5 Reasons to Include UX Research in Your Business Plan

In today’s highly competitive business landscape, staying relevant in terms of your customer’s needs and preferences is crucial for success.

That’s where UX research comes into play.

It helps businesses create better products and gain a competitive edge in the market. In fact, Hubspot doubled its conversion rates after revamping its website based on user feedback.

In this blog, we’ll discuss five reasons why including UX research in your business plan is essential for success—whether you’re a startup or an established business.

What is UX research?

UX (User Experience) research is a critical stage of a design process, which involves gathering and analyzing how people interact with the end result, i.e., the product, website, or service. The goal is to understand the needs, motivations, behaviors, and preferences of users to create a design that meets their needs and preferences more effectively.

UX research can take many different forms, including surveys, interviews, usability testing, user observation, focus groups, and analytics analysis. Each method has its own strengths and weaknesses and is used to answer specific research questions.

Using the insights gained after effective UX research, UX designers shape many aspects of the UX design process, including:

Designing user flowsCreating wireframesTesting design interactionsSelecting design elementsWhile there are many resources about UX research, this comprehensive guide to UX research explains it all for every stage of the design and development process.

Top UX research trends in 2023To ensure you create a product or service your target audience loves, you must keep an eye on the latest UX research trends in 2023. As per a survey run by Maze, here are some top findings from the research:

About 83% of respondents believe UX research should be a part of every stage of the UX design process48% of respondents feel understanding the customer journey is the most impactful task of their jobs60% of respondents agree that UX research findings help inspire new product opportunities42% of respondents favor making product decisions with backing data

Benefits of conducting UX research to create a user-centered design

1. Helps identify user needs from meetings and surveys

By understanding user needs, designers can create useful, usable, and satisfying products for their intended audience.

Here are some ways UX research helps identify user needs:

Gathering user insights: Gathering data from users through interviews, surveys, and usability testing provides designers with valuable insights into user behaviour, preferences, pain points, and goals. By analyzing this information, designers can better understand user needs and design products that meet those needs.

Identifying user personas: UX research helps designers create user personas—fictional representations of the different types of users who will use a product or service. By creating these personas, designers can better tailor their designs to meet the needs of specific user groups.

Testing product prototypes: UX designers test product prototypes with users to get feedback on the design and functionality. This feedback helps them identify areas where the product falls short in meeting user needs and where improvements can be made. By testing early and often, designers can identify and address user needs before the product is released to the public.

Conducting competitive analysis: A major part of UX research involves analyzing the products and services of competitors to understand what they are doing well and where they fall short. Competitive analysis helps designers identify opportunities to differentiate their products by meeting user needs that competitors are not addressing.

Make comprehensive notes in meetings: An effective way to retain all the information you gather from user interviews and calls is to make comprehensive notes in your meetings. Using a meeting note-taking app will help you record your conversations in the best way possible, without missing any relevant information. This way, you can review the data in a digital format whenever you want.

2. Increases customer satisfaction and loyalty

Building strong customer relationships and driving long-term loyalty is the end goal for any business, and by creating products and services that meet user needs and preferences, designers can ensure that.

UX research helps designers create a positive user experience by identifying the touchpoints that are most important to users. By improving these touchpoints, designers can enhance the overall user experience and increase satisfaction.

Here are some ways UX research can help increase customer satisfaction and loyalty:

Improving usability: With UX research, designers identify usability issues and areas for improvement. As a result, they can work on making the products more intuitive and easier to use, thereby reducing user frustration and increasing satisfaction.

When users have a positive experience with a product or service, they are more likely to recommend it to others. This word-of-mouth marketing can help increase brand reputation and drive customer loyalty.

Providing personalized experiences: An effective UX research helps designers create personalized experiences that meet the needs of specific user groups. By tailoring products and services to the unique needs of users, designers can increase customer satisfaction and loyalty.

Case study: Take an example of Netflix’s UX, which has contributed to its massive success and increased customer loyalty.

The streaming company has invested heavily in UX research to create an intuitive and engaging experience for its users. They use data and algorithms to recommend content based on a user’s viewing history, ratings, and other factors.

This personalization makes it easier for users to find the content they are interested in, which increases customer satisfaction and loyalty. Moreover, their interface is intuitive, with clear navigation and search functions that make it easy for users to find what they are looking for.

3. Reduces development costs and time

UX research provides valuable insights into user needs and behaviours early in the design process. By using UX research to understand user needs and preferences, designers can create more successful designs on the first try, reducing the need for costly and time-consuming revisions later in the development process.

Here are some ways UX research can help reduce development costs and save time:

As designers dive deep into understanding user needs, they are more likely to create designs that are more likely to be successful on the first try. This reduces the number of design iterations needed to achieve the desired outcome.

With proper UX research, you can identify potential issues with the design early on before any significant development work is done. UX research can help identify which features are most important to users. By prioritizing the most important features early in the design process, designers can focus their development efforts on the features with the greatest impact on user satisfaction, reducing the time and costs associated with developing less important features.

By improving usability, designers can reduce user frustration and increase the likelihood of users continuing to use the product. This saves time and costs associated with developing and marketing new products.

4. Help you stand out among the competition

UX research helps you conduct effective competitor analysis. It offers insights into the strengths and weaknesses of your competitors’ designs and identifies opportunities for differentiation.

Here are some ways UX research can help with competitor analysis:

With UX research, designers can identify common design patterns among their competitors, which can provide insights into user expectations and preferences.

UX research can help compare the features of your competitors’ designs to your own, which can provide insights into areas where you may be falling behind or where you may have a competitive advantage.

UX research helps you dig deep into the user behaviour on your competitors’ designs, which can provide insights into user preferences and usage patterns.

UX research helps identify gaps in the market that your competitors may be missing.

5. Helps mitigate risks

UX designers also use UX research to identify and address legal and ethical concerns early in the design process. It is to make sure that the design they create meets legal and ethical standards, has lower risks of legal and ethical violations, and builds user trust and loyalty.

Here’s how UX research helps mitigate risk for your business:

You can identify potential biases in the design that could lead to discrimination or exclusion. By identifying these biases early on, designers can address them and create a more inclusive and accessible design that meets legal and ethical standards.

UX research can help ensure that user data is collected and used in a way that respects user privacy.

You can identify accessibility issues in the design that could exclude certain groups of users.

You can recheck that your design complies with legal and ethical regulations, such as data protection laws or accessibility standards.

UX research is critical for running a successful business

User Experience (UX) research is a critical component of any successful business plan. Businesses can make informed decisions about product development, marketing strategies, and customer experience with the insights they gather using UX research.

Incorporate UX research in your business plan and create products or services that your customers keep coming back for. Before you know it, you’ll be well on your way to achieving your business goals.

Author’s Bio

Deepali is an engineer-turned-freelance writer for B2B SaaS, writing actionable long-form content for marketing, Cybersecurity, and HR-Tech companies. When she’s not writing, she’s engrossed in a cozy murder mystery novel with a cup of hot chocolate!