the meaning of lived experiences and how they are perceived by individuals. This type of research design seeks to understand people’s perspectives , emotions, and behaviours in specific situations. Here, the aim for researchers is to uncover the essence of human experience without making any assumptions or imposing preconceived ideas on their subjects.

For example, you could adopt a phenomenological design to study why cancer survivors have such varied perceptions of their lives after overcoming their disease. This could be achieved by interviewing survivors and then analysing the data using a qualitative analysis method such as thematic analysis to identify commonalities and differences.

Phenomenological research design typically involves in-depth interviews or open-ended questionnaires to collect rich, detailed data about participants’ subjective experiences. This richness is one of the key strengths of phenomenological research design but, naturally, it also has limitations. These include potential biases in data collection and interpretation and the lack of generalisability of findings to broader populations.

Grounded Theory Research Design

Grounded theory (also referred to as “GT”) aims to develop theories by continuously and iteratively analysing and comparing data collected from a relatively large number of participants in a study. It takes an inductive (bottom-up) approach, with a focus on letting the data “speak for itself”, without being influenced by preexisting theories or the researcher’s preconceptions.

As an example, let’s assume your research aims involved understanding how people cope with chronic pain from a specific medical condition, with a view to developing a theory around this. In this case, grounded theory design would allow you to explore this concept thoroughly without preconceptions about what coping mechanisms might exist. You may find that some patients prefer cognitive-behavioural therapy (CBT) while others prefer to rely on herbal remedies. Based on multiple, iterative rounds of analysis, you could then develop a theory in this regard, derived directly from the data (as opposed to other preexisting theories and models).

Grounded theory typically involves collecting data through interviews or observations and then analysing it to identify patterns and themes that emerge from the data. These emerging ideas are then validated by collecting more data until a saturation point is reached (i.e., no new information can be squeezed from the data). From that base, a theory can then be developed .

As you can see, grounded theory is ideally suited to studies where the research aims involve theory generation , especially in under-researched areas. Keep in mind though that this type of research design can be quite time-intensive , given the need for multiple rounds of data collection and analysis.

Ethnographic Research Design

Ethnographic design involves observing and studying a culture-sharing group of people in their natural setting to gain insight into their behaviours, beliefs, and values. The focus here is on observing participants in their natural environment (as opposed to a controlled environment). This typically involves the researcher spending an extended period of time with the participants in their environment, carefully observing and taking field notes .

All of this is not to say that ethnographic research design relies purely on observation. On the contrary, this design typically also involves in-depth interviews to explore participants’ views, beliefs, etc. However, unobtrusive observation is a core component of the ethnographic approach.

As an example, an ethnographer may study how different communities celebrate traditional festivals or how individuals from different generations interact with technology differently. This may involve a lengthy period of observation, combined with in-depth interviews to further explore specific areas of interest that emerge as a result of the observations that the researcher has made.

As you can probably imagine, ethnographic research design has the ability to provide rich, contextually embedded insights into the socio-cultural dynamics of human behaviour within a natural, uncontrived setting. Naturally, however, it does come with its own set of challenges, including researcher bias (since the researcher can become quite immersed in the group), participant confidentiality and, predictably, ethical complexities . All of these need to be carefully managed if you choose to adopt this type of research design.

Case Study Design

With case study research design, you, as the researcher, investigate a single individual (or a single group of individuals) to gain an in-depth understanding of their experiences, behaviours or outcomes. Unlike other research designs that are aimed at larger sample sizes, case studies offer a deep dive into the specific circumstances surrounding a person, group of people, event or phenomenon, generally within a bounded setting or context .

As an example, a case study design could be used to explore the factors influencing the success of a specific small business. This would involve diving deeply into the organisation to explore and understand what makes it tick – from marketing to HR to finance. In terms of data collection, this could include interviews with staff and management, review of policy documents and financial statements, surveying customers, etc.

While the above example is focused squarely on one organisation, it’s worth noting that case study research designs can have different variation s, including single-case, multiple-case and longitudinal designs. As you can see in the example, a single-case design involves intensely examining a single entity to understand its unique characteristics and complexities. Conversely, in a multiple-case design , multiple cases are compared and contrasted to identify patterns and commonalities. Lastly, in a longitudinal case design , a single case or multiple cases are studied over an extended period of time to understand how factors develop over time.

As you can see, a case study research design is particularly useful where a deep and contextualised understanding of a specific phenomenon or issue is desired. However, this strength is also its weakness. In other words, you can’t generalise the findings from a case study to the broader population. So, keep this in mind if you’re considering going the case study route.

How To Choose A Research Design

Having worked through all of these potential research designs, you’d be forgiven for feeling a little overwhelmed and wondering, “ But how do I decide which research design to use? ”. While we could write an entire post covering that alone, here are a few factors to consider that will help you choose a suitable research design for your study.

Data type: The first determining factor is naturally the type of data you plan to be collecting – i.e., qualitative or quantitative. This may sound obvious, but we have to be clear about this – don’t try to use a quantitative research design on qualitative data (or vice versa)!

Research aim(s) and question(s): As with all methodological decisions, your research aim and research questions will heavily influence your research design. For example, if your research aims involve developing a theory from qualitative data, grounded theory would be a strong option. Similarly, if your research aims involve identifying and measuring relationships between variables, one of the experimental designs would likely be a better option.

Time: It’s essential that you consider any time constraints you have, as this will impact the type of research design you can choose. For example, if you’ve only got a month to complete your project, a lengthy design such as ethnography wouldn’t be a good fit.

Resources: Take into account the resources realistically available to you, as these need to factor into your research design choice. For example, if you require highly specialised lab equipment to execute an experimental design, you need to be sure that you’ll have access to that before you make a decision.

Keep in mind that when it comes to research, it’s important to manage your risks and play as conservatively as possible. If your entire project relies on you achieving a huge sample, having access to niche equipment or holding interviews with very difficult-to-reach participants, you’re creating risks that could kill your project. So, be sure to think through your choices carefully and make sure that you have backup plans for any existential risks. Remember that a relatively simple methodology executed well generally will typically earn better marks than a highly-complex methodology executed poorly.

Recap: Key Takeaways

We’ve covered a lot of ground here. Let’s recap by looking at the key takeaways:

• Research design refers to the overall plan, structure or strategy that guides a research project, from its conception to the final analysis of data.
• Research designs for quantitative studies include descriptive , correlational , experimental and quasi-experimenta l designs.
• Research designs for qualitative studies include phenomenological , grounded theory , ethnographic and case study designs.
• When choosing a research design, you need to consider a variety of factors, including the type of data you’ll be working with, your research aims and questions, your time and the resources available to you.

If you need a helping hand with your research design (or any other aspect of your research), check out our private coaching services .

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This post was based on one of our popular Research Bootcamps . If you're working on a research project, you'll definitely want to check this out ...

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10 Comments

Is there any blog article explaining more on Case study research design? Is there a Case study write-up template? Thank you.

Thanks this was quite valuable to clarify such an important concept.

Thanks for this simplified explanations. it is quite very helpful.

This was really helpful. thanks

Thank you for your explanation. I think case study research design and the use of secondary data in researches needs to be talked about more in your videos and articles because there a lot of case studies research design tailored projects out there.

Please is there any template for a case study research design whose data type is a secondary data on your repository?

This post is very clear, comprehensive and has been very helpful to me. It has cleared the confusion I had in regard to research design and methodology.

This post is helpful, easy to understand, and deconstructs what a research design is. Thanks

how to cite this page

Thank you very much for the post. It is wonderful and has cleared many worries in my mind regarding research designs. I really appreciate .

how can I put this blog as my reference(APA style) in bibliography part?

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Illustration by James Round

How to plan a research project

Whether for a paper or a thesis, define your question, review the work of others – and leave yourself open to discovery.

by Brooke Harrington   + BIO

is professor of sociology at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire. Her research has won international awards both for scholarly quality and impact on public life. She has published dozens of articles and three books, most recently the bestseller Capital without Borders (2016), now translated into five languages.

Edited by Sam Haselby

Need to know

‘When curiosity turns to serious matters, it’s called research.’ – From Aphorisms (1880-1905) by Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach

Planning research projects is a time-honoured intellectual exercise: one that requires both creativity and sharp analytical skills. The purpose of this Guide is to make the process systematic and easy to understand. While there is a great deal of freedom and discovery involved – from the topics you choose, to the data and methods you apply – there are also some norms and constraints that obtain, no matter what your academic level or field of study. For those in high school through to doctoral students, and from art history to archaeology, research planning involves broadly similar steps, including: formulating a question, developing an argument or predictions based on previous research, then selecting the information needed to answer your question.

Some of this might sound self-evident but, as you’ll find, research requires a different way of approaching and using information than most of us are accustomed to in everyday life. That is why I include orienting yourself to knowledge-creation as an initial step in the process. This is a crucial and underappreciated phase in education, akin to making the transition from salaried employment to entrepreneurship: suddenly, you’re on your own, and that requires a new way of thinking about your work.

What follows is a distillation of what I’ve learned about this process over 27 years as a professional social scientist. It reflects the skills that my own professors imparted in the sociology doctoral programme at Harvard, as well as what I learned later on as a research supervisor for Ivy League PhD and MA students, and then as the author of award-winning scholarly books and articles. It can be adapted to the demands of both short projects (such as course term papers) and long ones, such as a thesis.

At its simplest, research planning involves the four distinct steps outlined below: orienting yourself to knowledge-creation; defining your research question; reviewing previous research on your question; and then choosing relevant data to formulate your own answers. Because the focus of this Guide is on planning a research project, as opposed to conducting a research project, this section won’t delve into the details of data-collection or analysis; those steps happen after you plan the project. In addition, the topic is vast: year-long doctoral courses are devoted to data and analysis. Instead, the fourth part of this section will outline some basic strategies you could use in planning a data-selection and analysis process appropriate to your research question.

Step 1: Orient yourself

Planning and conducting research requires you to make a transition, from thinking like a consumer of information to thinking like a producer of information. That sounds simple, but it’s actually a complex task. As a practical matter, this means putting aside the mindset of a student, which treats knowledge as something created by other people. As students, we are often passive receivers of knowledge: asked to do a specified set of readings, then graded on how well we reproduce what we’ve read.

Researchers, however, must take on an active role as knowledge producers . Doing research requires more of you than reading and absorbing what other people have written: you have to engage in a dialogue with it. That includes arguing with previous knowledge and perhaps trying to show that ideas we have accepted as given are actually wrong or incomplete. For example, rather than simply taking in the claims of an author you read, you’ll need to draw out the implications of those claims: if what the author is saying is true, what else does that suggest must be true? What predictions could you make based on the author’s claims?

In other words, rather than treating a reading as a source of truth – even if it comes from a revered source, such as Plato or Marie Curie – this orientation step asks you to treat the claims you read as provisional and subject to interrogation. That is one of the great pieces of wisdom that science and philosophy can teach us: that the biggest advances in human understanding have been made not by being correct about trivial things, but by being wrong in an interesting way . For example, Albert Einstein was wrong about quantum mechanics, but his arguments about it with his fellow physicist Niels Bohr have led to some of the biggest breakthroughs in science, even a century later.

Step 2: Define your research question

Students often give this step cursory attention, but experienced researchers know that formulating a good question is sometimes the most difficult part of the research planning process. That is because the precise language of the question frames the rest of the project. It’s therefore important to pose the question carefully, in a way that’s both possible to answer and likely to yield interesting results. Of course, you must choose a question that interests you, but that’s only the beginning of what’s likely to be an iterative process: most researchers come back to this step repeatedly, modifying their questions in light of previous research, resource limitations and other considerations.

