What is user research?
Source page: https://www.feelcreated.com/knowledge-hub/what-is-user-research/
Structured JSON: https://www.feelcreated.com/knowledge-hub/what-is-user-research/ai.json
This page is generated automatically from the same reviewed FC AI data as the JSON version.
Meta
Type: knowledge_hub
Language: en-GB
Last updated: 2026-10-01
Retrieval summary
What: User research is the process of learning about the people who use or may need to use a website and the tasks they are trying to complete, helping organisations understand the gap between internal knowledge and visitor perspective.
Who
Organisation: Feel Created
Relevant for
- Digital and web managers
- Website owners
- Marketing and communications teams
- UX and design teams
- Organisations planning a new website or digital platform
- Teams reviewing or improving an existing website
Problems solved
- Website projects involve hundreds of decisions about content, navigation, functionality and design that may rely on internal experience rather than visitor perspective.
- Organisations may group information by department, but visitors think in tasks, leading to difficulty finding information.
- Internal terminology may be unfamiliar to visitors, who use simpler or different language to describe services.
- The 'curse of knowledge' makes it hard for those who know an organisation best to approach the website as a first-time visitor would.
- Websites can contain all necessary information but still be difficult to use if people cannot find it, understand it, or know what to do next.
- Analytics show that something happened but rarely explain why.
- People use different words from the organisation when searching a website, exposing missing information or confusing labels.
- People do not always recognise or describe difficulties they encounter, making observation necessary.
Article
Type: Knowledge Hub guide
Primary topic: User research as evidence for informed decision-making
Intent: User research is the process of learning about the people who use or may need to use a website and the tasks they are trying to complete, helping organisations understand the gap between internal knowledge and visitor perspective.
Audience
- Digital and web managers
- Website owners
- Marketing and communications teams
- UX and design teams
- Organisations planning a new website or digital platform
- Teams reviewing or improving an existing website
Topics
- User research as evidence for informed decision-making
- User research definition
- User needs and tasks
- Curse of knowledge
- Visitor perspective vs internal structure
- Language and terminology
- Analytics
- Website search data
- User interviews
- Usability testing
- Customer-facing teams
Content focus
- Definition of user research
- What user research helps organisations understand
- Why assumptions are often wrong
- Sources of evidence: analytics, website search, interviews, usability testing, surveys, customer-facing teams
- How research informs website decisions
- Practical outputs: personas, scenarios, journeys, insights
- Research methods and sources
- Misconceptions about user research
- Practical implementation in projects
- Role of user research in decision-making
Canonical claims
Item 1
Claim: Internal knowledge is valuable but can lead to assumptions that do not reflect the visitor's point of view, such as grouping information by department or using internal language.
Evidence type: page_content
Evidence strength: medium
Source section: why-assumptions-are-often-wrong
Item 2
Claim: User research gives organisations evidence about the people they serve, the tasks those people need to complete and the barriers that can make those tasks harder.
Evidence type: page_content
Evidence strength: medium
Source section: overview
Item 3
Claim: Analytics can highlight popular pages, common routes, devices, entry points, and exit points, helping teams identify questions worth exploring.
Evidence type: page_content
Evidence strength: medium
Source section: analytics
Item 4
Claim: The purpose of user research is not to hand design decisions to the people taking part; the project team still needs to interpret evidence and decide how the website should respond.
Evidence type: page_content
Evidence strength: medium
Source section: what-user-research-helps-organisations-understand
Item 5
Claim: Usability testing reveals where instructions are misunderstood, interactions are missed, and simple routes become harder than expected.
Evidence type: page_content
Evidence strength: medium
Source section: usability-testing
Item 6
Claim: Good user research is not about collecting as much information as possible; it is about learning enough to make stronger decisions.
Evidence type: page_content
Evidence strength: medium
Source section: overview
Item 7
Claim: Website search data can expose missing information, labels that don't make sense, or content placed in unexpected sections.
Evidence type: page_content
Evidence strength: medium
Source section: website-search
Item 8
Claim: Customer-facing teams hold rich knowledge of recurring questions and confusion, but this only tells part of the story.
