6 UX Research Reads to Tackle in 2020
A fresh UX Research reading list featuring recommendations from diverse disciplines
I actually hit my goal of reading 100 books last year! I read widely across genres, focused on marginalized authors and #ownvoices stories, and tackled a whopping 28,448 pages. When reflecting on my year, I hit all of my reading goals out of the park — expect one. Last year, NONE of my reading was dedicated to books that could develop my skills in User Experience Research.
Trust me, I’ve scrolled through nearly every UX Research Reading List that’s out there on Medium. I’ve even added some of the titles to my TBR list (To Be Read — c’mon get with the lingo). But in an effort to find some recommendations that were more relevant to me and the work we do at Verizon Connect, I turned to the research experts sitting right next to me. My colleagues!
If you’re looking for a fresh UX Research reading list featuring recommendations from various disciplines and backgrounds — look no further!
If you want a go-to UX Research guide…
Who: Sujit Shrestha, social / cultural anthropologist
Recommendation: Observing the User Experience: A Practitioner’s Guide to User Research by Elizabeth Goodman, Mike Kuniavsky, & Andrea Moed
“It’s a very contextual guidebook of the different methods you can use in practice. It’s one of the most comprehensive books I’ve come across. It’s pretty general, but extremely relevant. If you read the book you can just go through and pick the tools you think you may need at any particular point — and it has examples with case studies too!“
If you are a quantitative researcher breaking into qualitative research…
Who: Michael Snell, personality psychologist
Recommendation: Userpalooza — A Field Researcher’s Guide: … because it’s easier to design for a customer you understand. by Nick Bowmast, illustrated by Mat Tait
“I think that researchers come in with a quantitative or qualitative skill set mainly. Quantitative, data-drive stakeholders often need a lot of convincing and training to understand the usefulness of qualitative research and especially how to conduct field research. This is a really good guide for that.” Userpalooza is a practical, tactical guide to qualitative research. Plus, it’s very aesthetically pleasing.
If you are trying to work smarter, not harder…
Who: Paul Boshears, cultural technologist
Recommendation: Just Enough Research by Erica Hall
“Given my academic background, ‘research’ means something that is often very different from what non-academics intend when they use the term. Hall’s book has helped me rethink my habitual ways of doing research and helped reorient me to how other audiences and stakeholders will benefit from research.” Just Enough Research provides a “brief cookbook of research methods” that aim to make research more efficient to ultimately save money and time.
If you are looking to strengthen your ethnographic toolkit…
Who: Marlana Coignet, survey extraordinaire
Recommendation: Essential Ethnographic Methods: A Mixed Methods Approach by Jean J. Schensul & Margaret D. LeCompte
“I feel like I have a lot of experience in surveys obviously and also pulling together observations from interviews. This book is really helpful for pulling insights from just watching people and shows how to analyze that data.” Although this is more textbook style than a casual read, the book’s modular style allows the reader to really hone in on what skill they are trying to strengthen.
If you are a research leader or need help aligning stakeholders…
Who: Cheryl Abellanoza, research manager
Recommendation: The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Leadership Fable by Patrick Lencioni
Pro-tip, this book has been expertly summarized in this Medium article! “We keep talking about ‘Inattention of Results’ as a problem but this book shows how it all is based on an ‘Absence of Trust’. It shows how to maintain great cross functional team relationships so that you don’t run into problems and how to realign stakeholders when things start to go wrong.”
If books aren’t for you…
Who: babz jewell, sociologist who specializes in visual ethnography
Recommendation: Nikki Anderson’s Medium posts
Nikki is a qualitative researcher who writes stories in UX Collective and other publications. Don’t forget that free, accessible materials are everywhere to help you learn and grow! (Including our series of publications — we’re not above shameless self-promotion)
If you want to join our book club…
You read that right! The researchers on the Verizon Connect Experience team are starting a very chill book club. Our first pick is going to be Outcomes Over Output: Why customer behavior is the key metric for business success by Josh Seiden. As you may know, Verizon Connect is going through a Lean transformation and are obsessed with providing continuous value to our users. This book highlights the benefits to providing customer value rather than building features for the sake of “output”. If you’re interested, please join along in reading with us and share your thoughts in the comments.
What did we miss?
What is a must read for UX Researchers or other user-centered practitioners out there? What book or article changed the way you work for the better? Please share your favorite reads in the comments!
P.S. We read other things too! Here are some less work related books our team loves.
- Sujit recommends My Name is Red by Orhan Pamuk which he claims is “one of the most vivid pieces of fiction” he’s ever read. This postmodern, Nobel Prize winner explores the artistic tensions of sixteenth-century Istanbul through a variety of narrators — from a dead man to the color red.
- Michael recommends Educated by Tara Westover which is a memoir about Westover’s quest for knowledge after being isolated from others and denied an education. (Content warning: domestic violence, use of racial slurs)
- Paul recommends The Analects of Confucius: A Philosophical Translation by Roger T. Ames and Henry Rosemont Jr. This translation of the classic text helps to understand the “single thread” that runs throughout the teachings of Confucius: shu (恕), sometimes translated as “sympathetic understanding” but Ames and Rosemont Jr. translate as “putting oneself in the other’s place.”
- Marlana recommends The Other Wes Moore by Wes Moore that tackles the subject of Nature Vs. Nurture as the author explores the lives of two men named Wes Moore and the vastly different trajectories their lives take. (Content warning: adult themes)
- Cheryl recommends Little Weirds by Jenny Slate (or pretty much any other comedian’s memoir). Little Weirds is a collection of personal essays that is more than a little weird.
- Alexa recommends Radiance by Catherynne M. Valente which is described as “a decopunk pulp SF alt-history space opera mystery”. That’s all you need to know.
Written by Alexa Carleo
Alexa is a User Experience designer turned researcher. She specializes in mixed method research including in-depth interviews, usability testing, needs analysis, and feature prioritization. Colleagues know her as Alexa “tell-me-a-little-bit-more-about-that” Carleo.
