The 9 best UX research repositories

Managing research is a complex task that requires attention to numerous details, from organization to cross-functional stakeholder alignment. To keep track of these details and streamline workflows, many teams rely on a UX research repository. But with so many research repositories to choose from, it can be challenging to determine which is best for your team’s needs.

The 9 best research repositories

1. Airtable

2. Asana

3. Monday.com

4. Notion

5. ClickUp

6. Productboard

7. Aha!

8. Aurelius

9. Condens

To help you choose a research repository, we’ve researched a variety of tools to provide you with a comprehensive ranking and breakdown of each platform’s features.

How to choose the best research repository

While the best research repository tool will depend on your team’s unique needs, these features are universally beneficial:

• Ease of use: It’ll take some time for your team to adapt to a new tool. However, be mindful of platforms with incredibly steep learning curves. An approachable interface and guided tutorials are must-haves in a research repository.

• Searchability: Sure, a tool might be able to store your data, but how easy is it to access it? Advanced search features help you quickly find what you need and tag new items. That can make all the difference in a research repository. 

• Export capabilities: Once you have all your details in one place, you need to export that information seamlessly. Can you export into comprehensive reports? Or share reports with stakeholders who don’t have full shared access to the tool?

• Attachments: If a research repository doesn’t support attachments for external documents, it’s not the one. All documents need to live in one place, without a million new tabs open, and with support for different file formats.

• Collaboration and sharing: A great research repository has features like chat, notifications, and tagging abilities so discussions can live alongside the data.

• Data visualization: Different stakeholders need different looks into the data. Customizable views ensure every member of your team can visualize data for their specific purpose.

• Integrations: To prevent silos, the right research repository should offer integrations with other systems so you can connect all your items and workflows.

1. Airtable

Airtable is a connected apps platform that empowers users to create apps using shared company data. One such use case is a UX research repository. It can store and organize large amounts of data making it a smart choice for companies with scalability in mind. 

Other research repository tools only support UX teams with data management, but Airtable can be used as a research repository that connects the entire product ops workflow, from project intake to completion. And since neighboring teams like product management can also run their operations on Airtable, everyone has access to the studies that can inform product strategy. Since Airtable isn’t just a point solution, you don’t have to compromise your workflows to fit the tool.

Other features that make Airtable an excellent choice include:

• Interactive relational database: Airtable creates a centralized place where you can easily discover previously conducted research, understand the status of existing work, and request resources. 

• Drag-and-drop interface designer: Easy-to-use drag-and-drop functionality let you build real-time visualizations and dashboards so stakeholders understand timelines and project statuses. You can also take advantage of different visualizations to easily report on the status of your work.

• Flexible data model for diverse use cases: Airtable allows you to build a repository that suits your workflow perfectly or pick from a variety of templates. You can structure and connect any type of data, not just projects and tasks, and connect use cases across the product development lifecycle. 

• Scale to 250K records: Airtable can handle 100K records per table and 250K per base on Enterprise, so even the largest orgs can scale their work confidently.

• Dynamic views: All your data lives in one place, in real-time with Airtable, and you can visualize it with customizable views for each stakeholder.

• Data sync with critical business systems: You can also use External Sync to connect Airtable to other platforms and databases your team uses so your product workflows stay connected. Say goodbye to silos and hello to ultimate collaboration. 

Reviews:

• G2: 4.6 stars; 2,120 reviews

• Capterra: 4.7 stars; 1,762 reviews

2. Asana

Asana is a project management tool that can also serve as a research repository. One of its most significant strengths is its ability to break down complex projects into smaller, more manageable tasks. This ability, paired with its collaboration features, is especially useful for researchers that work on large, long-term projects.

However, Asana heavily focuses on project and task data, not the data describing the objects or assets you work on, like metadata. So while you can store data on the platform, it’s not as equipped as other tools to organize and manage information outside of specific tasks or projects.

Asana’s search features also let UX team members easily find specific files within the repository. Asana is a highly structured tool, making it best for smaller teams who don’t need as many customization options and don’t need to present their findings in a bunch of different ways.

