The industry of UX is getting bigger and bigger, and the list of UX agencies is getting longer. This is great news, but finding the best UX research agency can be challenging for companies in need. To help you find the right match we collected the best UX research consultancies you can work with. 

You can shorten your search by reaching out to UX studio. Our team has everything you need to boost your business and have a truly unique platform.

Top UX Research Agencies:

• UX studio
• Nielsen Norman Group
• Experiment Zone
• Guidea
• Adam Fard UX Studio
• Qubstudio
• Loop UX

1 – UX studio

Award-winning UX design agency, helping businesses to create impactful platforms and seamless user experiences for all industries.

UX studio is a UX design firm specializing in user experience research, founded by Dávid Pásztor in 2013. This specialization means that we have a deeper understanding of user needs that can help businesses make user-centric decisions. 

Our usability research expertise can help you identify pain points, user needs, and opportunities for better UX solutions. That’s exactly what you’ll get from our actionable insights, user interface analysis, design evaluations, and recommendations for better user experience – so you can take your product to the next level.

We offer a wide range of user research services:

• UX audit,
• Expert review,
• Usability tests and User interviews,
• Persona and User Journey creation,
• Value Proposition Validation, and
• Competitor Analysis.

Since our first days, we collaborated on more than 300 projects to validate ideas and features, create personas and user journeys, and created research repositories. This helped our clients to avoid making designs and digital platforms based on assumptions. From many clients, we’re proud to say that we worked with names such as Netflix, Google, HBO, Zignaly, and IncQuery Labs.

Our diverse team consists of 60 dedicated UX designers and UX research consultants with diverse backgrounds, such as sociology, psychology, or human-computer interactions. We can carry out any user experience research and take the lead in guiding and supporting your team through the process. 

If you’re looking for UX research consultants to help with any UX challenges, drop us a line, and our team will set up a call with you. Regardless of your company size or location, we’re ready to jump in to help create your best digital platform possible. 

2 – Nielsen Norman Group

NN/g is well-known for its user-centered approach with 25 years of experience behind them.

NN/g is an American user experience and UX research company. Founded in 1998, in the early days of UX, by Jakob Nielsen and Don Norman, who are pioneers in this field.

Don was the first who ever to use the term user experience as a job title. He is also the author of The Design of Everyday Things, published in 2002, which is one of the most essential books in the world of design. 

Jacob Nielsen, a famous UX writer himself as well, published his book, Usability Engineering in 1993 – early writing about how to do usability tests, avoid usability issues and improve product quality with cost-effective methods. 

Both of these writings have been cited in thousands of articles.  

The UX research consulting earned a global name with its research expertise, educational content, training, and UX consultancy services. 

They mainly focus on

• Audits,
• Expert reviews,
• Educational contents,
• Trainings,
• and UX consultancy services.

The company always observes how real users interact with the platforms they’re testing. Their insights help clients improve UX design and user interface on their platforms.

Over the past years, the company worked with clients such as National Geographic, Sony, American Express, and eBay.

3 – Experiment Zone 

Experiment Zone is a UX research consultancy focusing on eCommerce businesses and websites, Saas platforms, and conversion rate optimization.

AJ Davis, a user experience strategy expert, founded Experiment Zone in 2017 in Austin, Texas. Before starting the UX research company, she led optimization strategy projects and was the lead UX researcher on the Google Optimize product. 

Experiment Zone helps identify opportunities, evaluate ideas, and create a seamless user experience for their client’s target users. Their mission and goal are to get the most value out of platforms and increase sales for businesses with the help of user experience research and data-driven decisions. 

Their main services:

• UX research
• Customer Discovery
• Usability Evaluation
• Website Audit
• Navigation Optimization
• Conversion Strategy & Testing

Experiment Zone not only helps businesses to identify opportunities for improvement and increase CRO but also created a tool for research repository, Hypothesis Library. This platform helps to ditch the struggle of spreadsheets for collecting data.

4 – Guidea

Guidea is a UX firm helping businesses to carry out projects from their idea phase until the final product launch.

Founded in 2005 by Theresa Neil, Guidea is a Woman-Owned Small Business (WOSB) – a national certification that verifies that a company is at least 51% woman/women-owned and operated. The company has teams across the US, Canada, and Europe, with headquarters in Austin, Texas, and an additional office in San Francisco.

Their UX researchers and designers have a depth of understanding, allowing them to help their clients make their first ideas come to life and support them along the way until the final product launch. 

Guidea’s fundamental belief is that good design matters to the world, and a human-centered approach is necessary to reach this. Collaborating closely with their clients and teammates, their mission is to have a positive impact on people’s everyday lives.

Guidea main industry focus is FinTech, Health Innovation, Data Science, Education, and Ops tools. In these industries, they easily navigate through challenging client needs with their services, such as:

• UX research,
• UX audit,
• Usability tests,
• Validations,
• and Workshops.

