ux-research-and-usability-testing

name	ux-research-and-usability-testing
description	Use when planning moderated usability sessions, participant tasks, observation evidence, interviews, surveys, card/tree tests, diary studies, or findings synthesis. Do not use for expert-only heuristic inspection or unsupported personas; route those to heuristic evaluation or journey mapping.
metadata	{"portable":true,"category":"05-ux-process-research-and-psychology","compatible_with":["claude-code","codex"]}

UX Research and Usability Testing

Use When

• You need to choose a research method and cannot tell which one answers the question (generative vs. evaluative, attitudinal vs. behavioural, qual vs. quant). Use references/research-method-selector.md.
• You are running user interviews, contextual inquiry, surveys, card sorts, tree tests, or diary studies and need a defensible plan, screener, and guide.
• You are running a usability test — moderated or unmoderated — and need a real protocol: tasks, success criteria, think-aloud, severity rating. Use references/usability-test-protocol.md.
• You have raw research notes and must synthesize them into findings and then into decisions (not a report that gets shelved).
• A stakeholder is asserting a user "fact" with no evidence, or a design debate has stalled on opinion and needs data to break the tie.

Do Not Use When

• The work is applying cognitive/behavioural theory or heuristics to a design (Nielsen, Norman, Gestalt, biases, cognitive load) → use the sibling ux-psychology.
• The work is the end-to-end product/discovery process, RACI, and rituals → use the sibling enterprise-ux-process.
• The work is purely writing interface copy, microcopy, or error messages → use group 10 / .