Research on Fernando Ruiz

A/B Testing for UX Designers

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

info Quick Definition

Running controlled experiments to validate design changes—the difference between data-driven and guessing.

What is A/B Testing?

A/B testing (also called split testing) shows version A to half your users and version B to the other half. You measure which version performs better. If version B has a higher conversion rate, version B wins. It’s not about opinion; it’s about data.

A/B testing isn’t just for marketers. Designers use A/B tests to validate design decisions. Does a red button convert better than a blue button? A/B test it. Does a longer form reduce signups? A/B test it. Does highlighting the primary action increase clicks? A/B test it.

A/B Testing para Diseñadores UX

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

info Definición Rápida

Ejecutar experimentos controlados para validar cambios de diseño—la diferencia entre impulsado por datos y adivinación.

¿Qué es A/B Testing?

A/B testing (también llamado split testing) muestra la versión A a la mitad de tus usuarios y la versión B a la otra mitad. Mides cuál versión funciona mejor. Si la versión B tiene una tasa de conversión mayor, la versión B gana. No se trata de opinión; se trata de datos.

A/B Testing para Diseñadores UX

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

info Definición Rápida

Ejecutar experimentos controlados para validar cambios de diseño—la diferencia entre impulsado por datos y adivinación.

¿Qué es A/B Testing?

Affinity Mapping

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

info Quick Definition

Affinity Mapping (or Affinity Diagramming) is a method used to organize a large amount of data (brainstorming ideas, interview observations, etc.) by grouping them into themes or categories based on their relationship or “affinity.” It is a collaborative way to find patterns in unstructured qualitative data.

What Is Affinity Mapping?

Imagine you have just done a month’s grocery shopping and you empty all the bags on the kitchen floor. You have a chaos of products. To put them away, you start creating groups: vegetables together, cleaning products in another pile, canned goods in another. You did not have predefined categories – you simply group things that “go together.”

Card Sorting

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

info Quick Definition

Card Sorting is a user research (UX) technique that helps discover how people understand and group information. In a Card Sorting session, participants are asked to organize a series of cards, each with a concept or topic, into groups that make sense to them, and then label those groups.

What Is Card Sorting?

Imagine you give a friend a deck of 50 cards, each with the name of an animal. You ask them to sort them into piles that make sense to them. One person might create groups like “Pets,” “Jungle Animals,” and “Sea Animals.” Another might create groups like “Mammals,” “Reptiles,” and “Birds.” Neither is wrong; they simply reflect different mental models.

Competitive Analysis

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

info Quick Definition

A competitive analysis is a strategic research process that involves identifying your competitors and evaluating their products, strategies, strengths, and weaknesses. In UX, it focuses on understanding how others solve similar problems for the same target audience.

What Is a Competitive Analysis?

Imagine you want to open a new coffee shop in your neighborhood. The first thing you would do is visit all the other coffee shops in the area. You would try their coffee, check their prices, observe the atmosphere, see what kind of customers they have, and listen to what they complain about or love. You are not doing this to copy them exactly, but to understand the landscape: what works, what does not, and where there might be a gap for your coffee shop to offer something unique and better.

Competitive Analysis

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

info Quick Definition

A competitive analysis (or benchmarking) is a research process that involves identifying your competitors and evaluating their products, strategies, strengths, and weaknesses in comparison to your own product or idea.

What Is a Competitive Analysis?

Imagine you are the coach of a soccer team. Before an important match, you do not just train your team; you also study recordings of your rival’s games. You analyze their playing style, who their star players are, what their usual tactics are, and where they make mistakes. You are not doing this to copy them, but to prepare a counter-strategy that exploits their weaknesses and neutralizes their strengths.

Condens

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

info Quick Definition

Condens is a user research repository platform and qualitative analysis tool. Like its main competitor, [[Dovetail]], it helps teams centralize, analyze, and share their research data to build continuous, accessible knowledge about their users.

What Is Condens?

Imagine you are a detective and each interview or usability test is a clue. You accumulate notes, videos, and observations. A repository like Condens is your digital investigation board: a central place where you put all the clues, connect them with red threads (tags), and discover the pattern to solve the case. It is not just a place to store files – it is a tool for building knowledge.

Contextual Inquiry

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

info Quick Definition

Observing users in their natural environment while they work—reveals context that interviews and surveys never capture.

What is Contextual Inquiry?

Contextual inquiry is a research method where you observe users in their native environment while they perform real tasks. Unlike a lab study where a user sits at a desk, contextual inquiry happens where users actually work. An accountant in their office. A chef in a kitchen. A shopper in a store.

