Base Design Decisions On What Users Actually Do
UX research combining user interviews, usability testing, and behavioural data before any design work starts.
UX research is the process of finding out how people actually use a product or site - through interviews, usability testing, and behavioural data - before committing to a design direction, so decisions are based on observed behaviour rather than internal assumptions.
What is UX Research?
UX research is the process of finding out how people actually use a product or site - through interviews, usability testing, and behavioural data - before committing to a design direction, so decisions are based on observed behaviour rather than internal assumptions.
Skip it and a redesign starts from an internal opinion instead of evidence - a stakeholder dislikes how a page looks, or a competitor shipped something newer - which risks building a new version that fails the same people the old one did, just differently.
It's different from wireframing, which structures a page once the direction is known. Research comes first: it decides what problem the design should actually solve, before any structure gets drawn.
Common problems we solve
Opinion-led redesigns
Decisions get made because a stakeholder dislikes how a page looks, not because users have a proven problem with it.
Analytics without the why
Funnel data shows where people drop off but not why, leaving the team to guess.
Untested assumptions in new features
A new feature ships into unfamiliar user behaviour without anything to validate it first.
Debate settled by whoever argues loudest
Design decisions get resolved internally instead of against real user behaviour.
Repeat redesign failures
A second version ships with the same underlying problem the first one had, in a different form.
Everything covered in this service
User Interviews & Contextual Inquiry
Moderated one-on-one interviews and task-based observation in context.
Usability Testing
Testing on live products or prototypes, with task completion and error rate review.
Behavioural Analytics Review
Heatmap, scroll-depth, and session recording review, plus funnel and drop-off diagnosis.
Persona & Journey Development
Evidence-based persona construction and end-to-end journey mapping.
Research Synthesis
Findings translated into prioritised design priorities and a handoff brief.
Our optimization framework
Scope
Define what decision the research needs to inform before choosing a method - this determines whether interviews, testing, or analytics review is the right tool.
Recruit
Source participants who match the real user base, not whoever is easiest to reach.
Test
Conduct interviews or usability tests, recorded where consent allows, with a consistent script across participants.
Review
Cross-check what people said against what analytics and session recordings show them actually doing.
Synthesize
Group findings into patterns and prioritise which ones actually change the design direction.
Handoff
Deliver a brief the design team can act on directly, with the reasoning behind each finding intact.
What actually changes
| Before | After |
|---|---|
| Decisions traced back to whoever argued loudest in review | Decisions traced back to observed behaviour |
| Problems found after launch, expensively | Problems found before build, cheaply |
| Redesign guesses at a cause and sometimes misses | Redesign targets a known cause |
| Analytics show drop-off with no explanation | Interviews and testing surface the why behind the drop-off |
What we report on
Findings traced to sessions
Every design recommendation is tied back to a specific interview or usability test, not a general impression.
Task completion and error rates
Measured directly during usability testing on the live product or prototype.
Drop-off diagnosis
Cross-checked against session recordings and heatmaps, not just funnel percentages alone.
Design brief adoption
Tracked by how much of the handoff brief the next design phase actually acts on.
Tools & platforms
Industries we optimize for
Built for teams like yours
Why choose EASI7
We fix tracking before we touch results
Every engagement starts with the same audit we'd run on our own accounts, so the numbers you're optimizing against are actually true.
One accountable team, not siloed vendors
The same team that does this also owns the rest of your stack - no handoff, no blame-shifting between vendors.
Built for how AI search actually works
Everything we build is structured to be extractable by AI answer engines, not just ranked in a list of blue links.
Reporting tied to your own dashboard
Every number we report ties back to GA4/GTM events you can see directly - not a screenshot from a tool you can't independently verify.
Design opinions are cheap; research is what separates a design that looks right from one that actually works for the people using it.
Related UI/UX Design services
Fix The Flow People Abandon, Not Just The Screens
We design the task flow and information architecture so people complete what they came to do.
UI/UX DesignVisual design that serves the interaction, not the portfolio
User interface design covering layout, visual hierarchy, and component design for web and app interfaces.
UI/UX DesignAgree On Structure Before A Single Pixel Is Styled
Low and mid-fidelity wireframing to align on structure and flow before visual design begins.
UI/UX DesignTest The Interaction Before You Build It
Clickable prototypes that validate flows and interactions before development time gets spent on them.
UI/UX DesignConsistency that doesn't depend on memory
Design system creation - component libraries, tokens, and documentation for consistent product design at scale.
How to engage us for this
Project-based
A defined outcome with a start and end date - an audit, a migration, a campaign build, a tracking overhaul. Fixed scope, fixed price, agreed upfront.
Ongoing retainer
Continuous management and optimization once the initial build is live - campaigns, SEO, reporting, and iteration run every month under one accountable team.
Advisory
Strategy and oversight without full delivery - we review what's already running, unblock decisions, and point an in-house or existing team in the right direction.
Common questions
At a scale that fits the project - even a handful of user interviews or a review of existing session recordings surfaces more than skipping research entirely.
For usability testing, five to eight participants per user segment typically surfaces most of the recurring issues - more sessions mostly find the same problems repeated. Interviews for exploratory research often run a bit deeper per person rather than wider.
No - sometimes research confirms the current design is largely fine, which is a valid and useful outcome, not a failure of the process. We won't manufacture a finding to justify the engagement.
Existing analytics, heatmaps, and session recordings get reviewed first - there's no reason to re-collect data you already have. Research fills the gaps analytics can't answer, mainly the 'why' behind a pattern.
That's usually exactly when research earns its cost. We present findings with the evidence behind them so the conversation shifts from opinion versus opinion to opinion versus observed behaviour.
A focused round - interviews or testing on one flow - usually runs one to two weeks including recruitment. A fuller programme ahead of a full redesign takes longer, mainly because reaching the right participants takes time.
Not sure if you need a research phase?
Tell us what decision you're trying to make and we'll tell you honestly whether research is worth the time it costs.
Ready to get started?
We usually reply within 24 hours.
UX Research, in detail
Scope, area by area
| Area | What we deliver |
|---|---|
| Discovery | Interview and testing plan scoped to the actual decision at hand |
| Fieldwork | Sessions run, recorded, and logged - interviews, usability tests, or both |
| Synthesis | Findings grouped into patterns, not a raw transcript dump |
| Handoff | A design brief with prioritised findings the next phase is built against |
How this compares
| Research-Led Design | Opinion-Led Design |
|---|---|
| Decisions traced back to observed behaviour | Decisions traced back to whoever argued loudest in review |
| Problems found before build, cheaply | Problems found after launch, expensively |
| Redesign targets a known cause | Redesign guesses at a cause and sometimes misses |
Neither approach is instant - research adds time upfront in exchange for removing guesswork later.