11 useful tools for UX Research

Updated on 5 Feb 2025  

Life of a UX researcher can be very challenging as UX research is a team sport. As a UX researcher, you need to have a great level of communication, engagement, multi tasking and work management skills. A typical day of a UX researcher can be very uncertain and have lots more surprises such as changes in the priority, pivoting the plans, cross functional team stakeholders engagements, planning the studies, running, analysis, reporting, readout, retrospection and sometimes helping the fellow research folks, a lot in a single day. Thanks to some amazing and helpful tools which can help make your life easier and systematic. 

UX Tools Market Insights by UXness - User research 

The 2024 survey reveals the following preferences for user research tools:

• Google Forms (58%): The most popular choice for collecting user feedback.
• User Interviews (46%): A top method for conducting qualitative research.
• UserTesting (32%): Popular for usability testing and video-based feedback.
• Survey Monkey (25%): Favored for structured survey creation.
• Typeform (21%): Valued for its user-friendly and interactive survey design.

Check UX Tools Market Trends Insights 2025

User Research tools

UserZoom (now UserTesting)

Check UserZoom> 

MeasuringU MUIQ 

Check MUIQ> 

Maze 

Check Maze > 

UXArmy

UXArmy is the go-to platform for teams to validate product ideas, innovate faster, and align with customer needs. With expert-level testing tools across websites, mobile apps, and prototypes, it enables you to gather quality insights seamlessly. Whether through unmoderated usability tests, user interviews, focus groups, surveys, card sorting or tree testing Tailored for product, marketing, and research teams, UXArmy gives your team the ability to test, analyze, and make collaborative, evidence-driven decisions—without the complex setup.

Check UXArmy >

Other tools: UXTesting, Zoom, SurveyMonkey, Typeform, Dscout, OptimalWorkshop  

Session schedule management

Managing the participants schedules & sessions can be a challenging task when you are involved in multiple studies or targeting multiple personas. Below tools can be helpful to make these tasks easier:

Calendly

Check Calendly> 

More: Airtable 

Recruitment management 

UserInterviews 

Check UserInterviews>

More: Respondent.io

DISCLOSURE: This post may contain affiliate links, meaning when you click the links and make a purchase, we receive a commission.

Data analysis 

Miro

Check Miro>

Dovetail 

Check Dovetail>

More:, Reframer, Reduct.video

Agile & development sync

Jira

Check Jira>

More: Sharepoint, Confluence

UX Analytics tools

Google Analytics 

Check Google Analytics>

Qualtrics

Check Qualtrics

More: Hotjar, Mouseflow ,ContentsSquare (previously Clicktale) 

Check UX Tools catalog >>

Useful resources:

https://www.userinterviews.com/ux-research-field-guide-chapter/user-research-tools

Check UX Tools catalog >>

Further readings

Upcoming UX Conferences to attend in 2025

Top Online Platforms to Learn UX & UI Design

How to Use AI logo creator to Create Custom Logo

10 Heuristic Principles – Jakob Nielsen’s (Usability Heuristics)

Design Thinking Workshops: Tips for Facilitators and Participants

Design Thinking Workshop - Complete Guide 

7 principles of UX design for innovative AI solutions 

The Gestalt Principles - IxDF

UX Tools Survey 2023 Results 

This survey is designed to gather insights into the preferences and utilization of UX and design tools among professionals and students in the field of User Experience (UX). Organised by UXNESS Edulabs, this marks the third consecutive year of the UX Tools survey campaign, aimed at comprehending the prevailing preferences and trends in the application of UX tools. This years UX Tools Survey is special since we added 'AI/Gen AI' Tools as a new category. 

Participants demographics 

This year we recorded a great mix of participants demographics with respect to role, years of experience and employer size. Top participants roles UX & product Designers 32% combined, UI Designers 15%, UX Researchers 10% etc. Overall 30% participants were above 5 years of experience and 41% participants between 2 to 8 years of experience. 17% participants were from employer size 5000+.

AI/Gen AI Tools 

• 58% participants (UX Professionals and students) feel ‘Strongly Agree’ and 'Agree' "AI/Gen AI has great potential in shaping the UX tools and their usage." [Average = 5.66, Mode = 7 (Strongly Agree)' 
• Top notable AI/Gen AI platforms being used by UX professionals: ChatGPT, Adobe Sensei, Uizard, Google Bard, Adobe Firefly.

Wireframing and Prototyping Tools
  

• Adobe XD, Figma were the top choice Wireframing & Prototyping tools by the participants continuously for the third year. 
• Top 5 Wireframing & Prototyping tools – Adobe XD (44%), Figma (43%), Microsoft Office (37%), UXPin (27%), Invision (14%). 
• Notable entries this years – Proto.io, Framer, Miro, ProtoPie etc. 

UI Design Tools  

• Adobe Photoshop, Figma were the top choice UI Design tools by the participants for this year. 
• Top 5 UI Design tools – Figma (49%), Adobe Photoshop (43%), Adobe XD (33%), Adobe Illustrator (30%), UXPin (19%). Notable entries this years – Proto.io, Framer, Freehand MX etc.

Digital Whiteboarding Tools 
 

• Adobe Illustrator, Figma were the top choice Digital Whiteboarding tools by the participants for this year. 
• Top 5 Digital Whiteboarding tools – Adobe Illustrator (36%), FigJam (34%), Adobe XD (32%), Miro (24%), Sketch (19%). Notable entries this years – Overflow.io, Invision Freehand, Whimsical, Flowmapp etc.