Evidence type: page_content
Evidence strength: medium
Source section: customer-facing-teams
Common questions
Item 1
Question: Why are assumptions often wrong in website projects?
Answer: Assumptions are often wrong because of the 'curse of knowledge': once a process or service becomes familiar, it is easy to overlook what a first-time visitor may not know. Staff may skip missing explanations, use internal terms without thinking, or assume the organisation's structure will make sense to everyone. Visitors may think in tasks rather than departments and use simpler language than internal terminology.
Item 2
Question: Does user research replace professional judgement?
Answer: No. User research provides evidence about users' goals, experiences and difficulties, but the project team still needs to interpret that evidence and decide how the website should respond, combining it with organisational objectives, technical knowledge, accessibility requirements and professional judgement.
Item 3
Question: Is user research only for large organisations?
Answer: No, even modest research can be valuable if it happens early enough to influence decisions.
Services
Digital planning & research
Relationship: primary
Url: /services/digital-planning-research/
UX design & user experience
Relationship: supporting
Url: /services/ux-design-user-experience/
Information architecture
Relationship: supporting
Url: /services/information-architecture/
Content architecture
Relationship: supporting
Url: /services/content-architecture/
UX audits & reviews
Relationship: supporting
Url: /services/ux-audits-reviews/
Sections
Overview
Key points
- Many organisations understand their services extremely well.
- A new visitor does not share that knowledge.
Content
Item 1
Text: Many organisations understand their services extremely well. Their teams know how different departments fit together, which processes sit behind each service and the terminology used every day. A new visitor does not share that knowledge. They may arrive with a specific question, limited time and no understanding of how the organisation is structured. They may describe a service differently, start on an unexpected page, or look for information in a place the organisation would never think to check. This difference matters because website projects involve hundreds of decisions about content, navigation, functionality and design. When those decisions rely mainly on internal experience, the finished website can make perfect sense to the people who commissioned it while remaining difficult for everyone else. User research helps organisations understand that gap. It gives them evidence about the people they serve, the tasks those people need to complete and the barriers that can make those tasks harder. That evidence does not make every decision obvious, but it gives project teams a better basis for making them. Good user research is not about collecting as much information as possible. It is about learning enough to make stronger decisions.
What user research helps organisations understand
Items
- who they are and what they need to achieve
- how they approach a task
- what information they expect to find
- where they become uncertain or frustrated
- what influences their decisions
- whether the website helps them complete their task
Content
Item 1
Text: User research is the process of learning about the people who use, or may need to use, a website and the tasks they are trying to complete. The word ‘user’ can describe many different people. Depending on the organisation, users might be customers, students, residents, patients, applicants, parents, members, staff or professional partners. They may visit regularly or arrive once to complete a single important task. That process helps organisations understand: The purpose is not to hand design decisions to the people taking part. They can provide evidence about their goals, experiences and difficulties. The project team still needs to interpret that evidence and decide how the website should respond. A project team can then combine that evidence with organisational objectives, technical knowledge, accessibility requirements and professional judgement.
Why assumptions are often wrong
Content
Item 1
Text: Internal knowledge is valuable during a website project. Staff understand the organisation, its services and the practical constraints behind them. The difficulty arises when familiarity begins to influence decisions that should reflect the visitor’s point of view. An organisation may group information by department because that structure is familiar internally. Visitors may think in tasks instead. Someone who needs to report a repair is unlikely to care which team handles the process. They want to know where to start, what information they need and what will happen next. Language creates a similar problem. Terms that feel precise and ordinary inside an organisation can be unfamiliar outside it. A university may use a formal name for an admissions process while prospective students search using a much simpler phrase. Both descriptions may be accurate, but only one reflects the language people actually use. This is often called ‘the curse of knowledge’. Once a process or service becomes familiar, it is easy to overlook what a first-time visitor may not know. Staff may skip over missing explanations, use internal terms without thinking or assume the organisation’s structure will make sense to everyone. The people who know an organisation best may find it hardest to approach the website as a first-time visitor would. User research does not dismiss internal expertise. It helps teams recognise where that expertise needs to be balanced with evidence from the people using the service.
