UX Research Tools Every Designer Is Using

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Many UX designers have to wear multiple hats during day-to-day work. Designers must develop and improve their generalist skills as UX teams become leaner due to cost-cutting measures. 

Even if you have a specialty, like motion or interaction design, it’s only a part of the job. 

UX designers are now expected to perform responsibilities outside their traditional role to help fill in gaps due to smaller team sizes. 

So, a UX designer’s role can span from designer, writer, information architect, and researcher (hopefully, you don’t have to swap between every hat in a day). 

Out of all these responsibilities, research has become a prominent part of a UX designer’s duties. Getting into the weeds with research can be overwhelming as a UX designer. 

You can do many types of research, like generative or evaluative, and there are testing methods for each type. Thankfully, there are many UX research tools that designers can easily pick up. 

But what UX research tools exist? Which one is right for you and your UX project? I get it—there is also an overload of information. It’s challenging to pick the best tool for your needs when each offers many different features. 

To help you select the best research tools, Design Journal has categorized 20 industry-favored tools by their core usage and assessed their pros and cons. 

List of best UX research tools

Let’s look at UX research tools for usability testing, user behavior, interviews, surveys, accessibility testing, and research synthesis (whew – that’s a lot of categories, but bear with me).

Usability testing tools

Usability tests are a key evaluative research method that allows you to observe real users as they complete tasks in the digital product. 

During testing, you can pinpoint areas of confusion or difficulty for the user. This is especially critical for primary user flows, such as purchasing.

A few tools to consider for usability testing are Maze, Lookback, UserTesting, and Userfeel.

Maze

Used by companies like Lowe’s, Walmart, and Hopper, Maze is an easy-to-use research tool that allows UX teams to send prototypes or websites out for rapid feedback.

Though Maze offers many test options, like card sorting and tree testing, its focus is usability testing.

Pros:

• Quick results for unmoderated testing from high-fidelity prototypes to early concepts
• Integrated with design and productivity tools like Figma, Miro, and Slack
• Offers templates to help kick-start a research study (they are customizable)

Cons:

• Limited participant pool compared to tools like UserTesting
• “Free” and “Starter” plans only come with one research study per month

Lookback

Lookback simplifies choosing which testing method to use by offering moderated or unmoderated usability testing and interviews.

It’s built for remote team collaboration and has an AI assistant (Eureka) that helps generate insights from testing videos. 

Pros:

• Stakeholders can view live sessions in the virtual observation room to chat with each other and leave time-stamped comments 
• Integrated with User Interviews to automate and manage your team’s participant pool
• Flexible pricing model so your team can select how many sessions are needed (as a starter, they offer five sessions for free)

Cons:

• Minimal testing methods for teams who need more testing options
• Higher costs for teams or designers only doing occasional testing

UserTesting

One of the most well-known tools is UserTesting (the name is straight-forward).

UserTesting offers many test methods, from longitudinal studies to AB testing, but its strong suit is large-scale usability testing.

They provide templates to help set up tests, and results quickly come in after launching to speed up the testing stage. 

Pros:

• Built-in AI analytics and sentiment analysis that automates data synthesis
• Provides a robust participant pool (you can even sign up to be a test participant)
• Integrated with many UX team tools like Figma and Jira

Cons:

• Pricing per plan isn’t up-front – must contact sales to get a quote
• Setting up a test can be cumbersome for first-time users

Userfeel

Userfeel offers moderated and unmoderated testing that uses unlimited screener questions to recruit broad to niche participants for the research study. 

Userfeel accommodates international testing by translating to over 40 languages; a participant can provide comments in your language (but was given the test in a language you don’t understand).

Pros:

• Provides the ability to test products with international participants who may not speak the same language
• Prevents cheating on screener questions for high-quality participants (but you can bring in your participants)
• No subscription is needed; pricing is based on pay-as-you-go credits per session

Cons:

• Less automated analytics when summarizing a testing session or study
• Specifically, niche participants may take longer to acquire for testing

User behavior tools

While usability testing ensures that there are no design issues in the user flows that need to be fixed, user behavior analysis examines all the user interactions within a digital product. 

These interactions can involve the user’s choices or time spent on a page. The system evaluates any user patterns that provide insight into the user’s decision-making process and motivations. 

Some notable examples of user behavior tools include Hotjar, Fullstory, and Crazy Egg.

