Innovation requires tighter integration of the user experience into the process of things. I've seen usability testing before as step to validate web design. But in all cases, it was a short post design fine tuning. Now, innovation and user experience are taking over the role of business strategy. User testing has become more prominent - so I decided to better understand.

Good news is most of the materials are very familiar. I think only net new thing for me was around recruitment and diary technique. The book does a good job of providing logical approaches and tactical advice. All pretty straight forward stuff. Needs good logistical mindset as all techniques require lot of careful preparation. Good 101 book on user research.

Nice overview of the topic

This book makes an excellent field guide to user research. A range of techniques are covered from a practical standpoint, enabling the reader to get a study up and running. The considerations on analysis and presentation are nice reminders to have at hand.

Longwinded and overly through, but solid info.

Comprehensive approach for conducting user research.

This book is the ultimate resource for user research. It’s incredibly comprehensive and provides practical guidance on when to use specific research methods, how to communicate them effectively, and how to conduct them to yield meaningful results. Additionally, it delves into the importance of backing research findings. As a user experience designer who has read numerous UX research books over the years, I can confidently say that this book stands out as the most valuable and informative resource available.

Very dry and difficult to stay awake. It did have useful examples, but not as useful outside of computer/web research, tho its applicable. Of course, some of my anxiety towards the book could be related to my overwhelming frustration with the class requiring I read it.

Observing the User Experience is a textbook-style introduction to the profession of user experience design and research. It is written with the novice in mind; either somebody who is interested in the field but not yet working in it, or for somebody who has just started their career in their field but lacks the experience. Different sections of the book include "Why Research is Good and how it Fits into Product Development", "User Experience Research Techniques", and "Communication Results".

The second section is by far the largest, and covers a variety of techniques such as interviews, focus groups, object-based techniques, observational field visits, diary studies, usability tests, and surveys. In each case, clear instructions are provided on how to carry out the technique, and relate the findings to the product/software development cycle to improve the experience for the user. Those with degrees in psychology or other social sciences might find some of the descriptions to be a bit light (particularly with respect to the analysis of data), but the author re-iterates that user research is not academic research, and in the 'real world' practicality is often more important than academic rigour. I was personally a bit surprised that the vast majority of techniques were qualitative in nature (the only exception being survey research, where the description of quantitative data analysis was also pretty light) - is this a weakness of the book, or is it just the case that most user research in practice is qualitative? Without working in the field, it's difficult for me to say.

Overall, I'm confident that this will be a good starting point for anybody interested in a career in user research. The textbook is full of clear descriptions and useful examples, although I'm left thinking that given the length of the book (almost 600 pages), slightly more could have been covered. 6/10

Ahhh, it only took 445 pages to decide that looking at the literature is an important first step in user research.
Otherwise, solid and useful, but Kuniavsky's need to try to put humor into this is painful. . . absolutely painful.

This book was invaluable to me the summer I was nearly-singlehandedly planning and conducting user testing for an organization. Each chapter covers a different user research method, and does so in a practical, straight-forward way with many examples and suggestions. I followed his guidelines for how to recruit and schedule users, conduct interviews, and do the analysis, and our user test was very successful as a result. Even now, this continues to be a great handbook, as I use it often as a reference when doing work for various projects.