10 Powerful Tools I Use for Secondary Research
Before transitioning to UX research, I did market and web research for over three years. The skills I developed during this time have been invaluable in my move to UX research.
One of the most critical aspects of conducting effective UX research is to thoroughly understand the problem. Doing this requires leveraging a combination of stakeholder interviews, keyword research, and secondary research. There are several tools and strategies that help me do better research. Here are some:
Boolean Commands
When using search engines like Google, most people just type in the words or terms they want. However, for more targeted research, boolean commands can yield lethal results. These commands not only work for search engines, but also for social media platforms such as Twitter and LinkedIn. Some common boolean commands I use can be found in the image below:
Wayback Machine (free)
The Wayback Machine is a valuable archive tool that allows you to view a web page as it looked at a specific time. For example, if you wanted to see how a specific company has enhanced its website over the past two years, you could use Wayback Machine to get a snapshot of what the webpage looked like two years ago. However, it’s worth noting that not all web pages are stored in the Wayback Machine’s archives. Here is a snapshot of what Microsoft’s website looked like in February 2005 from The Wayback Machine:
Waldo (free)
Waldo is a tool I use for targeted research. It is difficult to explain how Waldo works, but the most accurate way to describe it is as a tool you don’t know you need until you start using it. It lets you easily skim through search results and categorizes them by datapoints, emails, links, and more.
For example, if you wanted to find statistics or data about a particular topic, you could easily use Waldo to instantly see relevant figures mentioned across several sources. Waldo also makes it easy to view search results from a curated category of sites, such as technology news.
Another cool thing Waldo does is it shows you frequently cited websites or sources across all search results, making it easy to find and go to the primary source. However, it can be buggy sometimes, and the user experience could be improved.
In the image below, I used Waldo to find statistics and data that prove the value of highlighting earned media on a website.
Keywords Everywhere (free)
Keywords Everywhere is an essential tool for Keyword Research. It can only be used as a browser extension. I use this tool to gain insights into user search behavior as it shows a list of terms people search for around a query or topic. I also use it to analyze search trends and identify common pain points or problems users are experiencing. I wrote a longer article about how I use it and its benefits, which you can check out here.
Copy AI (paid)
As its name suggests, Copy AI helps me write better copy. I mainly use it for short-form copy around product recommendations. By doing so, I can make my recommendations compelling and engaging. I also rely on it for website CTA suggestions, product descriptions, and more. The impressive thing about Copy AI is it allows you to choose a tone you want the copy to be in. It also provides you with different copy recommendations to choose from.
Isitdownrightnow (free)
Isitdownrightnow makes it easy to know if a website is down for everyone. This might not seem like a valuable tool to most people. However, as someone who lives in Nigeria, I’ve found that a lot of websites don’t grant access to people in this part of the world due to security concerns. In addition, internet issues are a given. In some cases, I’m unable to tell if a website isn’t working because I’m in Nigeria, I have internet issues, or the website is just down. If it’s the latter, isitdownrightnow makes it easy for me to know.
12FT Ladder (free)
12ft Ladder allows me to view articles behind paywalls. As someone who reads a lot of articles and does a lot of web research, it is inevitable to come across articles hidden behind paywalls. As it is unrealistic for me to subscribe to every paid publication, 12ft Ladder comes to my rescue.
Convertcase (free)
Convertcase makes it easy for me to convert any word or term to sentence case, lower case, upper case, title case, capitalized case, and more. This is another tool that might seem unnecessary but isn’t. This tool is particularly useful when writing research plans, guides, and other documents with many subheadings.
Wordtune (free & paid)
Wordtune is another AI tool I use for editing and writing. It helps rewrite copy by expanding it, shortening it, or simply changing the tone. Similar to Copy AI, it allows you to choose a tone — albeit with fewer tone options. Lately, I’ve been trying to make my research reports more visual (less text), however, I still create long-form research documents for stakeholders that like to dig deep and read. Wordtune makes sure my writing is of high quality.
ChatGPT (free & paid)
Words cannot describe how valuable ChatGPT is. For me, it is the most exciting thing since sliced bread. ChatGPT is suitable for unlimited use cases. I use it to create proto-personas before creating the actual personas. I also use it for keyword research, thematic analysis, suggestions on interpreting data, and much more. I honestly could write a 300-page book about how I use ChatGPT at different research stages.
There are a lot more tools and strategies I use. I might write a follow-up article to cover even more tools I use and recommend for web research, market research, and UX research.
