Observing the User Experience: A Practitioner's Guide to User Research 2nd Revised edition Edition
Author(s): Mike Kuniavsky (Author), Elizabeth Goodman (Author), Andrea Moed (Author)
Publisher: Morgan Kaufmann
Publication Date: 24 Sept. 2012
Edition: 2nd Revised edition
Language: English
Print length: 664 pages
ISBN-10: 9780123848697
ISBN-13: 0123848695
Book Description
The gap between who designers and developers imagine their users are, and who those users really are can be the biggest problem with product development. “Observing the User Experience” will help you bridge that gap to understand what your users want and need from your product, and whether they’ll be able to use what you’ve created. Filled with real-world experience and a wealth of practical information, this book presents a complete toolbox of techniques to help designers and developers see through the eyes of their users. It provides in-depth coverage of 13 user experience research techniques that will provide a basis for developing better products, whether they’re Web, software or mobile based. In addition, it’s written with an understanding of how software is developed in the real world, taking tight budgets, short schedules, and existing processes into account. This title: explains how to create usable products that are still original, creative, and unique; is a valuable resource for designers, developers, project managers – anyone in a position where their work comes in direct contact with the end user; provides a real-world perspective on research and provides advice about how user research can be done cheaply, quickly and how results can be presented persuasively; and, gives readers the tools and confidence to perform user research on their own designs and tune their software user experience to the unique needs of their product and its users.
Editorial Reviews
Review
You’ll like Mike Kuniavsky’s broad selection of practical user research methods–presented clearly and usably. And you’ll like his timing too: while recent books focus on the whys of user experience, many are now ready for the hows. Observing the User Experience does just that: It demonstrates how to discover what is in users’ heads, and suggests how we might balance those considerations with business objectives.–Lou Rosenfeld, co-author of Information Architecture for the World Wide Web Wow! So many of the user experience research methods we have refined and used over the years are now organized and described in detail in one book. It is an essential reference for any practitioner. –Christian Rohrer, Manager, User Experience Research, Yahoo! Observing the User Experience provides the reader with a wealth of information. We now have a guideline that can be used to gain insight into those mysterious figures…our users. Knowing who our users are, what they need, and how they might use the things we build for them is the most important part of any product development cycle. Mike Kuniavsky’s focus in this book is on the user experience as it relates to online interfaces, but ANYONE who builds ANYTHING can gain valuable knowledge from reading this book. –David Hoffer, Senior User Interface Designer, CTB/McGraw-Hill I love Observing the User Experience! This comprehensive guide approaches user experience research like never before, and is well-written, easy-to-read, and quite user friendly. It provides a real-world example of how research is done in just enough detail that it can both inform a CEO of the role of usability research as well as introduce methodology to someone starting out in the field. Bravo! –Kelly Braun, Usability Manager, Ebay Mike Kuniavsky offers many practical procedures to conduct and analyze the results of your own custom usability tests. He shares lots of personal stories from the trenches, many of which are painfully ironic. The hope is that his knowledge will help spare you the pain of making the same mistakes others have made before you. –Kelly Braun, Usability Manager
from the foreword by Lynda Weinman, Author and Founder, lynda.com, Inc. “Kuniavsky presents information logically, often anticipating potential questions by providing extensive explanations. His text is readable and easily understandable. He incorporates interesting quotes from various scholars, keeping readers’ interest by breaking up the strict presentation of information. The overall layout and conversational tone make the text an enjoyable read and useful reference.” – Kalle Medhurst – Technical Communications “The best general how-to handbook on user research remains Mike Kuniavsky’s Observing the User Experience. For the reader who wants to integrate contextual design into a fast-paced development cycle, but isn’t sure how, this book will be a godsend. Even when their advice can’t be followed to the letter, the book, like the authors method, can be adapted to your needs.” – Networker Magazine “Mike Kuniavsky’s Observing the User Experience: A Practitioner’s Guide to User Research is a welcome addition to the half dozen essential books on my cubicle shelf. This book provides lucid, personable, experienced advice that could only come from a seasoned consultant who has seen the good, bad, and ugly of web and application design. Its purpose is to give a solid foundation to any design team in the crucial beginning stages of a project by answer the questions: How do we go about learning who our users are an what they really need? And how do we do this in a way that helps us make a strong case for our design decisions to the people in charge?” –Andrew Hinton
