Rosenverse

This video is only accessible to Gold members. Log in or register for a free Gold Trial Account to watch.

Log in Register

Most conference talks are accessible to Gold members, while community videos are generally available to all logged-in members.

Navigating the UX Tool Landscape
Gold
Thursday, March 11, 2021 • Advancing Research 2021
Share the love for this talk
Navigating the UX Tool Landscape
Speakers: JP Allen , Carrie Boyd and Malcolm Evans
Link:

Summary

There are more tools than ever to make research as streamlined and accessible as possible. But it can be overwhelming to choose among them, to know what's right for your organization's needs, to work with existing systems and contracts. We'll explore our UX Research Tools Map and talk about ways to build out a stack that works hard for your needs and within your budget.

Key Insights

  • User research tools can be grouped into five main categories: research ops, passive insights, active research, insight management, and design.

  • The UX research tools map created by User Interviews includes 137 products and visualizes overlaps between tool categories.

  • Most user researchers do not have large budgets; 44% have no dedicated research budget, and 28% have less than $1,000 per month.

  • Only 8% of researchers report that stakeholders know how to access and frequently use research results.

  • DIY research stacks often use common free tools like Zoom for active research, SurveyMonkey for passive insights, and Google Sheets or Notion for insight management.

  • Enterprise research stacks tend to incorporate paid tools and external recruiting agencies for scale, security, and integration benefits.

  • User Interviews offers two complementary products: one for recruiting participants and another (Research Hub) for managing research workflows with existing panels.

  • Email customization with sender profiles and branded templates helps build affinity with participants and improves recruitment success.

  • Integrations, such as Zoom with Grain for recorded sessions and automated transcription, greatly enhance active research and insight management.

  • Sharing research insights effectively remains a challenge that can be addressed by combining video clips, transcripts, and organized repositories like Notion.

Notable Quotes

"Choosing among UX research tools can be really hard since every team and individual researcher is different."

"Only 8% of researchers said that stakeholders know how to access results and do so often."

"We created the UX research tools map as a lens or a thought starter, not a comprehensive or perfect guide."

"Most user researchers operate with limited budgets, making a one-size-fits-all tool approach impossible."

"Many researchers build their own stack piece by piece based on their specific frustrations and needs."

"User Interviews integrates with Zoom to automatically create meeting links for research sessions."

"Grain allows simultaneous note-taking and collaboration during Zoom calls with video, timestamped notes, and clips."

"Zoom’s feature to share screen controls enables live clickable prototype testing during research sessions."

"Customizing recruitment emails with sender profiles and branding helps create a better participant experience and affinity."

"Understanding how to manage your internal panel is critical, including tracking contact frequency and participant quality."

Ask the Rosenbot
Chris Chapo
Data Science and Design: A Tale of Two Tribes
2015 • Enterprise UX 2015
Gold
Heidi Trost
To Protect People, You Have to Protect Information: A Human-Centered Design Approach to Cybersecurity
2025 • Rosenfeld Community
Bria Alexander
Theme 1 Intro
2024 • DesignOps 2024
Gold
Dave Malouf
The Past, Present, and Future of DesignOps: a 2-part DesignOps Community Call (Part 2) (Videoconference)
2022 • DesignOps Community
James Chudley
Decarbonising User Journeys: How minimising enables us to do more with less
2025 • Climate UX Interest Group (Rosenfeld Community)
Aaron Stienstra
Leveraging Civic Design to Advance Equity and Rebuild Trust in the US Federal Government
2021 • Civic Design 2021
Gold
Wendy Johansson
An Education on Design Education for Orgs
2021 • Design at Scale 2021
Gold
Jamie Beck Alexander
How can you find your role in climate? (Videoconference)
2024 • Climate UX Interest Group (Rosenfeld Community)
Sam Proulx
Understanding Screen Readers on Mobile: How And Why to Learn from Native Users
2023 • DesignOps Summit 2023
Gold
Kristin Skinner
Theme 1 Intro
2021 • DesignOps Summit 2021
Gold
Karen McGrane
AI for Information Architects: Are the robots coming for our jobs?
2024 • Rosenfeld Community
Mitchell Bernstein
Organizing Chaos: How IBM is Defining Design Systems with Sketch for an Ever-Changing AI Landscape
2021 • DesignOps Summit 2021
Gold
Bud Caddell
Theme 2 Intro
2021 • DesignOps Summit 2021
Gold
Erin May
Distributed, Democratized, Decentralized: Finding a Research Model to Support Your Org
2022 • Advancing Research 2022
Gold
Kate Towsey
The State of ResearchOps: More Than Just Theory (Videoconference)
2019 • DesignOps Community
Rachael Dietkus, LCSW
Leading through the long tail of trauma (Videoconference)
1970 • Advancing Research Community

More Videos

Zariah Cameron

"Burnout really exists because we made rest a reward rather than a right."

Zariah Cameron

ReDesigning Wellbeing for Equitable Care in the Workplace

September 23, 2024

John Cutler

"Individuals tend to confuse prioritization with personal productivity or time management."

John Cutler Harry Max

Prioritization for designers and product managers (1st of 3 seminars) (Videoconference)

June 13, 2024

Nick Cochran

"Inviting people from other disciplines to experience user research helped Felipe see why user experience matters."

Nick Cochran

Growing in Enterprise Design through Making Connections

June 3, 2019

Deanna Smith

"Pilot and test your ideas before committing whenever possible to avoid unnecessary disruption."

Deanna Smith

Leading Change with Confidence: Strategies for Optimizing Your Process

September 23, 2024

Magdalena Zadara

"Show, don’t tell—that’s a principle we learned from the UK Government Digital Service."

Magdalena Zadara

Zero Hour: How to Get Far Quickly When Starting Your Digital Service Unit Late

November 16, 2022

Nova Wehman-Brown

"Thousands of users were clicking on a text that wasn’t even a link—it looked like one, but wasn’t."

Nova Wehman-Brown

We've Never Done This Before

June 4, 2019

Liwei Dai

"Artificial intelligence is about building human-like intelligence. This has opened up a golden opportunity for all of us to make a big impact."

Liwei Dai

The Heart and Brain of the AI Research

March 31, 2020

Gordon Ross

"Having workers leave the airport and travel to the farm to self-isolate was simply not feasible – the province would have to be responsible for quarantine."

Gordon Ross

12 Months of COVID-19 Design and Digital Response with the British Columbia Government

December 8, 2021

Tutti Taygerly

"I was running on fumes for decades."

Tutti Taygerly

Make Space to Lead

June 12, 2021