When designing a qualitative study with users, a question that often arises is: “how many participants are needed?” Often, the most common answer heard is “5 users are enough.” However, the answer is not as obvious as it seems, and the question itself is not that simple. In this article, we will explore in-depth the question of how many participants are needed in a qualitative study, reviewing the most common theories, and describing how researchers approach it in our day-to-day work. Nielsen and the 5 users rule. The “5 users rule” is one of the best-known, and also controversial, rules i ..read more

If you’re a millennial like me, you probably remember all of the crucial scenes from Harry Potter – whether you like it or not, the truth is that seeing them and hearing about them was just part of our lives. One of them always comes to mind – the scene with the Sorting Hart. Just to refresh your memory (or explain to you what it’s about if you’ve lived under a rock): young wizards come to the school called Hogwarts, some teacher puts an old-but-very-magical hat on their heads and the hat itself decides which out of the four different houses they should belong to. As a UX researcher, it’s al ..read more

Talking about recruitment costs is inevitable when tackling a user research project. For some, these costs are the most important factor when deciding whether or not to undertake research. However, in general, these costs are reasonable and justified, especially considering the impact that research can have on our business. It’s understandable that some may be surprised to have to pay several hundred euros to interview a small group of people. Isn’t it as simple as stopping someone on the street and asking them? Sometimes it can be that simple, but in many cases it is not. To obtain reliable ..read more

The 10 heuristics defined by Jakob Nielsen and Rolf Molich are good practices that can be applied to interface design to evaluate its usability. These are principles based on the observation of real users and the problems they face when using any type of interface. They are generic guidelines which have been used for many years (the first version is from 1989 and the latest update from 2005) but, even so, they continue to be a valid instrument to detect usability problems today. If you are interested in finding out more about how to use heuristic principles to evaluate the usability ..read more

The first and most important thing when we do an online survey is to be clear about what we can get from it; what is the purpose of surveying at this time and with these users? Mainly, surveys serve to: Discover. In the early stages of design or redesign, surveys can reveal the opinions and experiences of our users on specific topics. These results can inform further qualitative research to deepen the findings.  “Data can provide those larger-scale “Hey we notice this…” observations, and we then use qualitative methods to dive deeper and explore what might be going on and why.” Greg M ..read more

The 10 heuristics defined by Jakob Nielsen and Rolf Molich are good practices that can be applied to interface design to evaluate its usability. These are principles based on the observation of real users and the problems they face when using any type of interface. They are generic guidelines which have been used for many years (the first version is from 1989 and the latest update from 2005) but, even so, they continue to be a valid instrument to detect usability problems today. If you are interested in finding out more about how to use heuristic principles to evaluate the usability ..read more

The COVID pandemic has changed our lives – we started behaving differently in public spaces, thinking twice about visiting older relatives, relying on technology even more for social contact… Some of these new behaviors disappeared as we began to feel a bit safer; others are here to stay. March 2020 brought changes also for our industry – the outbreak of the pandemic changed the way in which ux practitioners do research. In-person techniques were put aside and researchers started to run their studies remotely. Here in Teacup Lab we can say we’re the lucky ones – in spite of having relied hea ..read more

A heuristic analysis is a usability evaluation method that, contrary to usability tests, does not involve real users directly. Instead, it is based on a list of guidelines or good practices called heuristics. During a heuristic analysis, the examiner, typically a user experience and usability expert, reviews the interface and determines whether or not it complies with established heuristic principles. What heuristics to use? The 10 heuristic principles of Jakob Nielsen and Rolf Molich are for many the standard on which to base their reviews since they were the first to be published and ..read more

The 10 heuristics defined by Jakob Nielsen and Rolf Molich are good practices that can be applied to interface design to evaluate its usability. These are principles based on the observation of real users and the problems they face when using any type of interface. They are generic guidelines, which have been used for many years (the first version is from 1989 and the latest update from 2005), but even so they continue to be a valid instrument today to detect usability problems. If you are interested in finding out more about how to use heuristic principles to evaluate the usability of a ..read more

One day, when I was five years old, my dad took me to his work. Stupid idea, you might think? Well, yes. As you can easily imagine, I was not very impressed with the never-ending rows of similar-looking offices, serious people in a constant rush, and coffee machines with no hot chocolate option available. Obviously, I started to moan. A thing I’m proud to say I was pretty good at.  My poor dad, desperate to entertain me somehow, grabbed one of the markers and began drawing on the board. I sat there in disbelief. He had never drawn a thing in his life. But on this random Friday of 1997 t ..read more