Think Like a UX Researcher: How to observe users, influence design, and shape business strategy
A new book to help UX Researchers stay up to date with best practice, improve their skills, and build their career, published by Taylor & Francis.
A new book to help UX Researchers stay up to date with best practice, improve their skills, and build their career, published by Taylor & Francis.
Most companies would claim to design products and services that are simple to use. But when you ask customers to actually use these products and services, they often find them far from simple. Why is there a disconnect between what organisations think of as "simple" and what users actually experience? This chapter contains some introductory articles to set the stage for the later parts of the book.
This chapter covers the planning and preparation phase of UX research. The articles in this section will help you decide if UX research is needed on a project, and if so what kind of research to do. It will help you take the first steps with your research, for example in deciding what kinds of participant to include.
In this chapter we focus on conducting UX research. This is where the researcher engages with users and observes them working in either natural or controlled environments. It is the phase of research in which data are collected.
This chapter discusses data analysis: the process of turning raw data into a story. This is where the meaning of our findings, and the insights and "Aha!" moments, start to emerge. It's the "So what?" of a UX research study.
In this chapter, we describe how to persuade people to take action on the results of UX research. This chapter will help UX Researchers confidently stand their ground with development team members critical of UX research. The chapter covers both persuading the development team and persuading senior managers and stakeholders.
This chapter of the book aims to help organizations build a UX team and help individuals build a career in user experience. With guidance for both new UX Researchers and people who have been in the field for some time, these articles will help you evaluate, improve and present your skills.
David Travis has been carrying out ethnographic field research and running product usability tests since 1989. He has published three books on user experience and over 30,000 students have taken his face-to-face and online training courses. He has a PhD in Experimental Psychology.
Philip Hodgson has been a user experience researcher and mentor for over 25 years. His UX work has influenced product design for the US, European, and Asian markets, for everything from finance and medical software to store displays, packaging and even baby diapers. He has a PhD in Experimental Psychology.