Key Insights
📊 Desk research is the foundation of UX, leveraging existing data to inform future research and development.
💰 It’s cost-effective, providing valuable insights without the expense of new studies.
⏳ It offers quick access to data on user behavior and market trends, speeding up the research process.
🔍 Refining goals and hypotheses is easy with desk research, as it guides subsequent primary research.
⚠️ Risk is reduced by learning from past data, helping avoid mistakes and improve decision-making.
If you think creating user-friendly products always requires reinventing the wheel, think again. Successful products are built on a deep understanding of user needs and expectations.
Before diving into costly primary research, consider UX desk research (secondary research). It’s the foundation of UX research, allowing researchers to leverage existing insights to inform and guide their product development.
What is desk research in UX?
Desk research (or secondary research) is the process of gathering and analyzing existing data from previous research and other various sources.
It is a crucial starting point in every UX research journey as it can help UX researchers gain invaluable information about market trends and user behavior with limited time and resources.
The value of desk research is highlighted by Michaela Mora’s words:
So once you define the problem… you always have to start with secondary research. I always recommend that. And secondary research is probably the cheapest, fastest way to explore a problem.
If you don’t have enough information or if you have already found a problem, it’s a great tool to find initial nuggets to answer some of the questions you have.
If you want to discover more insights from Michaela Mora, check out this UX Research Geeks podcast episode. 🐝
It goes without saying that secondary research permits UX and product teams to access existing data including (but not limited to) industry reports, academic journals, competitor analysis, and more.
This way, it offers a rich and solid foundation on which UX researchers can build future research and the future of the product.
Why should you use secondary research?
Secondary desk research can have a host of advantages for your digital product. Here are some of the key benefits:
It’s cost-effective
Contrary to primary research, which requires meticulous planning and resources, desk research involves analyzing already existing data and insights.
Hence, desk research is a much more cost-effective methodology that can prove to be affordable for businesses of all sizes.
It provides quick access to a wide range of data
Secondary desk research is a great way to kickstart your UX research journey as it permits quick access to a wider range of data. It also helps you better understand your target base, which is important.
As highlighted by Don Norman’s summary:
If you want to create a great product, you have to start by understanding the people who will use it.
Whether desk research involves reading previous UX research studies or analyzing relevant industry reports, secondary research is a great source for quick user behavior insights and market trends.
It helps you understand your target base
Secondary research can help you deep dive into the nuances of the behavior of your target base. Desk research can provide invaluable insights into your audience’s motivations and behaviors.
It is exactly with this knowledge that you can start crafting a UX strategy that is tailored to your target audience.
It forms the basis for primary research
UX desk research forms the basis for primary research. By collecting and analyzing data from secondary sources, product teams have an invaluable opportunity to form hypotheses that can later be proved or disproved by primary research.
Hence, desk research can help you refine the scope and approach of your primary research and make data-driven assumptions.
It can help reduce risks
By tapping into secondary sources, UX research teams have the chance to learn from past errors and avoid making the same mistakes again.
Hence, UX desk research drastically lowers the risk of wasted resources by giving the team pointers on what has worked well in the past and what hasn’t.
Primary and secondary research in UX
To be able to fully reap the benefits of secondary research, it is crucial to understand how it differs from primary research and the cases in which each methodology can be used.
It is also important to remember that both approaches are beneficial and they have their distinct advantages.
| Primary research in UX | Secondary research in UX |
| Sources of data in primary UX research include, but are not limited to, user testing, user interviews, online surveys, and more. | Sources for secondary desk research include competitor analysis, industry studies, existing primary research data, and academic research. |
| The main research goal of primary research is to collect firsthand data and insights from users, as well as directly observe their behavior. | The main purpose of secondary research is to tap into existing knowledge and form an educated hypothesis about your primary research study. |
| Primary UX research is typically more time-consuming and resource-intensive, as it involves collecting data from scratch. | Secondary UX research is not as time and cost-effective, as it relies on readily available data. |
| The quality of data and insights gathered with this method is high, as it is primary data tailored to the specific needs of the project. | The quality of desk research data can vary by source and context, and it’s not always possible to verify its validity. |
Types of UX desk research
UX desk research is typically classified into two main categories:
Internal desk research
Internal desk research is all about internally collecting already existing data, that is within your organization. These can take the form of past UX research reports or even feedback from your customer department.
