MTU Cork Library Catalogue

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Observing the user experience : a practitioner's guide to user research / Mike Kuniavsky.

By: Kuniavsky, Mike.
Material type: materialTypeLabelBookSeries: Morgan Kaufmann series in interactive technologies.Publisher: San Francisco, CA : Morgan Kaufmann Publishers, c2003Description: xvi, 560 p. : ill. ; 24 cm. + pbk.ISBN: 1558609237 .Subject(s): Human-computer interaction | User interfaces (Computer systems)DDC classification: 004.019
Contents:
Part I: Why research is good and how it fits into Product Development -- Typhoon: A fable -- Do a usability test Now! -- Balancing needs through iterative development -- The user experience -- Part II: User experience research techniques -- The research plan -- Universal tools: Recruiting and interviewing -- User profiles -- Contextual Inquiry, task analysis, card sorting -- Focus groups -- Usability tests -- Surveys, Ongoing relationship -- Log files and customer support -- Competitive research -- Other' hard work: Published information and consultants -- Emerging techniques -- Part III: Communicating Results -- Reports and Presentations -- Creating a user-centered corporate culture.

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

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.

Bibliography: (pages 542-544) and index.

Part I: Why research is good and how it fits into Product Development -- Typhoon: A fable -- Do a usability test Now! -- Balancing needs through iterative development -- The user experience -- Part II: User experience research techniques -- The research plan -- Universal tools: Recruiting and interviewing -- User profiles -- Contextual Inquiry, task analysis, card sorting -- Focus groups -- Usability tests -- Surveys, Ongoing relationship -- Log files and customer support -- Competitive research -- Other' hard work: Published information and consultants -- Emerging techniques -- Part III: Communicating Results -- Reports and Presentations -- Creating a user-centered corporate culture.

Author notes provided by Syndetics

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.

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