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A complete guide to presenting UX research findings

In this complete guide to presenting UX research findings, we’ll cover what you should include in a UX research report, how to present UX research findings and tips for presenting your UX research.

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User experience research sets out to identify the problem that a product or service needs to solve and finds a way to do just that. Research is the first and most important step to optimising user experience.

UX researchers do this through interviews, surveys, focus groups, data analysis and reports. Reports are how UX researchers present their work to other stakeholders in a company, such as designers, developers and executives.

In this guide, we’ll cover what you should include in a UX research report, how to present UX research findings and tips for presenting your UX research.

Components of a UX research report

How to write a ux research report, 5 tips on presenting ux research findings.

Ready to present your research findings? Let’s dive in.

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There are six key components to a UX research report.

Introduction

The introduction should give an overview of your UX research . Then, relate any company goals or pain points to your research. Lastly, your introduction should briefly touch on how your research could affect the business.

Research goals

Simply put, your next slide or paragraph should outline the top decisions you need to make, the search questions you used, as well as your hypothesis and expectations.

Business value

In this section, you can tell your stakeholders why your research matters. If you base this research on team-level or product development goals, briefly touch on those.

Methodology

Share the research methods you used and why you chose those methods. Keep it concise and tailored to your audience. Your stakeholders probably don’t need to hear everything that went into your process.

Key learnings

This section will be the most substantial part of your report or presentation. Present your findings clearly and concisely. Share as much context as possible while keeping your target audience – your stakeholders – in mind.

Recommendations

In the last section of your report, make actionable recommendations for your stakeholders. Share possible solutions or answers to your research questions. Make your suggestions clear and consider any future research studies that you think would be helpful.

1. Define your audience

Most likely, you’ll already have conducted stakeholder interviews when you were planning your research. Taking those interviews into account, you should be able to glean what they’re expecting from your presentation.

Tailor your presentation to the types of findings that are most relevant, how those findings might affect their work and how they prefer to receive information. Only include information they will care about the most in a medium that’s easy for them to understand.

Do they have a technical understanding of what you’re doing or should you keep it a non-technical presentation? Make sure you keep the terminology and data on a level they can understand.

What part of the business do they work in? Executives will want to know about how it affects their business, while developers will want to know what technological changes they need to make.

2. Summarise

As briefly as possible, summarise your research goals, business value and methodology. You don’t need to go into too much detail for any of these items. Simply share the what, why and how of your research.

Answer these questions:

• What research questions did you use, and what was your hypothesis?
• What business decision will your research assist with?
• What methodology did you use?

You can briefly explain your methods to recruit participants, conduct interviews and analyse results. If you’d like more depth, link to interview plans, surveys, prototypes, etc.

3. Show key learnings

Your stakeholders will probably be pressed for time. They won’t be able to process raw data and they usually don’t want to see all of the work you’ve done. What they’re looking for are key insights that matter the most to them specifically. This is why it’s important to know your audience.

Summarise a few key points at the beginning of your report. The first thing they want to see are atomic research nuggets. Create condensed, high-priority bullet points that get immediate attention. This allows people to reference it quickly. Then, share relevant data or artefacts to illustrate your key learnings further.

Relevant data:

• Recurring trends and themes
• Relevant quotes that illustrate important findings
• Data visualisations

Relevant aspects of artefacts:

• Quotes from interviews
• User journey maps
• Affinity diagrams
• Storyboards

For most people you’ll present to, a summary of key insights will be enough. But, you can link to a searchable repository where they can dig deeper. You can include artefacts and tagged data for them to reference.

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4. Share insights and recommendations

Offer actionable recommendations, not opinions. Share clear next steps that solve pain points or answer pending decisions. If you have any in mind, suggest future research options too. If users made specific recommendations, share direct quotes.

5. Choose a format

There are two ways you could share your findings in a presentation or a report. Let’s look at these two categories and see which might be the best fit for you.

Usually, a presentation is best for sharing data with a large group and when presenting to non-technical stakeholders. Presentations should be used for visual communication and when you only need to include relevant information in a brief summary.

A presentation is usually formatted in a:

• Case studies
• Atomic research nuggets
• Pre-recorded video

If you’re presenting to a smaller group, technical stakeholder or other researchers, you might want to use a report. This gives you the capacity to create a comprehensive record. Further, reports could be categorised based on their purpose as usability, analytics or market research reports.

A report is typically formatted in a:

• Notion or Confluence page
• Slack update

You might choose to write a report first, then create a presentation. After the presentation, you can share a more in-depth report. The report could also be used for records later.

1. Keep it engaging

When you’re presenting your findings, find ways to engage those you’re presenting to. You can ask them questions about their assumptions or what you’re presenting to get them more involved.

For example, “What do you predict were our findings when we asked users to test the usability of the menu?” or “What suggestions do you think users had for [a design problem]?”

If you don’t want to engage them with questions, try including alternative formats like videos, audio clips, visualisations or high-fidelity prototypes. Anything that’s interactive or different will help keep their engagement. They might engage with these items during or after your presentation.

Another way to keep it engaging is to tell a story throughout your presentation. Some UX researchers structure their presentations in the form of Joseph Campbell’s Hero’s Journey . Start in the middle with your research findings and then zoom out to your summary, insights and recommendations.

2. Combine qualitative and quantitative data

When possible, use qualitative data to back up quantitative data. For example, include a visualisation of poll results with a direct quote about that pain point.

Use this opportunity to show the value of the work you do and build empathy for your users. Translate your findings into a format that your stakeholders – designers, developers or executives – will be able to understand and act upon.

3. Make it actionable

Actionable presentations are engaging and they should have some business value . That means they need to solve a problem or at least move toward a solution to a problem. They might intend to optimise usability, find out more about the market or analyse user data.

Here are a few ways to make it actionable:

• Include a to-do list at the end
• Share your deck and repository files for future reference
• Recommend solutions for product or business decisions
• Suggest what kind of research should happen next (if any)
• Share answers to posed research questions

4. Keep it concise and effective

Make it easy for stakeholders to dive deeper if they want to but make it optional. Yes, this means including links to an easily searchable repository and keeping your report brief.

Humans tend to focus best on just 3-4 things at a time. So, limit your report to three or four major insights. Additionally, try to keep your presentation down to 20-30 minutes.

Remember, you don’t need to share everything you learned. In your presentation, you just need to show your stakeholders what they are looking for. Anything else can be sent later in your repository or a more detailed PDF report.

5. Admit the shortcomings of UX research

If you get pushback from stakeholders during your presentation, it’s okay to share your constraints.

Your stakeholders might not understand that your sample size is big enough or how you chose the users in your study or why you did something the way you did. While qualitative research might not be statistically significant, it’s usually representative of your larger audience and it’s okay to point that out.

Because they aren’t researchers, it’s your job to explain your methodology to them but also be upfront about the limitations UX research can pose. When all of your cards are on the table, stakeholders are more likely to trust you.

When it comes to presenting your UX research findings, keep it brief and engaging. Provide depth with external resources after your presentation. This is how you get stakeholders to find empathy for your users. This is how you master the art of UX.

Need to go back to the basics and learn more about UX research? Dive into these articles:

What is UX research? The 9 best UX research tools to use in 2022

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What is UX Research: The Ultimate Guide for UX Researchers

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How to write and present effective UX research reports

Regardless of how thorough or valuable your user research is, it quickly becomes meaningless if you’re unable to succinctly put it together and present it in a digestible UX research report.

