Introduction

To build products today, means data to make more informed decisions. While there's tons of data out there, making sense of user-generated data requires a specific set of skills. Hiring user experience (or UX) practitioners is becoming an activity that more businesses are opting to do -- and seeing the benefits of. Products and services that are usable (and meaningful) generate more engagement, retention, and attention. The best way to ensure that what a business makes is at least usable is through the user experience research (also referred to as UX research, user research or experience research).

While there’s a lot of accessible content online that describes different UX research methods, there’s far less material on why UX research matters. What is the impact of conducting regular research when building products and services? Why does UX research matter to the business, its stakeholders, and the larger world? While empathy is a clear outcome after a research study, you'll find that empathy alone doesn't guarantee usable and meaningful products.

The Fruitful library aims to connect the human, empathetic side of UX research with a business's focus on profit and scalability. Inside the handbooks are practical ideas and strategies to help translate empathy into action. Please note that there's very little material in the library about methods (only two are covered currently in Collection 4). But there's a lot of ideas on reframing UX research into something essential, modular, or flexible.

In this first handbook, let’s focus on four ideas: a quick recap of what user experience is today, a clear definition and breakdown of what UX research is and can do, strategies to reframe research into something dynamic, and recognizing where you are on UX research maturity model. Let's jump right in!