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User Research template for publication
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User research checklist
A way to plan user research - focus is mainly on interviews but can be adapted and used with other tools such as Miro
This assumes a 16 week project (8 sprints) with 2 week sprints
Project workflow and planning
Planning stage
Category
Task
Sprint it should be done in
Sprint day (out of 10)
Sprint actually done in
Assigned to
Done?
Pre-launch
50
Project management
11
Review any existing designs with UX and identify key areas
1
3
Desk research
7
Request any previous research or other documents
1
1
Search for past research on Sharepoint etc and enter it where appropriate
1
1
Review UR repository to gather and review past research and user needs and draw out key parts
1
1
List the tools to help automate tasks (eg Calendly, Signrequest) and get their logins and/or budgets
2
5
UX workflow
4
Define system for designs to be tested (eg Figma)
1
3
Define the Developer-UX workflow process and time scales needed
1
4
Meet Designers to define how prototypes will be tested, stored and iterated (platform, process)
1
4
Recruitment
10
Plan for including accessibility research from the start
1
4
Confirm what user types - the details of users you need to collect (eg age, education level, location, experience, confidence)
1
5
Set reminders for deleting personal data
1
6
Define incentives and set budget for testing, incentives and software
2
6
Create email templates for users (recruitment/ask to interview/follow ups)
2
7
Ethics
4
Ethics heads up - let them know that we plan new research
1
3
Review consent form and update
1
4
Apply for Ethics approval
1
5
Update Ethics approval as needed
2
7
Sprint planning
4
Update rough timeline and develop sprint-by-sprint user research plan
2
6
Research questions
7
Knowns/unknowns/unknown-unknowns session
1
5
Confirm users in and out of scope
1
5
Confirm main user research goal(s) and hypotheses
1
5
Shortlist main ways to answer research questions and with whom (interviews, surveys)
1
5
Review how you will analyse each method (eg usability test, analytics)
1
5
Discussion guide
2
Team agreement on plan and discussion guide
2
8
Interviews
1
Notify team of interview schedule and how you will give a heads up each day
2
9
Research sprint
18
Recruitment
4
If too many users, sift those to interview
3
Recruit more if needed
3
Send out invites and consent forms
3
User Experience team planning
1
Create board/template that will be used to record answers and observations
1
Sprint planning
5
Design how many and which research questions you'll answer each sprint and number of users needed
1
Identify user types to target to answer research questions
1
Agree on sprint plan as UX and share plan with team for input
2
Define interview schedule
2
Interviews
1
Carry out interviews/exercises/tasks
4
Analysis
2
Debriefing and reviewing
5
Designers-Researchers debrief and review
7
Update team on findings as appropriate depending on team input
7
Prepare show and tell
8
Show and Tell
10
Analysis & Planning sprint
21
Interviews
6
Create tags
1
Confirm/Assign metadata to transcripts (user ID etc)
1
Group tags and categorise
2
Debriefing and reviewing
2
Prepare show and tell
8
Show and Tell
10
Surveys
13
Define users to target
1
Get agreement from stakeholders for survey
2
Get email to respondents approved
2
Define incentives for survey and get approval
2
Define purpose of survey/research questions it will answer
2
Get any images/tasks defined and created for survey
3
Get questions approved
4
Give list of users to person sending survey out
5
Schedule time for survey to be sent
5
Final report
30
Summary
9
Reasoning for changes and updates
8
1
Personas create/update
8
3
Segmentation of users and by prime factors (eg motivation/attitude/goals)
8
4
Executive summary
8
8
Final show and tell
8
9
Update UR repository and User Needs repository
8
9
List of remaining questions to answer in future UR
8
9
User journey (high level and summarised)
8
10
About the user research
4
Your research plan/strategy and how you executed it
8
1
Who you spoke to and why (users in and out of scope)
8
1
Research methods used
8
1
What you found
3
Break down the findings and the evidence for them
8
2
What you're not confident about/needs more evidence
8
2
User outputs
6
Research questions and summary of answers to them
8
2
Epics/groupings of user needs
8
3
Segmentation of users
8
5
Any other way of grouping the users based on findings
8
5
Recommendations
5
How it affects the next steps
8
7
Research priorities for next phase
8
7
Research gaps and how you'll fill them
8
7
Prioritised user needs next stage to fill
8
7
Rough overview of how research would be carried out
8
7
Links
3
Evidence (transcripts, audio, all anonymised)
8
9
User needs spreadsheet
8
9
Relevant documents
8
9
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