User Research Methods
To design effectively, we need to ask questions about our users, like what sort of people are they? We should have direct interest in their tasks to understand what exactly they will they do with our products. We should inform ourselves about their values, concerns and issues. American Express research methods focus first on the initial steps the user has to take when interacting with your application.
Focus Group: A panel of people discussing a specific topic or question. Teaches about the users' feelings, opinions and even language. Useful when the target audience is new or unknown for the team.
Quantitative Survey: Questions that provide numbers as result. Quick and inexpensive way of measuring user satisfaction and collecting feedback about the product. It could indicate the need for a deeper qualitative test.
Usability Test: An one-to-one interview research in which the user is asked to perform a series of tasks in a prototype or a product. Validates and collects feedback of flows, design and features.
Card Sorting: A technique that consists in asking users to group content and functionalities into open or closed categories. Gives you input on content hierarchy, organization and flow.