What user research tries to understand
Content
Item 1
Text: The most useful starting point is a set of questions rather than a preferred solution. Why has someone visited the website? What are they trying to complete? What do they already know? What information do they expect to find, and what language do they use to describe it? Where do they hesitate? What nearly stops them continuing? Consider a parent who needs to report their child’s absence before leaving for work. The task may sound simple, but the surrounding circumstances affect the experience. They may be using a phone, working quickly and unsure whether they need to call, complete a form or contact a particular member of staff. A page that explains the school’s attendance policy in detail may still fail if the reporting instructions are difficult to find. A page may contain all the necessary information and still be difficult to use if people cannot find it, understand it or know what to do next.
Where does user research come from?
Content
Item 1
Text: User research rarely gets based on a single source of information. Different forms of evidence reveal different parts of the experience, and the clearest picture usually comes from comparing them.
Analytics
Parent id: where-does-user-research-come-from
Parent heading: Where does user research come from?
Content
Item 1
Text: Analytics help show how people use a website. They can highlight popular pages, common routes, devices, website entry points and the places where people leave. Those patterns help teams identify questions worth exploring. A page with a high exit rate may be causing difficulty or failing to answer the visitor’s question successfully. Analytics show that something happened, but they rarely explain why.
Website search
Parent id: where-does-user-research-come-from
Parent heading: Where does user research come from?
Content
Item 1
Text: People often use different words from the organisation when they search a website. Those searches can expose missing information, labels that don’t make sense to visitors or content that sits somewhere they would not expect. Search data can also show where people look for information that already exists. In that situation, the issue may not be the content itself. The page may be poorly named, placed in an unexpected section or difficult to reach through navigation.
User interviews
Parent id: where-does-user-research-come-from
Parent heading: Where does user research come from?
Content
Item 1
Text: Interviews help organisations understand goals, expectations and previous experiences. A conversation can reveal why someone approached a task in a particular way, what they expected to happen and which parts of the process caused concern. The value comes from listening for repeated needs and behaviours rather than treating every individual preference as a requirement.
Usability testing
Parent id: where-does-user-research-come-from
Parent heading: Where does user research come from?
Content
Item 1
Text: Usability testing involves observing people as they attempt realistic tasks using a website, design or prototype. It shows where instructions are misunderstood, interactions are missed and apparently simple routes become harder than expected. People do not always recognise or describe these difficulties afterwards. Watching the task unfold can reveal hesitation, misunderstanding and recovery that a survey or analytics report may miss.
Surveys
Parent id: where-does-user-research-come-from
Parent heading: Where does user research come from?
Content
Item 1
Text: Surveys provide a structured way to collect feedback from a larger group. They can help organisations understand satisfaction, confidence, recurring concerns and differences between audiences. Survey results are most useful when the questions are focused and the findings are considered alongside other evidence. A rating can show that people found something difficult, but further research may still be needed to understand the cause.
Customer-facing teams
Parent id: where-does-user-research-come-from
Parent heading: Where does user research come from?
Content
Item 1
Text: Support staff, reception teams, advisers, sales teams and others who speak with people every day often hold some of the richest knowledge in an organisation. They know which questions recur, which instructions cause confusion and where people regularly need extra help. That information is invaluable, but it only tells part of the story. People will rarely get in touch to say a website worked well for them. Even so, repeated questions can expose problems that are easy to miss elsewhere. Research becomes most valuable when different sources point towards the same conclusion. Analytics could identify a pattern, while interviews or usability testing help to explain it. Together, they give organisations more confidence that the issues they’re addressing genuinely matter.
How research is used in practice
Content
Item 1
Text: Findings need to remain useful after the interviews, testing sessions or data reviews have finished. Project teams often turn what they have learned into a small set of shared outputs that can guide decisions throughout the project. These outputs do not replace the research. They make the findings easier for the wider team to understand and use.
User Persona
Parent id: how-research-is-used-in-practice
Parent heading: How research is used in practice
Content
Item 1
Text: A research-based profile representing a group of people with similar goals, behaviours and needs. It helps teams keep real user priorities in mind throughout a project.