UX research reporting is a skill just as valuable as being able to conduct the research in the first place. It lets you showcase methodology and findings of your research, and ensure a product’s user experience delivers with the first iteration.

Luckily, how to write and present UX research reports is something you can learn. What’s more, this chapter will guide you through it (and provide free templates for your UX report).

What is a UX research report?

A user research report is an easy-to-digest summary of a user research project that aims to update product stakeholders on results, inform product decisions with user data, and harmoniously guide a product build or iteration.

Once upon a time, UX research reporting was a cumbersome, dreaded box to tick. It was notorious for resulting in unnavigable reports that product teams would rather leave at the bottom of their inbox than try to consume.

The word 'report' conjures images of lengthy word documents, a PDF one-pager, or hour-long presentation with an occasional GIF—but a research report doesn't have to mean that.

Kevin Rapley , Senior User Researcher at Justice Digital, explains a UX report as being “about arming our teammates with data that allows them to decide on the direction of a product or service.”

A useful UX report includes:

• The research goals and research process
• Research questions the report is hoping to answer
• A recap of the UX research plan
• What UX research methods were used and why
• Quantitative and qualitative data sets and conclusions
• Key insights & actionable takeaways
• An expanded data appendix

Why do you need a user research report?

Product teams need a user research report to reflect on research activities and accurately guide a product’s scope with key insights. A UX research report helps sort information, defend research, and affirm (or disprove) a hypothesis. No matter how well-organized your research repository is, sometimes simply having the research results available is not enough. A succinct report will align entire teams in one sitting by presenting findings in a unique way.

In short, a research report helps to:

• Positively influence UX design
• Make sense of data sets and explain complicated graphs or other quantitative research results
• Provide actionable recommendations on next steps
• Summarize key findings, so they can be translated into every role and responsibility of the product team

Where UX research enables product teams to understand the user, prove or disprove hypotheses, and prioritize and generate ideas, a UX research report ensures the user is at the center of every product decision. Presenting that UX report then aligns team members on goals and priorities, and provides authentic user insights to inform every product decision.

We’ve covered what a research report is , but what is it not ? A UX research report is not a static, one-time document that your team reads once. It’s an ongoing reference point; the guardrails and guiding insights that guarantees the entire build stays on track.

How to write an effective UX research report: the essential elements

No matter how you choose to present your research study, there are a few elements that every report needs to include for it to be both useful and effective. Let’s look at how to create a report.

Introduction

Your introduction should lay out your research goals, plan, and scope. It should cover your product team’s pain points, and give a clear study overview. You need to answer what you did and why. The introduction can go on to include sales support data and competitive product analysis that inspired or guided this research project.

It’s a good idea to set up how this research helps to support and answer related company goals, team-level goals, and product-dev goals: so all stakeholders know it’s got something for them.

You can include questions from your UX research strategy you had originally hoped to answer, even if your results have gone on to answer other questions as well. Now’s also a good time to introduce research stakeholders: your fellow research team members.

As a secondary step to your introduction, ensure you’re including the approach you took to your UX research process : i.e. what research methods you used, as well as participant profiles and your user personas .

Don’t feel you need to spend too much time on this, says Charlie Herbozo Vidal , Senior User Experience Researcher at CVS Health. “As researchers, it’s not uncommon to dwell on the methodology for longer than needed. While interrogating methods might be valuable to other researchers, business partners might be disengaged by them.”

Ultimately, while methodology is important, it’s the results that most people are here for.

Key findings

This is where you get people on the edge of their seats! Give an overview of your findings, before breaking them down into more detail. Remind your audience ‘what we thought’ vs. what you actually learned.

Artifacts to use are:

• User personas built
• Insights from customer interviews
• User journey maps
• Prototype testing
• Storyboards
• Feedback & satisfaction reports

At the end of this section, and continuing throughout your presentation, you can pepper relevant atomic research nuggets.

Make sure you champion the user's needs throughout, and make special notes of 'offhand' comments users make. Often, it's the random comments that provide the most insight—they must not be forgotten about when writing the report.

Jack Dyer , Designer at Interactive Schools

Summarize your quantitative and qualitative research , and how they’ll both impact your product design and growth. Lay out opportunities versus risks, good-to-knows versus must-knows. Here you’ll want to convey the impact of each suggested step, roadmap designs, and figure out the long and short-term project scope. A few things to cover in your next steps are:

• Long and short-term goals
• ICE framework (Impact, confidence, ease)
• Roles and responsibilities for each task
• A timeline of events and project map
• A request for resources
• Desired outcomes

No matter how you’re presenting your research, be it asynchronously or not, you’ll need to include a Q&A. These can be subjective (based on what you think your team is likely to ask), pre-collected ahead of the presentation, answered live, or an opportunity to build an FAQ later.

What’s important is to acknowledge and be open to receiving questions. After all, questions are a positive thing—it means people are actually listening!

It’s easy to overlook the appendix after putting together a detailed report, but all that glorious research data needs to be accounted for and referenced clearly. Plus, you never know to what extent your team will want to dive into it. Your appendix is also where you’ll want to include secondary research that didn’t make the cut but backs up your research.

9 ways to present UX research findings

UX research reporting will look a little different depending on your internal personas and organizational culture. First, ask yourself: who is your audience? Who needs to see the report, and who will benefit from seeing it? This will help determine how to present your user research report.

A few things to consider:

• Are you working with internal or external stakeholders? Tool limitation and file-sharing will differ for both.
• Are you working with an in-office, fully-remote, or hybrid team?
• Are you sitting in the same time zone or not?
• What are the knowledge levels like within your team?
• How does your team communicate daily/weekly/monthly?
• Are there any predetermined knowledge bases or tools your team is comfortable with?

The most common players across a UX team that need to understand your UX research report are:

• Product Designers (UX/UI)
• Fellow Product Researchers
• UX/UI Writers

However , it doesn’t stop at your product decision-making team. More often than not, there will be other stakeholders that can benefit from your research presentation. Your marketing, finance, sales, and even C-suite executives will massively benefit from your findings too. If you can tailor versions of your report or provide key summaries for each collective, even better!

Psst 👉 This is much easier to do when you have a research team that can host stakeholder interviews ahead of your research process.

Now, let’s get into the report formats to consider:

1. Workshops: for real-time, collaborative reports

First up, workshops. Workshops are a unique way of keeping your report interactive and engaging. They can be held remotely or in-person, but are almost impossible to hold asynchronously—so time zones are a big factor here.

You’ll also want to consider workshopping tools if you’re hosting digitally—a few to consider are: Miro, Mural, FigJam, and Gather.

A plus with workshops is that your stakeholders will actively have a say early on in the product development process , allowing you to foster more diverse inputs, minimize research bias you may have accumulated in your summaries, and build a sense of responsibility for the product’s success early on.

A negative of workshops is that they can be culprits to in-the-room or bandwagon bias. People are quick to ride on the coattails of a strong conclusion, without fully understanding or trialing another (less popular) conclusion or suggestion.

