Background

Why is this research initiative important from the user’s perspective? Will it help us uncover new mental models or journeys? Or pain points that lead to more satisfactory user experience? Will it teach us how to iterate on current designs?

Problem Statement

Research statements are what we are trying to learn or understand better about our users. Here is a model you can use:

We want to better understand how users [think about/make decisions on/interact with] [subject of research/ product] in order to [create/improve] [product/website/app/service]

You should have 3-4 research goals for your project, and they should be focused on:

1. Discover people’s current processes/decision-making about [research subject], and how they feel about the overall experience
2. Learn about people’s current pain points, frustrations, and barriers about [current process/current tools] and how they would improve it
3. Uncover the current tools people are using to [achieve goal], and their experience with those tools. Uncover how they would improve those tools
4. Understand what [research subject] means to people (how they define it) and why it is important to them
5. Evaluate how people are using a [product/website/app/ service ] OR Evaluate how people are currently interacting with a [product/ website/app/services

Research Objectives

Research Questions