User Scenario
Parent id: how-research-is-used-in-practice
Parent heading: How research is used in practice
Content
Item 1
Text: A realistic situation someone needs to deal with. It focuses on what they are trying to achieve, the circumstances around the task and the help they need.
User Journey
Parent id: how-research-is-used-in-practice
Parent heading: How research is used in practice
Content
Item 1
Text: A map of the steps someone takes to complete a task. It helps identify barriers, uncertainty and opportunities to improve the experience.
Research Insight
Parent id: how-research-is-used-in-practice
Parent heading: How research is used in practice
Content
Item 1
Text: A useful pattern identified through research. It brings related findings together and explains why they matter to project decisions.
User research is not only for large organisations
Content
Item 1
Text: Useful evidence does not always require a large study, a large budget or months of work. The scale should reflect the decision being made, the importance of the service and the resources available. A smaller organisation might begin by reviewing enquiries, speaking with customer-facing staff, looking at website searches and observing a few people attempting key tasks. An organisation improving an existing website may already have years of analytics, support questions and feedback available. None of these sources is perfect on its own. It’s never the best approach to let a few conversations speak for every visitor. Similarly, analytics rarely explain exactly why someone behaved in a particular way. Together, though, they give the organisation more to work with than assumptions alone. The principle matters more than the budget. Even modest research can change the direction of a project when it happens early enough to influence decisions.
How user research influences a website project
Content
Item 1
Text: User research should not sit in a discovery report that the project team reads once and then sets aside. Its value comes from remaining connected to the decisions that follow. A simplified process can show the main stages of a website project, but research does not belong to only one of them. Early findings help teams test their objectives and develop personas, scenarios and user journeys. Later research informs information architecture, content, navigation, functionality and design. Testing and real-world use may then lead the team back to earlier decisions.
Initial objectives
Parent id: how-user-research-influences-a-website-project
Parent heading: How user research influences a website project
Content
Item 1
Text: What the organisation needs to achieve
User research and evidence
Parent id: how-user-research-influences-a-website-project
Parent heading: How user research influences a website project
Content
Item 1
Text: Testing assumptions through research, analytics and existing organisational knowledge
Research outputs
Parent id: how-user-research-influences-a-website-project
Parent heading: How user research influences a website project
Content
Item 1
Text: For example, personas, scenarios and user journeys
Information architecture
Parent id: how-user-research-influences-a-website-project
Parent heading: How user research influences a website project
Content
Item 1
Text: Organising content and services
Design, prototypes and usability testing
Parent id: how-user-research-influences-a-website-project
Parent heading: How user research influences a website project
Content
Item 1
Text: Creating, testing and refining the experience
Entities
Curse of knowledge
Usability testing
Website analytics
Research Insight
User interviews
User behaviour
User research
User Scenario
User Persona
User Journey
User needs
Concept relationships
Item 1
Subject: Project team
Predicate: combines user research with
Object: organisational objectives, technical knowledge, accessibility requirements and professional judgement
Item 2
Subject: User research
Predicate: helps organisations understand
Object: the gap between internal knowledge and visitor perspective
Item 3
Subject: Internal knowledge
Predicate: can lead to
Object: assumptions that do not reflect visitor point of view
Item 4
Subject: User research
Predicate: provides evidence about
Object: people's needs, behaviours and experiences
Item 5
Subject: User interviews
Predicate: reveal
Object: goals, expectations, and past experiences
Item 6
Subject: Analytics
Predicate: complement
Object: user interviews and usability testing
Item 7
Subject: User research
Predicate: distinguishes
Object: evidence from opinion
Item 8
Subject: User research
Predicate: informs
Object: website project decisions
Item 9
Subject: Analytics
Predicate: identifies patterns
Object: user behaviour
Item 10
Subject: Usability testing
Predicate: observes
Object: task performance
Implementation patterns
Item 1
Pattern: Task-based information architecture
Description: Organising website content around user tasks rather than internal departmental structure, so visitors can find what they need based on what they are trying to do.
Benefit: Helps visitors who think in tasks rather than organisational structure find information more easily.