Researchers face limits in terms of time and money. They, like everyone else, have to pose research questions that they can plausibly answer given the constraints they face. For example, it would be inadvisable to frame a project around the question ‘What are the roots of the Arab-Israeli conflict?’ if you have only a week to develop an answer and no background on that topic. That’s not to limit your imagination: you can come up with any question you’d like. But it typically does require some creativity to frame a question that you can answer well – that is, by investigating thoroughly and providing new insights – within the limits you face.

In addition to being interesting to you, and feasible within your resource constraints, the third and most important characteristic of a ‘good’ research topic is whether it allows you to create new knowledge. It might turn out that your question has already been asked and answered to your satisfaction: if so, you’ll find out in the next step of this process. On the other hand, you might come up with a research question that hasn’t been addressed previously. Before you get too excited about breaking uncharted ground, consider this: a lot of potentially researchable questions haven’t been studied for good reason ; they might have answers that are trivial or of very limited interest. This could include questions such as ‘Why does the area of a circle equal π r²?’ or ‘Did winter conditions affect Napoleon’s plans to invade Russia?’ Of course, you might be able to make the argument that a seemingly trivial question is actually vitally important, but you must be prepared to back that up with convincing evidence. The exercise in the ‘Learn More’ section below will help you think through some of these issues.

Finally, scholarly research questions must in some way lead to new and distinctive insights. For example, lots of people have studied gender roles in sports teams; what can you ask that hasn’t been asked before? Reinventing the wheel is the number-one no-no in this endeavour. That’s why the next step is so important: reviewing previous research on your topic. Depending on what you find in that step, you might need to revise your research question; iterating between your question and the existing literature is a normal process. But don’t worry: it doesn’t go on forever. In fact, the iterations taper off – and your research question stabilises – as you develop a firm grasp of the current state of knowledge on your topic.

Step 3: Review previous research

In academic research, from articles to books, it’s common to find a section called a ‘literature review’. The purpose of that section is to describe the state of the art in knowledge on the research question that a project has posed. It demonstrates that researchers have thoroughly and systematically reviewed the relevant findings of previous studies on their topic, and that they have something novel to contribute.

Your own research project should include something like this, even if it’s a high-school term paper. In the research planning process, you’ll want to list at least half a dozen bullet points stating the major findings on your topic by other people. In relation to those findings, you should be able to specify where your project could provide new and necessary insights. There are two basic rhetorical positions one can take in framing the novelty-plus-importance argument required of academic research:

• Position 1 requires you to build on or extend a set of existing ideas; that means saying something like: ‘Person A has argued that X is true about gender; this implies Y, which has not yet been tested. My project will test Y, and if I find evidence to support it, that will change the way we understand gender.’
• Position 2 is to argue that there is a gap in existing knowledge, either because previous research has reached conflicting conclusions or has failed to consider something important. For example, one could say that research on middle schoolers and gender has been limited by being conducted primarily in coeducational environments, and that findings might differ dramatically if research were conducted in more schools where the student body was all-male or all-female.

Your overall goal in this step of the process is to show that your research will be part of a larger conversation: that is, how your project flows from what’s already known, and how it advances, extends or challenges that existing body of knowledge. That will be the contribution of your project, and it constitutes the motivation for your research.

Two things are worth mentioning about your search for sources of relevant previous research. First, you needn’t look only at studies on your precise topic. For example, if you want to study gender-identity formation in schools, you shouldn’t restrict yourself to studies of schools; the empirical setting (schools) is secondary to the larger social process that interests you (how people form gender identity). That process occurs in many different settings, so cast a wide net. Second, be sure to use legitimate sources – meaning publications that have been through some sort of vetting process, whether that involves peer review (as with academic journal articles you might find via Google Scholar) or editorial review (as you’d find in well-known mass media publications, such as The Economist or The Washington Post ). What you’ll want to avoid is using unvetted sources such as personal blogs or Wikipedia. Why? Because anybody can write anything in those forums, and there is no way to know – unless you’re already an expert – if the claims you find there are accurate. Often, they’re not.

Step 4: Choose your data and methods

Whatever your research question is, eventually you’ll need to consider which data source and analytical strategy are most likely to provide the answers you’re seeking. One starting point is to consider whether your question would be best addressed by qualitative data (such as interviews, observations or historical records), quantitative data (such as surveys or census records) or some combination of both. Your ideas about data sources will, in turn, suggest options for analytical methods.

You might need to collect your own data, or you might find everything you need readily available in an existing dataset someone else has created. A great place to start is with a research librarian: university libraries always have them and, at public universities, those librarians can work with the public, including people who aren’t affiliated with the university. If you don’t happen to have a public university and its library close at hand, an ordinary public library can still be a good place to start: the librarians are often well versed in accessing data sources that might be relevant to your study, such as the census, or historical archives, or the Survey of Consumer Finances.

Because your task at this point is to plan research, rather than conduct it, the purpose of this step is not to commit you irrevocably to a course of action. Instead, your goal here is to think through a feasible approach to answering your research question. You’ll need to find out, for example, whether the data you want exist; if not, do you have a realistic chance of gathering the data yourself, or would it be better to modify your research question? In terms of analysis, would your strategy require you to apply statistical methods? If so, do you have those skills? If not, do you have time to learn them, or money to hire a research assistant to run the analysis for you?

Please be aware that qualitative methods in particular are not the casual undertaking they might appear to be. Many people make the mistake of thinking that only quantitative data and methods are scientific and systematic, while qualitative methods are just a fancy way of saying: ‘I talked to some people, read some old newspapers, and drew my own conclusions.’ Nothing could be further from the truth. In the final section of this guide, you’ll find some links to resources that will provide more insight on standards and procedures governing qualitative research, but suffice it to say: there are rules about what constitutes legitimate evidence and valid analytical procedure for qualitative data, just as there are for quantitative data.

Circle back and consider revising your initial plans

As you work through these four steps in planning your project, it’s perfectly normal to circle back and revise. Research planning is rarely a linear process. It’s also common for new and unexpected avenues to suggest themselves. As the sociologist Thorstein Veblen wrote in 1908 : ‘The outcome of any serious research can only be to make two questions grow where only one grew before.’ That’s as true of research planning as it is of a completed project. Try to enjoy the horizons that open up for you in this process, rather than becoming overwhelmed; the four steps, along with the two exercises that follow, will help you focus your plan and make it manageable.

Key points – How to plan a research project

• Planning a research project is essential no matter your academic level or field of study. There is no one ‘best’ way to design research, but there are certain guidelines that can be helpfully applied across disciplines.
• Orient yourself to knowledge-creation. Make the shift from being a consumer of information to being a producer of information.
• Define your research question. Your question frames the rest of your project, sets the scope, and determines the kinds of answers you can find.
• Review previous research on your question. Survey the existing body of relevant knowledge to ensure that your research will be part of a larger conversation.
• Choose your data and methods. For instance, will you be collecting qualitative data, via interviews, or numerical data, via surveys?
• Circle back and consider revising your initial plans. Expect your research question in particular to undergo multiple rounds of refinement as you learn more about your topic.

Good research questions tend to beget more questions. This can be frustrating for those who want to get down to business right away. Try to make room for the unexpected: this is usually how knowledge advances. Many of the most significant discoveries in human history have been made by people who were looking for something else entirely. There are ways to structure your research planning process without over-constraining yourself; the two exercises below are a start, and you can find further methods in the Links and Books section.

The following exercise provides a structured process for advancing your research project planning. After completing it, you’ll be able to do the following:

• describe clearly and concisely the question you’ve chosen to study
• summarise the state of the art in knowledge about the question, and where your project could contribute new insight
• identify the best strategy for gathering and analysing relevant data

In other words, the following provides a systematic means to establish the building blocks of your research project.

Exercise 1: Definition of research question and sources

This exercise prompts you to select and clarify your general interest area, develop a research question, and investigate sources of information. The annotated bibliography will also help you refine your research question so that you can begin the second assignment, a description of the phenomenon you wish to study.

Jot down a few bullet points in response to these two questions, with the understanding that you’ll probably go back and modify your answers as you begin reading other studies relevant to your topic:

• What will be the general topic of your paper?
• What will be the specific topic of your paper?

b) Research question(s)

Use the following guidelines to frame a research question – or questions – that will drive your analysis. As with Part 1 above, you’ll probably find it necessary to change or refine your research question(s) as you complete future assignments.

• Your question should be phrased so that it can’t be answered with a simple ‘yes’ or ‘no’.
• Your question should have more than one plausible answer.
• Your question should draw relationships between two or more concepts; framing the question in terms of How? or What? often works better than asking Why ?

c) Annotated bibliography

Most or all of your background information should come from two sources: scholarly books and journals, or reputable mass media sources. You might be able to access journal articles electronically through your library, using search engines such as JSTOR and Google Scholar. This can save you a great deal of time compared with going to the library in person to search periodicals. General news sources, such as those accessible through LexisNexis, are acceptable, but should be cited sparingly, since they don’t carry the same level of credibility as scholarly sources. As discussed above, unvetted sources such as blogs and Wikipedia should be avoided, because the quality of the information they provide is unreliable and often misleading.

To create an annotated bibliography, provide the following information for at least 10 sources relevant to your specific topic, using the format suggested below.

Name of author(s):

Publication date:

Title of book, chapter, or article:

If a chapter or article, title of journal or book where they appear:

Brief description of this work, including main findings and methods ( c 75 words):

Summary of how this work contributes to your project ( c 75 words):

Brief description of the implications of this work ( c 25 words):

Identify any gap or controversy in knowledge this work points up, and how your project could address those problems ( c 50 words):

Exercise 2: Towards an analysis

Develop a short statement ( c 250 words) about the kind of data that would be useful to address your research question, and how you’d analyse it. Some questions to consider in writing this statement include:

• What are the central concepts or variables in your project? Offer a brief definition of each.
• Do any data sources exist on those concepts or variables, or would you need to collect data?
• Of the analytical strategies you could apply to that data, which would be the most appropriate to answer your question? Which would be the most feasible for you? Consider at least two methods, noting their advantages or disadvantages for your project.

Links & books

One of the best texts ever written about planning and executing research comes from a source that might be unexpected: a 60-year-old work on urban planning by a self-trained scholar. The classic book The Death and Life of Great American Cities (1961) by Jane Jacobs (available complete and free of charge via this link ) is worth reading in its entirety just for the pleasure of it. But the final 20 pages – a concluding chapter titled ‘The Kind of Problem a City Is’ – are really about the process of thinking through and investigating a problem. Highly recommended as a window into the craft of research.

Jacobs’s text references an essay on advancing human knowledge by the mathematician Warren Weaver. At the time, Weaver was director of the Rockefeller Foundation, in charge of funding basic research in the natural and medical sciences. Although the essay is titled ‘A Quarter Century in the Natural Sciences’ (1960) and appears at first blush to be merely a summation of one man’s career, it turns out to be something much bigger and more interesting: a meditation on the history of human beings seeking answers to big questions about the world. Weaver goes back to the 17th century to trace the origins of systematic research thinking, with enthusiasm and vivid anecdotes that make the process come alive. The essay is worth reading in its entirety, and is available free of charge via this link .

For those seeking a more in-depth, professional-level discussion of the logic of research design, the political scientist Harvey Starr provides insight in a compact format in the article ‘Cumulation from Proper Specification: Theory, Logic, Research Design, and “Nice” Laws’ (2005). Starr reviews the ‘research triad’, consisting of the interlinked considerations of formulating a question, selecting relevant theories and applying appropriate methods. The full text of the article, published in the scholarly journal Conflict Management and Peace Science , is available, free of charge, via this link .

