When to Use Which UX Research Method

Great article from Jakob Nielsen, on when to use which user experience research method:

He breaks the product development cycle into 3 stages:

1. Strategy
2. Optimization
3. Assessment

	Product Development Phase
	Strategize	Optimize	Assess
Goal:	Inspire, explore and choose new directions and opportunities	Inform and optimize designs in order to reduce risk and improve usability	Measure product performance against itself or its competition
Approach:	Qualitative and Quantitative	Mainly Qualitative (formative)	Mainly Quantitative (summative)
Typical methods:	Ethnographic field studies, focus groups, diary studies, surveys, data mining or analytics	Cardsorting, field studies, participatory design, paper prototype and usability studies, desirability studies, customer emails	Usability benchmarking, online assessments, surveys, A/B testing

He breaks down the different research methods on 2 dimensions:

1. Behavioral to Attitudinal (what people do to what they say/think/feel)
2. Qualitative t0 Quantitative (psychological/sociological to mathematical/statistical)

And then talks about where the different methods fall, and when they are most often used.