2. Slack channels: for an asynchronous and interactive research repository

Slack is a great option (especially if you’re already using it) if your research team needs to deliver insights to a fully-distributed collection of stakeholders. Slack tends to be the go-to channel for startups and creative companies, and there’s some key features you can tap into:

• Canvas: Store files, images, videos, and more in one place
• Huddles: Jump on a quick chat to fill in any gaps
• Clips: Post audio, video, or screen-sharing clips
• Connect: Team up with freelancers and agencies working on the project with you
• Workflow: Build drag-and-drop processes from your findings
• Knowledge sharing: Tag your data accordingly so it's easy to find later

3. Knowledge bases: for self-serve UX research reports

Knowledge bases can be a great home for your research presentation, and work especially well for distributed teams working across different time zones.

However your team is set up, research repositories are incredibly valuable. Sharing your report in a centralized location, regardless of the other ways you distribute findings, can democratize research , showcase the impact of your work, and disseminate valuable insights throughout your entire organization.

Keep in mind that knowledge bases can be tough to navigate if poorly organized or tagged. If you’re storing your UX research report in a knowledge base, ensure you provide clear instructions on how someone can find it, and how to navigate through the report itself.

If you have the time, run a card sorting test with an internal focus group to see how you can logically sort your research for those who are going to be looking for it.

4. Presentations / slide decks: great for the PAS framework

Live presentations tend to be the most impactful, but do risk being short-lived if you don’t have a follow-up plan for after your presentation.

While they’re great for sharing metrics and visuals, and can provide a beautiful overview of your research project, presentations can be a little one-sided. This one-way presentation style can prevent collaboration and innovation from the rest of the team. Consider how you can make your presentation interactive or engaging, whether it’s taking questions throughout or doing a ‘choose your own adventure’ session and asking people which sections they want to review first.

Kevin Rapley , Senior User Researcher at Justice Digital, recommends presenting slides using the PAS framework:

• Problem: State the problem you set out to overcome
• Agitate: Detail the impact or opportunity missed by not meeting the problem
• Solution: Offer a route forward from the research findings and insights, the next steps, and likely outcomes by solving the problem

Kevin explains that the PAS framework cuts to the detail people are invested in: “Stakeholders want to know the path forward: Are we on the right track to build this service? Have we uncovered user engagement or uptake issues? Have we learned that our assumptions are incorrect and we now have a better understanding of user needs? Presenting slides in this way delivers what’s needed.”

5. Written reports: for direct and simple sharing

If it’s not broken, don’t fix it. A written report is probably the idea that jumped to the front of your mind when you read the title of this chapter. For many, this may seem like the ‘OG’ of UX reports.

These types of reports often come as a PDF or a word document, making them static, reluctant to change, and resulting in low engagement or re-reads. Delivering a written report via email also means you can’t guarantee your audience is going to read it. On the other hand, written reports can be incredibly detailed, scanable for different stakeholders, and include all kinds of results from visual data to qualitative findings.

For many teams this method still works, especially if you’re trying to communicate findings to a distributed, asynchronous team. Written UX reports enable people to go through things in their own time—and come back to it when they need to.

6. Atomic research nuggets: to eliminate ‘bad research memory’

Deriving from an atom—the smallest unit of matter—atomic UX research nuggets are minute and succinct conclusions from data points. They’re always aligned and tagged with a product direction. Formalized by Tomer Sharon and Daniel Pidcock , it’s described as “the concept of breaking UX research down into its constituent parts”:

Experiments: “We did this…” Facts: “…and we found out this…” Insights: “…which makes us think this…” Conclusions: “…so we’ll do that.”

Atomic research nuggets help to fight ‘bad research memory’—the idea that knowledge gets lost or forgotten amid the depths of a larger report. These nuggets are accessible, usable, and searchable. They can be delivered (or accessed) throughout an entire product build, serving as North Stars for micro goals. Research nuggets can be a firm reminder your team is, or isn’t, taking the right action.

7. Pre-recorded video: for better knowledge retention

People retain 90% of the information they receive via video versus text. There’s no question that, for many, video is a better way of onboarding and remembering information. At the same time, it can be easier to share information via video if your UX researchers aren’t the most confident of writers.

Although pre-recorded video is an easy way to share a UX research report with a team, as with other formats on this list, you’ll need to ensure people actually watch it.

Loom can be a great screen-sharing video recording tool. Some of their features and paid plans will enable you to see who from your team has watched your video, as well as spark conversation and engagement opportunities throughout the video. Alternatively, you can share the video as a watch-along during a synchronous meeting and discuss afterwards, while still sharing the video with those who can’t attend live.

8. Case studies: for sticky storytelling

Case studies aren’t just for winning potential customers. At their very core, case studies are put together to convince someone of something due to a real-life story. This is why they can be great if your UX research report needs to convince a diverse or largely cautious selection of stakeholders.

What’s more, case studies tend to rely on storytelling tactics and a strong narrative to get their point across. They can pull from user personas to further a point and make it more relatable for your design team. Muhammad Ahmad , UX Designer at VentureDive, shares the value presenting reports as case studies holds:

“Case studies show how you think. As a UX Researcher or Designer, how you percieve problems and what framework you use to evaluate them matters a lot. Your case studies are supposed to show just that.”

9. Maze reports: for all-in-one research and reporting

Automate your reporting with Maze. Maze automatically generates a report for each test you run, turning it into an easy-to-navigate dashboard. Add comments to generate conversation, highlight key responses and generate usability scores for your prototype testing .

If you’re working with moderated research, Maze AI can speed up the reporting process with automated sentiment tagging, project naming, and even generating summaries and identifying critical learnings from user interviews . So you can sit back, and let Maze take care of the data processing.

When you’re happy with your report, generate a custom link that you can share with your team, and further internal and external stakeholders.

Using Maze reports will enable you to share:

• Introduction and mission slides
• An analysis of each UX research method: From card sorting to live website testing
• In-depth breakdowns of research data
• Overviews of the report metrics: From misclicks to bounce rates and time-on-screen
• A usability score

These reports will also allow you to download CSV files of your data, and customzie filters and views to bring your stakeholders the numbers they need, fast. Your team will be able to collaborate in a comments section and let AI identify key themes and takeaways if you’re struggling to spot them.

Overall, UX research tools with in-built reporting are a great way to translate and share all of your research into visual data sets that can be digested by the rest of the team in a few clicks.

7 UX research report templates

There are some fantastic research report templates to help get you started on your journey. Here are some of our favorites to help you better present those deliverables, key learnings, and everything in between.

Maze: Usability testing report

Hosted on Pitch, this report template is clear, simple, and follows a lot of the design and framework best practices shared in this chapter.

Access the template here

Aadil Khan: UXR report with examples

A straightforward report template is designed by Aadil Khan , UX Researcher at IBM, who says: “I made this template based on tons of mentoring calls I’ve been in with people looking to land UXR jobs where we discuss how to present UXR case studies during interviews and such. Oftentimes their case studies were too lengthy and lacked some sort of narrative structure to make it easier to present.”

EaTemp: Key findings report

A beautifully-designed template hosted on Figma. Get access to personas, empathy maps, and card sorting. All colors, fonts, and shapes are customizable.

Miro: Research repository template

Build a centralized research hub on Miro. Connect your team in a few clicks and allow them to collaborate with this free template. Note: you’ll need to sign up for a (free) Miro account.

