10 UX Research Tools We Love

When I started a few months ago as a UX researcher, I felt inundated by all the tools that exist in the UX galaxy. As someone who has recently transitioned into the UX realm from the academic and non-profit sector, I was surprised by the ever-growing list of tools.

In fact, there have been many articles written on this very matter as seen here and here.

Part of being a UX professional is about wading through these exhaustive lists of tools/services and choosing your core set. Here at Viget, we have a set of 10 tools that we find ourselves using consistently to help us conduct UX research.

Recruiting

Prolific - Prolific is an online service that provides research participant sourcing for unmoderated studies.

User Interviews- User Interviews is an online service that provides research participant sourcing and management.

Scheduling

YouCanBookMe -YouCanBookMe is a booking tool used to schedule interviews and test sessions with stakeholders and participants.

Video Conferencing

Zoom- Zoom is a videoconferencing tool used to connect with participants and record moderated interviews and test sessions. It is our default video conferencing tool on research projects, though we have used other services based on client requests.

Data Capture and Analysis

Moderated Studies

Airtable- Airtable is an online tool that serves as a spreadsheet/database hybrid. It is frequently used on research projects to track session details and to capture and analyze data from moderated interviews and usability tests.

Hotjar- Hotjar is a behavior analysis and feedback tool. It is used to capture heatmaps and recordings of users interacting with a site. It is also used as a site-intercept tool to collect data from users and to direct users to external studies.

Dovetail- Dovetail is an online platform for qualitative research. It is used to capture and analyze data from interviews.

Unmoderated Studies

SurveyGizmo- Survey Gizmo is a survey tool used to gather data from research participants. It is our default survey tool on research projects.

Optimal Sort- Optimal Sort is an online card sorting tool that is part of Optimal Workshop. It is used to clarify how people understand a particular domain.

Treejack- TreeJack is an online navigation testing tool. It is used to evaluate the findability of content on a website.

The UX research toolbox is ever-evolving. However, I hope this article gave you some ideas on which tools you can use to conduct UX research at your organization. Are there any tools you use frequently that aren’t listed above? Tell us about it, we are always open to learning about tools that can help us improve our research.