UX Research Reporting

The most obvious purpose of a research report is to communicate the findings of your research efforts to stakeholders and recommend a course of action. It is a written justification of the time, effort, and resources spent on a research problem and the result that came out of it.

It can also function as a cornerstone for future studies and can be referred back to at any point in time. However, not all research reports turn out to be useful. For reports to be effective, ensure that they are enjoyable, informative, concise, and actionable.^[1]

Even the best UXR studies with rock-solid research goals, methodologies, and execution are futile if the efforts don’t translate into a well-documented research report.

A good report must cover:

• Why your research was commissioned., i.e., your research goals
• The key metrics of your product that led to this decision
• The research methodology used
• The size and nature of the participant sample involved in your study
• Key insights backed by detailed findings
• The recommended future course of action

What were your research goals when you started this study? Support it with relevant metrics. For example, if you commissioned a study to identify why users were abandoning their carts on the Checkout page, state this as your goal and support it with the drop-off numbers. Use this section to outline the potential benefits of your study and the roles and responsibilities of all teams involved.

Next, it is a good idea to get into the nature of your research study and its participants. This includes your data collection method which could be a survey, user interview, a usability test, or a card sort. Details of your sample size, selection method, and participant profile are also must-haves in the overview.

Split the insights section into two parts — key insights and detailed insights. Key insights should cover the most crucial learnings from your study in brief. Keep in mind that an insight is different from a finding. Insights give you a deeper understanding and guide actions — findings are just discovered facts. Insights provide understanding and suggest action, while findings report what’s observed.

The insights section appeals to the stakeholders who do not want to spend hours poring over the minute details and only want to know the end takeaways.

For others, use the detailed insights section. This part will include the data you analyzed to arrive at these insights. Provide a link to your user research repository for those looking for even more details.

Don’t shy away from the usage of visuals while discussing insights. They help represent data clearly and even make comprehension easy for readers with minimal understanding of the UX field. It is also a great idea to use direct participant quotes and clippings in the insights section for impact.

In the last leg of your UX research report, include data-backed recommendations that clearly outline and prioritize the next course of action. Need to redesign the Checkout page? Need a more impactful CTA? Need more research to arrive at a more solid conclusion? If you have data on your side, don’t think twice and make it crystal clear what needs to be done next.^[2]

However, abstain from making recommendations that are based on your subjective opinions as it can be antithetical to the purpose of UX research.

When your research reveals insights that span different themes, structure your report around these categories. For example, a study on what makes people complete a purchase online may reveal a host of different themes — such as visual appeal, encouraging microcopy, attractive deals, detailed product descriptions, social proof, and so on.

If you carried out an affinity mapping session during the data analysis stage, you’ll already have access to these grouped insights. Present the top 3-5 most common themes that most influenced your research recommendations. This helps provide weightage to the most critical insights of your study. For each theme, provide a theme title, brief overview, and a deeper dive for those interested in the details.^[3]

Let's face it — people tend to ignore research reports that aren't appealing enough. Make your reports interesting and non-skippable using slideshows, especially if your teammates and stakeholders have the attention span of a goldfish. Slideshows are also the better choice during meetings and presentations that involve you interacting with a room or screen full of people.

Here are some tips to make your research report slideshow a success:

• Choose an interesting presentation theme and give readers a welcome break from monotonous spreadsheets.
• Use memorable visuals, graphics, puns, and slang that will act as a memory trigger for readers.
• Start with an introduction that clearly summarizes what the reader can expect going forward. How long will it take? What will they learn? How will it benefit them?
• Use a legible font, embolden important points, and use catchy headlines.^[4]

Apart from the creative freedom to include multimedia, a slideshow's structure should closely mirror the structure of a physical report and include the same sections — an overview, insights, and recommendations.

Remember that your research report acts as reference material for future studies. Keeping that in mind, ensure that your report has enough context in to make it easy to locate information and find patterns in the future.

Outlining your research goals, scope, participants, data collection methods, key insights, and recommendations makes sure that your research is a reliable source of information. It can also function as a good research template that can be used for further studies.