Finally, the book Getting What You Came For (1992) by Robert Peters is not only an outstanding guide for anyone contemplating graduate school – from the application process onward – but it also includes several excellent chapters on planning and executing research, applicable across a wide variety of subject areas. It was an invaluable resource for me 25 years ago, and it remains in print with good reason; I recommend it to all my students, particularly Chapter 16 (‘The Thesis Topic: Finding It’), Chapter 17 (‘The Thesis Proposal’) and Chapter 18 (‘The Thesis: Writing It’).

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Introducing Research Designs

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We define research design as a combination of decisions within a research process. These decisions enable us to make a specific type of argument by answering the research question. It is the implementation plan for the research study that allows reaching the desired (type of) conclusion. Different research designs make it possible to draw different conclusions. These conclusions produce various kinds of intellectual contributions. As all kinds of intellectual contributions are necessary to increase the body of knowledge, no research design is inherently better than another, only more appropriate to answer a specific question.

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Home » Research Design – Types, Methods and Examples

Research Design – Types, Methods and Examples

Table of Contents

Research Design

Definition:

Research design refers to the overall strategy or plan for conducting a research study. It outlines the methods and procedures that will be used to collect and analyze data, as well as the goals and objectives of the study. Research design is important because it guides the entire research process and ensures that the study is conducted in a systematic and rigorous manner.

Types of Research Design

Types of Research Design are as follows:

Descriptive Research Design

This type of research design is used to describe a phenomenon or situation. It involves collecting data through surveys, questionnaires, interviews, and observations. The aim of descriptive research is to provide an accurate and detailed portrayal of a particular group, event, or situation. It can be useful in identifying patterns, trends, and relationships in the data.

Correlational Research Design

Correlational research design is used to determine if there is a relationship between two or more variables. This type of research design involves collecting data from participants and analyzing the relationship between the variables using statistical methods. The aim of correlational research is to identify the strength and direction of the relationship between the variables.

Experimental Research Design

Experimental research design is used to investigate cause-and-effect relationships between variables. This type of research design involves manipulating one variable and measuring the effect on another variable. It usually involves randomly assigning participants to groups and manipulating an independent variable to determine its effect on a dependent variable. The aim of experimental research is to establish causality.

Quasi-experimental Research Design

Quasi-experimental research design is similar to experimental research design, but it lacks one or more of the features of a true experiment. For example, there may not be random assignment to groups or a control group. This type of research design is used when it is not feasible or ethical to conduct a true experiment.

Case Study Research Design

Case study research design is used to investigate a single case or a small number of cases in depth. It involves collecting data through various methods, such as interviews, observations, and document analysis. The aim of case study research is to provide an in-depth understanding of a particular case or situation.

Longitudinal Research Design

Longitudinal research design is used to study changes in a particular phenomenon over time. It involves collecting data at multiple time points and analyzing the changes that occur. The aim of longitudinal research is to provide insights into the development, growth, or decline of a particular phenomenon over time.

Structure of Research Design

The format of a research design typically includes the following sections:

• Introduction : This section provides an overview of the research problem, the research questions, and the importance of the study. It also includes a brief literature review that summarizes previous research on the topic and identifies gaps in the existing knowledge.
• Research Questions or Hypotheses: This section identifies the specific research questions or hypotheses that the study will address. These questions should be clear, specific, and testable.
• Research Methods : This section describes the methods that will be used to collect and analyze data. It includes details about the study design, the sampling strategy, the data collection instruments, and the data analysis techniques.
• Data Collection: This section describes how the data will be collected, including the sample size, data collection procedures, and any ethical considerations.
• Data Analysis: This section describes how the data will be analyzed, including the statistical techniques that will be used to test the research questions or hypotheses.
• Results : This section presents the findings of the study, including descriptive statistics and statistical tests.
• Discussion and Conclusion : This section summarizes the key findings of the study, interprets the results, and discusses the implications of the findings. It also includes recommendations for future research.
• References : This section lists the sources cited in the research design.

Example of Research Design

An Example of Research Design could be:

Research question: Does the use of social media affect the academic performance of high school students?

Research design:

• Research approach : The research approach will be quantitative as it involves collecting numerical data to test the hypothesis.
• Research design : The research design will be a quasi-experimental design, with a pretest-posttest control group design.
• Sample : The sample will be 200 high school students from two schools, with 100 students in the experimental group and 100 students in the control group.
• Data collection : The data will be collected through surveys administered to the students at the beginning and end of the academic year. The surveys will include questions about their social media usage and academic performance.
• Data analysis : The data collected will be analyzed using statistical software. The mean scores of the experimental and control groups will be compared to determine whether there is a significant difference in academic performance between the two groups.
• Limitations : The limitations of the study will be acknowledged, including the fact that social media usage can vary greatly among individuals, and the study only focuses on two schools, which may not be representative of the entire population.
• Ethical considerations: Ethical considerations will be taken into account, such as obtaining informed consent from the participants and ensuring their anonymity and confidentiality.

How to Write Research Design

Writing a research design involves planning and outlining the methodology and approach that will be used to answer a research question or hypothesis. Here are some steps to help you write a research design:

• Define the research question or hypothesis : Before beginning your research design, you should clearly define your research question or hypothesis. This will guide your research design and help you select appropriate methods.
• Select a research design: There are many different research designs to choose from, including experimental, survey, case study, and qualitative designs. Choose a design that best fits your research question and objectives.
• Develop a sampling plan : If your research involves collecting data from a sample, you will need to develop a sampling plan. This should outline how you will select participants and how many participants you will include.
• Define variables: Clearly define the variables you will be measuring or manipulating in your study. This will help ensure that your results are meaningful and relevant to your research question.
• Choose data collection methods : Decide on the data collection methods you will use to gather information. This may include surveys, interviews, observations, experiments, or secondary data sources.
• Create a data analysis plan: Develop a plan for analyzing your data, including the statistical or qualitative techniques you will use.
• Consider ethical concerns : Finally, be sure to consider any ethical concerns related to your research, such as participant confidentiality or potential harm.

When to Write Research Design

Research design should be written before conducting any research study. It is an important planning phase that outlines the research methodology, data collection methods, and data analysis techniques that will be used to investigate a research question or problem. The research design helps to ensure that the research is conducted in a systematic and logical manner, and that the data collected is relevant and reliable.

Ideally, the research design should be developed as early as possible in the research process, before any data is collected. This allows the researcher to carefully consider the research question, identify the most appropriate research methodology, and plan the data collection and analysis procedures in advance. By doing so, the research can be conducted in a more efficient and effective manner, and the results are more likely to be valid and reliable.

Purpose of Research Design

The purpose of research design is to plan and structure a research study in a way that enables the researcher to achieve the desired research goals with accuracy, validity, and reliability. Research design is the blueprint or the framework for conducting a study that outlines the methods, procedures, techniques, and tools for data collection and analysis.

Some of the key purposes of research design include:

• Providing a clear and concise plan of action for the research study.
• Ensuring that the research is conducted ethically and with rigor.
• Maximizing the accuracy and reliability of the research findings.
• Minimizing the possibility of errors, biases, or confounding variables.
• Ensuring that the research is feasible, practical, and cost-effective.
• Determining the appropriate research methodology to answer the research question(s).
• Identifying the sample size, sampling method, and data collection techniques.
• Determining the data analysis method and statistical tests to be used.
• Facilitating the replication of the study by other researchers.
• Enhancing the validity and generalizability of the research findings.

Applications of Research Design

There are numerous applications of research design in various fields, some of which are:

• Social sciences: In fields such as psychology, sociology, and anthropology, research design is used to investigate human behavior and social phenomena. Researchers use various research designs, such as experimental, quasi-experimental, and correlational designs, to study different aspects of social behavior.
• Education : Research design is essential in the field of education to investigate the effectiveness of different teaching methods and learning strategies. Researchers use various designs such as experimental, quasi-experimental, and case study designs to understand how students learn and how to improve teaching practices.
• Health sciences : In the health sciences, research design is used to investigate the causes, prevention, and treatment of diseases. Researchers use various designs, such as randomized controlled trials, cohort studies, and case-control studies, to study different aspects of health and healthcare.
• Business : Research design is used in the field of business to investigate consumer behavior, marketing strategies, and the impact of different business practices. Researchers use various designs, such as survey research, experimental research, and case studies, to study different aspects of the business world.
• Engineering : In the field of engineering, research design is used to investigate the development and implementation of new technologies. Researchers use various designs, such as experimental research and case studies, to study the effectiveness of new technologies and to identify areas for improvement.

Advantages of Research Design

Here are some advantages of research design:

• Systematic and organized approach : A well-designed research plan ensures that the research is conducted in a systematic and organized manner, which makes it easier to manage and analyze the data.
• Clear objectives: The research design helps to clarify the objectives of the study, which makes it easier to identify the variables that need to be measured, and the methods that need to be used to collect and analyze data.
• Minimizes bias: A well-designed research plan minimizes the chances of bias, by ensuring that the data is collected and analyzed objectively, and that the results are not influenced by the researcher’s personal biases or preferences.
• Efficient use of resources: A well-designed research plan helps to ensure that the resources (time, money, and personnel) are used efficiently and effectively, by focusing on the most important variables and methods.
• Replicability: A well-designed research plan makes it easier for other researchers to replicate the study, which enhances the credibility and reliability of the findings.
• Validity: A well-designed research plan helps to ensure that the findings are valid, by ensuring that the methods used to collect and analyze data are appropriate for the research question.
• Generalizability : A well-designed research plan helps to ensure that the findings can be generalized to other populations, settings, or situations, which increases the external validity of the study.

Research Design Vs Research Methodology

About the author.

Muhammad Hassan

Researcher, Academic Writer, Web developer

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Research Methods Guide: Research Design & Method

• Introduction
• Survey Research
• Interview Research
• Data Analysis
• Resources & Consultation

Tutorial Videos: Research Design & Method

Research Methods (sociology-focused)

Qualitative vs. Quantitative Methods (intro)

Qualitative vs. Quantitative Methods (advanced)

FAQ: Research Design & Method

What is the difference between Research Design and Research Method?

Research design is a plan to answer your research question.  A research method is a strategy used to implement that plan.  Research design and methods are different but closely related, because good research design ensures that the data you obtain will help you answer your research question more effectively.

Which research method should I choose ?

It depends on your research goal.  It depends on what subjects (and who) you want to study.  Let's say you are interested in studying what makes people happy, or why some students are more conscious about recycling on campus.  To answer these questions, you need to make a decision about how to collect your data.  Most frequently used methods include:

• Observation / Participant Observation
• Focus Groups
• Experiments
• Secondary Data Analysis / Archival Study
• Mixed Methods (combination of some of the above)

One particular method could be better suited to your research goal than others, because the data you collect from different methods will be different in quality and quantity.   For instance, surveys are usually designed to produce relatively short answers, rather than the extensive responses expected in qualitative interviews.

What other factors should I consider when choosing one method over another?

Time for data collection and analysis is something you want to consider.  An observation or interview method, so-called qualitative approach, helps you collect richer information, but it takes time.  Using a survey helps you collect more data quickly, yet it may lack details.  So, you will need to consider the time you have for research and the balance between strengths and weaknesses associated with each method (e.g., qualitative vs. quantitative).

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• Last Updated: Aug 21, 2023 10:42 AM

FLEET LIBRARY | Research Guides

Rhode island school of design, create a research plan: research plan.

