UX Research Planning and Strategy 2 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: What does a UX research roadmap typically communicate?
- The navigation structure of a product
- A timeline of planned research activities aligned with product development milestones (Correct answer)
- A list of all usability errors found
- The payment schedule for participants
Correct answer: A timeline of planned research activities aligned with product development milestones
A research roadmap helps teams see when studies will happen, what questions they address, and how they connect to product decisions over time.
Question 2: Which of the following best describes 'generative research'?
- Research that evaluates an existing design
- Research that explores a problem space to inspire new ideas and design directions (Correct answer)
- Research that generates automated test cases
- Research that benchmarks against competitors
Correct answer: Research that explores a problem space to inspire new ideas and design directions
Generative (or discovery) research is conducted early in the design process to understand user needs, contexts, and pain points before solutions are defined.
Question 3: What is 'evaluative research' in UX?
- Research that explores unknown user needs
- Research that assesses how well a design solution meets user needs (Correct answer)
- Research that evaluates the researcher's performance
- Research conducted only after product launch
Correct answer: Research that assesses how well a design solution meets user needs
Evaluative research tests a design against real users to identify usability issues and validate design decisions.
Question 4: When should quantitative methods be prioritized over qualitative methods in a UX study?
- When you need to understand why users behave a certain way
- When you need to measure the scale or frequency of a behavior across many users (Correct answer)
- When the team has no budget for recruitment
- When stakeholders prefer in-depth stories
Correct answer: When you need to measure the scale or frequency of a behavior across many users
Quantitative methods provide statistical confidence about how many users experience an issue, complementing qualitative findings about why.
Question 5: What is the role of assumptions mapping in research planning?
- To document the technical assumptions in the codebase
- To identify and prioritize untested beliefs about users that carry the most risk (Correct answer)
- To map the physical layout of a usability lab
- To assign assumptions to specific team members
Correct answer: To identify and prioritize untested beliefs about users that carry the most risk
Assumptions mapping surfaces the riskiest beliefs a team holds about users or problems, helping researchers focus studies where uncertainty is highest.
Question 6: What does 'research democratization' mean in a UX context?
- Allowing all users to vote on design decisions
- Enabling non-researchers across the organization to conduct and access research (Correct answer)
- Publishing all research findings publicly
- Reducing the cost of research tools through open source
Correct answer: Enabling non-researchers across the organization to conduct and access research
Research democratization spreads research capabilities and findings across product teams, increasing organizational learning while requiring governance to maintain quality.
UX Research Planning and Strategy 2
What does a UX research roadmap typically communicate?