"A complete and exhaustive guide for both new and experienced User Researchers. Stephanie Marsh manages to cover the breadth of researchers' jobs, from selecting appropriate methods to effectively communicating the impact. The chapter about research ethics is particularly useful; it grapples with the unintended consequences of our decision-making which is particularly timely in the age of AI."
Katie Alden-John, Research and Transformation Leader, Caution Your Blast Ltd
"I found this book to be an outstanding end-to-end guide to user research. It's clear, insightful and comprehensive, with a timely perspective on the use of AI. It's a must-read for beginners building their foundations and for experienced professionals looking to strengthen and refresh their practice."
Susana Vilaça, UX Research Leader
"With this third edition, Stephanie Marsh has created the essential resource for the modern user researcher. Its brilliance lies in its flexibility, serving as both a comprehensive guide to master the discipline from end-to-end, and as an indispensable quick-reference for the experienced practitioner. I was particularly impressed by the new section on rapid analysis, which provides urgently needed guidance for a real-world pressure we all face. Marsh's approach to the topic of AI is also refreshingly pragmatic; guidance is woven contextually into each method rather than isolated in a standalone chapter, which perfectly reflects how practitioners actually think and work. This is the definitive, practical guide for research as it's done today."
James Lubwama, User Research Leader, Version 1
"As a research ops professional, I've noticed a growing number of people across different roles asking me and other researchers how to better connect with users and run effective research. It's an exciting shift, but it also raises an important question: how do we empower people to confidently do research regardless of their background? I find that this third edition of <b><i>User Research</i> </b>meets that need. It explains complex practices clearly and thoughtfully without oversimplifying. It's a valuable resource for user researchers, research ops professionals and anyone looking to make research part of their product-building toolkit."
Rita Duarte, Research Operations and UX Research Specialist
"Stephanie Marsh's <b><i>User Research</i></b> (3rd edition) offers a clear and comprehensive introduction to the practice of user research, combining breadth of methods with practical and ethical grounding. The new edition gives thoughtful attention to AI: Marsh includes a useful table mapping where AI can support the research process, cautions about its environmental and ethical impacts and stresses the need for expertise to evaluate results. Each method now also contains guidance on how AI might be applied in practice. Given how rapidly AI continues to reshape our world and our discipline, this balance of pragmatism and responsibility makes the book both a dependable foundation and a guide to navigating change."
Anja Maerz, Senior User Research Manager, Gen
- Chapter - 01: Introduction – why is user research so important?;
- Section - ONE: The fundamentals – what good research looks like;
- Chapter - 02: Planning your user research;
- Chapter - 03: Best practice in user research – what, why and how;
- Chapter - 04: Managing user research for successful outcomes;
- Chapter - 05: Getting the legal and ethical stuff right;
- Chapter - 06: Cross-functional working;
- Section - TWO: Selecting and using user research methods;
- Chapter - 07: Usability testing – observing people doing things;
- Chapter - 08: User interviews – understanding people’s experience through talking to them;
- Chapter - 09: Surveys – how to gauge a widespread user response;
- Chapter - 10: Getting the best out of stakeholder workshops – collaborative sessions for constructive work with key participants;
- Chapter - 11: Content testing – what do people think your content means?;
- Chapter - 12: Card sorting – understanding how people group and relate things;
- Chapter - 13: Information architecture validation through tree testing – does the structure of your information work for your users?;
- Chapter - 14: Diary studies – how to capture user research data over time;
- Chapter - 15: Contextual inquiry – interviewing people in their own environment;
- Chapter - 16: Ethnography and pop-up research – observing how people behave and running fast-paced research in the real world;
- Chapter - 17: How to combine user research methodologies;
- Section - THREE: Analysing user research data and communicating the insights;
- Chapter - 18: In-depth analysis – understanding your qualitative data;
- Chapter - 19: Fast-paced analysis;
- Chapter - 20: Analysing usability data and cataloguing issues and needs;
- Chapter - 21: Making recommendations – how to make your research findings and insights actionable;
- Chapter - 22: Creating impactful executive summaries and detailed reports to present results;
- Chapter - 23: Tools for analysis and UX storytelling;
- Chapter - 24: Conclusion;