• Research Plan
• Literature Review
• Ulrich's Global Serials Directory
• Related Guides

A research plan is a framework that shows how you intend to approach your topic. The plan can take many forms: a written outline, a narrative, a visual/concept map or timeline. It's a document that will change and develop as you conduct your research. Components of a research plan

1. Research conceptualization - introduces your research question

2. Research methodology - describes your approach to the research question

3. Literature review, critical evaluation and synthesis - systematic approach to locating,

    reviewing and evaluating the work (text, exhibitions, critiques, etc) relating to your topic

4. Communication - geared toward an intended audience, shows evidence of your inquiry

Research conceptualization refers to the ability to identify specific research questions, problems or opportunities that are worthy of inquiry. Research conceptualization also includes the skills and discipline that go beyond the initial moment of conception, and which enable the researcher to formulate and develop an idea into something researchable ( Newbury 373).

Research methodology refers to the knowledge and skills required to select and apply appropriate methods to carry through the research project ( Newbury 374) .

Method describes a single mode of proceeding; methodology describes the overall process.

Method - a way of doing anything especially according to a defined and regular plan; a mode of procedure in any activity

Methodology - the study of the direction and implications of empirical research, or the sustainability of techniques employed in it; a method or body of methods used in a particular field of study or activity *Browse a list of research methodology books  or this guide on Art & Design Research

Literature Review, critical evaluation & synthesis

A literature review is a systematic approach to locating, reviewing, and evaluating the published work and work in progress of scholars, researchers, and practitioners on a given topic.

Critical evaluation and synthesis is the ability to handle (or process) existing sources. It includes knowledge of the sources of literature and contextual research field within which the person is working ( Newbury 373).

Literature reviews are done for many reasons and situations. Here's a short list:

Sources to consult while conducting a literature review:

Online catalogs of local, regional, national, and special libraries

meta-catalogs such as worldcat , Art Discovery Group , europeana , world digital library or RIBA

subject-specific online article databases (such as the Avery Index, JSTOR, Project Muse)

digital institutional repositories such as Digital Commons @RISD ; see Registry of Open Access Repositories

Open Access Resources recommended by RISD Research LIbrarians

works cited in scholarly books and articles

print bibliographies

the internet-locate major nonprofit, research institutes, museum, university, and government websites

search google scholar to locate grey literature & referenced citations

trade and scholarly publishers

fellow scholars and peers

Communication                              

Communication refers to the ability to

• structure a coherent line of inquiry
• communicate your findings to your intended audience
• make skilled use of visual material to express ideas for presentations, writing, and the creation of exhibitions ( Newbury 374)

Research plan framework: Newbury, Darren. "Research Training in the Creative Arts and Design." The Routledge Companion to Research in the Arts . Ed. Michael Biggs and Henrik Karlsson. New York: Routledge, 2010. 368-87. Print.

About the author

Except where otherwise noted, this guide is subject to a Creative Commons Attribution license

source document

  Routledge Companion to Research in the Arts

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• Last Updated: Sep 20, 2023 5:05 PM
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Research Design 101: A Guide To Planning Experiment Design

Brigitta Puskás

Every day, we conduct research. Every research study has its own purpose it lines up with. But how do our researchers plan their research ? What methods for designing research reflect the goals and delivers results? In this article, we go back to the very basics of research and its types. Then, we walk you through our process of assumption validation and experiment design in an everyday setting.

What we will cover in this article:

• The basic types of research
• The different types of research methods
• Study design in research
• The types of qualitative research and a research design in qualitative research
• The types of quantitative research and a research design in quantitative research

The research problem defines research design

According to American sociologist Earl Robert Babbie, “Research is a systematic inquiry to describe, explain, predict and control the observed phenomenon.”

The design of your research , on the other hand, provides your customized toolkit for a specific research problem. You need to make sure that the tools fit the problem. Research design represents the set of methods and procedures you utilize during the process of data collection and analysis specified in the research problem.

We create a research design as a framework to deliver answers to research questions. Based on the research problem, the design of a study defines defines:

• The right choice of study type (descriptive or experimental)
• Sub-type (e.g., descriptive-longitudinal case study)
• The hypotheses
• The independent and dependent variables
• The scope of experimental design
• Data collection methods and a statistical analysis plan, if applicable.

Types of research: Inductive and deductive research

You will find this familiar if you have ever written a thesis. Basically, you can start researching a subject from two ends.

We use inductive research methods to analyze a phenomenon, while deductive research methods verify it.

To put it into practice: We either want to analyze why more people spend more time texting on weekends than on weekdays (inductive research), or assume that it results from them having more time on those days — and then we test this assumption (deductive research).

We associate inductive research approaches generally with qualitative methods and techniques, while deductive methods connect more to quantitative research.

Researching business and technology

The above holds true for any type of research, from physics to neurology, ornithology to user research. “Average people” don’t usually deal with all these fancy research-related expressions (other than that one time with your thesis paper back in college).

But businesses and tech companies do research all the time as well. In a business setting, researchers mainly ask:

• What do organizations or businesses really want to find out?
• What processes and mechanisms need analyzing to chase the idea?
• What arguments need building up around a concept?
• What evidence will people require to believe in the idea or concept?

Research purposes

Research serves three purposes, depending on prior knowledge and the context. We might not even know what will come out in the end (exploratory research). We might want to structure already existing information in a newer / better way (descriptive research) or to find explanations for a given phenomenon.

Let’s dive more into detail!

1. Exploratory research

If we want to explore the phenomenon and research questions but don’t know for sure whether to offer a final conclusion, choose explanatory research. Conduct this type of research to take a look at new problem areas which no one has explored yet.

For example, we want to know what people use their phones for during the week and on weekends. We dive into what apps exist, how we can group them, how people choose, how their prioritize apps, etc.

Exploratory research proves essential for laying the foundation for more conclusive research and data collection.

2. Descriptive Research:

Descriptive research focuses on shedding light on specific issues through the process of data collection. Lead these studies to describe a behavior or phenomenon.

Descriptive research has three main goals: describing, explaining and validating research findings.

For example, we look at when people use apps and what for.

3. Explanatory Research:

Conduct explanatory research or causal research to understand the impact of certain changes in existing standard procedures. Conducting experiments represents the most popular form of casual research, such as research conducted to understand the effect of rebranding on customer loyalty.

For example, we look at why people seem to use their phones longer on average on weekends than on weekdays.

The research process

We broadly classify research methods as qualitative research and quantitative research.

Both methods have distinctive properties and data collection methods. In this segment, we will learn more about both.

Whichever research method you decide to go with, first evaluate the problem from an analytical point of view.

Qualitative research design: Types of qualitative research

As a research method, qualitative research collects data using conversational methods in which participants involved in the research answer open-ended questions. We collect the essentially non-numerical responses.

This method not only helps a researcher understand what participants think but also why they think in a particular way.

These qualitative research methods see wide usage:

• One-to-one Interviews
• Focus Groups
• Ethnographic Research
• Text Analysis
• Case Study Research

Quantitative research design: Types of quantitative research

Quantitative research methods deal with numbers and anything that can deal with a measurable form in a systematic way of investigating the phenomenon. We use it to answer questions in terms of justifying relationships with measurable variables to explain, predict or control a phenomenon.

Researchers often use three methods to conduct this type of research

• Survey Research
• Descriptive Research
• Correlational Research

What makes up research design? Identifying the ideal research methodologies

To choose the appropriate research methods, you must clearly identify the research objectives. Take into consideration this example of research objectives you may have for your business:

• First, find out your clients’ needs.
• Know their preferences and understand what they find important.
• Find an appropriate way to make them aware of your products and services.
• Find ways to improve your products or services to suit your customers’ needs.

After identifying what you need to know, ask which research methods will offer you that information.

Organize your questions within the framework of the 7 Ps of marketing, which influences your company – product, price, promotion, place, people, processes and physical tests.

Research methods in psychology

Psychologists use many different methods for conducting research. Each has advantages and disadvantages that make it suitable for certain situations and unsuitable for others.

Case studies, surveys, naturalistic observation and laboratory observation exemplify descriptive or correlational research methods. Using them, researchers can describe different events, experiences or behaviors, and look for links between them. However, they do not enable researchers to determine causes of behavior.

Remember: Correlation Is Not Causation! Two factors may have a connection without one causing the other to occur. Often, a third factor explains the correlation.

Why does it matter to know the basics of psychological research? Because in any situation when we deal with people, psychological occurrences might come into play.

Differences between research methods and research design

Research methods.

Generalized and established, research methods address research questions (e.g., qualitative vs. quantitative methods). Not all methods apply for all research questions, so the area of research that you want to explore limits the choice of method.

Research Design

Research design involves determining how to apply your chosen method to answer your research question. Think of your study’s design as a blueprint detailing what to do and how to accomplish it.

Key aspects of research design include research methodology, participant/sample collection and assignment and data collection procedures and instruments.

Relationship

Think of the choice of research methods, then design a reciprocal process extending well into your study. For example, a flaw in the design may arise over the course of your study.

Changing the design of the study may lead to the choice of a different method. In turn, this may lead to subsequent changes in the design to accommodate the new method(s).

UX research design

UX research design makes up the plan. It provides the logical structure of any scientific work. It helps you stay on track and systematize the research so to deliver valid data and confidence in decision making based on the results.

Research design functions to ensure the effectiveness and objectivity of your work by providing a blueprint of sorts for the collection, measurement and analysis of the data.

Assumptions and validation in practice: Experiment design

How it uses the assumptions and experiments below:

• Figure out which kind of assumption you have.
• Conduct an experiment like the one listed to see if you assumed correctly.
• If your team did, move forward to the next assumption..
• If they didn’t, evaluate other options.

Assumption 1: We think we have found a problem. Experiment 1 — Online research: Let’s research whether people discuss this problem online. Google, Twitter, and Quora can help. Also check if a solution already exists. Assumption 2: Based on our research, we still think Group X finds this a problem. This group consists of a lot of people, and they all experience the problem. Experiment 2 — Census data and interviews: How many people actually comprise this group? Lead demographic research based on stats and numbers. If this group seems large, talk to some of them in person. See if they all mention the problem. If so, you seem to have proven your point. Assumption 3: We think we have found a solution to this great problem. Experiment 3 — Field research: Now sketch it and talk to some potential users. Then, get out of the building and show it to the target group because we want to make sure they think that your solution will help. If they do, we can move on to the next step.

Assumption 4: We now assume Group X will indeed pay for our solution to their problem. Experiment 4 — Price before Product, Period: Ask potential customers how much they’d pay for this solution, if anything. If they do, figure out if we can actually make it happen.

Assumption 5: We find the solution feasible. Experiment 5 — Feasibility testing: Chat with your engineers/devs. What do they think about building it? Establish if they find it not super hard to do. They will likely appreciate getting involved early on. Assumption 6: We think adding Extra Feature Z will add a lot of value to our solution. Experiment 6 — A/B testing with a mockup: Go and interview users to find out whether the feature makes its inclusion critical. Perhaps create a landing page with and without the feature listed and look at conversion. Don’t ask users if they’ll miss it; show them the product without it and check if they complain. (Useful tools: Invision, UserTesting.com, or AlphaHQ) Assumption 7: We think people use what we designed to solve the problem. Experiment 7  — Usability testing with prototypes: Create a paper or clickable mock and ask users to complete the task. Better yet, just see what happens without any prompt. Invision, UserTesting.com, AlphaHQ, Validately can help you out. Assumption 8 : We think we can build this in Time Period Y. Experiment 8 — Project length estimation: At this point, get more people on board. First, get the engineers into a room, breaking down the product into high-level flows and features. Have them provide high-level point estimates (difficulty: 1-5 points) or T-shirt sizes (difficulty: S, M, L, XL) to get a better overview of how complex your product idea winds up, and how long it would take to build. Assumption 9: Based on what we know, we think the product is running on the right track. Experiment 9 — User testing: The time has come to involve some real users in the process. Talk to some customers about whether they value it enough to actually pay for. Assumption 10: We think we might have reached the stage to kick it all off and launch. Experiment 10 — Prepare the battlefield: Test the product within the organization. Ask the marketing and sales departments whether they all have what they need. A launch roadmap might also help. Here, we’re checking for internal feasibility and how it will all fit the given timeframe. Assumption 11: We assume people will use the product we’re launching. Experiment 11 — Setting up analytics: Setting up Google Analytics, Hotjar, Heap.io and/or other tracking tools. Set these up before launch. Assumption 12: We assume people use our product to solve the problem. Experiment 12 — Ask your customers: Go back to your target users and see how they use the tool you’ve built. Talk to random other users about what they use it for. You may learn of an additional market. Assumption 13: We might miss another feature that we think might work. Experiment 13 : Return to Assumption 6 .

