UX research is how you find out what your customers actually need, how they behave, and why they make the choices they do. It’s usually focused on digital products, and the point of it is to make sure you’re solving a real problem, in a way people can actually use.

It splits into two halves, and most of this page is organised around them.

Discovery, or generative research. The work you do before you know what to build. You’re looking for unmet needs, real behaviour, and the context people are operating in. We call this customer research, and it covers in-depth interviews, diary studies, contextual visits and focus groups.

Evaluation, or evaluative research. The work you do once something exists, even if it only exists as a prototype. You’re looking for what breaks and why. Usability testing is the main method, and a UX audit is the faster expert-review version of it.

Most teams need both, at different moments. If you’re still arguing about what to build, you need discovery. If you have something and want to know whether it works, you need evaluation. If you’re not sure which you’re in, that’s usually a sign you need discovery.