Here’s a round up of the user research links we’ve come across and bookmarked this April (2016). nterested?

Desk research: the what, why and how (UserFocus)

The “where” (at your desk) and the “when” (at the beginning of your project) are easy questions to answer. But what is it, why do you need to to do it, and how should you go about doing desk research to make sure it adds value to your project?

Read the article on UserFocus

A Practitioner’s Guide to Net Promoter Score (Andrew Chen)

This essay is about the practical aspects of measuring Net Promoter Score, an important metric that often correlates strongly with word-of-mouth virality, by Sachin Rekhi, ex-Director of Product at LinkedIn.

Read the article on Andrew Chen’s blog

Usability Testing of Icons (Nielsen Norman Group)

“Designers often rely on icons to save space and to take advantage of the speedy recognition of visuals. With increasing popularity of small-display devices — smartphones, wearables, and so on — the use of icons has likewise increased. But, how usable are these icons? The only way to know whether a particular icon will work is to test it with users.”

Read the article on NNG

Users’ Perception of Product Ratings (Baymard Institute)

In this article the Baymard Institute presents their qualitative and quantitative findings on users’ perception of product ratings. Their investigations into how and why most users will show a bias towards slightly poorer ratings if they are based on a higher number of reviews is particularly interesting.

Read the article Baymard Institute

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François Roshdy

François is director of user experience at Border Crossing UX. He specialises in helping clients continuously improve the experiences they deliver.