“Do we have a template for research plans?”
“Which study did you ask ease of use questions on? Need to re-use those…”
“Have we been asking the same warm up questions?”
Isn’t fun to sort through 100s of documents, trying to answer these questions?
No. It is not.
If you don’t have one yet—you NEED a single source of truth for your research templates. A toolkit for anyone on the team to find research plans, interview questions, note-taking templates.
There is NO reason to make 5000 versions of each of these.
So save yourself some trouble—make a copy of the UX Research Toolkit templates we compiled for you.
What does this article contain?
Make copies of all of them and customize to your needs!
May you never have to hunt to find a template again.
This is literally the most popular template we have ever published.
Depending on where your team works, you may want to try the
This UX research plan outlines the goals, methods, and timeline for your research. It acts like a roadmap for you to stay on track and ensure that your research is productive.
A good research plan contains the following:
Get detailed instructions on building a research plan, with a template here: How to Create a UX Research Plan + Template
While each project is unique, there is some pattern to the chaos:
For this reason, you want to create a standard template of questions the team can rely on—especially if you have Product Managers and Designers running research.
In this Airtable, we have collated over 60 standard question types you can use and re-use across the team. The interview questions are organized by categories (warm up, usability, discovery, etc.) so you can filter and sort to find what you need!
We’d recommend making a copy of this template and customizing the questions where necessary to suit your team.
Remind your team though! While the guide is important, it's also crucial to keep the conversation flexible and conversational, allowing participants to speak freely and provide valuable insights.
Ahh, the note-taking process. How is it that it’s so hard to get folks to take good notes?
Well, a really good template helps. Many teams end up creating their own, but we’ve saved you a step by making one for you!
Use this FigJam template to take notes during research sessions with your team!
But let's face it, trying to keep up with a conversation while scribbling notes can be tough! If you’re tired of madly scribbling through calls hoping you didn’t miss anything, try Looppanel’s automatic notes.
You can skip the rapid scrawling during interviews and still get amazing notes, ready for analysis!
The notes are also tied to an incredibly good transcript, so you can jump back to the parts of the call you care most about.
We spoke to researchers from all backgrounds and team sizes, ranging from Etsy, Spotify and Wrike to freelancers, to learn more about the best practices and modes of doing research synthesis. It’s a great place to get started, highly recommend reading it here.
Organizing and analyzing user research data is the key to uncovering valuable insights that drive informed decision-making. Here are two questions to get you started.
1. Did you find evident patterns in the data?
Sometimes, patterns in the data are crystal clear, guiding you toward actionable insights with ease. Other times, you're navigating through a sea of information, searching for the underlying meaning. If patterns are apparent, synthesis focuses on extracting evidence that communicates the main takeaways effectively. However, if conclusions are elusive or for critical projects, a deeper dive into the data is warranted.
2. How do you process information?
Understanding how your brain processes data is crucial in selecting the most effective synthesis method. Based on this, there are 3 ways to go about synthesizing research data.
Depending on where you work, here are some synthesis templates to get started with:
Alternatively, automated tools like Looppanel offer a seamless solution for research analysis.
Here’s how.
AI-Assisted Note-Taking
Looppanel seamlessly joins your digital interviews on platforms like Google Meet, Zoom, or MS Teams. While you focus on the conversation, Looppanel records, transcribes, and takes notes automatically.
Once your call ends, review your notes by question, transcript section, or create shareable video clips for your team.
Streamlined Data Analysis
Looppanel's AI thematic analysis tools save you time by grouping relevant data and identifying key themes. While you still review the data, the process becomes much more manageable, thanks to Looppanel's automated tagging feature.
Organized Data by Question
Forget about sifting through piles of data. Looppanel organizes your notes based on your interview questions in your discussion guide. This way, you can tabulate and view responses across different calls to the same question.
Try out Looppanel’s analysis features here.
Congratulations, you’re almost at the finish line!
But don’t get lazy yet—the success of your research ultimately hinges on your ability to sway decision-makers. This is why presenting your findings in the right manner matters A LOT.
We worked with UX design leader Dan Winer (Head of Design at PandaDoc) to create this Research report template to help you structure your findings correctly.
Dan advises using the Minto pyramid to structure:this means that you lead with the conclusions first, present key findings next, and save the detailed information and data for the end.
Why? Because stakeholders rarely have the time to read detailed pages about your methodology, participants and thought process. They just want to know the results and why it matters to them. So, structure reports such that it prioritizes what actually matters to your audience!
We’ve put together all of Dan’s tips and guide to creating a great research report here.
We hope these templates empower your team with the confidence and ability to better research!
If you feel like the UX research toolkit is missing something critical, write to us about it! We’d love to hear feedback and potential notes on how it has helped you.
Looppanel automatically records your calls, transcribes them, and centralizes all your research data in one place