2023 Experience Research Report

In this report

2023 Experience Research Report

Foreword from our CEO

Over the last ten years, we’ve written much about the industry—a discipline known by as many names as the people it serves. Terms like usability, UX research, CX, human insight, and many more have been used to describe this growing field. Today, it’s Experience Research (XR).

According to Forrester, experience research is the practice of understanding your customers in depth and conveying that understanding across your organization. It means researching customers using qualitative and quantitative methods and summarizing customer insight to align your employees with a deep understanding of what it’s like being your customer. Experience research is fundamental in maturing your customer experience practice and achieving long-term organizational goals.

In this 10th annual Experience Research Industry report, we learn that the industry continues to mature and grow in sophistication. Survey results show test frequency nearly doubled from 2013 to 2023. Organizations invest more money in experience research, while research professionals report that peers acknowledge their importance and the wide-ranging benefits of research.

Trends suggest the industry continues to evolve rapidly, partly due to new technology and its impact on customer behavior and somewhat because customers' changing needs and expectations push organizations to keep pace with digital experiences.

Experience researchers continue to step up to the challenge to keep organizations connected with customers and audiences as they have for the last decade.

Andy MacMillan
UserTesting, CEO

What you'll find in the report

of participants agree that experience research budgets are increasing

of participants believe diversity, equity, and inclusion are vital considerations

of participants feel like executives are prioritizing and investing in experience research

of participants say experience research reduces cost by mitigating risk and product rework

of participants have dedicated ResearchOps teams to help mature their practice

of participants believe that accessibility has a significant influence on the industry

Introduction

Since we began publishing this report in 2013, the experience industry has transformed.

Initially, researchers spent much time convincing stakeholders of the importance of research and customer feedback. As insight moved the needle for organizations, budgets and demand increased.

By 2019, teams indicated they needed help keeping up with the growing demand for experience research leading to conducting more remote tests and leveraging new methodologies.

When the pandemic hit in 2020, the demand to understand shifting markets and customer behavior solidified the rise of remote research and the need to mature and accelerate experience research practices.

Today, organizations continue to navigate tricky markets and changing consumer behavior by nailing the processes behind gaining and communicating insight quickly.

How testing methods have changed

Since the first industry report in 2013, things have shifted in the experience research world to accommodate the speed of business. Here's a look.

Then
In 2013, 17% said remote testing was not used, and 23% of participants said most of their testing was done in person.

Now
In 2023, 36% of respondents say remote testing is one of their most used methods, with surveys being the most frequently used at 56%. 11% expect to conduct all of their research for 2023 using in-person testing, while another 11% expect to do all of their testing remotely. 34% expect an even mix of remote and in-person testing in 2023.

As remote testing and fast feedback are leveraged to meet the high demand for experience research, here’s what we’re learning about the industry today based on survey results.

Demand for experience research continues to increase

Organizations are investing more in experience research and seeing the value in their investment. Survey findings suggest a growing demand for experience research, with testing frequency nearly doubling in the ten years from 2013 to 2023.

Today, 61% of respondents say demand increased in the past year, with 4 in 10 reporting an increase in their experience research budget.

Subsequently, increases in budget and demand point to an increase in the speed of insight delivered. For example, in 2013, 16% of respondents said they tested daily and weekly. Ten years later, that number has nearly doubled to 30%.

See what experience research professionals have to say about demand increasing.

More teams see the value of experience research

An increase in demand and investment suggests organizations recognize the wide-ranging benefits of experience research. Survey findings show organizations use experience research to affect many variables, such as improving customer satisfaction, brand perception, evaluating business metrics, and reducing cost.

It’s no wonder that so many teams are interested in the possibilities of experience research. Participants agree that experience research actively improves customer satisfaction (75%), brand perception (68%), revenue (69%), speed of product adoption (63%), and cost reduction and mitigating risk (51%).

This year, 86% of respondents say diversity, equity, and inclusion are strong considerations in research and design projects. Experience research indeed permeates the walls of UX departments as other teams in the organization conduct research on their own, such as product management (14%), marketing (14%), market research (14%), and customer experience teams (18%).

A favorable opinion of experience research comes from across organizations, and the top, with 80% agreeing executives prioritize and invest in experience research.

See what experience research professionals have to say about the state of the industry.

The rise of ResearchOps suggests organizations are getting systematic with human insight

According to survey results, the discipline of user testing and user research has matured and grown in sophistication and size over the past decade.

In 2013, 64% of participants said they didn’t have a dedicated team for usability testing. 44% said the team had 2-5 people to work on user experience.

According to Nielsen Norman Group's UX Careers Survey, the average size of a UX team in 2020 was 14 people, with 40% of teams being between 2-10 members and 23% being between 11-20 members.

Fast forward to today. Thanks to a more significant emphasis on customer experience and research, 64% of respondents now have a dedicated ResearchOps team to help create and scale their processes.

Since many tasks are involved in the research process, like recruitment, resource management, and evangelization, organizations are developing ResearchOps teams to protect the time of their researchers to do their core work.

Spearheaded by Kate Towsey, Research Operations Manager at Atlassian, a ResearchOps online community defined the emerging discipline. However, what your ResearchOps function should do depends on your needs. While the biggest headache is recruitment, other tasks can include managing tools, documents, and processes; communicating findings to stakeholders; socializing events and activities; training the organization in research best practices and mindset; and engaging and ensuring the organization is aligned around existing insights.

82% of respondents say user feedback is embedded into their everyday processes and decision-making, proving experience research is becoming an integral part of organizations.

Evolving trends point to the importance of continuous customer interaction and value creation

According to trends prioritized over the past decade, the experience industry has rapidly evolved thanks to both technological advancements and shifts in the needs and expectations of customers. Ten years ago, trends were focused on how people interact with technology through devices, screens, and design. Back in 2013, the top three trends expected to impact the industry the most over the next five years were:

Multi-device interaction, such as smartwatch to phone or phone to tv (55.6%)
Touch interfaces like kiosks and screen checkouts (50%)
Global UX design, such as inclusive design or designing for emerging markets (39%)

While industry trends focus on similar things today, instead of phones and watches, we’ve moved on to VR/AR and wearable technology. Today’s trends emphasize how technology connects humans and adds value to our lives. In 2023, the top trends to influence the industry

Machine learning 70%
VR/AR 69%
AI 67%

Survey methodology and results

Looking back at the last ten years, we can see organizations discover the importance of staying connected with their customers as our lives become more complex and digitally reliant.

As we fast forward into the future, we’ll continue to see advancements in digital transformation, further accelerated by artificial intelligence and machine learning. What remains vital is building experiences that feel human—frictionless, simple, and convenient.

Having empathy for your customers should be a crucial part of your experience design strategy– organizations need to keep pace with changing customer expectations to meet their revenue, usage, and loyalty metrics and their goal of offering highly-competitive products and experiences.

Survey methodology

In this 10th annual Industry Survey, UserTesting and UserZoom asked 1,857 professionals worldwide* across various industries how their organizations are approaching customer and user experience and conducting CX/UX research.

*Countries represented in the survey