Industry publications often refer to their usability research consultants as visionary and innovative. Their solutions not only serve their product’s target users but makes revenue growth for their clients. 

5 – Adam Fard UX Studio

Adam Fard is a Berlin-based agency well known for its research-based UX approach and great knowledge-sharing content.

Our list of top UX research agencies wouldn’t be whole without the Adam Fard UX Studio, founded in 2016.

Adam Fard’s mission is to integrate design in companies’ core and to make an impact with impeccable experiences and user interfaces. They educate, optimize, and advocate design methods to bring UX closer to business and people’s lives.

The user experience design company’s team is selected and handpicked from professional researchers with PhDs and senior product designers who can work with a 6-8 hour overlap with EU and US time.

Mainly focusing on EdTech, FinTech, and SaaS, they can help your research needs with: 

• UX Audits,
• Persona creation,
• Competitive Analysis,
• User Interviews and Usability Testing,
• Stakeholder interviews.

By understanding target user behavior and reducing cognitive load, the Adam Fard supported companies with their solutions, like T-Mobile, Samsung, and Chipy.

6 – Qubstudio

Qubstudio is a well-known Digital Product Design and Research business from L’viv, Ukraine, focusing on research and design-thinking methodologies.

Since the company’s foundation in 2006, Qubstudio’s team has grown into 75 professionals, expanding from Product Designers and UX Researchers to Content Writers, Strategists, and Project Managers. 

The agency’s mission is “to help businesses put people at the center of their innovations”. Their most important tools are research, design and agile thinking, and deep empathy. These make sure that they can stay true to their mission statement. 

The company’s most experience lies with businesses in the FinTech, Logistics & Transportation, Healthcare, EdTech, and Entertainment industries.

Qubstudio aims to achieve more than simply designing screens: they create tailored UX with a data-based and user-centered approach.

Among research needs, they cover: 

• UX/UI Audit 
• Market Research
• User Research
• Product Vision & Strategy

With more than 200 successful Digital Product and Research cases behind them, the consultancy, from time to time, also works on advertising, marketing, business services, and consumer products projects. 

7 – Loop UX

A Full-Service UX Research Agency specializing in international user research with a skilled and diverse team.

The user experience research firm, founded in 2011, focuses on customized and exclusive research projects and delivers actionable insights for its clients. Although they’re based in Copenhagen, they have a global network to support businesses worldwide. 

Loop UX has a diverse and skilled research and consultant expert team, bringing different perspectives and experiences to the table – which is key for having an international and all-inclusive service palette. 

The company’s usability research toolbox contains

• In-home Interviews
• Focus Group Interviews
• Usability Tests
• User Interviews
• Intercept Interviews
• Simultaneous translation
• Workshops

Their all-in and only user research services have already helped companies such as Nokia, Sony, and Momondo.

Is UX Research in Demand?

The short answer is: yes, very much so! 

UX research is an ever-growing field. It speeds up your product development process by eliminating assumptions, collecting feedback, and having data to make design and strategy decisions. Businesses investing in research have the upper hand in introducing already tested digital products to their market faster and with less cost.  

How to Choose UXR Consultants?

When selecting a research consultancy, you should consider factors like:

Preparations and Project Plans

Most agencies will talk with you first to discover your needs and create a tailored plan for you. First impressions, the team’s research methods and approach can help you to get a feeling about the agency’s mindset. 

When you reach out to us, our team replies within 24 hours (tops) to discuss your needs. After that, you will receive our proposal with a tailed project plan, reviewed by our UX leadership team.

Timezone and Location

For most types of UX research and teams, working outside their timezone is standard nowadays. However, ideally, this shouldn’t be more than 6-8 hours. If you are choosing an agency located elsewhere or not in your timezone, make sure they’re flexible and have experience in remote work.  

At UX studio, our team worked with clients from the US, UK, Europe, South Africa, and Asia. Almost every project we do is carried out remotely with great success.  

Portfolio, references, testimonials

Checking out portfolios, references, customer testimonials, or previous work collections is excellent for evaluating UX design and research firms.

If you would like a sneak peek of our work, check out our Case Studies and testimonials on our website. If you’re interested in more details, book a free consultation with us to get more insight into our work and capabilities.

Cost and value

Costs and budgeting for UX services are crucial for every business. Agencies usually work with fixed daily rates for which they give you full-time experts, focusing only on your project. 

When you’re in your selection phase, you should consider what you will get for your investment by checking:

• What’s their proposed project timeline?
• Are their methods the best fit for your needs?
• How deep are their understanding and experience?
• How flexible are they?
• What exact deliverables will you get?

Searching for a UX Research Agency? 

At UX studio, we’re a trusted UX design agency specializing in UX research. In the past decade, we helped companies have better platforms, from startups to enterprises worldwide like Netflix, Google, and Zignaly. Still not sure? Let’s talk! We’re happy to help figure things out.