Summary
Research scope is defined by Layers of Experience: Customer Experience (CX) encompasses all company touchpoints, User Experience (UX) focuses on product interaction, and Micro-UX examines individual scenarios and tasks. Understanding which layer you are researching determines what conclusions you can draw and prevents over-generalization of findings.
Before you begin any research, you must define its scope. This involves identifying the Layer of Experience you will be focusing on, from the broadest business context to the most granular detail.
Think of a person's interaction with a company as a series of stacking layers, each defining a different level of scope.
The Three Layers
Customer Experience (CX)
This is the outermost, macro-level layer. Customer Experience encompasses every single touchpoint a customer has with your company:
- Marketing impressions
- Sales interactions
- Product usage
- Customer support
- Physical store visits
- Post-purchase communications
A problem at this layer, such as a broken promise from a marketing campaign, spans multiple touchpoints and requires cross-functional solutions.
User Experience (UX)
This meso-level layer is a subset of CX. User Experience refers specifically to a person's perceptions and responses from using a product, system, or service.
A problem at the UX level is typically contained within the product itself. The user struggles with a feature, cannot find something, or has a frustrating interaction, but the issue does not span the entire customer relationship.
Micro-UX
This is the most granular level, which can be broken down further:
Scenario / User Goal: The high-level human goal and the context behind it. For example, the user goal might be "to buy a birthday present for a friend." This describes what the person is trying to achieve, not what the system does.
Task / Step to the Goal: A specific, concrete step a user must take to achieve their goal. Examples include "search for a product" or "enter payment information." This sequence of tasks is also known as user flow.
System-Centric vs. Human-Centered Framing
To keep terminology clear, distinguish between the system's functions and the user's motivations:
| Framing | Example | Focus |
|---|---|---|
| System-centric use case | "User authenticates" | What the system does |
| Human-centered user goal | "Access my account securely" | What the person is trying to achieve |
The most important principle: Effective research is always designed around the user's natural objective (the Scenario), not the system's granular functions (the Tasks).
When you design research around system functions, you risk missing the forest for the trees. A user might successfully complete every individual task you test while still failing to achieve their actual goal, or achieving it in a way that feels painful.
For how different research disciplines map to these scope layers, see Research Disciplines: A Practitioner's Map.
Why Scope Matters
Understanding which layer you are researching is critical for two reasons:
1. It Determines What Conclusions You Can Draw
Research on a specific checkout task (Micro-UX) cannot make claims about the overall customer relationship (CX). If you tested whether users can enter payment information, you cannot conclude that customers are satisfied with the company as a whole.
Scope defines boundaries. Exceeding them produces misleading findings.
2. It Allows Clear Communication
When presenting research, explicitly stating scope prevents stakeholders from over-generalizing:
- "This research examined the mobile checkout flow [UX layer]. It does not assess the broader customer journey or marketing touchpoints [CX layer]."
- "We tested specific tasks within the onboarding sequence [Micro-UX]. Overall product satisfaction was not measured [UX layer]."
Research Targets
While the Layers of Experience define the depth of focus, Research Targets define the specific business area you are investigating. The principles and methods of research can be applied to many different targets:
Business Models and Products: Research can inform high-level strategy and examine entire business models. This includes investigating the experience with products, physical and digital interfaces, and services.
Marketing: You can research campaigns and communication to understand brand perception.
Internal Processes: Research can be directed inward to examine the Employee Experience (EX), including the usability of internal tools or the efficiency of company processes.
The Building Blocks are the same across targets; the subject changes.
For the experience components that scope decisions ultimately target, see Components of Experience.
Cross-Cutting Issues
Some issues are foundational and cut across all layers. Accessibility is the primary example.
An accessibility issue means some users cannot access the product effectively due to a disability or situational limitation. This impacts their experience at every level, from the broadest CX (they cannot be a customer at all) to the most granular Micro-UX (individual interactions are impossible or painful).
Accessibility is not a feature to be addressed at one layer; it is a foundational quality that affects the entire hierarchy.
For the methods that operate within the chosen scope, see Building Blocks and Core Methods.
Applying Scope in Practice
When planning research:
1. Identify the layer
What level of experience does your research question address?
- Broad customer journey → CX
- Product interaction → UX
- Specific task or flow → Micro-UX
2. Define the target
What business area are you investigating?
- A specific product or feature
- A marketing campaign
- An internal process
3. Set explicit boundaries
What is in scope? What is explicitly out of scope? Document this in your research plan.
4. Choose appropriate methods
Different layers may require different approaches:
- CX research often requires journey mapping across touchpoints
- UX research typically uses UX tests and interviews
- Micro-UX research might focus on specific task flows with detailed metrics
5. Communicate scope with findings
When reporting results, remind stakeholders what you studied and what you did not. Scope statements are not disclaimers, they are essential context for interpreting findings correctly.
Scope and Strategic Research
You will sometimes hear the term "Strategic Research", research that moves beyond standard generative or evaluative work to deliver foresight by synthesizing insights across disciplines.
While the term fits the Layers of Experience model (highlighting a shift away from single tasks toward the entire customer journey), it has one issue: it implies all other research is "unstrategic."
But when would you ever do something deliberately unstrategic? A great Customer Experience is built from the ground up. Making a core task usable is deeply strategic, it is prerequisite for everything above it.
Scope is not about importance. Research at every layer matters. The question is what conclusions each layer can support.
For how scope decisions connect to the broader research framework, see The Applied Research Framework: How Everything Fits Together.