Furquan Ahmad: UX research report template

A sleek and vibrant presentation, this template was created by Furquan Ahmad , Product Designer at Meta, “to help people focus their energy and time on the insights they're providing rather than worry about what the presentation will look like. I'm always shocked at how many people have benefited from the community.”

Estefanía Montaña Buitrago: Atomic UX research canvas

Beautifully designed on FigJam, this canvas by Estefanía Montaña Buitrago , UX Designer at Globant, has been used by over 7,000 people and now comes with several useful remixes too.

Muhammad Ahmad: UX research kit

Muhammad Ahmad , UX Designer at VentureDive, shared this minimalistic template. Here you’ll get 60+ customizable templates in both light and dark modes. There’s a free version, or a (paid) premium version which may be worth the investment for you.

Best practices for writing an effective UX research report

The functionality of your research report will come down to how you write it. Sitting down and being faced with copious amounts of data can make UX reporting feel like a daunting task—here’s some techniques and tips to help you along the way.

Take a leaf from your UX design book with user-friendly copy

No matter the format, you want your UX report to be as accessible and skim-able as possible for your audience. It’s a good idea to mimic some of the same mentalities you would use in UX design.

Gestalt grouping principles are good to consider for UX report writing. Think similarity , proximity , and common-region for grouping relevant information.

Similarly, UI design principles such as the figure-ground and focal point will help direct your readers’ eyes to the most important information first, as well as make for a more accessible read.

Lastly, Gestalt’s continuity principle is a great one to apply to your UX report. Readers naturally follow patterns for easier flows in information, so if you’re including stylistic elements like bolding, italics, asides, indenting, or something else, ensure these run consistently throughout your report.

At the same time, think about the structure, layout, and formatting of your written report. Are you leaving enough negative space for your reader to process information? These are especially important for readers with dyslexia, but will generally lift your readability on the whole:

• Is all of your copy aligned left?
• Is your font choice clear with a good amount of spacing between letters and words?
• Are you bolding important words and sentences rather than underlining them?
• Are you peppering your report with enough headings and subheadings?

Release oxytocin: Follow storytelling tactics

A Forbes article reported that “immersive storytelling releases the empathy-related chemical oxytocin in our brains.” If you’re not familiar with oxytocin, it’s known as a natural ‘feel-good’ chemical, promoting feelings of trust and attachment.

Why else do you think case studies are so effective? They rely on storytelling: they have characters, plots, beginnings, endings, peaks, and pits. User research reports that mimic storytelling threads and tactics are more likely to create sticky data points, as well as hold your readers’ attention throughout. This is why the PAS framework works so well, but whatever format your report takes, bear in mind a story-like structure with a beginning, middle, and end.

Ask your editor to edit your research presentation with the three Cs in mind

Clear , Concise , Compelling . These core principles exist everywhere the written word does, but it can be hard to spot them when editing your own work. Just because something is clear, concise, and compelling for you, doesn’t mean it is for someone else—ask a colleague to read your report (or, better yet—a content editor).

Failing that, if you don’t have access to an editor or are in a time crunch, here are some tools to help you edit your own work.

• Grammarly: Good for catching those little typos and grammatical errors
• Hemingway Editor: Gives a readability score and helps to simplify sentences

Consider your reader, and rethink the jargon

Tailoring your report to meet the needs and knowledge level of each stakeholder is a balancing act. Many will tell you to avoid jargon, acronyms, and technical language at all costs. But, that’s not always the case. Sometimes, using industry jargon is the most direct way of getting your point across, and if you know your reader understands it, go for it.

However, keep in mind that if your report is going to other teams: sales, C-suite, finance, etc, then you may need to find alternative terms that aren’t department-specific—or provide a glossary or acronym dictionary within the report.

Muhammad shares more: “Typically UX folks (or even product folks) are not that well-equipped with research terminologies. So giving them the summary of the research in plain language is the approach that works best for me.”

Wrapping up how to present user research findings

There you have it, a complete guide on how you can write and present your user experience research in a way that everyone can benefit from it.

Remember, be conscious of your audience, your format, and your language. Different stakeholders and team cultures require different reporting styles, it’s up to you to curate the information into a report that delivers the insights you’ve uncovered.

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How to write a UX research report and present your findings

UserTesting

Writing a  UX research report can feel like studying for an exam. You know you need to do it. You know it's important for success. And yet, getting down to business can feel overwhelming.

After all, you've spent days—maybe weeks—conducting your research, and now you have to somehow condense all that work into under 20 slides? Not only that: you need every piece of information you include to be compelling and valuable—especially if you're presenting to hard-to-please executives.

The good news is that creating an exceptional research report is very doable. You just need the formula for success. 

Let's look at some proven steps that will help you put together a report guaranteed to wow your stakeholders.

What is a UX research report?

A UX research report is the final stage of any UX research project. It's the culmination of all the hours your team has spent planning, researching and analyzing data—summarized into one succinct presentation.

Regardless of whether you're presenting to the wider UX team , web developers, or executives, the primary aim is always the same: communicate valuable insights and provide actionable recommendations to enhance the user experience.  

Beyond that, reports are also a fantastic opportunity to demonstrate the strategic value of UX to leadership. By tying your recommendations to broader business objectives, you can build UX advocates at the highest level of your organization and secure more budget as a result. 

Essential elements of UX research reports

So, what differentiates excellent UX reports from average ones? In our experience, it comes down to structure. Quality research reports include the following six components. 

Introduction

A punchy introduction will grab your audience's attention and keep them engaged throughout your presentation. Keep your intro short and sweet. Briefly explain the parameters of your research, why it matters, and how your findings could help drive the company forward. 

Research scope 

Now that you've captivated your audience, provide a little more detail to establish trust in the research process. Describe the scope of your study, noting things like:

• The research objectives 
• Your research questions and methodology 
• An overview of your participants 

Like the intro, you'll want to keep this part succinct. While it can be tempting to throw in masses of detail, focus on what your stakeholders need to know.

Strategic value

This section is all about honing in on your why. Focus on helping your stakeholders understand why your research matters. For executives, explain how your research supports strategic business goals. For the wider UX team, hone in on how your insights can improve the user interface design.

Key findings

And now for the main course: sharing the most critical learnings from your study . This section will be the most prominent part of your report, spanning a few pages or slides—but not too many. 

To maintain engagement, you’ll want to be clear and concise. Provide enough information to explain your findings but be careful not to overload your audience with masses of data. 

Recommendations

Conclude your report with actionable next steps. Suggest where improvements could be made to your product or service, focusing on the business benefits of your proposed implementations. As a bonus, why not put forward another study you can undertake that leads on from your project?

How to write a great UX research report

Now you know what to include in a great UX research report, it's time to think about how you'll present everything. Here's what to keep in mind. 

Empathize with your audience

As a UX researcher, you've already cultivated high levels of empathy for end users, and now it's time to channel that into your report writing. Be mindful of the different audiences you will present to, and tailor your presentation to each one. 

Think about factors like language, terminology, and length. Consider what each stakeholder group wants and needs to know, and craft your report to meet these expectations. You can lean on the interviews you conducted at the beginning of your project to inform your approach. 

For executives especially, remember to communicate the value of your research in terms of ROI . Tailor your suggestions to focus on tangible results like customer lifetime value, lowered acquisition costs, and increased website traffic. 

Not to toot our own horn, but our  QX Score  is an effortless way to translate UX results into a language your business leaders care about.

