User Research Live

Live instructor-led user research training.
Real participants.
1 week.

A practical, hands-on course for anyone from designers, analysts and product people who want to learn - and actually do - user research.

In this course, you'll cover the essentials of planning research and interview moderation techniques, before moderating an actual usability test with real participants.

Cohorts are small with a maximum of 12 people so there's plenty of time for discussion and getting hands-on with the activities.

What you’ll learn

Register your place

Monday: Foundations and research planning

Half-day (4 hours)

Explain what user research is and how it differs from market research
Distinguish between discovery and usability research methods - and know which to use when
Recognise the role of psychology and cognitive biases in UX and user research
Build empathy maps to develop an initial understanding of your users
Write user needs statements so that your team can design to meet them
Apply inclusive research principles to recruit a range of different participants
Navigate research ethics in practice through every stage of your research
Develop a research plan with clear questions and appropriate methods
Use AI tools to accelerate desk research and planning - and recognise its limitations

Tuesday: Moderating effective interviews

Half-day (4 hours)

Understand how to structure a moderated research session from start to finish
Apply active listening and open questioning techniques to draw out honest responses from participants
Write a discussion guide for discovery interviews and usability tests
Practice and hone your user interview skills
Create a user journey map to capture and communicate the user experience
Write realistic usability tasks that feel natural to participants
Understand when and how to implement both remote and in-person usability tests

Wednesday: Run a live user research session

Full-day (8 hours)

Apply moderation techniques to conduct live usability testing with real participants
Use data capture tools to take effective notes and observations
Identify usability issues and begin recognising patterns across sessions in real time

Thursday: Findings show and tell

Half-day (4 hours)

Synthesise data from multiple sessions into a coherent set of findings
Prioritise issues by severity so stakeholders know where to focus first
Use AI to speed up your analysis - then interrogate the output before you trust it
Present findings in a way that lands with the audience that needs to act on them

Our approach

Industry-standard research techniques

Two people chatting during an interview.

Our extensive experience working on user research projects for government, public and private sectors has enabled us to develop training based on a range of real world projects.

Project-ready

A teacher showing students some wireframes on a display screen.

By focusing on outcomes and using practical, hands-on learning and a range of teaching and assessment methods, you can be confident that you’ll be project ready after completing the course

Learn by doing

A group of people being mentored on an online call

We use a mix of short presentations, group discussions, paired activities and real research sessions.

Teaching and learning standards

This course is designed using OFQUAL (The Office of Qualifications and Examinations Regulation) standards for Level 4 learning outcomes, with scope to stretch and challenge learners to higher levels.

Our education and training specialist is IQA (Internal Qualified Assurers) qualified and they have quality checked and ratified the level of assessment and learning outcomes.

We also use principles of the government’s recommended competency frameworks for further quality, specifically:

SFIA Version 8 (Skills Framework for the Information Age):
Principles of User Research Level 4

https://sfia-online.org/en/sfia-8/skills/user-research