UX Research Plan Template

What is a UX Research Plan?

A detailed UX research plan helps you keep your overarching research goals in mind as you work through the logistics of a research project.

A UX research plan is a concise reference point for your project’s timeline, goals, main players, and objectives. Research plans offer an overview on the initiative taking place and serve as a kick-off document for a project.

Over the course of a project they’re not always used extensively, except to remind stakeholders of a project’s purpose, or to explain certain logistical decisions (like why certain types of participants were recruited).

Why is a UX Research Plan Important?

UX research plans keep the entire team focused on an outcome and serve as an easy reference to keep “need-to-know” stakeholders in the loop. Their value lies in their capacity to keep your team on track, ensuring overarching goals are well-defined and agreed upon and subsequently met by the research. They prevent everyone from getting bogged down by the details or deteriorating away from established goals mid-project by mistake.

Most importantly, they allow researchers (or whoever is doing the research) to ensure the objectives of the research plan will be answered in the most effective and efficient way possible by the end of the project. We want to make sure we are actually answering the questions we set out to uncover, and UX research plans hold us accountable.

How to Create a UX Research Plan

Your UX research plan must contain concise and explicit descriptions on the what, how, who, where and when of your project. These must be crystal clear, immune to interpretation and actionable. Also, preferably condensed onto a one-sided sheet.

Use our free UX research plan template for your next project.