Here are a few of Asana’s best features:

• Task management: Keeping track of progress, assigning responsibilities, and setting deadlines is a cinch with Asana’s task management features—perfect forreducing miscommunication or duplicated efforts.

• Advanced search view: Asana helps you access common searches with its saved searches feature. It also has comprehensive tagging abilities so you can find and sort projects and files easier. 

• Collaboration: Asana makes collaboration simple with mentions, comments, and notifications. You can also connect multiple teams so information flows between marketing, UX, dev, and more. 

Reviews:

• G2: 4.3 stars; 9,292 reviews

• Capterra: 4.5 stars; 11,961 reviews

3. Monday.com

Monday.com is a project management and collaboration tool that can also be used as a research repository. The platform has a great visual interface that allows researchers to customize their project management workflows in a flash. 

That said, it may be better suited for smaller teams or projects, as it can only store 20,000 items, so it’s not as scalable as other tools like Airtable that can store upwards of 100,000 items. 

Here are a few of the platform’s most notable features:

• Customizable workflows: Monday.com’s workflows are flexible and allow for easy adaptation to processes or priorities. You can create custom fields that you can load configuration data from external sources into and reuse throughout other boards. 

• Automation: In Monday.com, you can create customizable automations for workflows and notifications, or choose from pre-made “recipes.” For instance, if you use Monday.com’s forms to gather user research, the data will automatically populate in a new workspace ready for you to review.

• Supports multimedia files: Monday.com supports a wide variety of multimedia file formats, so your team can upload every sort of documentation to the repository, from JPEGs to XLSX files. 

Reviews:

• G2: 4.7 stars; 7,767 reviews

• Capterra: 4.6 stars; 3,800 reviews

4. Notion

Notion is a comprehensive workplace tool that can work as a research repository. Its flexibility and customizable interface make it an attractive choice for teams who require a high degree of control over their workflows. This platform is best for teams looking for a one-size-fits-all productivity suite, as it aims to replace both free-form text documents and structured data.

Here are a few features Notion does well:

• Customization: Notion’s databases are highly customizable, allowing researchers to create fields that fit their specific needs, such as project status, author name, or methodology.

• Access permissions: Notion’s permission filters allow you to control access to data, ensuring sensitive information is only visible to authorized team members. You can also assign different levels of access and the track who has viewed or edited files.

• AI search functionality: Notion’s AI-based search functionality makes it easy to find information. 

Reviews:

• G2: 4.7 stars; 1,855 reviews

• Capterra: 4.7 stars; 1,478 reviews

5. ClickUp

ClickUp is a productivity tool that can double as a repository. It offers a comprehensive suite of features including task management, note-taking, calendar integration, and file sharing. UX teams can customize all of these features to meet their specific needs (like connecting a product launch calendar or format your notes with color-coding or sketches). 

Some of ClickUp’s notable features include:

• Automations: ClickUp has pre-built automation recipes and the ability to create custom automation workflows to speed up efficiency. For instance, you could set up email automation to notify product managers when a team member is ready for feedback on a piece of UX research.

• Collaboration features: ClickUp Docs feature shareable whiteboards, comments, file-sharing, and real-time editing, making it easy to work with team members on a project.

• Customizable aspects: The platform allows researchers to use the tool in a way that best fits their workflow with the ability to create custom templates, task lists, and project hierarchy. 

Reviews:

• G2: 4.7 stars; 6,600 reviews

• Capterra: 4.7 stars; 3,633 reviews

6. Productboard

Productboard is a product management tool that’s great for organizing and managing UX data. Features include shared boards and team activity tracking, and strong automation functionality—providing users with insights automation that categorizes and routes incoming data to the right places, so teams can spend more time on strategic activities. 

It’s optimized for product management uses, making it better for teams that don’t require a lot of back-and-forths with cross-functional stakeholders since only product teams can benefit from the tool. Additionally, Productboard only allows for one level of grouping and hierarchy so it may be difficult to capture work between sprints and high-level themes.

