Think Like a UX Researcher: How to Observe Users, Influence Design, and Shape Business Strategy, 2nd Edition

Think Like a UX Researcher will challenge your preconceptions about user experience (UX) research and encourage you to think beyond the obvious. You’ll discover how to plan and conduct UX research, analyze data, persuade teams to take action on the results and build a career in UX. The book will help you take a more strategic view of product design so you can focus on optimizing the user’s experience. UX Researchers, Designers, Project Managers, Scrum Masters, Business Analysts and Marketing Managers will find tools, inspiration and ideas to rejuvenate their thinking, inspire their team and improve their craft. In this newly revised Second Edition , the authors have added six new essays that look at how UX research methods have changed in the last few years, why remote methods should not be the only tools you use, what to do about difficult test participants, how to improve your survey questions, how to identify user goals when you can’t directly observe users and now understanding your own epistemological bias will help you become a more persuasive UX researcher. Key Features Provides a dive-in-anywhere book that offers practical advice and topical examples. Includes thought triggers, exercises and scenarios to test your knowledge of UX research. Features workshop ideas to build a development team’s UX maturity. Discusses war stories from seasoned researchers to show you how UX research methods can be tailored to your own organization. Think Like a UX Researcher will challenge your preconceptions about user experience (UX) research and encourage you to think beyond the obvious. It provides a dive-in-anywhere book that offers practical advice and topical examples. Cover 1 Half Title 2 Title Page 4 Copyright Page 5 Table of Contents 6 Preface to the Second Edition 10 Acknowledgments 12 Introduction 14 1 Setting the Stage 18 The Seven Deadly Sins of UX Research 19 Think Like a Detective 27 The Two Questions we Answer with UX Research 35 Anatomy of a Research Question 38 Applying Psychology to UX Research 45 Why Iterative Design isn't Enough to Create Innovative Products 50 Does Your Company Deliver a Superior Customer Experience? 55 The Future of UX Research is Automated, and that's a Problem 59 Endnotes 66 2 Planning User Experience Research 68 Defining Your UX Research Problem 69 How to Approach Desk Research 76 Conducting an Effective Stakeholder Interview 81 Identifying the User Groups for Your UX Research 89 Writing the Perfect Participant Screener 94 Arguments against a Representative Sample 100 How to Find More Usability Problems with Fewer Participants 106 Deciding on Your First Research Activity with Users 110 Using the Cognitive Interview to Improve Your Survey Questions 114 My Place or Yours? How to Decide where to Run Your Next Usability Test 119 Endnotes 125 3 Conducting User Experience Research 126 Gaining Informed Consent from Your Research Participants 127 What is Design Ethnography? 133 Structuring the Ethnographic Interviewa 137 Writing Effective Usability Test Tasks 143 The Five Mistakes You'll Make as a Usability Test Moderator 147 Avoiding Personal Opinions in Usability Expert Reviews 153 Toward a Lean UX 159 Controlling Researcher Effects 166 Dealing with Difficult Usability Test Participants 173 Uncovering User Goals with the Episodic Interview 181 Endnotes 187 4 Analyzing User Experience Research 188 Sharpening Your Thinking Tools 189 UX Research and Strength of Evidence 198 Agile Personas 204 How to Prioritize Usability Problems 210 Creating Insights, Hypotheses and Testable Design Ideas 214 How to Manage Design Projects with User Experience Metrics 220 Two Measures that Will Justify Any Design Change 227 Your Web Survey is a Lot Less Reliable Than You Think 231 Endnotes 237 5 Persuading People to Take Action on the Results of User Experience Research 238 Evangelizing UX Research 239 How to Create a User Journey Map 250 Generating Solutions to Usability Problems 258 Building UX Research into the Design Studio Methodology 263 Dealing with Common objections to UX Research 270 The User Experience Debrief Meeting 276 Creating a User Experience Dashboard 283 Achieving Boardroom Influence 289 Endnotes 296 6 Building a Career in User Experience 298 Hiring a User Experience Leader 299 A Tool for Assessing and Developing the Technical Skills of User Experience Practitioners 305 Going Beyond Technical Skills: What Makes a Great UX Researcher? 317 How to Wow People with Your UX Research Portfolio 324 A Week-by-Week Guide to Your First Month in a UX Research Role 330 The Reflective UX Researcher 336 Are You a Positivist or an Interpretivist UX Researcher? 341 Endnotes 345 Index 346 Research,project;,UX;,Web,design;,User,research;,User,experience Research project,UX,Web design,User research,User experience Think Like a UX Researcher will challenge your preconceptions about user experience (UX) research and encourage you to think beyond the obvious. You'll discover how to plan and conduct UX research, analyze data, persuade teams to take action on the results and build a career in UX. The book will help you take a more strategic view of product design so you can focus on optimizing the user's experience. UX Researchers, Designers, Project Managers, Scrum Masters, Business Analysts and Marketing Managers will find tools, inspiration and ideas to rejuvenate their thinking, inspire their team and improve their craft.In this newly revised Second Edition, the authors have added six new essays that look at how UX research methods have changed in the last few years, why remote methods should not be the only tools you use, what to do about difficult test participants, how to improve your survey questions, how to identify user goals when you can't directly observe users and how understanding your own epistemological bias will help you become a more persuasive UX researcher.Key Features Provides a dive-in-anywhere book that offers practical advice and topical examples. Includes thought triggers, exercises and scenarios to test your knowledge of UX research. Features workshop ideas to build a development team's UX maturity. Discusses war stories from seasoned researchers to show you how UX research methods can be tailored to your own organization. Think Like a UX Researcher will challenge your preconceptions about user experience (UX) research and encourage you to think beyond the obvious. Youll discover how to plan and conduct UX research, analyze data, persuade teams to take action on the results and build a career in UX. The book will help you take a more strategic view of product design so you can focus on optimizing the users experience. UX Researchers, Designers, Project Managers, Scrum Masters, Business Analysts and Marketing Managers will find tools, inspiration and ideas to rejuvenate their thinking, inspire their team and improve their craft. In this newly revised Second Edition , the authors have added six new essays that look at how UX research methods have changed in the last few years, why remote methods should not be the only tools you use, what to do about difficult test participants, how to improve your survey questions, how to identify user goals when you cant directly observe users and how understanding your own epistemological bias will help you become a more persuasive UX researcher. Key Features