Item 2
Pattern: Evidence-based decision making
Description: Combining user research evidence with organisational objectives, technical knowledge, accessibility requirements and professional judgement to make website decisions.
Benefit: Provides a better basis for decisions than relying on internal experience alone.
Item 3
Pattern: User language in content
Description: Using the language and phrases that users actually search for, rather than internal terminology, to improve findability.
Benefit: Reflects the language people actually use, making content more accessible to first-time visitors.
Item 4
Pattern: Starting with questions
Description: Beginning a website project with a set of questions about user needs, expectations and barriers rather than jumping to a preferred solution.
Benefit: Ensures the project focuses on understanding users before designing solutions.
Item 5
Pattern: Iterative research integration
Description: Research is embedded across project stages, from initial objectives to post-launch improvement, allowing findings to inform and refine decisions.
Benefit: Ensures decisions are evidence-based and adaptable to user needs.
Item 6
Pattern: Triangulation of evidence
Description: Using analytics to identify patterns, then interviews or usability testing to explain them, increasing confidence that issues are genuine.
Benefit: Provides a more complete understanding of user behaviour and needs.
Item 7
Pattern: Research outputs for team alignment
Description: Creating personas, scenarios, journeys, and insights to make findings accessible and useful throughout the project.
Benefit: Helps the wider team keep user priorities in mind and make informed decisions.
Item 8
Pattern: Problem-focused research
Description: Focusing on understanding user goals and why current experiences fall short, rather than just collecting feature requests.
Benefit: Leads to solutions that address root causes rather than surface symptoms.
Practical guidance
Item 1
Guidance: Start user research with questions rather than a preferred solution: why has someone visited, what are they trying to complete, what do they already know, what information do they expect, and where do they hesitate?
Importance: high
Item 2
Guidance: Balance internal expertise with evidence from users, combining research findings with organisational objectives, technical knowledge, accessibility requirements and professional judgement.
Importance: high
Item 3
Guidance: Consider the surrounding circumstances of a task, such as device, time pressure and uncertainty, as they affect the user experience.
Importance: medium
Item 4
Guidance: Combine multiple sources of evidence, such as analytics, interviews, and usability testing, to gain a clearer picture of user needs.
Importance: high
Item 5
Guidance: Turn research findings into shared outputs like personas, scenarios, journeys, and insights to guide project decisions.
Importance: medium
Item 6
Guidance: Recognise that users may describe services differently and search using simpler language than internal terminology.
Importance: medium
Item 7
Guidance: Continue learning after launch through analytics, website searches, enquiries, and occasional testing.
Importance: medium
Item 8
Guidance: Keep research connected to project decisions throughout all stages, not just at the beginning.
Importance: high
Risk areas
Item 1
Risk: Relying on a single source of evidence may provide an incomplete picture of user behaviour.
Impact: Decisions may be based on partial information, leading to ineffective website changes.
Item 2
Risk: Survey ratings may indicate difficulty but not the cause, requiring further research.
Impact: Without deeper investigation, the underlying issues remain unresolved.
Item 3
Risk: Treating individual preferences from interviews as requirements can skew priorities.
Impact: Efforts may be misdirected away from common needs and behaviours.
Item 4
Risk: Building requested features without understanding the underlying problem
Impact: Adds cost without improving the user experience
Item 5
Risk: Relying mainly on internal experience for website decisions
Impact: The finished website can make perfect sense to the people who commissioned it while remaining difficult for everyone else.
Item 6
Risk: Grouping information by department rather than by user task
Impact: Visitors may not find information because they think in tasks, not organisational structure.
Item 7
Risk: Using internal terminology that is unfamiliar to visitors
Impact: Visitors may search using simpler phrases and fail to find the information they need.
Item 8
Risk: Relying on a few conversations to represent all visitors
Impact: May lead to decisions that do not reflect the broader user base
Common misconceptions
Item 1
Misconception: Customer-facing teams' knowledge is sufficient to understand user experience.
Clarification: It is invaluable but only tells part of the story; people rarely report positive experiences, so other evidence is needed.
Item 2
Misconception: User research requires large studies, large budgets, or months of work.