Design Handoff Tools  

• Figma, Sketch were the top choice Design handoff tools by the participants consecutively for the 2nd year. 
• Top 5 Design Handoff tools – Figma(47%), Sketch (25%), Invision (18%), ProtoPie (17%), Zeplin (15%). Notable entries – Abstract, Framer, Miro, Marvel etc.

User Research Tools  

• Google Forms, SurveyMonkey were the top choice User research tools by the participants. 
• Top 5 User Research tools – Google Forms (54%), SurveyMonkey(35%), User Interviews (27%), UserZoom (27%), Respondent.io (22%). Notable entries – ProvenByUsers, Typeform, UXTweak, Maze etc.

Behaviour Analytics Tools  

• Google analytics, HotJar were the top choice user behavior analytics tools by the participants consecutive for the 3rd year. 
• Top 5 Behavior Analytics tools – Google Analytics (54%), Hotjar (21%), Visual Website Optimizer (18%), Mixpanel (13%), Crazyegg (8%).

Virtual Collaboration Tools  

• Google Meet, Zoom were the top choice Virtual Collaboration tools by the participants. 
• Top 5 Virtual Collaboration tools – Google Meet (56%), Zoom(55%), Microsoft Teams (45%), Slack (31%), Skype (27%).

UX Tools Toolkit 2023 

Thank you for exploring the UX Tools Survey report (2023). If you find value in the Annual UX Tools Insights 2023, support UXness on Buy Me a Coffee to help us continue bringing impactful UX research and insights! 

Previous UX tools Survey

• 2024 UX Tools survey results 
• 2022 UX Tools survey results
• 2021 UX Tools survey results 

Special gift for readers 

Get 25% OFF or 3 MONTHS FREE IxDF Membership 

As UXNESS being official Education Partner Interaction Design Foundation (IxDF), brings you 25% discounts (3 Months Free) subscription on UX courses.

2022 - UX Tools Survey Results

2022 UX Tools Survey

2022 — UX Tools Survey by UXness 

After successfully completing the "UX Tools survey campaign - 2021", UXNess brings the annual UX design tools survey 2022 results(2nd UX Tools Survey campaign). 

This survey is aimed to learn about UX & design tools and preferences by UX professionals, students etc. This is 2nd consecutive year of UX Tools survey campaign run by UXNESS Edulabs to understand the preference of using UX tools.

Thanks to this years Sponsors & Partners

2021 - UX Tools Survey by UXness - Results

This study is targeted to learn about UX & design tools getting used by UX professionals, students, etc. It is an annual survey getting conducted by UXness Edulabs to understand the preference of using UX tools and bring insights. Please note, in this survey, we didn't ask for any personal details such as name, gender, contact details, employer name, location and email ID etc. 

Thanks to sponsors & Partners 

 

SURVEY RESULTS & INSIGHTS

Participants demographic 

In this campaign we have received the 400+ responses from across the globe. 38% participants were having role of 'UX Designers' and around 45% participants were having 5 years & more experience. 

Wireframing & Prototyping 

Figma, Adobe XD were the top choice wireframing & prototyping tools by the participants. 17% participants chose only Figma as ‘Wireframing & prototyping’ tool, whereas 9% selected Figma & Adobe XD together. 23% participants who use Figma were above 5 years of experience.

UI Design

Figma, Adobe XD were the top choice UI design tools by the participants. 23% participants chose only Figma as ‘UI Design’ tool. 12% participants selected Figma and Adobe XD together as UI design tool.

Digital whiteboarding 

Miro was ahead in this category of Digital whiteboarding with 51% participants choice. 24% participants who chose Miro were from company size 10000+ employees. 25% Miro users were from 5 to 8 years of experience. 29% participants who chose Figma were from company size below 100 employees.

Design handoff

Figma, Zeplin were the top choice Design handoff tools by the participants. 45% participants who selected ‘I do not use design handoff tools’ were from company size below 100 employees. 41% participants who use design handoff tools were above 5 years of experience.

User research 

Google forms and User Interviews were the top choice User research tools by the participants. 26% participants who chose User Interviews were above 10 years of experience. Surprisingly Miro tool became the choice of 23% participants in user research.

User behaviour analytics 

Google analytics and HotJar were the top choice user behavior analytics tools by the participants. Although, 38% participants do not use any behavior analytics tool. 58% participants who use behavior analytics tools were above 5 years of experience.

Virtual collaboration 

Zoom, Microsoft teams and Google Meet were the top choice virtual collaboration tools by the participants with marginal difference. Miro seems to be the trending tool for virtual collaboration.

Conclusion

UX folks use multiple tools for performing certain activities. 

In this study, Figma seems to be the most versatile tool which gets used for various activities such as wireframing, prototyping, digital whiteboarding and design handoff. 

We also found Miro not only getting used as a Digital whiteboarding and virtual collaboration platform but also getting used in User research. 

Thank you for exploring the UX Tools Survey report (2021). Please share your feedback, comments, suggestions, questions with us at team@uxness.in 

Thank you for exploring the UX Tools Survey report (2021). If you find value in the Annual UX Tools Insights 2021, support UXness on Buy Me a Coffee to help us continue bringing impactful UX research and insights! 

Previous UX tools Survey

• 2024 UX Tools survey results 
• 2023 UX Tools survey results
• 2022 UX Tools survey results

Sponsors & Partners