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Project Planning for the Beginner: Research Design

• Defining a Topic
• Reviewing the Literature
• Developing a Researchable Question

Research Design

• Planning, Data, Writing and Dissemination

What Is a Research Plan?

This refers to the overall plan for your research, and will be used by you and your supervisor to indicate your intentions for your research and the method(s) you’ll use to carry it out. It includes:

• A specification of your research questions

• An outline of your proposed research methods

• A timetable for doing the work

What Is Research Design?

The term “ research design “ is usually used in reference to experimental research, and refers to the design of your experiment. However, you will also see the term “research design” used in other types of research. Below is a list of possible research designs you might encounter or adopt for your research:

• Descriptive or exploratory (e.g., case study , naturalistic observation )

• Correlational (e.g., case-control study, observational study )

• Quasi-experimental (e.g., field experiment , quasi-experiment )

• Experimental (experiment with random allocation and a control and test group )

• Review (e.g. literature review , systematic review )

• Meta-analytic (e.g. meta-analysis )

Research Design Choices

How do i match my research method to my research question.

The method(s) you use must be capable of answering the research questions you have set. Here are some things you may have to consider:

• Often questions can be answered in different ways using different methods

• You may be working with multiple methods

• Methods can answer different sorts of questions

• Questions can be answered in different ways.

The matching of method(s) to questions always matters . Some methods work better for particular sorts of questions.

If your question is a hypothesis which must be falsifiable, you can answer it using the following possible methods:

• An experimental method using statistical methods to test your hypothesis.

• Survey data (either generated by you or secondary data) using statistical methods to test your hypothesis.

If your question requires you to describe a social context and/or process, then you can answer it using the following possible methods:

• You can use data from your own surveys and/or secondary data to carry out descriptive statistics and numerical taxonomy methods for classification .

• You can use qualitative material derived from:

• Documentary research

• Qualitative interviews

• Focus groups

• Visual research

• Ethnographic methods

• Any combination of the above may be deployed.

If your question(s) require you to make causal statements about how certain things have come to be as they are, then you might consider using the following:

• You can build quantitative causal models using techniques which derive from statistical regression analysis and seeing if the models “fit” your quantitative data set.

• You can do this through building simulations .

• You can do this by using figurational methods, particularly qualitative comparative analysis , which start either with the construction of quantitative descriptions of cases from qualitative accounts of those cases, or with an existing data set which contains quantitative descriptions of cases. 

• You can combine both approaches.

If your question(s) require you to produce interpretive accounts of human social actions with a focus on the meanings actors have attached to those actions, then you might consider using the following:

• You can use documentary resources which include accounts of action(s) and the meanings actors have attached to those actions. This is a key approach in historical research.

• You can conduct qualitative interviews .

• You can hold focus groups .

• You can do this using ethnographic observation .

• You can combine any or all of above approaches.

If your question(s) are evaluative, this could mean that you have to find out if some intervention has worked, how it has worked if it has, and why it didn’t work if it didn’t. You might then consider using the following:

• Any combination of quantitative and qualitative methods which fit the data you have.

• You should always use process tracing to generate a careful historical account of the intervention and its context(s). 

Checklist: Question to Ask When Deciding On a Method

Here are seven questions you should be able to answer about the methods you have chosen for your research. 

• Does your method/do your methods fit the research question(s)?
• Do you understand how the methods relate to your methodological position?
• Do you know how to use the method(s)  ?  If not, can you learn how to use the method(s)?
• Do you have the resources you need to use the methods? For example:

• statistical software

• qualitative data analysis software

• an adequate computer

• access to secondary data sets

• audio-visual equipment

• language training

• transport You need to work through this list and add anything else that you need.

• If you are using multiple methods, do you know how you are going to combine them to carry out the research?
• If you are using multiple methods, do you know how you are going to combine the  products of using them when writing up your research? 
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What is UX Research: The Ultimate Guide for UX Researchers

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How to create a UX research plan (examples, tactics, and templates)

Conducting UX research without a plan is like moving to another country without knowing the language—confusing and exhausting.

To avoid wasting time and resources, it’s crucial to set achievable research goals and work on developing a research plan that’s clear, comprehensive, and aligned with your overarching business goals and research strategy.

A good UX research plan sets out the parameters for your research, and guides how you’ll gather insights to inform product development. In this chapter, we share a step-by-step guide to creating a research plan, including templates and tactics for you to try. You’ll also find expert tips from Paige Bennett, Senior User Research Manager at Affirm, and Sinéad Davis Cochrane, Research Manager at Workday.

What is a UX research plan?

A UX research plan—not to be confused with a UX research strategy —is a plan to guide individual user experience (UX) research projects.

It's a living document that includes a detailed explanation of tactics, methods, timeline, scope, and task owners. It should be co-created and shared with key stakeholders, so everyone is familiar with the project plan, and product teams can meet strategic goals.

While the UX research plan should be based on strategy, it’s not the same thing. A strategy is a high-level document that contains goals, budget, vision, and expectations. Meanwhile, a plan is a detailed document explaining how the team will achieve those strategic goals. In short, a strategy is a guide, but a plan is what drives action.

What are the benefits of using a UX research plan?

Conducting research without goals and parameters is aimless. A UX research plan is beneficial for your product, user, and business—by building a plan for conducting UX research, you can:

Streamline processes and add structure

Work toward specific, measurable goals, align and engage stakeholders, save time by avoiding rework.

The structure of a research plan allows you to set timelines, expectations, and task owners, so everyone on your team is aligned and empowered to make decisions. Since there’s no second guessing what to do next or which methods to use, you’ll find your process becomes simpler and more efficient. It’s also worth standardizing your process to turn your plan into a template that you can reuse for future projects.

When you set research goals based on strategy, you’ll find it easier to track your team’s progress and keep the project in scope, on time, and on budget. With a solid, strategy-based UX research plan you can also track metrics at different stages of the project and adjust future tactics to get better research findings.

“It’s important to make sure your stakeholders are on the same page with regards to scope, timeline, and goals before you start," explains Paige Bennett, Senior User Research Manager at Affirm. That's because, when stakeholders are aligned, they're much more likely to sign off on product changes that result from UX research.

A written plan is a collaborative way to involve stakeholders in your research and turn them into active participants rather than passive observers. As they get involved, they'll make useful contributions and get a better understanding of your goals.

A UX research plan helps you save time and money quite simply because it’s easier and less expensive to make design or prototype changes than it is to fix usability issues once the product is coded or fully launched. Additionally, having a plan gives your team direction, which means they won’t be conducting research and talking to users without motive, and you’ll be making better use of your resources. What’s more, when everyone is aligned on goals, they’re empowered to make informed decisions instead of waiting for their managers’ approval.

What should a UX research plan include?

In French cuisine, the concept of mise en place—putting in place—allows chefs to plan and set up their workspace with all the required ingredients before cooking. Think of your research plan like this—laying out the key steps you need to go through during research, to help you run a successful and more efficient study.

Here’s what you should include in a UX research plan:

• A brief reminder of the strategy and goals
• An outline of the research objectives
• The purpose of the plan and studies
• A short description of the target audience, sample size, scope, and demographics
• A detailed list of expectations including deliverables, timings, and type of results
• An overview of the test methods and a short explanation of why you chose them
• The test set up or guidelines to outline everything that needs to happen before the study: scenarios, screening questions, and duration of pilot tests
• Your test scripts, questions to ask, or samples to follow
• When and how you’ll present the results
• Cost estimations or requests to go over budget

Collect all UX research findings in one place

Use Maze to run quantitative and qualitative research, influence product design, and shape user-centered products.

How to create a UX research plan

Now we’ve talked through why you need a research plan, let’s get into the how. Here’s a short step-by-step guide on how to write a research plan that will drive results.

• Define the problem statement
• Get stakeholders’ buy-in
• Identify your objectives
• Choose the right research method
• Recruit participants
• Prepare the brief
• Establish the timeline
• Decide how you’ll present your findings

1. Define the problem statement

One of the most important purposes of a research plan is to identify what you’re trying to achieve with the research, and clarify the problem statement. For Paige Bennett , Senior User Research Manager at Affirm, this process begins by sitting together with stakeholders and looking at the problem space.

“We do an exercise called FOG, which stands for ‘Fact, Observation, Guess’, to identify large gaps in knowledge,” says Paige. “Evaluating what you know illuminates questions you still have, which then serves as the foundation of the UX research project.”

You can use different techniques to identify the problem statement, such as stakeholder interviews, team sessions, or analysis of customer feedback. The problem statement should explain what the project is about—helping to define the research scope with clear deliverables and objectives.

2. Identify your objectives

Research objectives need to align with the UX strategy and broader business goals, but you also need to define specific targets to achieve within the research itself—whether that’s understanding a specific problem, or measuring usability metrics . So, before you get into a room with your users and customers, “Think about the research objectives: what you’re doing, why you’re doing it, and what you expect from the UX research process ,” explains Sinéad Davis Cochrane , Research Manager at Workday.

Examples of research objectives might be:

• Learn at what times users interact with your product
• Understand why users return (or not) to your website/app
• Discover what competitor products your users are using
• Uncover any pain points or challenges users find when navigating with your product
• Gauge user interest in and prioritize potential new features

A valuable purpose of setting objectives is ensuring your project doesn't suffer from scope creep. This can happen when stakeholders see your research as an opportunity to ask any question. As a researcher , Sinéad believes your objectives can guide the type of research questions you ask and give your research more focus. Otherwise, anything and everything becomes a research question—which will confuse your findings and be overwhelming to manage.

Sinéad shares a list of questions you should ask yourself and the research team to help set objectives:

• What are you going to do with this information?
• What decisions is it going to inform?
• How are you going to leverage these insights?

Another useful exercise to help identify research objectives is by asking questions that help you get to the core of a problem. Ask these types of questions before starting the planning process:

• Who are the users you’re designing this for?
• What problems and needs do they have?
• What are the pain points of using the product?
• Why are they not using a product like yours?

3. Get stakeholders buy-in

It’s good practice to involve stakeholders at early stages of plan creation to get everyone on board. Sharing your UX research plan with relevant stakeholders means you can gather context, adjust based on comments, and gauge what’s truly important to them. When you present the research plan to key stakeholders, remember to align on the scope of research, and how and when you’ll get back to them with results.

Stakeholders usually have a unique vision of the product, and it’s crucial that you’re able to capture it early on—this doesn’t mean saying yes to everything, but listening to their ideas and having a conversation. Seeing the UX research plan as a living document makes it much easier to edit based on team comments. Plus, the more you listen to other ideas, the easier it will be to evangelize research and get stakeholders to see the value behind it.

I expect my stakeholders to be participants, and I outline how I expect that to happen. That includes observing interviews, participating in synthesis exercises, or co-presenting research recommendations.

Paige Bennett , Senior User Research Manager at Affirm

4. Choose the right research method

Choose between the different UX research methods to capture different insights from users.

