Writing user research reports

My guide to creating helpful outputs that make sense

As a user researcher, one of your most important roles is sharing what you discover. I’ve written before about how we share research more generally, but in this article I want to focus on reports.

A research report is a document that contains all the juicy data and descriptions from a research project. It covers how the study was set up and conducted, and breaks down all the discoveries made by the research team.

With our limited attention spans, getting someone to read a report in full is a difficult task. But that doesn’t mean that reports are pointless. Documents that cover all the details are great for referencing as and when you need them. They’re also good evidence for showing the value of user research.

But it can be tricky to know where to begin when writing one. When I was starting out I got my templates from usability.gov. Now that I’ve had years’ worth of practice, I wanted to explain the steps I take to make my own reports.

Understanding the research process

Like any good story, a research project has a solid start, middle, and end. Understanding this framework is always important for knowing how to structure your reports.