UX Research and Market Research: Know The Difference

January 3, 2025

The product & marketing manager can use UX research facts to create digital marketing strategies to target the right audience and in the right place. Before jumping into the topic, knowing the difference between UX and market research is crucial.

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Difference Between UX Research and Market Research

UX research studies users, providing critical insights into their behaviors, requirements, and expectations. It helps to answer three main questions: What do people need? What do people want? And can they use the product? User experience research is on a much smaller scale. A study from the Nielsen Norman group points to a sample size of five participants, uncovering most usability issues.

UX Research Goals

The goals of user research are:

Evaluate behavioral needs
Define personas and user journey
Test designs
Determine features
Build information architecture

Market Research Goals

The marketing team aims to know and understand the customer so well that the product fits him and sells itself. It is the art and science of identifying, attracting, retaining, and growing customers. Carrying out market research is essential to achieving customer value. Market research is conducted on a much larger scale than user research to reach statistical significance and gather comprehensive insights. Market research is generally quantitative since you’re continually determining conversion rates, market size, market segmentation, number of visitors, etc.

The goals of market research are:

Determine market size
Understand market trends
Define pricing
Test concepts
Understand products loyalty

Market research uncovers customer segments and opinions, whereas UX research focuses on user behavior. The relationship between the two is complementary, which means there should be many opportunities to work closely with marketing people.

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Products/services generally have a life cycle with predictable sales and profits. Research occurs across three phases of product development — pre-design (Introduction), development (growth), and post-development (Maturity). In any stage of product development, motivate all research activities by a specific research goal. Specific research goals focus on

Defining or refining a problem statement
Identifying and understanding a target market
Specifying the scope of initial product releases

The synergy between UX research and digital marketing

Let us go through the research journey for a Health Care App from the introduction to the maturity phase.

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Pre-Design Stage

In the Introduction or the pre-design phase, the initial research starts with market research.

Initial Market Research

The main goal of the initial investigation is to:

Validate the business idea and understand the digital health market/industry
Find out customers’ thoughts, needs, and pain points, existing successful healthcare apps (competitors)
Market share
Market opportunities
Identifying emerging market trends and dynamics

To carry out this research, conduct an extensive survey of a random sample of households across the country. The results indicate that 80% of the city dwellers’ respondents are open to digital medical care apps.

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The next step is to conduct one-on-one interviews to dive into what frustrates the individuals with current medical service. They don’t want to wait for doctor’s appointments for minor ailments like colds, coughs, fevers, etc. These sessions create persona and customer journey maps, which is user research’s goal; that’s enough validation to start wireframing.

Design Based on Insights

Once wireframes are complete, testing them via interviews and unmoderated sessions is essential. The design is modified through user research until it meets all user requirements. At this stage, it is vital to determine the primary call to action. Digital marketing tools like email signups, free trials, content marketing, social media promotions, paid banner ads, and several other SEO activities help create brand awareness. Identifying a go-to-marketing-led strategy is essential to move through the introduction stage and catalyze growth. It requires secure communication and data-sharing between marketing and sales teams—actual demand generation.

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UX Research Blogs

Growth Stage

Results post-launch show that people are downloading your app, but few are booking a consultation appointment, resulting in a low conversion rate. At this point, the product is in the growth stage of the development stage.

Continue to learn from insights

By this stage, begin building marketing strategies based on consumer experiences with the product rather than consumer attitudes or behaviors. A/B testing (user research) on new mock-ups determines which design provides the best medical experience. The test results show that mock-up B is the most successful because of its soothing colors.

Learn more on how to pick the right UX Research strategy for greatest business impact- A Guide to UX Research Strategy

Next, people have complained that they can’t find the right doctor because there is no categorization according to the insurance provider. Perform card sorting and make corrections to the product. The results show an increase in the conversion rate. Your website analytics show that there seem to be high and low seasons of appointments. Therefore, launch a user research journal study to observe the behaviors of your participants. As a result, participants book more appointments during flu season.

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How do you convert?

With the increase in conversion rate, the medical care app is more advanced than its competitors. It is in the best position to earn a dominant market share. Thus, more resources should be pushed into current campaigns. The demand for the product rises, and the marketers’ focus is to reap the demand. Promote products and services via:

Banner ads
Customer review video feeds
Blogging
Informative articles
PPC campaigns
Social media optimization through Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram
Tailor quotes or case studies to make a persuasive case to that audience

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Post-Development Stage

Growth transitions to the Maturity stage because of the rise in sales levels. In a mature market, understanding the catalysts leading to the Decline is key. In a mature market, third-party user research should be conducted to suggest where the market heads. That research may include which demographics are likely to drop off first or stay the longest. As a result, it helps to steer marketing campaigns toward higher-value consumers. An NPS score of 50 means the product is hitting it out of the park.

At this point, the medical care app is in the maturity stage. Therefore, conduct a market research survey of current customers, asking how you’re doing. The maturity phase’s length depends on how long-lasting marketing can sustain the product’s dominant market position. Implement Highly effective digital marketing strategies to lengthen the maturity period. Differentiate the product on the brand. Create a balance between persuasive vs. descriptive marketing. Identify new demographics and new uses for the product. Focus on the brand yield because a greater focus on influential marketing—campaigns that make an emotional impact appeals to consumers.

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Conclusion

In today’s hyper-competitive age, the ability to deliver a more meaningful customer experience will be the key differentiator for companies.

It takes real expertise and experience to get it right, so vet your app development agency candidates carefully. Fortunately, here at Designial, we deliver on all counts. Get in touch with us today to learn more about us and how we can help you.

Editor’s note: This post was originally published in November 2020 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.

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