To define the research methods you’ll use, circle back to your research objectives, what stage of the product development process you’re in, and the constraints, resources, and timeline of the project. It’s good research practice to use a mix of different methods to get a more complete perspective of users’ struggles.

For example, if you’re at the start of the design process, a generative research method such as user interviews or field studies will help you generate new insights about the target audience. Or, if you need to evaluate how a new design performs with users, you can run usability tests to get actionable feedback.

It’s also good practice to mix methods that drive quantitative and qualitative results so you can understand context, and catch the user sentiment behind a metric. For instance, if during a remote usability test, you hear a user go ‘Ugh! Where’s the sign up button?’ you’ll get a broader perspective than if you were just reviewing the number of clicks on the same test task.

Examples of UX research methods to consider include:

• Five-second testing
• User interviews
• Field studies
• Card sorting
• Tree testing
• Focus groups
• Usability testing
• Diary studies
• Live website testing

Check out our top UX research templates . Use them as a shortcut to get started on your research.

5. Determine how to recruit participants

Every research plan should include information about the participants you need for your study, and how you’ll recruit them. To identify your perfect candidate, revisit your goals and the questions that need answering, then build a target user persona including key demographics and use cases. Consider the resources you have available already, by asking yourself:

• Do you have a user base you can tap into to collect data?
• Do you need to hire external participants?
• What’s your budget to recruit users?
• How many users do you need to interact with?

When selecting participants, make sure they represent all your target personas. If different types of people will be using a certain product, you need to make sure that the people you research represent these personas. This means not just being inclusive in your recruitment, but considering secondary personas—the people who may not be your target user base, but interact with your product incidentally.

You should also consider recruiting research participants to test the product on different devices. Paige explains: “If prior research has shown that behavior differs greatly between those who use a product on their phone versus their tablet, I need to better understand those differences—so I’m going to make sure my participants include people who have used a product on both devices.”

During this step, make sure to include information about the required number of participants, how you’ll get them to participate, and how much time you need per user. The main ways to recruit testers are:

• Using an online participant recruitment tool like Maze’s panel
• Putting out physical or digital adverts in spaces that are relevant to your product and user
• Reaching out to existing users
• Using participants from previous research
• Recruiting directly from your website or app with a tool like In-Product Prompts

5.1. Determine how you’ll pay them

You should always reward your test participants for their time and insights. Not only because it’s the right thing to do, but also because if they have an incentive they’re more likely to give you complete and insightful answers. If you’re hosting the studies in person, you’ll also need to cover your participants' travel expenses and secure a research space. Running remote moderated or unmoderated research is often considered to be less expensive and faster to complete.

If you’re testing an international audience, remember to check your proposed payment system works worldwide—this might be an Amazon gift card or prepaid Visa cards.

6. Prepare the brief

The next component of a research plan is to create a brief or guide for your research sessions. The kind of brief you need will vary depending on your research method, but for moderated methods like user interviews, field studies, or focus groups, you’ll need a detailed guide and script. The brief is there to remind you which questions to ask and keep the sessions on track.

Your script should cover:

• Introduction: A short message you’ll say to participants before the session begins. This works as a starting point for conversations and helps set the tone for the meeting. If you’re testing without a moderator, you should also include an introductory message to explain what the research is about and the type of answers they should give (in terms of length and specificity).
• Interview questions: Include your list of questions you’ll ask participants during the sessions. These could be examples to help guide the interviews, specific pre-planned questions, or test tasks you’ll ask participants to perform during unmoderated sessions.
• Outro message: Outline what you'll say at the end of the session, including the next steps, asking participants if they are open to future research, and thanking them for their time. This can be a form you share at the end of asynchronous sessions.

It’s crucial you remember to ask participants for their consent. You should do this at the beginning of the test by asking if they’re okay with you recording the session. Use this space to lay out any compensation agreements as well. Then, ask again at the end of the session if they agree with you keeping the results and using the data for research purposes. If possible, explain exactly what you’ll do with their data. Double check and get your legal team’s sign-off on these forms.

7. Establish the timeline

Next in your plan, estimate how long the research project will take and when you should expect to review the findings. Even if not exact, determining an approximate timeline (e.g., two-three weeks) will enable you to manage stakeholders’ expectations of the process and results.

Many people believe UX research is a lengthy process, so they skip it. When you set up a timeline and get stakeholders aligned with it, you can debunk assumptions and put stakeholders’ minds at ease. Plus, if you’re using a product discovery tool like Maze, you can get answers to your tests within days.

8. Decide how you’ll present your findings

When it comes to sharing your findings with your team, presentation matters. You need to make a clear presentation and demonstrate how user insights will influence design and development. If you’ve conducted UX research in the past, share data that proves how implementing user insights has improved product adoption.

Examples of ways you can present your results include:

• A physical or digital PDF report with key statistics and takeaways
• An interactive online report of the individual research questions and their results
• A presentation explaining the results and your findings
• A digital whiteboard, like Miro, to display the results

In your plan, mention how you’ll share insights with the product team. For example, if you’re using Maze, you can start by emailing everyone the ready-to-share report and setting up a meeting with the team to identify how to bring those insights to life. This is key, because your research should be the guiding light for new products or updates, if you want to keep development user-centric. Taking care over how you present your findings will impact whether they’re taken seriously and implemented by other stakeholders.

Templates for UX research

Whether you’re creating the plan yourself or are delegating this responsibility to your team, here are six research templates to get started:

• UX research plan template : This editable Miro research project plan example helps you brainstorm user and business-facing problems, objectives, and questions
• UX research brief : You need a clear brief before you conduct UX research—Milanote shares a template that will help you simplify the writing process
• User testing synthesis : Trello put together a sample board to organize user testing notes—you can use this as a guide, but change the titles to fit your UX research purposes
• Usability testing templates : At Maze, we’ve created multiple templates for conducting specific UX research methods—this list will help you create different remote usability tests
• Information architecture (IA) tests template : The way you organize the information in your website or app can improve or damage the user experience—use this template to run IA tests easily
• Feedback survey templates : Ask users anything through a survey, and use these templates to get creative and simplify creation

Everything you need to know about UX research plans

We all know that a robust plan is essential for conducting successful UX research. But, in case you want a quick refresher on what we’ve covered:

• Using a UX research strategy as a starting point will make your plan more likely to succeed
• Determine your research objectives before anything else
• Use a mix of qualitative and quantitative research methods
• Come up with clear personas so you can recruit and test a group of individuals that’s representative of your real end users
• Involve stakeholders from the beginning to get buy-in
• Be vocal about timelines, budget, and expected research findings
• Use the insights to power your product decisions and wow your users; building the solution they genuinely want and need

UX research can happen at any stage of the development lifecycle. When you build products with and for users, you need to include them continuously at various stages of the process.

It’s helpful to explore the need for continuous discovery in your UX research plan and look for a tool like Maze that simplifies the process for you. We’ll cover more about the different research methods and UX research tools in the upcoming chapters—ready to go?

Elevate your UX research workflow

Discover how Maze can streamline and operationalize your research plans to drive real product innovation while saving on costs.

Frequently asked questions

What’s the difference between a UX research plan and a UX research strategy?

The difference between a UX research plan and a UX research strategy is that they cover different levels of scope and detail. A UX research plan is a document that guides individual user experience (UX) research projects. UX research plans are shared documents that everyone on the product team can and should be familiar with. The UX research strategy, on the other hand, outlines the high-level goals, expectations, and demographics of the discovery.

What should you include in a user research plan?

Here’s what to include in a user research plan:

• Problem statement
• Research objectives
• Research methods
• Participants' demographics
• Recruitment plan
• User research brief
• Expected timeline
• How to present findings

How do you write a research plan for UX design?

Creating a research plan for user experience (UX) requires a clear problem statement and objectives, choosing the right research method, recruiting participants and briefing them, and establishing a timeline for your project. You'll also need to plan how you'll analyze and present your findings.

Generative Research: Definition, Methods, and Examples

Inside the CIA’s Secret Mission to Use Mind Control to Spy on the Soviet Union

During the height of the Cold War, the CIA ran tests on people with paranormal abilities in an effort to unlock top-secret intel on foreign targets.

As Harold Puthoff, a physicist with the Stanford Research Institute, witnessed the output from his magnetometer changing, he was mind-blown. There was no physical explanation for the reading changing the way it did. And as soon as Puthoff asked Swann to stop thinking about the apparatus, the unexplained changes in the magnetic field abruptly stopped.

“These phenomena are real. Psychic phenomena are real,” Dean Radin , Ph.D., chief scientist at the California-based nonprofit Institute of Noetic Sciences, tells Popular Mechanics . He’s been examining parapsychology, or the study of psychic events, for the past four decades.

And in the early 1970s—in the midst of the Cold War against the Soviet Union—the U.S. government agreed.

By the time Puthoff and his colleague Russel Targ, another physicist at the Stanford Research Institute (now known as SRI International), presented their results at an international meeting on quantum physics and parapsychology, the CIA had already begun working with SRI to perform top-secret research on paranormal phenomena—primarily “remote viewing” for intelligence collection. Remote viewing refers to a type of extra-sensorial perception that involves using the mind to “see” or manipulate distant objects, people, events, or other information that are hidden from physical view.

By the mid-1980s, the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) took the program over, calling it “Stargate.” DIA had three main goals for its research:

• Determine how to apply remote viewing to intelligence gathering against foreign targets;
• Figure out how other countries could be doing the same thing and using it against the U.S.; and
• Perform laboratory experiments to find ways to improve remote viewing for use in the intelligence field

The program was about as clandestine as it gets. Radin, who served as a visiting scientist on the Stargate program, says security personnel would brief him and his colleagues about the incredible sensitivity of their highly classified work every two weeks, and ask them if they had any reason to believe that anyone outside of the project knew anything about it.

“You had to become a professional paranoid, essentially. It was very uncomfortable for me,” Radin says.

He remembers asking one of his supervisors what would happen if they had a breakthrough—say, coming up with a drug to make someone super psychic. The response was immediate. “It would disappear and you would never be able to talk about it again,” Radin recalls, “which is antithetical to the whole scientific process, but I also understood why.” Any weapon or intelligence tool developed under Stargate would have presumably been too valuable and too dangerous for public release.

The DIA continued the project until the mid-1990s, when the CIA began declassifying its documents on remote viewing research to facilitate an external review of the project, and the DIA quickly followed suit. In June 1995, the CIA asked The American Institutes for Research (AIR)—an Arlington, Virginia-based nonprofit tasked with evaluating and providing technical assistance in behavioral and social science research—to conduct an external review of the Stargate program .

To present a balanced review of the scientific credibility of the program, AIR asked two researchers with opposing perspectives on parapsychology to write the report: Jessica Utts , Ph.D., an accomplished statistician and now professor emerita at the University of California, Irvine, who views parapsychology as a promising science; and Ray Hyman , Ph.D., a renowned psychologist and now professor emeritus at the University of Oregon, who is a noted skeptic and critic of parapsychology.

.css-2l0eat{font-family:UnitedSans,UnitedSans-roboto,UnitedSans-local,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-serif;font-size:1.625rem;line-height:1.2;margin:0rem;padding:0.9rem 1rem 1rem;}@media(max-width: 48rem){.css-2l0eat{font-size:1.75rem;line-height:1;}}@media(min-width: 48rem){.css-2l0eat{font-size:1.875rem;line-height:1;}}@media(min-width: 64rem){.css-2l0eat{font-size:2.25rem;line-height:1;}}.css-2l0eat b,.css-2l0eat strong{font-family:inherit;font-weight:bold;}.css-2l0eat em,.css-2l0eat i{font-style:italic;font-family:inherit;} “These phenomena are real. Psychic phenomena are real.”