Customer Journey Maps

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

info Quick Definition

A Customer Journey Map (CJM) is a visualization of the complete story of a user’s interaction with a product or service over time and across different channels. It narrates the experience from the user’s perspective, highlighting their actions, thoughts, feelings, and pain points at each stage.

What are Customer Journey Maps?

If Personas are a photo of your user, a Customer Journey Map is a movie about them. It doesn’t focus on a single moment, but maps the entire experience of a user as they try to achieve a goal, from the moment they realize they have a need until they resolve it and beyond.

Diary Studies

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

info Quick Definition

Asking users to document their behavior over days or weeks—captures patterns you’ll never see in a single-session study.

What is a Diary Study?

A diary study asks participants to record their actions, thoughts, and feelings over an extended period—typically days, weeks, or months. Unlike a one-hour research session, diary studies capture behavior in context, over time, as it naturally occurs.

A diary can be digital (a Google Form or custom app), paper-based (a printed log), or video-based (participants record short videos). The format varies, but the purpose is consistent: witness behavior as it happens, not as users remember it.

Dovetail

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

info Quick Definition

Dovetail is a user research platform and qualitative data repository. It helps teams organize, analyze, and collaborate on their research data (such as interview transcripts, notes, videos) to find patterns and share insights in a centralized and accessible way.

What Is Dovetail?

Imagine a library for your user knowledge. Instead of books, the shelves contain your [[User Interviews|interviews]], [[Usability Testing|test]] recordings, and survey responses. Dovetail is that library. It allows you not only to store these “books,” but also to highlight the most important passages (highlights), put sticky notes on them (tags), and then group all the notes on the same topic to write a summary (an insight).

Estudios de Diario

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

info Definición Rápida

Pedir a usuarios que documenten su comportamiento durante días o semanas—captura patrones que nunca verás en un estudio de una sesión.

¿Qué es un Estudio de Diario?

Un estudio de diario pide a participantes que registren sus acciones, pensamientos y sentimientos durante un período extendido—típicamente días, semanas o meses. A diferencia de una sesión de investigación de una hora, los estudios de diario capturan comportamiento en contexto, durante el tiempo, conforme ocurre naturalmente.

Estudios de Diario

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

info Definición Rápida

Pedir a usuarios que documenten su comportamiento durante días o semanas—captura patrones que nunca verás en un estudio de una sesión.

¿Qué es un Estudio de Diario?

Eye Tracking

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

info Quick Definition

Using eye-tracking technology to measure where users look and for how long—revealing visual attention patterns invisible to observation.

What is Eye Tracking?

Eye-tracking technology uses infrared light and cameras to measure where a user’s eyes fixate on a screen. The equipment records eye position 30-250 times per second. The result: a heatmap showing which areas attract attention and which are ignored.

Eye tracking removes guesswork. You don’t assume users see the top-right corner; you measure it. You don’t guess at attention patterns; you see exactly where eyes land and for how long.

Eye Tracking

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

info Definición Rápida

Usar tecnología de eye-tracking para medir dónde miran los usuarios y por cuánto tiempo—revelando patrones de atención visual invisibles.

¿Qué es Eye Tracking?

La tecnología de eye-tracking usa luz infrarroja y cámaras para medir dónde los ojos de un usuario se fijan en una pantalla. El equipo registra posición del ojo 30-250 veces por segundo. El resultado: un heatmap mostrando qué áreas atraen atención y cuáles se ignoran.

Eye Tracking

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

info Definición Rápida

Usar tecnología de eye-tracking para medir dónde miran los usuarios y por cuánto tiempo—revelando patrones de atención visual invisibles.

¿Qué es Eye Tracking?

Indagación Contextual

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

info Definición Rápida

Observar usuarios en su ambiente natural mientras trabajan—revela contexto que las entrevistas y encuestas nunca capturan.

¿Qué es Indagación Contextual?

La indagación contextual es un método de investigación donde observas a usuarios en su ambiente nativo mientras realizan tareas reales. A diferencia de un estudio de laboratorio donde un usuario se sienta en un escritorio, la indagación contextual sucede donde los usuarios realmente trabajan. Un contador en su oficina. Un chef en una cocina. Un comprador en una tienda.

Indagación Contextual

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

info Definición Rápida

Observar usuarios en su ambiente natural mientras trabajan—revela contexto que las entrevistas y encuestas nunca capturan.

¿Qué es Indagación Contextual?

Investigación Remota con Usuarios

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

info Definición Rápida

Conducir investigación de usuario sin restricciones de viaje o ubicación—rápido, escalable y accesible a participantes globales.

¿Qué es Investigación Remota con Usuarios?

