(Book Review) Rocket Surgery Made Easy, 1st Edition

Overview

Review Published: August, 2016.

From usability expert Steve Krug comes a comprehensive how-to for qualitative usability-testing as part of a larger UX design workflow..

Starting from key definitions that define what usability-testing is (and isn’t), Steve moves on to a comprehensive a step-by-step guide to effective usability-testing, resources for further research, and lots of handy resources you can modify for your own use.

Rating:

5 / 5

(Incredible Content, Presentation is Entertaining)

What does this score mean?

Difficulty:

Beginner (No prior experience needed).

Length:

156 pages.

Where to Buy It:

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What's Good

Comprehensive examination of qualitative usability-testing; the author is able to briefly cover the various types of usability-testing and when to use them (i.e. qualitative vs. quantitative), as well as a clear, step-by-step guide to conducting the various types of qualitative testing methods (i.e on-site, remote, and unmoderated).
Provides lots of resources & further reading; the author provides explicit step-by-step checklists/guides as part of the book’s website, along with a full chapter devoted to further reading for anyone looking to learn more.
Content is clear, concise, and very approachable; the author does a phenomenal job of breaking this critical activity into simple steps, offers a pleasure to read.

What Can Be Improved

N/A.

The Bottom Line

A key resource for UX designers, product managers, and stakeholders; this book serves as both a great “how to” resource and a business case for conducting usability-testing, and should be shared with anyone interested in leveraging user feedback to make better digital products.
THE definitive “beginner” resource for usability-testing; if you only have the time/budget to read on book on usability-testing, or need a starting point to learn more, this is it.
A “must have” for any UX library; you will reference this book again and again when it comes to conducting your own testing, and serves as a handy field guide no matter how much further you choose to go with this topic.