Hotjar

First on the user behavior tool list is Hotjar. This tool analyzes user behavior on live websites and provides visual insights with heat maps.

This helps us understand where users spend the most time on web pages and whether there are ways to optimize the design. 

Pros:

• Offers a variety of testing methods with observation sessions and interviews
• Heat maps show where the user clicks, scrolls, and hesitates on a web page
• Integrate surveys to appear at specific moments in the user journey

Cons:

• Does not work with mobile applications – must be web-based
• Pricing can get expensive as website traffic grows

Fullstory

Like Hotjar, Fullstory provides analytics and AI-powered insights on users’ behavior as they use the live digital product in real time.

Fullstory logs every user swipe, click, page-view, etc. in their session replays, compares it to historical data, and makes automated UX recommendations.

Pros:

• Ability to view detailed event tracking from user session replays
• Supports analytics for both desktop websites and mobile apps
• Leverages AI for predictive analysis, event summaries, and anomaly detection

Cons:

• Includes a learning curve for more advanced features
• The setup and configuration process is complex but self-supported

Crazy Egg

Last for the user behavior tools is Crazy Egg. Crazy Egg’s tagline is to “see what’s wrong with your website,” and companies like Intuit and Dell use it. 

It offers multiple visual reports, like scroll maps, to show the user’s actions. It also provides the ability to do basic AB tests and track conversions to measure your website’s impact easily.

Pros:

• Provides five ways to view the data, such as click maps, confetti maps, and overlay maps
• Intuitive and more straightforward setup process compared to Fullstory

Cons:

• Though it supports mobile websites, it does not support native mobile applications
• AB testing capabilities are limited compared to dedicated AB or usability testing tools
• There are multiple pricing plans to select from, but it’s billed annually versus monthly 

Interview tools

Though observing users interacting with your digital product can provide critical insights, there’s no assuming what goes through the user’s mind when speaking with them live. 

Interviews can be used for evaluative research but are best for generative research since you can ask open-ended questions and probe for more details.

A few favored interview tools are Dscout, User Interviews, and Ethnio.

Dscout

Dscout is a video research platform that offers four integrated products: Recruit, Diary, Live, and Express. 

While Recruit helps screen participants from their participant pool (or you can invite your own), the Live product lets you interview participants remotely. 

Live also offers automatic transcription, the ability to share stimuli in real time, and clip creation for synthesis.

Pros:

• Supports desktop websites and native mobile applications for participants to interact with on their device
• Flexibility and management of the participants (called “Scouts”) chosen for interviews
• Offers other testing methods with diary studies, media surveys, and usability tests

Cons:

• There is an approval period of 2 business days for new participant screeners (adds to the research timeline)
• Pricing for a subscription is high, and you must get a quote from a representative

User Interviews

Another well-known research tool (the name explains what it does), User Interviews is a “one-stop-shop” for recruiting participants, scheduling, and conducting interviews. 

It also has built-in collaboration functionality, including project notes and templates for consistent communication. 

Pros:

• Simplifies participant recruitment with features like work-calendar sync and participant validity
• Offers accessibility testing from a panel of users with disabilities and connects testing tools with assistive technologies 
• Flexible pricing with both pay-as-you-go and subscription models

Cons:

• Limited functionality with filtering screener questions and bulk-messaging participants within the same study
• Only integrated with a few tools like Microsoft Outlook, Qualtrics, and Zoom compared to other tools

Ethnio

Last up for interview tools is Ethnio, which has advanced recruiting, scheduling, and participant CRM to help manage your database of participants in one place. 

Ethnio provides a web intercept feature that recruits potential participants directly from a website through a pop-up survey, targeting relevant users for research studies. 

Pros:

• Intercepts can be customized for web, iOS, and Android to catch users at specific moments during the user journey
• Integrates with collaboration tools like Zoom and Google for scheduling interviews, as well as other testing tools like Loop11
• Manage participant pool and personalize research study invites to enhance participation touchpoints

Cons:

• Does not offer substantial built-in data analysis – requires other tools
• More advanced features include a learning curve, and smaller plans do not have a dedicated support team for help

Survey tools

Sometimes, you just need some good quantitative data from surveys. Surveys are a method of evaluative research that offers rapid data collection from a wide range of participants and are cost-effective to administer. 

Surveys measure user opinions, behaviors, and feedback based on predefined criteria (like customer satisfaction). 

