UX research is the systematic study of target users and their requirements, designed to add realistic contexts and insights to the design process and ensure that products meet real needs. It sits at the heart of human-centred design, helping teams move beyond assumptions and gut feelings toward decisions grounded in evidence about how people actually behave, think, and feel when interacting with a product or service.
Researchers typically distinguish between two broad approaches. Qualitative research explores the "why" behind user behaviour through methods such as interviews, observations, and open-ended data collection, while quantitative research measures the "what" and "how much" through numbers and statistics. A related distinction is between attitudinal research, which captures what users say (their opinions and preferences), and behavioural research, which captures what users actually do (their observed actions and click patterns). Because people often say one thing and do another, combining both kinds of evidence yields a more complete picture.
UX research is also commonly split into generative and evaluative work. Generative research explores problems and opportunities early in a project to define what should be designed, while evaluative research tests existing designs to assess how well they work. To strengthen the validity of insights, practitioners use triangulation, which means combining multiple research methods such as interviews together with analytics and usability tests, so that findings confirmed across different approaches can be trusted with greater confidence.
These research activities fit naturally inside a broader design thinking process with five phases: Empathise, Define, Ideate, Prototype, and Test. In the Empathise phase, researchers build deep understanding through observation, interviews, and immersion, setting aside assumptions to see the world through users' eyes. The Define phase synthesises findings into a clear problem statement, often expressed as a "How Might We" question that reframes the issue as an opportunity for design. From there, Ideate generates a wide range of creative solutions through brainstorming, sketching, and other divergent techniques; Prototype builds quick, inexpensive representations of those solutions; and Test puts prototypes in front of real users to learn what works, iterating back to earlier phases as needed.