Top 5 Reasons to Use UX Research in Product Development

By Hannah Kennedy

​UX research is the process of understanding the needs, preferences, and behaviors of users and how they interact with a product or service. It involves various methods of collecting data, such as contextual or in-depth interviews, ethnography, usability tests, etc. The goal of UX research is to understand the users' needs, preferences, and behaviors and to use this knowledge to design better solutions that meet their expectations and goals. 

By incorporating UX research into product development, companies can gain valuable insights that can help them in a variety of ways. In this article, we will detail five reasons why companies should incorporate UX research into their product development strategy. 

1. Improves Customer Satisfaction and Retention 

UX research helps to identify and meet the expectations of the users, as well as to discover and solve any problems they may encounter while using the product. UX research ensures that the products are aligned with customer expectations and deliver a positive user experience. According to a study by Forrester Research, a well-designed user interface can increase customer conversion rates by up to 200%, and a better user experience can increase customer retention rates by up to 400%. Users who are satisfied with their product experience are more likely to trust the brand, recommend it to others, and become repeat customers. 

2. Ensuring Accessibility  

According to the World Health Organization, an estimated 16% of the world's population has some form of disability. Accessibility in product design means creating products and interfaces that are usable and understandable by people with various conditions, such as visual, auditory, motor, and cognitive impairments. Applying universal design principles and best practices with UX research can create products that are easy to interact with, use, and understand for everyone. By conducting UX research, product teams can learn about the challenges and preferences of these users and apply the insights to create more inclusive and accessible solutions.  

3. Reducing Development Costs   

Conducting UX research allows companies to identify user pain points, improve product usability, and enhance user satisfaction. Conducting UX research early and iteratively, can help inform the design and development decisions of the product team, streamline the workflow, and prevent the development of products that are not useful, discoverable, and intuitive. According to a study by the Interaction Design Foundation, investing in UX research during the concept phase could reduce the product development cycle by 33%–50%. This can save time and resources by avoiding unnecessary iterations and rework. 

 4. Facilitating Decision Making  

UX research can facilitate decision-making by providing evidence-based insights and recommendations. Once designers and developers gain a deep understanding of users, they can use this knowledge to create solutions that match the users' needs and expectations. Using these research-based insights about how users interact with a product, and what their unmet needs and pain points are, ensures teams are solving the right problem. UX research can help to validate or invalidate assumptions, test hypotheses, and unite the team in pursuing the best solution. 

5. Driving Innovation  

Another important role of UX research is to identify opportunities for differentiation by enabling product teams to discover unmet needs. Once companies understand the unique unmet needs of their target audience, they can begin to think of products and features in a new way. Combining this knowledge with an understanding of the competitive landscape can lay the groundwork that allows creativity to lead to innovation.  

UX research plays a crucial role in product development. It has enabled many industries to enhance the user experience of their products and services, whether they are hardware, software, documentation, mobile apps, or other solutions.  

End to End User Research provides a range of research services to support companies in their product development cycle. We offer an extensive human factors toolkit, ethnographic research, iterative usability testing, and participant recruiting, as well as facility rentals, UX contracting services and more. Our mission is to help businesses better understand the needs of their end users, allowing companies to create intuitive and useful products.