“They sent us these boxes full of reports and papers and told us we had one summer to write this report,” Utts tells Popular Mechanics . She and Hyman separately reviewed dozens of Stargate experiments while also taking into account data from the broader scientific community at the time.

The reviewers’ individual conclusions were as expected. Utts found the statistics compelling, and believed the studies provided strong evidence that remote viewing is a human capability. One of the things she found most convincing was that the results seen across studies in different laboratories were all very similar. “And it was all statistically significant,” she says, “so that’s really hard to explain by chance, or cheating, or coincidence, or fluke.”

To that extent, Hyman agreed with Utts, but it wasn’t enough to convince him that remote viewing is real. He found what he considered to be potential flaws in the experimental methods, such as using the same person to judge psychic ability in each trial, and determined that the experimental results were not consistent enough with experiments outside the program. Nonetheless, he wrote in the final report: “The case for psychic functioning seems better than it ever has been. The contemporary findings along with the output of the [Stargate] program do seem to indicate that something beyond odd statistical hiccups is taking place.”

Despite what may be viewed as an optimistic review, the Stargate program no longer exists, and as far as we know, the U.S. government hasn’t continued such research. “I’m sorry it ended, because I really do think that there’s much more to be discovered there,” Utts says.

But maybe it hasn’t ended. Maybe it’s just top secret. Only a true psychic would know.

Kimberly is a freelance science writer with a degree in marine biology from Texas A&M University, a master's degree in biology from Southeastern Louisiana University and a graduate certificate in science communication from the University of California, Santa Cruz. Her work has been published by NBC, Science, Live Science, Space.com and many others. Her favorite stories are about health, animals and obscurities.  

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How to Elevate Your Mobile UX Strategy: Revelations from the IxDF Course

Mobile makes up over 54% of global website traffic —exceptional mobile user experience are a necessity in our digital-first world. The quality of a mobile user experience can mean the difference between a product that thrives and one that barely survives. With the IxDF Mobile UX Strategy: How to Build Successful Products course, you can learn how to transform your ideas into winning products. Discover the major learning outcomes of the course in this piece.   

You may have a groundbreaking new product with great promise. Yet, a staggering reality awaits. The market sees over 30,000 new products every year, and 95% of these fail. The reason? A lack of understanding of how to launch a product effectively. Often, inadequate market research stands as the root cause . 

Many companies overlook the importance of mobile user experience and manage to barely surpass the competition. This approach leads to poor mobile user experience and puts off potential customers. This, in turn, leads to a decline in downloads, engagement and revenue for the business. 

You need a good strategy to launch a successful product. Your mobile UX strategy ensures that the mobile experience matches or even exceeds the desktop experience. Ideally, you should strive to design excellent user experiences across all devices. 

Users expect seamless product interaction on a phone, tablet or computer, and a mobile UX strategy addresses these expectations. It optimizes design, functionality and content for mobile platforms. Companies that prioritize mobile UX are more likely to attract and retain more users. 

If you want to learn more about how to create successful products, here are the top nine things you must learn.  

Conduct User Research

The lack of user research often leads to product failure. User research helps us understand several key aspects:

User needs and preferences 

Pain points and challenges 

Usage contexts and environments 

Let's explore how to conduct user research in mobile UX. 

1. Embrace the ‘Get Out of the Building’ Approach

The " Get Out of the Building " approach involves direct interaction with target users in their environment, just like ethnographic research . This method seeks to gather real-world insights and feedback. You can observe and engage with people in their natural environments.  

For example, if you want to develop a fitness app, you might visit local gyms. There, you could watch how people use existing fitness apps. You could also ask them what features they wish those apps had. This direct interaction provides valuable information that can shape the development of a more user-centric product. 

"Get out of the building" can mean you step outside or expand your perspective. When you identify the problems customers face, you can tailor your product to address these needs. This approach leads to meaningful and cost-efficient products, ultimately boosting profitability. 

In this video, Frank Spillers, CEO at Experience Dynamics, talks about the Get Out Of the Building approach.  

• Transcript loading…

You must have a plan for the GOOB approach—set clear objectives before you engage with potential customers. This plan can include: 

Identify the target audience for your product. 

Prepare specific questions to understand their needs and preferences. 

Choose the suitable locations where you may find your target audience. 

Decide on methods for recording feedback, such as notes or voice recordings. 

This structured approach makes interactions with potential customers meaningful. It can help you yield actionable insights . 

2. Gain Insight into User Preferences with Research

A successful mobile app needs to have a firm grasp of user needs and preferences. For instance, research may reveal that fitness app users prefer easy-to-use tracking features over complex analytics. This specific insight directs the app's design focus towards simplicity and usability . Attitudinal and behavioral approaches in user research provide distinct insights for design teams. 

Attitudinal Research focuses on what users say. It captures opinions, preferences and attitudes to understand what users feel about a product or service. This approach helps predict how users may receive new features.  

Behavioral Research centers on what users do. It observes real user interactions with a product, often through usability testing , analytics and eye-tracking studies. This method provides concrete data on how users navigate and use a product. 

Attitudinal research records user sentiments and opinions through self-reported data and behavioral research examines user actions. 

© Interaction Design Foundation, CC BY-SA 4.0

You can use qualitative research to gather these insights. Qualitative research uses non-numerical methods to uncover detailed insights. This approach focuses on smaller groups through techniques like interviews. It allows researchers to explore attitudes, behaviors and hidden factors to gain a deeper understanding of users' thoughts and feelings. 

Unlike quantitative research , which leans on statistics and numbers, qualitative research reveals users' motivations, hopes, needs and pain points. This rich information guides the design process from the early stages. It helps prevent costly mistakes as you can keep projects aligned with user expectations.  

3. Leverage a Variety of User Research Methods

Qualitative research uses observations, responses and insights for product development. For mobile apps, four key methodologies stand out: 

Diary Studies

Diary studies invite users to document their journey with an app over a certain period. They record when and where they use the app and their immediate thoughts and observations. This method is rich in contextual details. But, it requires participants to remember to log their experiences consistently, which can sometimes be a hurdle. Despite this, the depth of insights you gain is invaluable. 

Lab Studies

Participants use the app in a controlled setting while researchers observe from afar in lab studies. This setup allows for a focused study of user interaction with the app.

However, the controlled environment may not fully mirror real-world usage. There's a risk though. Participants may act unnaturally to please researchers. Only well-designed studies can minimize these issues and yield crucial data. 

Task Analysis

Task analysis focuses closely on how users complete tasks in an app. It examines a few key things:

How a person achieves their objectives 

The detailed actions taken to finish a task 

The unique experience and abilities a person uses to complete a task 

The impact of the surroundings on the task performer 

The individual's emotions and perceptions for the task 

The existing process that culminates in the task's fulfillment 

Researchers observe and record these details. This approach helps you create apps that users find attractive and easy to use. It helps you understand what users need from the app at each step. With this insight, you can make apps more user-friendly and intuitive.

Task analysis differentiates between an app that looks good and one that feels good to use. It helps you create apps that meet and exceed user expectations. 

Task analysis is an important technique in user research. Frank discusses more about this technique in this video.  

Ethnographic Field Studies

Ethnographic field studies take researchers into the natural environments of their users. This method helps you understand the app's role in the user's daily life. You can also learn about the broader cultural, social and emotional contexts that influence how and why users use the app.   

These studies combine various techniques, such as contextual interviews and task analysis, to offer a holistic view of the user experience. 

Plan the Mobile UX Strategy

A well-defined strategy aligns with user needs, behaviors and preferences to make mobile interactions seamless, intuitive and engaging. Here’s how you can start:  

1. Use Mental Models

Mental models represent what users believe about how systems, like websites or apps, work. Jakob Nielsen, Co-founder of NN Group, defines them as what the user believes about the system . Users rely on these models to easily navigate new digital products based on past experiences.  

For instance, someone familiar with weather apps expects certain features, like forecast locations or temperature displays, to be in specific places. If you match these expectations in a new app quickly, it makes the user comfortable. 

Most people have similar mental models for common tasks, such as online shopping or searching for information. You design with these shared models to smooth out the user experience. 

You can determine users' mental models through user research methods like interviews and testing. This shows what users expect from a product—if things don't match up, you can change the design or help users with tutorials or demos. 

Create a Conceptual Model out of a Mental Model

Conceptual models turn users' mental models into visual representations .  

First, you gather user research insights through interviews and surveys.  

Second, observe how users interact with products.  

From these insights, you develop visual guides. These guides show how they believe users perceive and engage with the system.   

These visual guides can use common formats like flowcharts, diagrams, wireframes or prototypes .  

Conceptual models clearly explain the design process and how you expect users to interact with the product or service. This clarity helps you align the design process with user expectations.  

You can sketch conceptual models early to save time. It also helps streamline the development of user interfaces. This approach leads to applications that match users' thoughts and behaviors.  

2. Focus on Content Strategy and UX Writing

Content shapes user experience in the digital world. People use their devices to find answers, solve problems or enjoy entertainment. Thus, you must prioritize content in mobile UX design .

Sites like Reddit and Wikipedia thrive on high-quality content. It proves that if you give users a choice, they will prefer quality content over visual appeal. 

“ Ultimately, users visit your website for its content. Everything else is just the backdrop. ”  - Jakob Nielsen, Co-founder of NN Group

When you think about content, it extends beyond just long-form articles. A strong content strategy reflects a business's values. It establishes credibility and fosters user trust. This trust turns visitors into customers. 

UX writing is crucial to create smooth and intuitive user experiences. It addresses and resolves pain points.  

© Interaction Design Foundation, CC BY-SA 4.0 and Airbnb, Fair Use

First, you understand user needs through research when you can start to create engaging content. UX writers use clear and concise language to craft messages that prompt action. They align these messages with the user's mental models to create content that resonates. 

A good content strategy also considers localization. Use real text, not just placeholders, to get accurate translations for everyone worldwide. Designs should fit text from different languages that don’t cause layout problems. 

3. Follow Mobile UX Best Practices

Certain mobile UX guidelines can help you improve the user experience. These rules help make your app smooth to use on any device. Here is a look at these guidelines: 

Simplify navigation : Keep navigation simple and intuitive. Users should find what they need with minimal taps. Use recognizable icons and clear labels. 

Optimize for touch : Design with touch in mind. Make buttons and interactive elements large enough to tap easily. Consider the thumb's reach when you place key elements. 

Minimize input effort : Reduce the need to type. Utilize dropdowns, toggles and auto-complete functions. Offer alternatives like voice input where possible. 

Enhance readability : Choose easy-to-read fonts and sizes on small screens. Contrast text with the background to enhance visibility. 

Make fast loading a priority : Optimize images and code for quick loading times. Users expect instant access to information and features. 

Design for interruptions : Mobile users are often on the move. Design your app to handle interruptions gracefully. It should save progress automatically where needed. 

Test across devices : Make sure your app provides a consistent experience across different devices and operating systems. Regularly test to identify and fix issues. 

Focus on accessibility : Incorporate accessibility features to cater to all users, including those with disabilities. Use screen reader-friendly layouts and provide text alternatives for images. 

Provide feedback : Give users immediate feedback on their actions. Visual cues or haptic feedback enhance the interaction experience. It makes the app feel responsive and alive. 

Prioritize privacy and security : Be transparent about data usage. Provide secure authentication methods and protect user data to build trust. 

Enhance UX with User Testing and Accessibility

You must create intuitive and inclusive apps to reach a wider audience. User testing and accessibility play a big role in this. These practices ensure that your product meets the diverse needs and preferences of all users. 

1. Make the Product Accessible for Mobile

Mobile accessibility ensures that everyone can use apps and websites on their phones. This includes people with disabilities who find it hard to see, hear, move or think. When you make your app easy for everyone to use, you reach more people and improve everyone's experience. 

