UX research is a process of learning about customers’ needs, behaviours, and motivations to understand their lived experience with brand services and is often more focused on digital platforms. It aims to improve the overall experience created by a brand by ensuring the organisation is not only solving a customer need but also in a way that is easy and delightful. 

There are two main areas of UX research: evaluative and generative.

Evaluative looks at existing ideas or products and gathers feedback on them. Usability testing is an example of this. It evaluates a concept, design or implementation.

Generative research looks forward and gathers data about what could be to help come up with new ideas. This is sometimes called discovery research or, as we like to call it, customer research.