How to Present UX Research Findings?

Conducting UX research is only half of a complete job. The other half consists of presenting that UX research to your stakeholders in a way that will help them understand the data and motivate them to take action. But, this data might become irrelevant if you don’t learn how to present UX research findings. 

In this article, you’ll learn how to become a master in presenting UX research findings, so keep reading to discover explanations, benefits, and heaps of tips!

User research (or UX research) is the process of learning about the problems and needs of your users and then utilizing these insights to create a functional design of a digital product that will help users solve these issues. There are different types of UX research: from testing prototypes and design concepts to testing how the users react to branding or messaging before the final launch of a digital product.

UX designers and UX researchers work to discover their users’ behavior patterns, motivations, and needs. Such data is crucial for building a successful UX design, so learning how to present UX research findings is essential. There are different UX research methods; designers can use one to uncover information and the other to initialize supporting activities. However, every research stage will bring something valuable to learn. 

UX research has numerous benefits: it helps UX designers and their businesses to comprehend how users experience digital products, such as websites and mobile apps, and discover new needs and business opportunities. Moreover, UX research can help designers find and fix any possible flaws in their digital product before launching it to the market. 

It can also help businesses to create a product with a better experience and surpass their competitors.

Before we dive into how to present UX research information, let’s run you through what this presentation is. A UX research presentation is the final stage of UX research, where you share the obtained data with other stakeholders. During this presentation, after laying out the facts and findings, together you can work to come up with suggestions for improvements, make important decisions, and decide on the next steps. 

Since only some of your stakeholders might be UX designers or familiar with the UX field, it’s important to present what you gathered in an easy-to-digest manner. Moreover, you should include a captivating visual representation that will catch their attention, justify the resources spent for this research, and motivate them to take the steps you expect. 

A good UX research presentation will help your team to make the right design decisions, prioritize tasks, create a product roadmap, refine existing knowledge about your user, and improve the overall usability of your digital product.

When you learn how to present UX research findings, you’ll become more and more confident that you’re reaping all the benefits. Sometimes, your stakeholders fail to speak your language and can’t recognize what should come next. These UX research presentations are a unique opportunity to give the other stakeholders an insight into your world.

A good UX research presentation will:

To have a “debt-free” product in the future, you must speak freely of possible constraints when you first stumble upon them in your research.

To present UX research findings properly, you must be aware of who your audience is. The more you know whom you’re talking to, the better you can transmit your message. One of the UX researchers’ worst mistakes is not reading the room before the presentation and simply scrolling through the slides. To ensure your UX research presentation will run smoothly, figure out how to establish an emotional connection with your audience. Once you create such a connection, you’ll set the right tone, and your audience will focus on what follows with more gist and motivation.

Another tip is to “personalize” your presentation according to the audience. If you’re presenting your UX research to other product designers, focus on highlighting the data that shows user experience and possible issues you’ll have to work on together. On the other hand, if your audience consists solely of marketers and other business-related executives, you should focus more on presenting the gathered data in a manner that’s actionable for them.

Use qualitative data when you present UX research findings to back up the quantitative part. For example, you can share the interviewees’ quotes to help build empathy with the target audience. Or, when discussing specific pain points, you should include visual representations of poll results, such as pie charts. That’ll be an excellent opportunity to combine different data, bring clarity, and showcase your deep understanding of the research conducted. 

As we already said, conducting thorough UX research isn’t enough. When you know how to translate different data into the language of other stakeholders, your UX research presentation will automatically become more understandable and of higher value to other team members.

Once they understand everything, they will be more ready to decide on the following steps.

You add value to the presentation when you engagingly present UX research findings. When you add more action to your presentation, your audience will gain a deeper understanding of the data and the market, and you’ll also boost their creativity and innovation. 

Here are some ways to make your UX research presentation more actionable:

Also, remember to remind your audience of this specific research and its results in the future – the data you gathered will use you on many future occasions, such as daily design meetings or kick-off meetings.

When you present UX research findings, it may seem as if everything from the research is essential and should end up in the final presentation. 

That might be true sometimes, but unfortunately, your audience, more often than not, will have no capacity to hear, remember, and proactively react to everything. So, limit your presentation to only a few significant insights. Also, ensure your presentation is up to 30 minutes long unless it’s the conclusion of a discovery phase, as those tend to last longer. 

If you want to make it easy for other stakeholders to dive deeply into the research, share the presentation and insights with them. Keep your report brief and include hyperlinks in an appendix to more detailed insights/summaries to save their precious time and attention. 

After all, most of the time, sharing every bit of the gathered data is unnecessary. The most important thing is to give your audience the answers they’re searching for right away. You can send everything else in a proper follow-up email or a detailed PDF report later.

You might get a slight pushback from your audience when you present UX research findings. Sometimes, they need more clarification regarding the participants interviewed, competitors analyzed, audience size, or specific questions from your UX survey. 

Don’t let that discourage you. On the contrary, speak freely and share your thoughts about constraints. If you want to showcase your professionalism, you must stay aligned with your rationales and know how to explain them every time to everyone who asks. 

Moreover, try to empathize with your audience as you would with your users: most of them don’t do such complex research, so explain your methodology. Highlight the reasons and benefits of specific actions of your research, and stay honest about the limitations of the UX research. Such an attitude will build trust among your stakeholders and fortify the overall value of the UX research you conducted.

So, this is our take on how to present UX research findings! 

As long as you keep it brief and engaging, you’re in the clear. Learn how to speak your stakeholders’ language, and share the insights for a deeper dive after the presentation. Work to help them resolve uncertainties and teach them how to empathize with your users. If you have any additional suggestions on how to master presenting UX research, feel free to share them with us via our Instagram profile!

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Happy designing! 🥳