Best Practices for Mobile Accessibility

Use large, legible fonts : Choose font sizes and styles that users can easily read on small screens. Clear text helps users with visual impairments. 

Provide sufficient contrast : Text and background colors should contrast well. High contrast makes content readable even under different lighting conditions or for those with low vision. 

Make interactive elements easy to tap : Make buttons and links large enough to tap easily. This helps users with motor difficulties. 

Provide alt text for images : Describe images with alternative text. Screen readers use this text to convey image content to users who cannot see them. 

Enable voice commands : Voice recognition allows users to navigate and interact through voice commands. This feature benefits users with physical or visual impairments. 

Offer subtitles and transcriptions : Include subtitles for videos and transcriptions for audio content. This practice helps users who are deaf or hard of hearing. 

Test with screen readers : Regularly test your app with screen readers to ensure compatibility. This check helps identify areas that need improvement.  

2. Focus on Mobile Usability

Mobile usability ensures that mobile apps and websites are easy and efficient for users to navigate and interact with, regardless of their device or context. While accessibility focuses on digital products that can be used by people with disabilities, usability focuses on optimizing the overall user experience for everyone.  

Accessibility and usability in user experience ensures that everyone has access to a good user experience, irrespective of how they view a product.  

Google shared best practices for mobile app usability to enhance user satisfaction and retention. We have already discussed all the tips above, but here’s a recap.  

Use easy-to-read fonts.  

Make sure users can access key information offline. 

Make buttons big enough for easy tapping. 

Keep controls where users expect them to prevent mistakes. 

Load things fast to keep users happy. 

Use pop-ups for simple tasks without losing progress. 

Place action buttons where users can easily see and tap them. 

For forms, protect user data and guide users. Use animations to make interactions fun.  

Google also pinpointed four key mistakes in mobile app design that can harm the user experience. 

Don’t use the same design for Android and iOS apps. They should look different. 

Skip underlined links. In apps, use buttons instead. 

Keep users within your app, not in a web browser. 

Wait before you ask for ratings. Let users enjoy the app first. 

3. Prioritize User Testing

In user testing , you get real users to interact with your app to observe their behavior and gather feedback. This process helps identify any usability issues or areas for improvement. It helps you create a final product that will meet the needs and expectations of its intended users. 

In the early stages of design, user testing can reveal how users understand your app's navigation and if they can achieve their goals smoothly.  

As you refine the design, testing helps fine-tune interactions and interfaces for better usability.  

Before launch, it ensures the app works well in real-world scenarios . You can check if the app provides a seamless experience for all users. 

Several popular user testing methods help improve mobile UX design : 

Usability testing : This involves observing users as they complete tasks on your app. It highlights areas where users struggle and what works well. 

Surveys and questionnaires : After using the app, users provide feedback through surveys, which gather opinions on the user experience. 

A/B testing : In this method, you compare two versions of a page or app feature. Users' interactions determine which version performs better. 

Interviews : One-on-one interviews offer deep insights into users' thoughts and feelings about the app. 

Eye tracking : This method tracks where and how long users look at different parts of the app screen. It shows what attracts user attention and what they ignore. 

About the Mobile UX Strategy: How to Build Successful Products Course

Mobile UX Strategy: How to Build Successful Products is a 4-week journey into the heart of mobile UX design. Throughout this course, you will gain skills to distinguish your mobile UX strategy and make smart design decisions. You’ll engage with topics such as user research, interface evaluation and the nuances of mobile user behavior .  

The course emphasizes practical learning. It offers best practices and strategies that can help you design successful products. 

This course suits a wide range of professionals who want to deepen their understanding of mobile UX design: 

UX and UI designers aiming to improve their mobile strategy and focus on user-centric design. 

Software developers who want to include UX principles in their development for enhanced user experiences. 

Entrepreneurs and business stakeholders seeking a market edge through a robust mobile UX strategy. 

Product designers keen on learning how mobile UX strategy influences project success and user satisfaction. 

Marketers desiring improved collaboration with product teams to create unique products. 

Design educators wishing to keep abreast of mobile UX strategy trends to enrich their curriculum. 

The "Build Your Portfolio" project is a core part of this course. It allows you to apply what you've learned through practical exercises. These hands-on activities reinforce your understanding and help you create a comprehensive case study for your portfolio. This project is a valuable showcase of your new mobile UX design capabilities. 

Led by Frank Spillers, CEO of Experience Dynamics , an author, speaker and renowned expert in usability, this course offers a rich learning experience. Frank’s expertise brings you the latest in research and real-world examples. It equips you with the knowledge to enhance mobile user experiences. 

Where to Learn More

Enroll in the Mobile UX Strategy: How to Build Successful Products course . It’s a part of an IxDF membership. To become a member, sign up here .  

Read our topic definition on Mobile user experience (UX) Design . 

For more practical tips on Mobile UX, read a comprehensive guide to mobile app design . 

Get inspiration from top Mobile UX designs on Dribbble .

See the percentage of mobile device website traffic worldwide from 1st quarter 2015 to 4th quarter 2023 .

Learn why 95% of new products launched on the market fail (and how you can prevent it from happening to you) . 

Mobile UX Strategy: How to Build Successful Products

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Real life examples of how AI can boost your marketing

Learn how marketers are using AI to support their marketing efforts, and how you can too.

Thought leaders from Silversmith, Accel and Webflow discuss the current and future impact of artificial intelligence on the marketing landscape

Nearly every marketer out there agrees that AI is a big deal.

In Brandwatch’s annual report , a whopping 92% of respondents said the imminent integration of AI in marketing was the top trend for 2024. 

But simply using ChatGPT to pump out a huge volume of blog posts is not the way to drive a positive impact. At least, that’s what we can learn from Google’s March 2024 Core Update , which appears to be actively targeting websites full of low-quality (often AI-generated) content. 

And that’s what marketing leaders immersed in AI are sharing with their peers. In a recent episode of our Boundless webinar series, Meghan Kearney Anderson, VP of Marketing at Jasper, described how marketers need to make a strategic shift in the age of generative AI. 

“The way we create has been turned on its head — by leveraging AI tools, you can drastically reduce the amount of time you spend creating and editing text or video,” Meghan said. “But marketers need to reinvest that time into other areas of content strategy. Conducting original research, interviewing people, or doing more ideation to make that blog post higher quality — because in a world where everyone can create content super fast, you need to stand out and create something that is original and unique. ”

There’s also a big opportunity for marketers to use these tools to improve the quality of their work — not just move faster. In one recent study from Harvard Business School and Boston Consulting Group, when consultants used AI for strategic brainstorming tasks, they actually improved their work quality by 40%. 

So let’s explore how real marketers are using AI as a collaborative tool to elevate their work and produce meaningful, on-brand experiences. 

Analyze customer language to humanize messaging

Any marketer worth their salt knows that the best messaging is rooted in how real customers actually talk about their problems and your product. Customer language is key to moving past empty jargon and corporate-speak to communicate actual value. 

But taking the time to conduct interviews, listen to call recordings, and analyze customer language is a luxury many resource-strapped marketers don’t have. So marketing consultant Liza Adams advises her clients to use AI tools like ChatGPT to analyze and summarize customer language. 

Marketers can gather their raw customer data (like interviews, product reviews, and sales call transcripts), scrub it of proprietary information, and give it to the LLM with a prompt to identify the top challenges and benefits they get out of the product — in their exact words. No paraphrasing allowed. 

The result, according to Liza, is “Messaging that’s relatable, relevant, and compelling with concrete value.” 

Review and edit “handwritten” content

Marketing teams often think of using AI to brainstorm, outline, or write the first draft of content — and then apply the human touch during the editing process. 

But many writers take the opposite approach, and use AI as a constructive editor. 

As freelance writer Bani Kaur writes on LinkedIn , “I ask it to analyze my writing for any logical reasoning gaps. 3 out of 5 times it points out things I've overlooked. For example, I sometimes skip an explanatory sentence to keep things ‘succinct’. And I've learnt this because it’s been pointed out to me repeatedly by ChatGPT.”

Kai Davis, CEO + SEO Consultant at Double Your Ecommerce , tried to use ChatGPT to write content, but found the process “very soggy, even with dozens of hours spent on refining prompts and processes.”

Rather, his team now treats ChatGPT as a writing assistant, rather than a writer itself. Kai advises, “It’s really useful to start with a prompt like: ‘Act as an experienced professional writing coach and copywriter for B2B SaaS. Ask lots of clarifying questions. Review this draft, offer high-level feedback for improving the draft, and offer specific line suggestion rewrites to make it better. Preserve my voice/tone/style/word choice while you make these changes.’”

Plan and conduct original research

As Meghan describes above, conducting original research is a surefire way to make your content stand out from the AI-generated crowd. It’s also a very time-consuming process, from preparing and interviewing subject matter experts to pulling out key insights and editing quotes. 

But not for AI. 

When preparing for SME interviews, freelance writer Kat Boogard uses ChatGPT to brainstorm thought-provoking questions. “Some of them are good, some of them are bad, and nearly all of them need some tweaking. But it’s a helpful starting point (especially when I’m struggling to distill all of my thoughts into actual questions to ask someone).” 

During the interview itself, many writers (including yours truly) use AI-powered notetakers like Fathom or Otter.ai to record interviews — and then generate searchable transcripts, often accompanied by time-stamped summaries and key takeaways. This helps minimize the distraction of manual note-taking during the interviews, which helps improve the quality of the conversation, and quickly surfaces valuable quotes during the drafting process. 

Ideate and generate visuals

Time-strapped marketers who want to produce more engaging content can use AI to leverage visual communication , from ideation and brainstorming to actual image generation. 

Content strategist Katarina Mirković Arsić uses GenAI to help her add valuable illustrations to her blog posts, “I ask [ChatGPT] to read my article and find opportunities to present information in a visual way (tables, graphics, infographics) and to describe them.” 

Let’s be clear: AI-generated images aren’t right for every use case. But when this approach is aligned with your brand identity and guidelines, it’s a fast and affordable way to add powerful visuals to content. 

For example, AI newsletter Superhuman uses Midjourney to generate their email newsletter images — which fit in perfectly with their tech-forward brand. And here at Webflow, our Staff Web Designer Corey Moen prefers the designed-for-designers Visual Electric to generate consistent, high quality images. 

Expert tips for AI-elevated marketing

Ready to move beyond task automation to elevated AI-powered marketing? We rounded up a few pieces of advice. 

Evaluate new AI tools with real use cases

“Try to keep a pulse on AI tools and features you hear about (bookmark them), and then time box test one when you have a real-world use case,” says Corey. “Playing with them without a real use case is fine — but I’ve just found it much harder to then know its true value and ability to replace or improve a current task or workflow.”

Don’t expect to downsize your creative team

“People who think they can lay off their marketing or writing team because they have an AI tool now are sorely mistaken,” says Meghan. “We need to reinvest in story hunters, journalist types, editors — someone who can create something that is original online. Because originality is now the currency of content strategy. Quality is not just a nice-to-have, but an existential necessity for marketers moving forward.” 

Reinvest the time AI saves into strategic thinking

“In order to create brand experiences that will stand out, AI needs to work in connection with human creativity,” says Leo Zakour , co-founder and CEO at digital agency Refokus. “Agencies that reinvest the time AI saves into deeper research, creative brainstorming, design iteration, strategic thinking — those will be the teams that build unique, differentiated brand experiences that resonate and ultimately dominate the markets.” 

Bottom line: AI is a useful tool to be wielded by talented marketers, not a magic wand that replaces the need for human creativity. Viewing AI through this lens will help your team maintain your brand authenticity while doing elevated work and creating more meaningful connections with your audience. 

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