Turn your findings into a story 

UX researchers are passionate about data and insights, but our stakeholders don't always share the same enthusiasm. To captivate your audience, you'll need to master the art of data-driven storytelling.

Start by grouping your findings into research trends and write a headline insight for each. From there, add summaries, artifacts, and supporting evidence explaining each insight in a little more detail. 

Think carefully about how you'll organize each headline within the presentation. Your aim is to take your audience on a journey. Ideally, each headline will flow nicely into the next, naturally building toward your recommendations for improvement. 

If you're worried about fitting all your information in, or some of your findings don't sit within the key themes you've identified, consider creating an appendix with more granular insights. That way, if a stakeholder wants to learn more, it's easy for them.

Embrace visualization 

While the word "report" might conjure up images of lengthy academic papers, UX research reports certainly don't have to be text heavy. In fact, we caution against it.

For maximum engagement, be playful and creative with your design choices . Consider using mediums like video, cartoon storyboards and charts to convey your findings in digestible, eye-catching ways. 

Dot the I's and cross the T's 

Spelling errors, inconsistent fonts, and other little mistakes can distract your audience from listening to your amazing insights and even undermine your hard work. 

It's easy to avoid these issues by carefully proofreading your report. At the same time, double check your presentation has a consistent, sleek design with matching colors, fonts, and visuals. All these things will help keep your stakeholders attention and boost your credibility. 

Use multiple mediums

Depending on your stakeholders' preferences, you may be asked to present your report in-person or send it via email. Written reports will naturally be slightly more detailed than in-person presentations. If you're asked to share one, take the time to read through the document carefully and make sure it makes sense as a standalone item. 

For meetings and presentations, consider how you can add value to each slide. Resist the urge to simply read from your laptop. Look at how your words can complement what's on the screen, offering your audience deeper insights and context. 

Spread the word 

Presenting your UX research findings doesn't start and end in the boardroom. You want to get as many people as possible excited by your research. After all, everyone in your organization can benefit from building empathy with users , and your UX research is a surefire way to achieve that. 

As a best practice, we recommend sharing the highlights of your study on your company's internal communications channel—be it Slack or Teams. You don't need to write more than a paragraph to do this. Focus on the key findings and their business applications. 

Best practices for presenting UX research findings

At this point, you've created a quality UX research report and are ready to head into your presentation. Presentation nerves are normal. But there are few things you can keep in mind to lessen them.

Practice makes perfect 

Before your meeting, practice your presentation with a colleague who isn’t part of the research team. Not only will this build your confidence, but they may be able to shine a light on points that you've overlooked. 

For example, you may have used some UX terminology in the presentation that they aren't familiar with, or find that one of your sections goes on a little longer than anticipated. 

Any feedback is super helpful for improving your report, so don’t be afraid to ask your colleagues for their honest thoughts! 

Enhance your soft skills 

Confidence is a huge part of effective presenting, helping you come across as credible, knowledgeable, and trustworthy. 

It's easy to improve your soft skills with a few simple tricks: project your voice to the back of the room, avoid using 'uh's' and 'um's', and make eye contact with your audience. 

Be concise 

As the saying goes, time is money! You'll rarely, if ever, have more than half an hour to present your findings to stakeholders, so you'll want to be as concise as possible. Less is always more. 

Too much raw data and excess insights can overwhelm executives, so narrow down on what's relevant to your audience.

Time to shine: Presenting insight

Armed with this information, you're ready to roll into your meeting and knock your stakeholders' socks off. Hopefully, you’ll leave the room with the go-ahead for your design team to spring into action, along with some additional budget for new research projects.

Relax. Trust yourself and the work you've put in to get to this point. You've got this. 

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The User Research and Insights Tool for Design and Product Teams

How to Present UX Research and Turn Insight to Action

Most companies know the importance of UX research in building sustainable and user-friendly products that meet the needs of their audience.  

However, conducting the research is one-half of the equation. Presenting UX research in a way that compels stakeholders to take action is the second half.

Without adequate reporting, research is just a pile of data. Reporting, by way of presentation, makes your data actionable. By adopting effective UX presentation techniques such as storytelling, visualization, and slides, you ensure that your research influences the development process instead of ending up in storage without being used.

In this article, we’ll discuss:

• What is a UX research presentation
• Why UX presentations are important 
• The challenges of presenting UX research
• 9 Tips to Improve Your Research Presentations

What Is UX Research Presentation? 

A UX research presentation is sharing insights from your user research findings with stakeholders. You make recommendations for product improvement and capture decisions from research methodologies and testing phases. 

UX research presentations require you to condense your research notes , insights, and recommendations into 8-10 captivating slides that justify the research and compel stakeholders to take action. Sharing your research findings can help the design and product teams to:

• Make design decision
• Refine existing user needs
• Prioritize their workflow
• Develop a product roadmap based on your recommendations
• Write new user stories
• Improve usability of your product

Why Is UX Presentation Important?

Make Sense of Your Research Findings

Research presentations are an opportunity to share your findings in an easy way for stakeholders to understand. A good presentation fulfills the following:

• Describes the goal of the research and gives context about what happened during the UX research process . For example, you may have made some assumptions about your target audience, encountered bias, or failed to include a user group during the planning phase
• Explain the why behind each research outcome that rationalizes why research participants liked or didn’t like a feature of your product
• Inform decision making for the product team to help them prioritize resources during development

Quickly Relay Findings

Sharing research findings ensures that nothing slips through the cracks and decisions are relayed quickly with the team. In this scenario, a presentation is not a 60-page document. Instead, it’s a UX research nugget made up of high-priority action items that require immediate attention.

Capture Insights and Make Informed Recommendations 

The most essential element of a good UX presentation is sharing the right insights and making recommendations that lead to a successful product launch. Research repository tools like Aurelius allow you to analyze large batches of raw research data faster. This way, it’s easy to draw insight and make recommendations that lead to product success.

Document Your Process for Future Use

You can document processes that didn’t work as insights and explain the why behind methods that worked. It ensures that you don’t repeat the mistake in the future. In addition, your team can use your presentation as a reference to make smarter design decisions and as a background for product update research.

Improve Your UX Research Process

You can’t move forward if you don’t learn from the past. A UX research presentation is an opportunity for the product team and stakeholders to reflect on the decisions made during the product development. It’s hindsight that ensures designers will avoid patterns that underperform or overperform in testing. 

What Are the Challenges of Presenting UX Research?

Lack of trust in qualitative data .

This mostly happens with stakeholders who have a background in data science. They do not trust results from qualitative research because they say that findings are not statistically significant and do not hold any value. For example, you’ve interviewed 20 people as part of your research, but your audience is squirming because they think that’s a small sample size.

One way to get past this constraint is to be upfront about limitations in your UX research. Skeptics are more likely to trust you when you admit to the shortcomings of qualitative research.

Another way is to explain that qualitative research may not be statistically significant, but it is often statistically representative of your larger audience.

Keeping Bias Out of the Results

It’s not enough to be aware of your bias as a researcher. It’s also important not to fuel bias among your audience. 

Be careful how you draw insights from research. Share the research findings, tell the audience what the study doesn’t show, and advise how to use the results to make changes. 

Remind your audience that the objective of UX research is to collect information, not create absolute truth. So, you form a hypothesis and try to prove it, but it’s not perfect as some may wrongly assume.

