Building successful software products requires a deep understanding of user needs, behaviors, and pain points. User research provides the evidence base that transforms assumptions into informed design decisions. At Nexis Limited, we embed research throughout the product development lifecycle to ensure every feature solves a real problem for real users.
Qualitative Research: Understanding the Why
Qualitative methods reveal the motivations, mental models, and frustrations that drive user behavior. They answer the question of why users do what they do, providing context that quantitative data alone cannot offer.
User Interviews
Semi-structured interviews are our primary qualitative tool. We prepare an interview guide with open-ended questions organized around research themes, but allow flexibility to follow interesting threads. Effective interview questions avoid leading the participant. Instead of asking "Do you find this feature useful?", we ask "Walk me through how you accomplished this task last week." This elicits concrete stories grounded in real behavior rather than hypothetical opinions.
We typically conduct 5-8 interviews per user segment, which research shows is sufficient to identify 80% of usability issues within a given area. Sessions are recorded with consent, transcribed, and coded for recurring themes.
Usability Testing
Usability testing observes users attempting specific tasks with a product or prototype. We use task-based protocols where participants are given realistic scenarios and asked to think aloud as they work through them. Metrics like task completion rate, time on task, and error rate provide quantitative benchmarks, while the think-aloud commentary reveals qualitative insights about confusion points and mental model mismatches.
Remote unmoderated testing tools like Maze and UserTesting.com allow us to scale usability testing across larger participant pools and geographic regions, which is particularly valuable for products with diverse user bases.
Quantitative Research: Measuring the What
Quantitative methods measure user behavior at scale. They tell us what users are doing and how often, providing statistical evidence to support or challenge qualitative findings.
Analytics Instrumentation
We instrument applications with event tracking to capture meaningful user actions. Tools like Mixpanel, Amplitude, or PostHog allow us to define custom events tied to product goals. Rather than tracking every click, we focus on events that map to user journeys—sign-up completion, feature activation, task completion, and drop-off points in critical flows. Funnel analysis reveals where users abandon multi-step processes, while cohort analysis shows how behavior changes over time.
Survey Design
Surveys complement analytics by capturing subjective experiences at scale. We use standardized instruments like the System Usability Scale (SUS) for benchmark comparisons and custom surveys for product-specific questions. Surveys are distributed at contextually relevant moments—after onboarding, after completing a key task, or at regular intervals—to capture fresh impressions rather than faded memories.
Synthesizing Research into Action
Research without synthesis is just data. We use affinity mapping to cluster interview findings into themes, journey mapping to visualize the end-to-end user experience, and impact-effort matrices to prioritize design improvements. Every research study concludes with actionable recommendations tied to specific product areas, not vague observations.
Investing in user research reduces the risk of building features nobody wants. Contact us to learn how we integrate research into agile development cycles. See research-driven products in our portfolio.