Emily Carmody Speaker Liaison Top 5 Books

Emily Shares Her Top 5 Reads

Our UXRS Speaker Liaison lists her favorite UX books

By Emily Carmody
As a behavior analyst who made a career transition to UX research, I thought I would share the 5 books that helped guide this career change. The below books informed and helped me understand how I can apply my knowledge of behavior analysis to the world of UX, build and maintain workplace relationships, relationships with users and stakeholders, and understand how behavioral and UX research fits into a corporate or enterprise setting. 

How to Win Friends & Influence People in the Digital Age
by Dale Carnegie & Associates
In the fast-paced world we live in today, this updated version of Dale Carnegie’s original publication from 1936 provides readers an understanding of how Carnegie’s principles regarding listening, sincerity, and affinity (to name a few) still apply in a digitized world. With speedy communication at our fingertips and remote work lessening our face-to-face interactions, we must understand how to utilize the technology available to us so we can make meaningful connections with our users, co-workers, and within personal relationships and Carnegie’s principles do just that.

Engaged: Designing for Behavior Change
by Amy Bucher
In this book, Amy Bucher discusses the application of behavior change science and behavior analytic principals to the design and development of digital products. Amy provides a thorough explanation of behavioral terminology (target users, target behaviors, motivation), the importance of motivation, and provides the reader with an outlined behavior change design process that she markets to novice and experienced UX-ers alike. The Behavior Change Design Process includes:

• Diagnosis: research & discovery phase to better understand the problem space, target users, and context in which target behaviors are performed
• Prescription: generative phase where potential solutions are explored, and product requirements are created
• Execution: Building phase which may include visual design, coding, service development, etc.
• Evaluation: Measuring and evaluating the product’s effectiveness- ideally ongoing to maximize product success 

UX Research: Practice Techniques for Designing Better Products 
by Brad Nunnally & David Farkas
This was one of the first books I read when first learning about UX Research and is a text I still reference to this day. This book provides 4 sections to help you understand the importance of UX research and what it is, the planning and preparation of research, facilitation, and analysis and reporting. Within these sections you get insight into various research methods, research coordination, and soft skills that are crucial when working with users and/or stakeholders.  There are information and reminders in this book that can be useful on your 1st or 100th research project.

Verbal Behavior 
by B.F. Skinner
Understanding human behavior is at the center of good UX and in this book, Skinner discusses how some human behavior (what people say, write, gesture, and think) do not operate on the environment directly and require a separate analysis. While this is a complex behavior analytic work, this book can help UX-ers understand how consequences impact human behavior.

Lean UX 
by Jeff Gothelf & Josh Seiden
Coming from an academic, clinical background where research and evidence-based results were given focused timelines; learning how to fit high-quality research in a fast paced corporate or enterprise setting was a wakeup call. Lean UX provides insight into how you can merge high fidelity research within a lean or agile setting by trimming down the fat within your process and ensure business needs are met by making researchers, designers, product managers, and software engineers work together rather than in isolation.