Quantifying the User Experience
Practical Statistics for User Research
Published on 25. April 2012
Book
Paperback/Softback
312 pages
978-0-12-384968-7 (ISBN)
Description
Quantifying the User Experience: Practical Statistics for User Research offers a practical guide for using statistics to solve quantitative problems in user research. Many designers and researchers view usability and design as qualitative activities, which do not require attention to formulas and numbers. However, usability practitioners and user researchers are increasingly expected to quantify the benefits of their efforts. The impact of good and bad designs can be quantified in terms of conversions, completion rates, completion times, perceived satisfaction, recommendations, and sales.The book discusses ways to quantify user research; summarize data and compute margins of error; determine appropriate samples sizes; standardize usability questionnaires; and settle controversies in measurement and statistics. Each chapter concludes with a list of key points and references. Most chapters also include a set of problems and answers that enable readers to test their understanding of the material. This book is a valuable resource for those engaged in measuring the behavior and attitudes of people during their interaction with interfaces.
Reviews / Votes
"...the definitive book on inferential statistics for usability researchers. The authors present the equations, discussions, and examples for and in the context of usability studies, primarily usability testing." --Technical Communication"Quantifying the User Experience will make a terrific textbook for any series of UX research courses...I highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to integrate quantitative data into their UX practice." --Technical Communication, May 2013
"...as a whole, it provides a pragmatic approach to quantifying UX, without oversimplifying or claiming too much. It delivers what it promises. This book is valuable for both practitioners and students, in virtually any discipline. It can help psychologists transfer their statistical knowledge to UX practice, practitioners quickly assess their envisioned design and analysis, engineers demystify UX, and students appreciate UX's merits." --ComputingReviews.com, March 19, 2013
"The most unique contributions of this book are the logic and practicality used to describe the appropriate application of those measures...Sauro and Lewis strike a perfect balance between the complexity of statistical theory and the simplicity of applying statistics practically. Whether you wish to delve deeper into the enduring controversies in statistics, or simply wish to understand the difference between a t-test and Chi-square, you will find your answer in this book. Quantifying the User Experience is an invaluable resource for those who are conducting user research in industry." --User Experience, Vol. 13, Issue 1, 1st Quarter
"Written in a conversational style for those who measure behavior and attitudes of people as they interact with technology interfaces, this guide walks readers through common questions and problems encountered when conducting, analyzing, and reporting on user research projects using statistics, such as problems related to estimates and confidence intervals, sample sizes, and standardized usability questionnaires. For readers with varied backgrounds in statistics, the book includes discussion of concepts as necessary and gives examples from real user research studies. The book begins with a background chapter overviewing common ways to quantify user research and a review of fundamental statistical concepts. The material provides enough detail in its formulas and examples to let readers do all computations in Excel, and a website offers an Excel calculator for purchase created by the authors, which performs all the computations covered in the book. An appendix offers a crash course on fundamental statistical concepts." --Reference and Research Book News, August 2012, page 186-7
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
San Francisco
United States
Publishing group
Elsevier Science & Technology
Target group
College/higher education
Usability and user experience practitioners, software and web-development professionals, marketers, information architects, interaction designers, business analysts, market researchers, and students in these and related fields
Illustrations
Illustrated
Dimensions
Height: 235 mm
Width: 191 mm
Weight
640 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-12-384968-7 (9780123849687)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
New editions
Book
08/2016
2nd Edition
Morgan Kaufmann
€53.50
Available immediately
Additional editions
E-Book
03/2012
1st Edition
Morgan Kaufmann
€38.95
Available for download
Persons
Dr. Jeff Sauro is a six-sigma trained statistical analyst and founding principal of MeasuringU, a customer experience research firm based in Denver. For over fifteen years he's been conducting usability and statistical analysis for companies such as Google, eBay, Walmart, Autodesk, Lenovo and Drobox or working for companies such as Oracle, Intuit and General Electric.Jeff has published over twenty peer-reviewed research articles and five books, including Customer Analytics for Dummies. He publishes a weekly article on user experience and measurement online at measuringu.com. Jeff received his Ph.D in Research Methods and Statistics from the University of Denver, his Masters in Learning, Design and Technology from Stanford University, and B.S. in Information Management & Technology and B.S. in Television, Radio and Film from Syracuse University. He lives with his wife and three children in Denver, CO. Dr. James R. (Jim) Lewis is a senior human factors engineer (at IBM since 1981) with a current focus on the measurement and evaluation of the user experience. He is a Certified Human Factors Professional with a Ph.D. in Experimental Psychology (Psycholinguistics), an M.A. in Engineering Psychology, and an M.M. in Music Theory and Composition. Jim is an internationally recognized expert in usability testing and measurement, contributing (by invitation) the chapter on usability testing for the 3rd and 4th editions of the Handbook of Human Factors and Ergonomics, presenting tutorials on usability testing and metrics at various professional conferences, and serving as the keynote speaker at HCII 2014. He was the lead interaction designer for the product now regarded as the first smart phone, the Simon, and is the author of Practical Speech User Interface Design.Jim is an IBM Master Inventor Emeritus with 88 patents issued to date by the US Patent Office. He serves on the editorial board of the International Journal of Human-Computer Interaction, is co-editor in chief of the Journal of Usability Studies, and is on the scientific advisory board of the Center for Research and Education on Aging and Technology Enhancement (CREATE). He is a member of the Usability Professionals Association (UPA), the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society (HFES), the ACM Special Interest Group in Computer-Human Interaction (SIGCHI), past-president of the Association for Voice Interaction Design (AVIxD), and is a 5th degree black belt and certified instructor with the American Taekwondo Association (ATA).
Content
DedicationAcknowledgementsAbout the Authors1. Introduction and How to Use This Book2. Quantifying User Research3. How Precise Are Our Estimates? Confidence Intervals4. Did We Meet or Exceed Our Goal?5. Is There a Statistical Difference between Designs?6. What Sample Sizes Do We Need?Part 1: Summative Studies7. What Sample Sizes Do We Need?Part 2: Formative Studies8. Standard Usability Questionnaires9. Six Enduring Controversies in Measurement and Statistics10. Wrapping UpAppendixIndex