You must choose, but choose wisely: Pick the right user research method

User testing. Card sorts. Journey mapping. Personas. First click testing. Surveys. Focus groups. Top tasks. Contextual inquiry. Competitive analysis. A/B testing... the list goes on and on. There are so many different kinds of user research, and there is never enough time to do them all on a given project. Often we are lucky if we can just do one or two. So, how do you get the best bang for your time, effort and expense? How do you avoid putting in enormous effort, only to find you can't do anything with the results? In this session you will learn:

• How to pick the right methodology for your needs, timeline and budget.
• An approach to user research that helps you match what you need to learn with the method that will get you the most valuable information.
• Insight from years of doing user research studies of many kinds and at various scales and budget levels.
• Pitfalls and mistakes that are commonly made with popular research methods.
• Tips for selling the value of user testing to skeptical stakeholders who just want the project to be done ASAP.
• Resources for how to perform many common research methods.