We’ll review the survey tools: Google Forms, Qualtrics, SurveyMonkey, and Jotform.

Google Forms

Google Forms is a simple, cost-effective way to collect quick data for more straightforward UX research. 

Though free, it offers many input type fields, like freeform text, multiple choice, and checkboxes. It’s best used for minimal UX surveys or even internal team feedback. 

Pros:

• Well-integrated with other Google Workspace tools, like Google Sheets for data analysis 
• Allows for an unlimited amount of survey responses
• The survey creation process is simple and quick (plus, it’s free!)

Cons:

• Minimal capabilities for conditional logic (survey branches based on user responses)
• It may not be the best tool to obtain sensitive information due to weak security measures. 

Qualtrics

Qualtrics is a more advanced tool that allows you to create surveys and analyze results for complex UX studies than Google Forms.

Surveys can be made with many different types of input fields, and it allows visualization of data in reports and graphs. 

Pros:

• Advanced capabilities for conditional logic
• Quality security and compliance for obtaining sensitive or restricted information
• Offers flexibility in how you distribute the survey (email, web, links)

Cons:

• Prices are high, and you must request pricing from a sales representative
• Some features are non-intuitive and require experience to understand

SurveyMonkey

SurveyMonkey has a simple, easy-to-use interface that allows users to create surveys with built-in analysis.

It’s a well-rounded tool that provides various question types and logic and includes an AI assistant (SurveyMonkey Genius).

Pros:

• Well-integrated with many tools like Microsoft Teams and Tableau
• Provides many templates, like Net Promoter Score, that can still be customized 
• Offers a limited free plan

Cons:

• Pricing can get expensive to access additional features like customization
• Must upgrade to access more advanced features like multilingual surveys

Jotform

Last up for survey tools is Jotform. Similar to SurveyMonkey, Jotform also offers the ability to create surveys (with or without logic) and include built-in analysis.

It also provides AI and survey templates to help you automate survey creation.

Pros:

• Highly customizable with the survey design, branding, and delivery method (mobile)
• Integrated with many tools like Asana and Zoom
• Offers other products, such as Jotform Apps, Tables, and PDF editor

Cons:

• Pricing can get expensive if you require a large number of surveys
• Lack of live support, so getting help can take time

Accessibility testing tools

As accessibility becomes more critical in UX and product design, it’s important to include accessibility tools in your research workflow. 

This means ensuring that both design and code comply with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) to be functional for users with disabilities. 

Note that a drawback of all automated accessibility tools is that they still require manual testing; typically, these tools only catch about a third of issues. 

There are many success criteria in WCAG, but tools like WAVE, axe DevTools, and Fable can help.

WAVE

WAVE stands for “web accessibility evaluation tool” and was developed by WebAIM to help identify accessibility and WCAG errors on web pages. 

WAVE offers browser extensions to test a live website’s accessibility and WAVE API to integrate WAVE into applications. 

Pros:

• Provides visual overlays for accessibility issues like errors, contrast, structural elements, etc.
• Offers explanations and recommendations to fix the accessibility error
• Browser extensions are free and easy to use (WAVE API offers 100 free credits)

Cons:

• Only tests one web page at a time
• Can flag false-positive accessibility errors

axe DevTools

Deque’s axe DevTools offer more robust accessibility testing than WAVE. It provides browser extensions to test live sites and integrates with development tools to detect accessibility issues early. 

axe DevTools automate accessibility testing with machine learning and human-centric AI for faster and detailed reports.

Pros:

• Can test both websites and mobile apps
• Trusted results with fewer false-positive accessibility errors flagged 
• Integrates with designer and developer tools like Figma plugins and Visual Studio Code

Cons:

• Is not as accessibility beginner-friendly as WAVE – technical knowledge is needed
• Free version’s features are limited compared to premium, paid plans.

Fable

The last accessibility tool we’ll review is Fable, an accessibility testing platform that connects UX researchers to users with disabilities for usability testing. 

Though the aforementioned automated tools help identify accessibility issues, it doesn’t mean the product is fully accessible.

Testing with users who use assistive technology, like screen readers, is critical to ensure the product is functional for most user groups. 