La investigación remota con usuarios es observar y entrevistar a usuarios vía llamada de video, compartir pantalla o sesiones grabadas en lugar de en persona. Un participante en Tokio y un investigador en Nueva York pueden conectarse instantáneamente. No se necesita viaje. Sin restricciones de ubicación.

Investigación Remota con Usuarios

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

info Definición Rápida

Conducir investigación de usuario sin restricciones de viaje o ubicación—rápido, escalable y accesible a participantes globales.

¿Qué es Investigación Remota con Usuarios?

Jobs to Be Done

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

info Definición Rápida

Entender qué intentan lograr los usuarios (no qué característica quieren) revela oportunidades de diseño que otros pierden.

¿Qué es Jobs to Be Done?

Jobs to Be Done (JTBD) es un marco para entender la motivación del usuario. En lugar de preguntar “¿qué quieren los usuarios en un producto?”, JTBD pregunta “¿qué intenta lograr el usuario?”

Un cliente no está comprando un taladro. Está comprando la capacidad de hacer un agujero. Un cliente no está comprando una aplicación de citas. Está intentando conocer a alguien. Un cliente no está comprando una herramienta de gestión de proyectos. Está intentando organizar el trabajo de su equipo.

Jobs to Be Done

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

info Definición Rápida

Entender qué intentan lograr los usuarios (no qué característica quieren) revela oportunidades de diseño que otros pierden.

¿Qué es Jobs to Be Done?

Jobs to Be Done Framework

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

info Quick Definition

Understanding what users are trying to accomplish (not what feature they want) reveals design opportunities others miss.

What is Jobs to Be Done?

Jobs to Be Done (JTBD) is a framework for understanding user motivation. Instead of asking “what do users want in a product?”, JTBD asks “what is the user trying to accomplish?”

A customer isn’t buying a drill. They’re buying the ability to make a hole. A customer isn’t buying a dating app. They’re trying to meet someone. A customer isn’t buying a project management tool. They’re trying to organize their team’s work.

Personas

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

info Quick Definition

A Persona (or User Persona) is a fictional user archetype based on real research data that represents a group of users with similar behaviors, goals, and motivations. It is used to humanize users and keep the design team focused on their needs.

What are Personas?

Imagine you’re designing a backpack. You could design it for “everyone,” but you’d probably end up with something generic that nobody loves. Instead, you could design it for “Ana, a 20-year-old university student who commutes to campus by bike, needs to carry her laptop and books, and values sustainability and style.”

Quantitative Data

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

info Quick Definition

Quantitative data in UX is numerical information that measures user behavior and attitudes. It focuses on the “how much,” “how many,” or “how often,” and is used to analyze patterns at a large scale, validate hypotheses, and measure the impact of design.

What Is Quantitative Data?

Imagine you own a store. Quantitative data is your sales report: it tells you how many customers came in, how many bought something, and which product sold the most. It gives you the numbers, the “what.”

Reclutar Participantes de Investigación

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

info Definición Rápida

Encontrar y reclutar los usuarios correctos para investigación—la base de resultados de investigación válidos y accionables.

¿Qué es Reclutamiento de Participantes?

El reclutamiento es encontrar a las personas correctas para tu investigación. No solo usuarios cualquiera. Los usuarios correctos—usuarios que coincidan con tu demografía objetivo, tengan experiencia relevante y representen el problema que estás resolviendo.

El reclutamiento parece simple: “Pregunta a gente si participan en investigación.” Es más difícil. Tus usuarios existentes no son representativos. Tus amigos serán amables contigo. Los datos demográficos importan. El nivel de experiencia importa. Encontrar los 8 participantes correctos requiere estrategia.

Reclutar Participantes de Investigación

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

info Definición Rápida

Encontrar y reclutar los usuarios correctos para investigación—la base de resultados de investigación válidos y accionables.

¿Qué es Reclutamiento de Participantes?

Recruiting Research Participants

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

info Quick Definition

Finding and recruiting the right users for research—the foundation of valid, actionable research results.

What is Participant Recruitment?

Recruitment is finding the right people for your research. Not just any users. The right users—users who match your target demographic, have relevant experience, and represent the problem you’re solving.

Recruiting seems simple: “Ask people to participate in research.” It’s harder. Your existing users aren’t representative. Your friends will be nice to you. Demographics matter. Experience level matters. Finding the right 8 participants requires strategy.

Remote User Research

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

info Quick Definition

Conducting user research without travel or location constraints—fast, scalable, and accessible to global participants.

What is Remote User Research?

