Name: Just Enough Research
ISBN: 9781937557119

Erika Hall

Just Enough Research

In Just Enough Research, co-founder of Mule Design Erika Hall distills her experience into a brief cookbook of research methods. Learn how to discover your competitive advantages, spot your own blind spots and biases, understand and harness your findings, and why you should never, ever hold a focus group. You'll start doing good research faster than you can plan your next pitch. Erika Hall has been working in web design and development since the late 20th century. In 2001, she co-founded Mule Design Studio where she directs the research, interaction design, and strategy practices.

Just enough research

Velen Chew

A clear illustration on the importance of research before design and the difficulty in real work environment persuasion to convince the importance of research.

Albert Dong

Coming over to Digital product design as an architect, I had primitive knowledge about User research. 

This book is a great step to have a glimpse into the world of User Research as each chapters are laid out eloquently so you can revisit these chapter as and when you work on new projects as a beginner. 

Erika shares her experiences of what works best and why something else does not work. This book has saved me countless hours from making bad decision and biggest takeaway from this book for me was to do organisational research in addition to user research. 

100% recommend to all new UX designers and researchers.

Lance Willett

Enjoyable and thorough look at research techniques and methodologies, with a focus on web-based software and websites projects. Keep it around for the checklists and when you need a refresher on the basics.

"Whatever your day job is, adding research skills will make you better at it."

"Research is just another name for critical thinking."

Peter Polgar

I'd call this book the "UX research 101" it's an introduction to all kinds of design research, from stakeholder interviews, through usability tests till brand research. Really nice additional chapter on surveys in the 2nd edition.

Easy to read so it's suitable to most beginners.



Most design and business decisions are based on some combination of personal preferences, fear, and wishful thinking instead of sound evidence. Most design research is ineffective because it isn’t asking or answering the right questions. 

Just Enough Research is here to help. 

Whether you’re just starting out in your design career, in the middle of a whole mess of product decisions, or trying to help your colleagues get over their fear of admitting ignorance, there is something in this book for you. 

If you are a research specialist, this will help you, and help everyone you work with better appreciate what you do. 

Just Enough Research has remained a popular handbook for over a decade, outlasting several technology hype cycles. It’s brief. It’s practical. It’s got jokes. 