Internal desk research can prove to be an invaluable source of insights that are already tailored to the unique needs and goals of the business.
External desk research
External desk research revolves around the collection of data from various sources that are outside your organization.
Typical examples of this kind of research are competitor analysis reports or studies that have been conducted by third-party organizations, but are readily available to view.
The main advantage of this type of research is that it provides macro environment insights and not insights from your own business exclusively.
When should you conduct UX secondary research?
Secondary research should primarily be conducted at the very beginning of the UX design process as it will form the basis for the primary research.
However, desk research can also be advantageous in other stages of the product lifecycle, especially when the product team is on a quest to validate certain assumptions about their product or the users.
How to conduct secondary research in UX
Here is a step-by-step guide on how to conduct your first desk research study in UX without a hitch:
1. Define the goals of your research
Start by defining the purpose of your desk research. This first step is also the most critical, as it can make or break the success of your study. Many UX researchers highlight the risk of poorly defined goals in the study.
Our best advice to overcome this barrier is to clarify your research objectives by using PEST analysis or by focusing on UX heuristics as they were defined by Jakob Nielsen.
2. Find reliable sources
Once the goals of your desk research have been defined, it is time to start finding reliable sources. You can tap into both internal and external sources like academic journals, your organization’s UX research repository, or other competitors’ reports.
To avoid getting unreliable data, always ensure that sources are reputable. If you are unsure how to go about it, we have collected our top sources in this article:
3. Collect and organize data
Once you have gathered your sources, it’s time to arrange your data so that they allow for meaningful analysis. For instance, you might want to organize the insights by themes, trends or by research questions.
A great idea is to utilize a project management tool (or even an excel spreadsheet) and use it as the one source of truth for your desk research.
4. Analyze the gathered data
It’s time to delve into the analysis of your data. Be on the lookout for patterns, themes, or upcoming trends. This stage is all about understanding the story that the data has to tell and relating it to the project’s goals.
5. Form your hypothesis
The final, yet most important step is forming a hypothesis based on the analyzed data and gathered insights. Those hypotheses will be the foundation for your primary research and will help you form your primary research questions and the scope of your study.
Where to find data for UX desk research
Here are some of your top sources when it comes to finding data for UX desk research:
1. Your company’s UX repository
Your own business UX repository can be one of the most critical sources of internal data. A UX repository typically contains data and insights collected through past UX projects or user feedback collected by different methods.
2. UX reports
UX reports can be another great source of juicy information. These can be found both internally and externally and they can provide invaluable insights into user behavior, as well as design solutions that have failed or worked well in the past.
💡 Pro Tip
Always pay attention to how you present your findings in UX research reports.
Well-organized and clear information will greatly assist in future desk research 🐝
3. Academic journals
Academic journals are yet another great source to get juicy data and insights from. These sources are usually peer-reviewed research on human-computer interaction.
4. Databases
Databases (like Google Scholar) can also be excellent sources and contain a wealth of research studies that can be highly relevant to your project.
5. Industry reports
Industry reports from sources like the Nielsen Norman Group (NN/g) and other UX consultancies can be a great source of data when it comes to user experience trends, industry reports, or benchmark studies.
10 best data sources for UX desk research
Here is a curated list of the tried and tested sources that we recommend:
- UXtweak’s blogs: blog.uxtweak.com
- Nielsen Norman Group (NN/g): nngroup.com
- Interaction Design Foundation: interaction-design.org
- UXMatters: uxmatters.com
- Google Scholar: scholar.google.com
- Medium’s UX Collective: uxdesign.cc
- The International Journal of Human-Computer Interaction: tandfonline.com
- Springer: springer.com
- ResearchGate: researchgate.net
- Wiley Online Library: onlinelibrary.wiley.com
The gist of it
Desk (or secondary UX) research is an invaluable step for a holistic approach to UX research when it comes to product design and development.
Looking at existing data can not only save you time and resources, but also build a solid foundation for your primary research and refine the scope of your study.
UXtweak provides a comprehensive UX research platform designed to help businesses optimize their websites, apps, and prototypes. Try it out for free!
