Customer Reviews

Observing the User Experience: A Practitioner's Guide to User Research

5 star:		(10)
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2 star:		(1)
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Kuniavsky provides a clear guide to evaluating user behavior and use patterns and then gives insight on balancing what users do and what site owners would like them to do. The subtext is a clear passion for creating scenarios that leave users confident and creators satisfied. That leads to successful interactions, be they commerce or information driven. A must read for all professional designers, information architects, strategists, developers, and other professionals, if only to remind teams how the work they're doing will be digested. This book deepened my understanding of how to evaluate the way sites -- or really anything -- is used and interpreted and offers practical methods on attaining and measuring data to tweak and refine my work.

I'm always recommending this book to my colleagues. This is not a book that is meant to be read cover to cover. It's more of a desk top reference for all kinds of user research techniques. I've found it to be very comprehensive. Buy it, you won't regret it!

Extremely informative and a pleasure to read, I highly recommend this book.

Somehow Mike Kuniavsky has managed to capture all the useful information of an academic text on User Observation techniques without the typical dry and boring tone.

Every important observation technique is covered and covered well. I can flip the book to a chapter on a technique I have never used, read it, and feel confident that I can employ that technique.

I can recommend this book. It is well-written and readable, with practical advice and examples. I am referencing it as part of my daily work as a Usability Analyst in a large government department.

This book rocks! Of all the reference resources I have in my cube, this is the one I lend out to people who ask, "jb, what is user research and how do you do it?" Mike's book has the techniques down - soup to nuts -- useful for the novice and seasoned practitioner.

This book provided my team with enough confidence and flexibility to design a research project of the right scale and formality for our needs, but gave us enough structure to stay on track.
Kuniavsky's detailed examples and caveats helped us engage with users respectfully and effectively, leaving both parties feeling they had done something to move the site a step forward.

This is a book I recommend to my corporate clients who want to go beyond standard usability testing in order to create customer-centered organizations. Written in clear and helpful language, this book provides a thorough how-to for a variety of observational research methods. A tremendous resource for novice to advanced human-centered designers and product teams.

I have thoroughly enjoyed reading this book cover to cover. It goes into as much detail as you need to get started and points you to other resources if you want to go deeper into any one subject. This really is a must read for any one who wants to get involved or has been invloved for years in developing better products for end users.
It seems that any book from the Adaptive Path team is an excellent resource and only adds to their leadership in this field. Well done Mike and thanks for making my job easier.

If only all my college textbooks were this well written and practical, I would have saved tons of money on coffee! The style of the book is conversational, the organization is clear, and the user research tips are great! This book has been a valuable resource to frame my graduate course in human computer interaction. Each week we cover a chapter and post our reactions to our Shiny Happy People user experience blog. The book has many layers, so that the usability novice to expert can glean plenty of tips and techniques.

Much of the writing about user research techniques, while comprehensive, isn't that easy to use or absorb. What's nice about Mike Kuniavsky's book is that it makes clear to designers, business people and strategists why user research makes for better products - and beyond that, how to grasp these techniques and put them to use. This is the type of information that would be useful both in business (for clients and consultants, stakeholders and those in the trenches) and in the classroom.