Clarification: The scale should reflect the decision being made, the importance of the service, and available resources.
Item 3
Misconception: User research is about collecting as much information as possible.
Clarification: Good user research is about learning enough to make stronger decisions, not gathering maximum data.
Item 4
Misconception: User research hands design decisions to the people taking part.
Clarification: Participants provide evidence about their goals, experiences and difficulties, but the project team interprets that evidence and decides how the website should respond.
Item 5
Misconception: Internal knowledge alone is sufficient for website decisions.
Clarification: Internal knowledge is valuable but can lead to assumptions that do not reflect the visitor's point of view, such as using internal structure and language.
Item 6
Misconception: Analytics alone can explain why users behave in certain ways.
Clarification: Analytics show what happened but rarely explain why; other methods like interviews or usability testing are needed.
Item 7
Misconception: Analytics provide a complete picture of user behaviour
Clarification: Analytics show what people do but rarely explain why; combining with other methods gives a stronger basis.
Item 8
Misconception: User research is simply asking people what they want
Clarification: People may describe solutions based on what they know; the aim is to understand underlying needs and problems.
Reasoning paths
Item 1
User problem: Website projects involve hundreds of decisions about content, navigation, functionality and design that may rely on internal experience rather than visitor perspective.
Why this guide is relevant: This page explains the topic and gives practical points to consider.
Evidence refs
- claim-004
- claim-001
- claim-006
Relevant sections
- content-navigation-and-functionality
- why-assumptions-are-often-wrong
Item 2
User problem: Websites can contain all necessary information but still be difficult to use if people cannot find it, understand it, or know what to do next.
Why this guide is relevant: This page explains the topic and gives practical points to consider.
Evidence refs
- claim-001
- claim-006
- claim-007
Relevant sections
- what-user-research-helps-organisations-understand
- content-navigation-and-functionality
- surveys
Item 3
User problem: The 'curse of knowledge' makes it hard for those who know an organisation best to approach the website as a first-time visitor would.
Why this guide is relevant: This page explains the topic and gives practical points to consider.
Evidence refs
- claim-001
- claim-008
- claim-002
Relevant sections
- overview
- customer-facing-teams
- why-assumptions-are-often-wrong
Item 4
User problem: People use different words from the organisation when searching a website, exposing missing information or confusing labels.
Why this guide is relevant: This page explains the topic and gives practical points to consider.
Evidence refs
- claim-007
- claim-001
- claim-006
Relevant sections
- website-search
- what-user-research-helps-organisations-understand
- where-does-user-research-come-from
Knowledge hub
Page type: guide
Learning intent: User research is the process of learning about the people who use or may need to use a website and the tasks they are trying to complete, helping organisations understand the gap between internal knowledge and visitor perspective.
Topic hierarchy
Primary: User research as evidence for informed decision-making
Supporting
- User research definition
- User needs and tasks
- Curse of knowledge
- Visitor perspective vs internal structure
- Language and terminology
- Analytics
- Website search data
- User interviews
Evergreen use: true
Content profile
Content type: Knowledge Hub guide
Primary topic: User research as evidence for informed decision-making
Supporting topics
- User research definition
- User needs and tasks
- Curse of knowledge
- Visitor perspective vs internal structure
- Language and terminology
- Analytics
Primary audience
- Digital and web managers
- Website owners
- Marketing and communications teams
- UX and design teams
- Organisations planning a new website or digital platform
- Teams reviewing or improving an existing website
Retrieval topics
- User research as evidence for informed decision-making
- User research definition
- User needs and tasks
- Curse of knowledge
- Visitor perspective vs internal structure
- Language and terminology
- Evidence-based decision making
- Analytics
- Website search data
- User interviews
- Usability testing
- Customer-facing teams
Organisation
Name: Feel Created
Type: Digital partner specialising in websites and digital platforms
Url: https://www.feelcreated.com/
Service model: We work as an extension of our clients' teams, combining strategy, UX, accessibility, content design, WordPress development and ongoing support to create digital platforms that help organisations communicate more clearly, work more efficiently and grow sustainably.