April 20, 2004

Observing the User Experience

All of a sudden, I'm seeing Mike Kuniavsky's excellent Observing the User Experience everywhere. Okay, two places.

First, a copy of the book that I ordered arrived.

Second, Andrew Hinton's review of the book appeared in the latest Boxes and Arrows.

I'm not going to subject you to a full-blown review of the book--read Hinton's article for that. But, I can tell you that this is a must-have book if you're doing anything related to user-centered design.

I read Elements when it was first published, and enjoyed it quite a bit. Kuniavsky writes authoritatively about a wide range of UCD methods, from focus groups to usability studies and beyond. Many of these techniques are covered in other books, but having them together in one place is valuable. Kuniavsky also shares hard-won experiences in the field.

The copy I first read stayed at my previous job, but I ordered a new one because there are some areas that I'd like to brush up on. At this point, I'm using the book almost as a reference text. I'm looking at doing a focus group or two, so I'll hit those sections first.