Pros:

• Connects you to users with disabilities for testing, which is challenging to do with other research tools
• Offers Fable Engage and Upskill to test with users with disabilities as well as train your product team on digital accessibility
• Ability to test with websites, web-apps, and mobile apps on desktop and mobile devices

Cons:

• Prior knowledge of assistive technologies is needed to intercept user feedback best
• Paid tool (with no free trial) that can be expensive for small teams

Research synthesis tools

After you’ve gathered all the research data, you have to synthesize and analyze it. This can be a jarring process at the beginning; you have all this information and don’t even know where to begin. 

But with the right tools, data synthesis can be automated to accelerate this research stage (or at least give you a jump-start).

A few popular synthesis tools are Dovetail, Notion, and Miro.

Dovetail

Dovetail is a research repository and analysis tool to help organize, tag, and synthesize data. Dovetail integrates AI functionality to analyze data, creating insights, data clusters, and summaries. 

It also integrates with many tools to quickly bring in research data from other sources, such as Zoom and Qualtrics.

Pros:

• Includes advanced, site-wide search functionality for relevant information from the entire repository 
• Provides collaborative features for researchers to work together on data synthesis and share insights with stakeholders
• Supports video and audio transcription in over 40 languages

Cons:

• Includes a learning curve to understand how to analyze, tag, and create insights
• Can be expensive for small teams (professional plan is based on the number of users)

Notion

Next is Notion, a flexible and customizable workspace that UX designers can leverage for research.

Though it’s not built explicitly for research synthesis like Dovetail, it can organize notes, create insights, and collaborate with teammates. It also integrates with many tools and offers over 30,000 free Notion templates to jump-start projects.

Pros:

• AI features and templates to automate your research workflow
• Versatile tool that can also be used outside of UX research
• More affordable for small teams (offers a free plan to trial its basic features)

Cons:

• Lacks robust research synthesis features like automated tagging or sentiment analysis
• Risk of disorganized projects and notes if not structured carefully

Miro

The last tool we’ll review is Miro, a collaborative whiteboard tool where you can visualize research findings, create affinity maps, or do live synthesis with teammates. 

For UX research, Miro is used to brainstorm and structure data visually to identify patterns and insights. 

Pros:

• Miro AI can be used to highlight specific elements on a board and create summaries, project briefs, or notes
• Capability to develop presentations, docs, and tables to cater to different synthesis needs
• Emulates a physical whiteboard so that remote collaboration is engaging and interactive

Cons:

• Navigating and finding specific Miro boards or projects can be cumbersome
• Lacks advanced research synthesis features like tagging 

Conclusion 

There are many UX research tools in the market. While evaluating tools, remember which criteria are most important for you and your team. 

As we reviewed, some UX research tools are more full-service by combining testing methods (Maze), while others only offer one to two methods (User Interviews). 

Some must be purchased annually (Crazy Egg), while others have a “pay-as-you-go” pricing model (Userfeel). Some have a steep learning curve (Fullstory), while others are simple (Google Forms). 

Though overwhelming, selecting the right UX research tool for you, your UX team, or your UX projects is critical to get the data you need. 

Hopefully, with the help of the pros and cons lists, you can find the tools that let you wear every UX designer hat.

Combine the best design tools, your experiences, observations, and insights to create something meaningful.

Frequently asked questions

What is UX research software?

UX research software is designed to help researchers collect, analyze, and interpret user insights to improve digital products. These tools assist with usability testing, surveys, heatmaps, session recordings, and more, ensuring data-driven design decisions.

What is the best tool for UX surveys?

The best UX survey tool depends on your needs:

• Google Forms – Free and simple for basic surveys
• Typeform – Engaging and interactive forms
• SurveyMonkey – Advanced analytics and templates
• Qualtrics – Enterprise-level survey and analysis
• UsabilityHub – UX-specific survey and preference testing

What are the research methods for UX?

UX research methods fall into two categories:

• Quantitative Methods (data-driven)
  • Surveys
  • A/B testing
  • Analytics tracking
  • Heatmaps
• Qualitative Methods (insight-driven)
  • User interviews
  • Usability testing
  • Field studies
  • Card sorting

What are the tools used in UX research?

Popular UX research tools include:

• Surveys & Feedback – Typeform, Google Forms, SurveyMonkey
• Usability Testing – UserTesting, Lookback, Maze
• Heatmaps & Behavior Tracking – Hotjar, Crazy Egg, FullStory
• Prototyping & Wireframing – Figma, Adobe XD, Axure
• Data & Analytics – Google Analytics, Mixpanel, Amplitu