When it comes to understanding the nuances of user behavior, in-person research offers unparalleled depth, capturing insights that virtual methods often miss or can’t capture at all. These projects aren’t simply about observations—they involve meticulously crafted environments, advanced technical setups, and a deep understanding of both the product and the user.
Especially now, consumers expect seamless and personalized experiences across every touchpoint, platform, and device, requiring a robust and innovative product strategy. In-person research can be the perfect avenue for blue-sky exploration and high-impact research, and often offers concrete benefits that virtual methods can’t always replicate.
Getting in the lab allows for deeper insights through direct observation, richer data collection through nuanced conversations and hand movements, and a more authentic understanding of participants' behaviors and emotions. Most importantly, it allows clients to observe close by, brainstorm solutions as a team, and even make live changes to the product.
Based on what our clients want to achieve, we must get creative (and collaborative) to create environments that enable genuine interaction with products or scenarios while mitigating any logistical challenges.
These days, your morning coffee run involves a quick tap on your phone or smartwatch, or even pre-paying before you arrive, allowing you to pop in, grab your coffee, and skip the line. In 2024, in the US alone, consumer use of tap-to-pay options is estimated to be around $300B across Apple Pay, Samsung Pay, and Google Pay and will undoubtedly continue to rise.
When a client came to AnswerLab asking if there was any way to recreate purchasing situations with in-app payments, we jumped on the opportunity to transform a research lab into a live mock retail environment.
We conducted mobile “shop-along” using prototype payment applications across devices to discover consumers’ mental models and behaviors during various shopping scenarios. During this unique in-person study, stakeholders were located nearby, viewing a live stream of the research tasks in a room equipped with whiteboards so they could discuss and problem-solve in the moment.
From this in-person research program, we confirmed that while digital wallet payments are convenient, social pressures matter. The participants were ultimately concerned about perceptions of line cutting when using pre-pay options and whether their server would notice the tip when using mobile pre-payment.
>> Dive deeper: Digital wallet and mobile shopping roadmap case study
A long-time client came to us with an interesting new product idea. Before building a prototype, they wanted to conduct UX research to gain feedback on the concept, understand the potential user journey, and investigate different use cases. When we started discussing the research project, it became clear that in-person research would be the best option.
We conducted 20 1:1 in-depth interviews with participants in one of our labs that we set up to look like a home. We needed to recreate a living room, bedroom, and kitchen environment so that participants could imagine they were in their own homes and act how they usually would while acting out a series of storyboard scenarios.
Participants shared challenges with performing the requested activities during their daily routine and voiced how a solution like the concept would be valuable, especially if it were convenient and easy to integrate into their daily lives.
The client observed the sessions live for this research project, gaining firsthand knowledge of the concept interactions. We also provided recordings of the interviews in addition to our insights and recommendations. Two of our UX research team’s most significant recommendations were:
>> Learn how we reconfigured our office into an eight-room lab in this case study - From Dress Fit to Market Fit: Collecting Fit Data at Scale to Make Product Decisions.
Generative AI prototypes and concepts are often top-secret and highly confidential, meaning you may want to consider conducting research in person for added privacy and security measures.
Seeing how participants interacted with the prototype live before going to market was essential for a large multinational client. They wanted to see how users’ hands were moving, how various motions played out when interacting with the product, and what pain points arose during activities, all of which would be too difficult to capture remotely.
Our AnswerLab team designed a research lab with various task stations where participants could use the product while our UX researchers and the client observed. During the sessions, participants moved through not only physical stations where they performed tasks with the product, but also private rooms for in-person IDIs and stations to complete surveys to round out the findings and insights for the client.
Ultimately, the client team could observe all the study activities and tasks and review the survey data while their developer team made updates based on the live feedback, speeding up the time to get to market.
>> Learn more: Lessons learned from moderating UX research for Generative AI products
A client came to us to learn more about how users interacted and moved through the customer journey with their digital product. The client knew from the beginning that they wanted to conduct the research in person with their team observing - they preferred this style of research when making adjustments before launching any new product updates.
AnswerLab conducted in-person focus groups, asking the participants to engage with the product - browsing products, adding items to their online cart, and completing the purchase. Because of the in-person aspect, the client team could hear participant feedback, observe obstacles as they occurred, and gain insights on preferred layouts.
The client team was able to brainstorm new ideas and work as a team
to solve the pain points together.
Additionally, we recorded the focus groups and shared all of the participants’ screens on one screen so they could go back and watch the user journey or share it with stakeholders who were not in the observation room.
On the last day, our UX research team participated in the client’s findings meeting, allowing collaboration on recommendations and issues that needed to be addressed. This was not only a great UX research exercise, but also a positive team-building experience for the client.
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From designing interactive experiences to fostering open dialogue, in-person UX research underscores the importance of meaningful and actionable insights. Contact us to chat about your next in-person UX research project.