Properly Conveying the Participant’s Perspective to Stakeholders 

Empathy is a huge part of conducting research. It’s understanding the frustrations and emotions of research participants and conveying these unique viewpoints in a way that your audience understands. 

Using visuals such as video or audio recordings during your presentation is a great way to communicate emotion in a genuine and unfiltered way. 

Inspiring Action

Perhaps the biggest challenge for UX researchers is turning research insight into action. You’ve collected feedback through multiple UX research methods , made recommendations, and given an excellent presentation. But it’s all meaningless if stakeholders don’t take action.

Apart from the reasons we’ve mentioned above, such as distrust in research data and lack of understanding, scientists found that personal trust between audience and researcher plays a role in convincing stakeholders to take action. 

Trust-building is a crucial skill for every researcher. It’s easier to drive action when you have a relationship with stakeholders. 

How to Create Better UX Research Presentations

1. know your audience.

You’re better able to capture and retain audience attention when you speak directly to their interests. One of the biggest mistakes first-time researchers make when presenting research is not reading the room and just going through your slides. It’s impossible to make an emotional connection with an audience you don’t know.

When you know your audience, you can tell a story that immediately connects you to your audience and sets the tone for the rest of your presentation. You can also tailor your deliverables and recommendations to the interest and needs of your audience. 

For example, if you’re speaking to C-level executives, you’ll discuss how the research findings could increase conversion rate, revenue, and customer retention. For the product team , you’d focus on how research could improve user experience and remove obstacles that customers previously faced. 

2. Opt for Quick Findings Over Detailed Reports 

One of the debates for teams when presenting UX research is choosing whether to share a full report or quick findings.

A detailed report is long-form. It gives you the freedom and space to describe your findings in detail and make comprehensive recommendations. It usually ends up being 30-40 pages long.

In reality, a CEO or C-suite executive on the move won’t have time to sit through a 30-slide presentation. Instead, they want something quick, efficient, and concise. You can achieve this goal through UX research nuggets .

Making your research presentation efficient forces you to eliminate fluff and stick to the most essential information to help stakeholders take action.

Include the original goal of the research and 4-6 key insights. Then, attach recommendations and next steps to key i nsights.

3. Embrace Storytelling

Stories are the fastest way to connect with a cold audience. According to researcher Paul Zak , stories cause the brain to produce oxytocin, a feel-good chemical related to empathy and a desire to cooperate. 

In another research, Princeton University Neuroscientist Uri Hasson researched the effect of storytelling on the brain . He found that listeners’ brain activity synced on a deep level with the storyteller’s brain activity when telling a story. Intentional stories that have a tie-in with the research topic move the audience to take action.

A few tips to guide you when using storytelling during presentations include:

• Tell a story your audience can relate to
• Use details to transport the reader to the scene so they can experience it
• Make it personal
• Ensure the story relates to the research topic

4. Use an Inverted Pyramid

With the inverted pyramid, your most important information sits at the top. The first section of your presentation contains:

• What is the problem I want to solve?
• Who am I speaking to? (teammates, manager, decision-makers, engineers)
• Why am I speaking? (What is the desired action you want the audience to take)

Use a high-level overview slide to cover the first section. Your audience is more likely to sit through your entire presentation if they understand the value at a glance.

The second section is the body covering the argument, controversy, evidence, and supporting visuals. The final part is the tail that summarizes the presentation and includes any additional information.

5. Simplify Data with Visualization 

Vision is our primary sense for understanding the world around us. The human brain processes and retains visuals faster than text. Your presentation should have more visuals than text. Always remember the golden rule – show, not tell.

Large blocks of text are boring. Visual aids such as infographics, videos, screenshots, gifs, and charts break up text and engage your audience. Where text can quickly become complicated, visuals clarify information and make information easier to digest and remember.

A few visualization tips to remember:

• Use consistent fonts, colors, and icons when designing your presentation
• Use graphs and charts to present data
• Do not add multiple graphics in one slide. One message per visual
• Use the right graph type to communicate clearly
• Edit ruthlessly
• Use muted colors

6. Keep it Short

The human mind can only store 3-4 things at once. So, focus your research outcomes on three to four key insights and recommendations you want your audience to take away.

Keep your presentation within 20 minutes. I know it’s hard, but you shouldn’t share everything you learned in the study during the presentation, or you’ll overwhelm your audience. 

Share high-level information during the presentation and send the research report as a PDF or email so everyone can look further into the research. In addition, you can use Aurelius to share a live link of an automatically generated report with your audience.

7. Use Slides During Presentations

Split your slides presentation into three sections:

• What we did – discuss your research process
• The finding slides – Key Insight slides
• What to do next – Recommendation slides

Each slide should have a heading that summarizes an important finding and explains the impact with visuals. Use quotes taken from research participants to support key insight.

When using video clips, you don’t have to share the entire recording. Instead, trim it down to the key scenes or combine several sequences about the same key insight into a 30 seconds reel.

Ensure you’re using images taken during the research process (ethnography, observation, usability testing sessions) to show participants in action with the product. Again, it’s more likely to elicit an emotional response than using generic images.

Focus each key insight slide on the user. It should distill their personality, behavior, needs, use of your product, and what happened during user testing. Then, prioritize the most critical information into five slides.

8. Give Recommendations and Next Steps

Your UX research presentation should include recommendations based on key research insight. For every problem, have a recommendation. Then, tell your audience how the research should be incorporated in design or product updates .

Also, don’t forget to demonstrate the value of your research. Show your audience how the recommendations will support your company’s goals and impact the product roadmap.

9. Ask Listeners to Save Questions Until After the Presentation 

You can either allow your audience to ask questions during or after the presentation. Asking questions during the presentation will enable you to clear any confusion on the spot and carry everyone along. 

However, it’s distracting each time you’re interrupted during the presentation. You’ll also risk losing the audience if the question isn’t relevant to the specific section you’re talking about.

The second approach is better. You ask your audience to save questions until the end of the presentation. This method ensures that you maintain a great flow throughout the presentation and answer all questions at once.

10. Share Your Research

Your UX presentation only contains high-level recommendations you want your audience to implement. However, you still have great insight that provides context, and you couldn’t share those during the presentation due to time constraints. 

You can create a more enriched report in Aurelius and share it with key stakeholders after the presentation to make it stick.

However, sending emails, PDFs, or a link isn’t enough. People are busy. Emails get buried, and attention span is low. 

If you want your research to be implemented, send follow-up emails and reach out personally to the executives. Share the report in your company’s internal knowledge base with a relevant title and tags, so it’s easy to find. 

If you have a departmental or company Slack, share it there, so they see the presentation in multiple places. In addition, you can integrate Slack and Jira with Aurelius to share your findings with other teams.

Focus on Showing Value That Stakeholders Want to See

Congratulations! You’ve created a value-driven UX research presentation. But it’s not ready yet. Read through your slides again. Does your presentation reflect the goals you promised stakeholders when you set out on the research journey? Have you demonstrated value in a way that even non-UX audience members would understand?  

These are questions to answer as you wrap up your UX presentation slides. Be ruthless when trimming the fat from your presentation. Just because your discovery is exciting to you doesn’t necessarily mean it’s valuable to stakeholders. 

