RIGOUR AND RELEVANCE IN USER EXPERIENCE RESEARCH: INVESTIGATING THE PRACTICES OF UX TEAMS AND FIRMS IN REMOTE RESEARCH CONTEXT

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2023-2-15
Danış, Semih
User Experience (UX) research is an essential part of the design process that supports design activities by providing relevant user knowledge. Building on this knowledge, UX designers aim to find design solutions to ill-defined design problems by using creative thinking and exploration methods. To provide reliable and valid results in this process, UX research should be conducted in a scientific and structured way, addressing both rigour (meticulousness of the research plan and process) and relevance (usefulness of the outcomes). However, given the needs and limitations of the commercial settings, the practitioners need to focus on practical utility rather than scientific assumptions. This situation affects how rigour and relevance concepts are defined and implemented. Moreover, adopting remote ways of conducting UX research practices due to COVID-19 results in a reassessment of previous values. Therefore, understanding the commercial context and UX researchers’ practices in remote settings is crucial in enhancing the transition from design research to practice. This study aims to investigate rigour and relevance in UX research to suggest strategies for achieving useful and appropriate outcomes by considering commercial context. To achieve that, a comprehensive literature review was conducted on the critical dimensions of research quality, and multiple-case study was carried out to illustrate firms’ current UX research practices. As a result, recommendations on conducting ‘good research’, considering both practical utility and scientific assumptions, are presented. The outcome of this work, the Rigour and Relevance Model for UX Research, provides strategies and recommendations to improve the quality of UX research practices.

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Citation Formats
S. Danış, “RIGOUR AND RELEVANCE IN USER EXPERIENCE RESEARCH: INVESTIGATING THE PRACTICES OF UX TEAMS AND FIRMS IN REMOTE RESEARCH CONTEXT,” Ph.D. - Doctoral Program, Middle East Technical University, 2023.