Other features Productboard offers include:

• UX-optimized feedback-oriented features: Productboard is optimized for UX and product teams to collaborate. Forums and the ability to tie feedback to specific features can help cut down on any collaborative confusion.

• Analytics: Productboard’s analytics tools allow you to track and analyze findings over time, identify key trends, and measure the impact of insights on product development.

• Organization: You can categorize, search, and filter information based on various criteria like type, customer segment, or phase, enabling organization and group research with ease. 

Reviews:

• G2: 4.3 stars; 216 reviews

• Capterra: 4.7 stars; 140 reviews

7. Aha!

While Aha! is primarily product roadmap software, it can easily double as a repository. Aha! enables teams to centralize documentation and insights so it’s easy to access, share, and collaborate all in one place. It empowers teams to store and analyze data, which can then be used to inform product strategy and decision-making.

Here are a few features that Aha! offers:

• Grouping: Aha! has a feature that groups similar items based on custom-defined rules, enabling you to organize and analyze more efficiently. 

• Collaboration: Aha! offers tools like collaborative reporting, voting, shared notebooks, comments, and mentions to make it easy for researchers to work together on a project and share insights with the rest of the team.

• Analytics: The platform offers analytic features like feedback trends as well as custom reports, charts, and dashboards. These features allow you to visualize and analyze information in a variety of ways to better identify patterns and inform product strategy and decisions.

Reviews:

• G2: 4.3 stars; 223 reviews

• Capterra: 4.7 stars; 492 reviews

8. Aurelius

Aurelius is a point solution research repository designed to help capture, organize, and analyze qualitative data. It can create and tag notes on data, quotes, and insights as well as collaborative with team members. 

Aurelius focuses its feature set on qualitative data, making it an ideal solution for those who primarily work with non-numerical documentation such as interviews or survey responses. 

Other notable features include:

• Search features: The platform has advanced search capabilities with keyword analysis, a tagging system, and assigns categorical codes to data points to automatically group them based on common themes. 

• Visualization tools: Create affinity diagrams and collections for key insights with the ability to drag and drop notes and group items into themes with the Analysis Board. 

• Intuitive sharing options: Aurelius makes it easy to link data, insights, attach multimedia files like voice and video clips, link key insights to recommendations, and share insights that are linked to notes to create a complete story. 

Reviews:

• G2: N/A

• Capterra: 4.3 stars; 13 reviews

9. Condens

Condens is also a research repository software with key features like the ability to upload and store multimedia files. It also offers collaborative coding tools that let teams work together on coding and analysis. However, it does lack a few important collaboration features, like voting and reactions.

Some of the key features Condens brings to the table are: 

• Automatic transcription: Condens can automatically transcribe any audio or video files you upload, which can free up a lot of time and make notes more accessible.

• AI search features: AI-assisted tagging and filtering capabilities make it easy to locate specific data points. 

• Strong security measures: It has a robust permissions system, the latest protection regulations including GDPR and HIPAA, two-factor authentication, and encrypted storage. 

Reviews:

• G2: 4.8 stars; 42 reviews

• Capterra: N/A

Research repository FAQ

Here are a few of the most common questions people have about research repositories.

What is a research repository?

A research repository is a centralized location where teams store, organize, and share data and findings. It’s like having a shared online filing cabinet for your team’s papers, data sets, and other related documents.

Why do you need a research repository?

A research repository serves as a centralized place to find and access data on a certain field or topic. It’s a valuable resource for UX teams to share knowledge and collaborate on findings.

How do you create a research repository?

Follow these steps to create a research repository: 

1. Assign team members to manage the repository.

2. Create an organizational system for your repository.

3. Import and tag data. 

4. Analyze data and report findings. 

5. Tag insights within the repository. 

The right research repository can be a game-changer for UX and research teams looking to store, organize, and collaborate. While other tools have their advantages, choose a platform that streamlines your workflows.