Find out how Aurelius can improve UX research presentations

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A Guide for Presenting UX Research Findings to Clients

Estimated Reading Time:

For some UX/UI designers , presenting UX research findings is the most challenging part of the job. You’ve gathered all your information and spent countless hours conducting tests and interviews…how do you turn all that data into an action plan that gets your clients on board?

Several things could get in the way of a good presentation. Too many glaring problems with the digital product , harsh user feedback hurting some feelings, unclear next steps, lack of confidence in public speaking, or a meteor could crash into your house and land directly on your computer (weirder things have happened).

But to start the design on the right foot, you need a slam-dunk presentation to get the ball rolling. How do you lay out the facts, engage your client, gain their trust, and compel them to act? Unfortunately, we’re not psychic apes (as cool as that sounds). We don’t have a crystal ball to look into your future and tell you exactly how the presentation will go. 

What we do have is TONS of experience with UX evaluations and presenting our findings to clients. Whenever there’s been a curveball, we’ve found a way to meet it head-on and knock it out of the park.

In this article, we’ll outline a few potential challenges you may encounter when presenting UX research findings. Rest assured, for every challenge, there is a CreateApe solution!

What We'll Cover

• Keeping stakeholders engaged
• Combatting bias
• Aligning with the user and stakeholder goals
• Keeping presentations short and sweet
• Turning insights into actions
• Using visuals effectively ‍

Why Presentations Are an Essential Part Of Your Project

Communication is paramount for any collaborative project between a vendor and a stakeholder.

No client is ever going to hand you a project and say “Go nuts!” Their company is vital to them and they are investing too much time and money into a product that puts them on the map. To us, gaining our clients' trust means they need visibility every step of the way.

UX presentations are our way of pulling back the curtain, giving the client a glimpse of the unknown. A UX evaluation shows specific problems that need to be fixed to keep their business on the right track, and the presentation gets everyone on the same page.

But it’s not just for the clients! Think of a UX presentation as an outline for a big speech. It helps you make sense of your findings and lay them out in a way that really tells a story. The facts and user feedback are compelling on their own, but it’s up to you to turn them into something tangible.

It also gives you time to plan your next steps before starting the design. You can lay out your priorities in order of importance, pick the low-hanging fruit, and improve your own processes for the next presentation.

How To Present UX Research Findings To Clients

Now that we’ve convinced you of how AWESOME UX research presentations are, you probably think you’re going to go in there, crush the meeting, and not run into any trouble.

You totally could! But, things can always go wrong. We’ve all had a flat tire on our way to work or spilled coffee on our favorite pair of pants — things happen, it’s a fact of life.

Presentations never go 100% flawlessly without questions or pushback. Here are just a few ways you can streamline your presentation, engage your audience, and prepare for roadblocks.

Challenge: Keeping Your Audience Engaged

Meeting with creative teams is exciting for clients, but going over numbers and data usually isn’t. How often have your eyes glazed over while listening to speakers go over metrics and charts?

While numbers aren’t typically engaging on their own, the data you gather during a UX evaluation are the eye-openers clients need to improve their products. You can’t do a UX research presentation without hard-hitting data.

Solution: Know Your Audience

As the kids say: “Read the room.”

You’re not connecting with your audience when you’re just clicking through slides and reading off numbers. Your presentation needs to appeal to their interests, whether it’s increasing their conversions or improving their branding to reach a new demographic.

Presenting UX research findings to clients gives you an opportunity to flex your storytelling skills. Understanding your client’s desires is as critical as understanding the user’s goals.

“Your target users were visiting your website, ready and rearing to request a demo of your SaaS system. But they don’t have time to scroll through your whole website to find the form they need. Your users became frustrated when they couldn’t find it right away — and as a result, 95% of them abandoned ship.” How much more interesting does that sound than “95% of the users leave the website before starting the conversion process”? Demonstrate the problem by emphasizing the user’s journey.

Challenge: Combatting Bias

We’ve all seen an article online that didn’t agree with our point of view and gave it a quick scoff or eye-roll before scrolling by. Don’t lie, bias is just a part of our human nature.

Sometimes clients can be a little stuck in their ways without knowing how much it’s hindering their product. But as tech evolves, so do best practices. What worked best in 2002 definitely isn’t going to work in 2022.

Solution: Present Qualitative and Quantitative Data

It’s up to us UX professionals to show clients the way, and the numbers don’t lie. Both qualitative and quantitative data show the value of your work while breaking down the processes that lead you to your conclusion. 

Quantitative data is the “what”, while Qualitative data is the “why.” The client needs to understand the weight of both before they confront their own bias.

After all, we’re the experts. This data lends us authority and gives us the know-how to create a successful product. If the client can visualize what’s not working and why it’s driving away their users, they’ll be more inclined to make the changes the product desperately needs.

Challenge: Meeting In the Middle Of the User And Client Goals

For many clients, their profit is their bottom line. If they’re investing in UX design, then they already understand that satisfying the user’s needs is the way to continue growing and making money.

Unfortunately, the user and business goals don’t always intersect perfectly. The user could be looking for a feature that is out of the business’ capabilities or a cheaper solution that would not benefit the client. How do you find compromises that appease both stakeholders?

Solution: Lead With Empathy

Empathy is the name of the game in UX design , for both users AND clients. All our stakeholders need to know we have their best interests at heart for us to gain their trust.

It’s also super helpful in battling the confirmation bias we mentioned earlier. The client needs to understand that when we present findings that don’t mesh with their methods, it’s all in the name of helping their bottom line.

When we empathize with both the client’s and the user’s goals, it’s much easier to think critically and present solutions that serve both stakeholders.

Challenge: Keeping Presentations Short And Sweet

UX presentations are only a short part of our client’s day. We gather plenty of data during UX evaluations (sometimes enough for an hours-long presentation), but we only get a limited amount of time to go over our findings and address questions and concerns before kickoff.

As much as we’d like to spend our whole day doing a collaborative working session with our clients, they’re just too busy. How do we show them that their product is in capable hands without presenting every single piece of data we collected?

Solution: Focus On Three To Four Key Findings

Target data points that capture the big picture. No matter how much information you collect, chances are that presenting UX research findings can be summed up in a few main points. The rest of your findings will likely fall under the same umbrella as the main ones.

It’s all about how you structure your presentation. You can’t just rattle off all your data points and expect your audience to be invested all the way. Keep it tight by focusing on the three or four most compelling points, and lump supplemental findings under those talking points.

User feedback also helps you illustrate the problem by letting the client see things from their user’s perspective. You can present tons of data about why something isn’t working, but nothing hits home quite like the user telling them “This navigation makes absolutely no sense.”

Challenge: Turning Insight Into Action

Gathering all the data and putting the presentation together is the hard part…now comes the next steps. You know what’s working and what’s not, how do you actually tackle the problem?

The client needs to know exactly what the next steps are to be fully on board. Give them the confidence they need with creative solutions and a solid plan of attack.

Solution: List Your Recommendations

At CreateApe, everything we do is backed up by research and findings from past projects. It gives us the validation we need to know we’re making the right changes.

Your clients are trusting that you’re the expert when it comes to user experience. Come armed with a plan that shows you’re invested in the project and prepared to make it a raging success.

Address the easy fixes first to get the ball rolling. Things that can be remedied quickly to improve the existing experience without having to wait for the final project. Then, lay out your long-term plans (new onboarding flows, features, total website face-lift, etc).