Remote user research is observing and interviewing users via video call, screen share, or recorded sessions instead of in-person. A participant in Tokyo and a researcher in New York can connect instantly. No travel needed. No location constraints.

Remote research comes in two flavors: moderated (researcher guides the session in real-time) and unmoderated (participant records themselves). Both have trade-offs. Moderated is richer but slower. Unmoderated is faster but loses the conversational depth.

Tree Testing

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

info Quick Definition

Tree Testing is a UX research technique used to evaluate the “findability” of topics in a site or application’s Information Architecture. Users are asked to find specific locations in a simplified, text-only version of the site structure (the “tree”), without the influence of visual design or navigation.

Usability Testing

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

info Quick Definition

A usability test is a fundamental UX research method for evaluating how easy a product is to use. It consists of observing representative users as they attempt to complete typical tasks on a prototype or real product to identify where they encounter problems and frustrations.

What Is Usability Testing?

Imagine you design the instructions for assembling an IKEA piece of furniture. You think they are perfect. Then, you ask someone to assemble the furniture following them and you watch in silence. You see that they get stuck on step 3, that they try to put a screw in the wrong place, and that they end up frustrated. You are not evaluating whether the person is “smart” or not; you are evaluating the clarity of your instructions.

Usability Testing

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

info Quick Definition

A usability test is a fundamental UX research technique where real users are observed using a product (or a prototype) to identify usability problems, collect qualitative and quantitative data, and determine the participant’s overall satisfaction with the product.

What Is Usability Testing?

Imagine you have designed a new can opener. You think it is revolutionary. Instead of just admiring it, you give it to 5 different people and ask them to open a can while you observe in silence. You see that three of them do not understand how to hold it, one cuts their finger, and the fifth takes two minutes to open the can. You are not judging whether the people are “clumsy”; you are evaluating whether your can opener is easy and safe to use.

User Interviews

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

info Quick Definition

A user interview is a fundamental qualitative research technique in UX. It consists of a one-on-one conversation with a user (or potential user) to gain a deep understanding of their behaviors, goals, needs, motivations, and pain points in relation to a product or problem.

What Are User Interviews?

Imagine you are a doctor. You do not tell the patient “you need this medicine” – first you ask them “where does it hurt?”, “since when?”, “what have you tried?”. A user interview is similar: it is a structured conversation to diagnose a person’s real problems and needs before trying to “prescribe” a solution. It is not a casual chat; it is a discovery tool.

User Interviews

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

info Quick Definition

A user interview is a qualitative research technique in which a researcher asks a user (or potential user) questions to gain a deep understanding of their behaviors, needs, motivations, and pain points in relation to a specific problem or product.

What Are User Interviews?

Imagine you are a journalist preparing a documentary. You do not send a questionnaire to the protagonist; you sit down with them and have a deep conversation. You ask open-ended questions so they tell you their story in their own words. You want to understand their experiences, their emotions, and what motivates them.

User Research Activities

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

info Quick Definition

User research activities (UX Research) are the set of methods and techniques used to understand users, their behaviors, needs, and motivations. It is the systematic process of collecting and analyzing data to inform the design process and decision-making.

What Are Research Activities?

Imagine you are a detective about to solve a big case. You do not go out on the street and interrogate random people. First, you define the mystery (“Who stole the cookies?”). Then, you identify your key witnesses (participants), prepare your list of questions (script), decide how you will analyze the clues (synthesis), and finally present your conclusions. A UX research plan is exactly that: a detective’s plan to solve a mystery about users.

User Surveys

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

info Quick Definition

A user survey is a primarily quantitative research method that uses a set of standardized questions to collect data from a large sample of users. They allow you to measure attitudes, satisfaction, preferences, and gather demographic data at scale.

What Are User Surveys?

Think about the difference between having a deep conversation with one person and conducting a national census. The conversation (User Interviews) gives you a richness of detail and context about a single person. The census (the survey) gives you statistical data about thousands of people at once, allowing you to see patterns at a large scale, but without the individual detail.

UserTesting.com

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

info Quick Definition

UserTesting.com is one of the largest and most well-known user experience research platforms. It allows companies to get video feedback from real users interacting with websites, applications, prototypes, and more. Its main value proposition is its enormous participant panel, which allows you to get feedback from very specific user profiles within hours.

What Is UserTesting.com?

Imagine you need the opinion of “mothers aged 30 to 40 who live in Mexico and have purchased car insurance online in the last 6 months.” Finding these people on your own would be a titanic task. UserTesting.com is like a giant casting agency for user research. You define the exact profile you need, and they provide participants who fit that profile, record their sessions as they perform the tasks you request, and deliver the videos for you to analyze.