There are two key parts to every UX design project: conducting research to learn about the users you’re designing for, and gathering feedback about their perspectives. UX design is all about putting the user first, and research helps designers understand those users. 

UX research focuses on understanding user behaviors, needs, and motivations through observation and feedback. Your product design should be built upon research and facts, not assumptions. UX research aligns what you, as the designer, think the user needs with what the user actually needs. 

Remember the product development life cycle from an earlier course of the program? The product development life cycle has five stages — brainstorm, define, design, test, and launch — that take an idea for an app, website, or product to its launch. 

Let’s check out how research fits into the product development life cycle.

Graphic showing the product development lifecycle, represented by a circle
Around the circle, there are other icons that represent the phases of the product development lifecycle – Brainstorm, Define, Design, Test, Launch. New additional phases branch out from the cycle, including Foundational research (from the brainstorm phase), Design research (from the design phase), and post-launch research (from the launch phase)
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