from the foreword by Lynda Weinman, Author and Founder, lynda.com, Inc. “Kuniavsky presents information logically, often anticipating potential questions by providing extensive explanations. His text is readable and easily understandable. He incorporates interesting quotes from various scholars, keeping readers’ interest by breaking up the strict presentation of information. The overall layout and conversational tone make the text an enjoyable read and useful reference.” – Kalle Medhurst – Technical Communications “The best general how-to handbook on user research remains Mike Kuniavsky’s Observing the User Experience. For the reader who wants to integrate contextual design into a fast-paced development cycle, but isn’t sure how, this book will be a godsend. Even when their advice can’t be followed to the letter, the book, like the authors method, can be adapted to your needs.” – Networker Magazine “Mike Kuniavsky’s Observing the User Experience: A Practitioner’s Guide to User Research is a welcome addition to the half dozen essential books on my cubicle shelf. This book provides lucid, personable, experienced advice that could only come from a seasoned consultant who has seen the good, bad, and ugly of web and application design. Its purpose is to give a solid foundation to any design team in the crucial beginning stages of a project by answer the questions: How do we go about learning who our users are an what they really need? And how do we do this in a way that helps us make a strong case for our design decisions to the people in charge?” – Andrew Hinton –Andrew Hinton
Review
The toolbox of techniques that helps you “walk in the shoes” of your product’s users
From the Back Cover
Wow! So many of the user experience research methods we have refined and used over the years are now organized and described in detail in one book. –Christian Rohrer, Manager, User Experience Research, Yahoo!
I love Observing the User Experience! This comprehensive guide approaches user experience research like never before, and is well-written, easy-to-read, and quite user friendly. It provides a real-world example of how research is done in just enough detail that it can both inform a CEO of the role of usability research as well as introduce methodology to someone starting out in the field. Bravo! –Kelly Braun, Usability Manager, Ebay
The gap between who designers and developers imagine their users are, and who those users really are can be the biggest problem with product development. Observing the User Experience will help you bridge that gap to understand what your users want and need from your product, and whether they’ll be able to use what you’ve created.
Filled with real-world experience and a wealth of practical information, this book presents a complete toolbox of techniques to help designers and developers see through the eyes of their users. It provides in-depth coverage of 13 user experience research techniques that will provide a basis for developing better products, whether they’re Web, software or mobile based. In addition, it’s written with an understanding of how software is developed in the real world, taking tight budgets, short schedules, and existing processes into account.
Features and benefits:
·Explains how to create usable products that are still original, creative, and unique
·A valuable resource for designers, developers, project managers―anyone in a position where their work comes in direct contact with the end user.
·Provides a real-world perspective on research and provides advice about how user research can be done cheaply, quickly and how results can be presented persuasively
·Gives readers the tools and confidence to perform user research on their own designs and tune their software user experience to the unique needs of their product and its users
About the Author
Elizabeth Goodman is a PhD candidate at the UC Berkeley’s School of Information. Her writing, design and research focus on interaction design for mobile and ubiquitous computing. She has also been a part of exploratory research teams at Intel, Fuji-Xerox, and Yahoo!. Elizabeth has a masters degree in interaction design fromNew York University, and is a National Science Foundation Graduate Fellow and an Intel PhD Fellow. Mike Kuniavsky is a user experience designer, researcher and author. A twenty-year veteran of digital product development, Mike is a consultant and the co-founder of several user experience centered companies: ThingM manufactures products for ubiquitous computing and the Internet of Things; Adaptive Path is a well-known design consultancy. He is also the founder and organizer of Sketching in Hardware, an annual summit on the future of tools for digital product user experience design for leading technology developers, designers and educators. Mike frequently writes and speaks on digital product and service design, and works with product development groups in both large companies and startups. His most recent book is Smart Things: Ubiquitous Computing User Experience Design. Andrea Moed believes that research is essential in designing to support human relationships. She has been a design researcher and strategist for over 15 years, observing users of websites, phones and other mobile devices, museums, retail environments and educational and business software. She is currently the Staff User Researcher at Inflection, a technology company working to democratize access to public records. Andrea has master’s degrees from the Interactive Telecommunications Program at New York University and the UC Berkeley School of Information, and has taught at the Parsons School of Design in New York. Her writing on design and technology has appeared in a variety of publications.
Wow! eBook
