UXR, or user experience research, is often undervalued but is integral to the design process. According to a report created by Maze in 2025, companies that focus on UXR can see dramatic improvements in engagement and conversion rates. A few notable behavioural and attitudinal UX stats include:
- Organisations with mature research practices are 1.9x more likely to report improved customer satisfaction.
- Conducting regular research led to 2.3x business opportunities for product owners by reducing time-to-market and understanding user needs.
- 48% of customers say if a website isn’t optimised for mobile, it’s a clear indication that the business doesn’t care.
Various research techniques help understand user needs, patterns, and pain points. This article will cover two standout approaches: behavioural and attitudinal UX research.
What is attitudinal UX research and the methods of conducting it?
Image source: Uxcel – Aspects of attitudinal research
Attitudinal research includes methods that help researchers understand user’s opinions, assumptions, and beliefs about the product. This gives researchers a subjective perspective of the users.
Asking questions like, “How was your experience using this product?” or “How can we make it better?” are examples of this research.
Let’s explore a few methods to conduct attitudinal research.
User interviews
This is the most common qualitative research method out in the market, conducted in person or virtually between the researcher and the participant. Researchers use this to understand the user’s viewpoint on the product.
User interviews can be conducted both virtually and in person, making them ideal for many researchers. Researchers can dig deeper into user thinking by asking follow-up questions and responding to verbal and nonverbal cues.
Surveys and questionnaires
Interviews are conducted to understand the attitudinal approach of a single user or a small group, whereas surveys help researchers gather data from a larger pool of users. Generally, these are structured tools that gather self-reported data to evaluate overall satisfaction with the product and its features. Additionally, surveys can be used to validate user feedback captured from interviews, ensuring the reliability of the insights obtained.
Sentiment analysis
This is an analysis technique that uses algorithms to access user sentiment found via reviews, social media, or feedback. Researchers also use techniques such as the Likert scale and Net Promoter Score (NPS) to analyse responses of a survey to help them understand the public opinion towards a product, service, or brand, identifying sentiment as positive, negative, or neutral.
Ethnographic studies
In this method, researchers observe the users interacting with a product or service in their natural environment, such as examining how customers engage with self-service checkouts in supermarkets or how travellers use ticketing machines at train stations. It provides an authentic understanding of the user’s pattern and how their attitude is shaped by their environment and social interactions.
What are the benefits of attitudinal research?
Attitudinal research helps inform UX and UI designers about the underlying reasons behind user behaviour. By understanding what users like or dislike, UX professionals can make informed decisions about design elements. Let’s explore the benefits it provides:
- Attitudinal research provides valuable insights into what customers think, feel, and want from a brand. This helps businesses tailor their products and services to meet user expectations, leading to an enhanced user experience and more customer loyalty.
- The insights captured from attitudinal research helps designers create products that are not only functional but also appealing.
- Attitudinal research helps validate design ideas and prototypes from the early stages of design, ensuring the final output resonates well with the user’s expectations.
What is behavioural UX research and the methods of conducting it?
Image source: Uxcel – Behavioural research
Behavioural research helps UX researchers understand various aspects of user behaviour and how users interact with a product and brand. Behavioural research, as opposed to attitudinal research, focuses on seeing and analysing actual user behaviour as it interacts with interfaces and systems.
The primary goal is to collect and analyse data on how users execute certain tasks, navigate interfaces, and interact with various design components such as buttons, menus, and forms, among others.
Let’s explore a few methods to conduct behavioural research.
Usability testing
Usability testing observes users as they interact with a product or a prototype. It is usually conducted in controlled environments, either virtually or in person.
This method helps researchers identify user challenges while interacting with a product and how much time they spend on a particular task.
Card sorting
Card sorting is another excellent UX research method to identify user behaviour patterns and understand how they find and consume information. It also shows how they classify categories and content logically, helping designers create a refined information architecture.
Eye tracking
Eye tracking helps observe and measure eye movements, pupil dilation, point of gaze, and blinking to see where participants focus their visual attention, what they engage with, and what they ignore. Researchers can use the following ways to conduct this test:
- By attaching an eye-tracking device to a computer screen.
- By having participants wear eye-tracking glasses.
- By using eye-tracking webcams.
The primary goal is to help researchers understand what captures the participant’s attention and what doesn’t. This insight enables them to prioritise the placement and design of information, ensuring that elements requiring immediate attention are positioned and presented in a way that makes them noticeable as soon as the user interacts with the product.
User flow analysis
This method helps analyse how users navigate a certain path, where users drop off, and other friction points in the user experience. It gives the researchers a clear direction of how they can design their flow, remove unnecessary friction, and create a better experience by using usability heuristics (considering technical clarity, being consistent across the product, etc) to help identify user needs, pain points, and opportunities to make informed design decisions and deliver satisfactory experiences.
What are the benefits of behavioural research in UX?
Behavioural research helps bridge the gap between intention and action. While users might say one thing in surveys, their actions can tell a different story. Observing how users interact with a product can reveal unexpected issues or confirm whether design changes have improved usability. Let’s explore the benefits it provides:
- Behavioural research involves the observation of user behaviour and understanding certain patterns, answering the “why” of a situation. This pattern, backed up by data, can help researchers predict user behaviour and enhance the features of a product that already exists or is missing.
- User data captured through behavioural research methods can significantly enhance the design process by enabling a more personalised experience. A clear example of this is seen in food delivery apps (like Careem, Uber Eats, etc) which analyse user behaviour to identify their most frequently ordered items. The app then prioritises and promotes cuisines that are personalised and relevant to the user’s preferences, increasing the likelihood of engagement and satisfaction.
- Another benefit of the behavioural approach is that it helps identify usability issues. It helps identify the barriers which need immediate action to enhance the user experience.
Behavioural vs attitudinal research: a quick comparison
Now that we have a clear picture of both behavioural and attitudinal UX research, let’s recap how both differ from each other.
Aspect | Behavioural research | Attitudinal research |
Focus | It focuses on why people take certain actions | It focuses on user opinions, beliefs, and attitude |
Methods | Usability testing, card sorting, user flow analysis, etc | User interviews, surveys, etc |
Role in UX research | Validates design through real user behaviour analysis | Explains user attitudes and perceptions |
Benefits | Reveals hidden usability issues and measures performance | Provides deep, user-centred insights |
Conclusion
Both behavioural and attitudinal research have their benefits. Each method gives a unique insight into user behaviour and how one can improve their product experience.
By using both together, designers can ensure their solutions are both usability-optimized and in line with user expectations, which will ultimately result in products that consumers find enjoyable and worthwhile.
If you’re a product owner or designer from the Middle East and are looking to conduct combined UX research, then UserQ is the right way to do so. Connect with us to learn more about how you can improve your product.
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