Challenge: Show, Don’t Tell

Even the most engaging and exciting speakers still need visual aids. Think of the last TedTalk you watched…was the speaker just standing there waving their arms around or did they have slideshows or props to help bring their words to life.

Sometimes visuals say so much more than words ever could. Not only do they illustrate the problem you want to solve, but they also provide more value to your presentation by giving your audience something to chew on in between numbers and written content.

Solution: Using Visuals Effectively

“75% of your users didn’t scroll past the top section of the page” is an eye-opening statistic on its own, but how much more effective does this look?:

Here, the client can see the activity on the page and where users are trailing off. This is the wake-up call they need to restructure the content of the page and lead with the user’s main goal. Bing, bang, boom…problem solved.

You can also get creative while presenting UX research findings. Think about including some before and after shots to show off your design chops. Give them a little taste of what’s to come. Abstract data visualization is also super hot right now, so incorporating some out-of-the-box charts and interaction design couldn’t hurt either.

Knock Your Presentation Out Of the Park!

It's not enough to convince your client of the value of UX. They need to visualize the product's pain points and see a solid action plan before they confidently invest their time and money.

Knowing what to present is half the battle. When all of this important ground is covered, all that's left is letting your personality and UX-pertise shine. Pace yourself, lean on data, gain the client's trust, and kick your partnership off right!

Want to see what a UX/UI facelift can do for your site? Need some help convincing the higher-ups of the benefits of UX? Start a project with us today or swing into our jungle for a UX evaluation !

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It’s a jungle out there — let the Create Ape experts help you traverse the wilds as we take your project to new heights.

Presenting compelling research to engage stakeholders

In the fast-paced product development, UX research is a critical element in designing and improving products that truly meet the needs of your users. However, presenting UX research findings can be a daunting task. How do you communicate complex information in a way that is clear, concise, and engaging? How do you ensure that your stakeholders understand the findings and are motivated to take action?

The challenge often lies in the interaction between the research team and the stakeholders. While researchers immerse themselves in data and user feedback, stakeholders are occupied with broader organizational goals, budgets, and timelines. Bridging this gap requires a strategic approach to presenting UX research.

In the following sections of this article, we'll explore how to present UX research in a way that not only captures the attention of stakeholders but also encourages them to take decisive action.

Understand your audience

Before you start creating your presentation, take some time to think about your audience – the stakeholders. These stakeholders could include product managers, designers, developers, marketers, and executives. What are their goals, concerns, and expectations? What do they already know about UX research? Tailoring your presentation to address their specific needs is the first step to capturing their attention.

Define your key messages

Just like any research presentation, it's essential to define clear objectives for your UX research presentation. What are the most important things you want your audience to take away from your presentation? Clarity in your objectives is crucial for a focused and effective presentation.

Visualize your data

UX research often involves a variety of data, from user feedback to usability testing results. To make this data more accessible and engaging, use visual aids such as user journey maps, personas, and user flow diagrams to illustrate your points and bring your research findings to life .

Summarize key findings

While you may have a wealth of data, not all of it is equally important to your audience. Highlight the most significant findings and insights from your UX research. Focus on insights that directly impact the product's design , functionality , or user satisfaction .

Provide context

Explain the significance of your UX research within the broader context of the product or service. Help stakeholders understand how your findings relate to their goals and challenges. When they see the real-world impact of your research, they're more likely to be engaged and motivated to take action.

Use real-life examples

Incorporate real-life user scenarios or case studies that demonstrate the practical implications of your UX research. Share stories of users who encountered specific issues or benefited from design improvements. Real-life examples make the research more relatable and relatable experiences tend to resonate with stakeholders.

Engage your audience

Encourage participation and interaction during your presentation. Show user interviews or testing videos, and invite stakeholders to comment or ask questions. The more involved they are in the process, the more likely they are to support your recommendations.

Address concerns and questions

Anticipate questions and concerns that stakeholders may have and address them during your presentation. Be prepared to provide solutions or recommendations. Demonstrating that you've thought through potential issues shows that you're not just presenting problems but also offering solutions.

Stakeholders are often busy professionals. Keep your presentation concise and to the point. Avoid jargon and unnecessary technical details. Aim for clarity and simplicity. The more concise your presentation, the easier it is for stakeholders to grasp the essential insights and act upon them.

Use urgency

Create a sense of urgency to encourage your audience to take action. Explain why your recommendations are important and how they will benefit your organization.

Actionable recommendations

Clearly outline the actionable recommendations or changes that should be made based on your UX research. Make it explicit what steps stakeholders need to take to improve the product or service. People are more likely to act when they know precisely what is expected of them.

Emphasize benefits

Explain how implementing your recommendations will benefit the product or service and, by extension, the organization. Focus on the positive outcomes, such as increased user satisfaction, higher retention rates, or improved conversion rates. Stakeholders are more likely to support initiatives when they understand the potential advantages.

Your presentation isn't the end of the road. After presenting your UX research, follow up with stakeholders to answer any remaining questions and provide additional information if needed. Stay engaged in the process to ensure they take action.

In conclusion, presenting UX research effectively is not just about conveying information; it's about inspiring action and positive change in the product or service. By understanding your audience, defining clear objectives, and crafting a compelling narrative, you can capture the attention of stakeholders. Visualizing data, summarizing key findings, and using real-life examples make your research more accessible. Addressing concerns, being concise, and engaging your audience lead to a more receptive audience. Finally, by highlighting actionable recommendations, emphasizing benefits, and using persuasive communication, you can guide stakeholders toward taking the necessary action.

Remember, UX research is an invaluable tool for creating user-centered products. By presenting your findings in a way that compels stakeholders to take action, you are not only contributing to the success of your project but also to the satisfaction of the end-users who will benefit from those improvements.

If you have any thoughts on this article or have any questions on how to leverage Hubble for your next user research project, feel free to reach out at [email protected].

Frequently Asked Questions

The executive summary should provide a brief overview of the research goals, major findings, and high-level recommendations. It serves as a quick reference for stakeholders.

Yes, in user research, negative findings lead to more insights and actionable improvements. Negative findings are crucial for a comprehensive understanding. Present them transparently, and discuss potential implications and opportunities for improvement.

Use simple language, avoid jargon, and supplement data with visuals. Provide real-world examples and anecdotes to illustrate findings and implications in a relatable manner.

Encourage questions and discussions. Pose thought-provoking questions, incorporate interactive elements, and be prepared to provide additional context or examples based on audience inquiries.

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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!

What is user (UX) research

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.

What is a UX research presentation?

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:

• describe this research’s purpose and give context about the UX research process
• explain why the participants of a UX research liked or didn’t like some features of your digital product
• inform the decision makers and help you and your team prioritize tasks
• give a clear guideline for necessary resources

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.

Tips for an excellent UX research presentation

Recognize your audience.

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.

Combine qualitative and quantitative data

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.

Make some action!

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:

• Share your presentation with the audience for the future reference
• Disclose the questions and the answers posed in the research
• Add your recommendation for future steps, especially design-related
• Create a to-do list for the audience
• Suggest additional research if necessary

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.

Keep it short

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.

Admit possible failures

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 !

For additional learning resources, visit our Learn section and discover all the valuable products and freebies that will help you skyrocket your product design career.

Happy designing! 🥳

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