The Fuzzy Front End Gets Demystified in This Next-Generation User Research Guide The first phase of the design thinking process is arguably the most crucial, as this is when human insights are leveraged to define value for customers. Yet this so-called "empathize" phase is often deemed optional or is executed poorly. This degrades the entire innovation process that follows by permitting preexisting biases and guesswork that make value creation a precarious bet. In User Experience Research: Discover What Customers Really Want, a human factors psychologist and an industrial designer have devised a foolproof first phase that addresses the shortcomings of the design thinking process. Based on their forty years of generative research experience in multiple industries, this is the definitive guide to user experience research. This repeatable approach is grounded in six key principles that connects users' desired emotional states to an actionable articulation of an experience. It also provides guidance on creating ideal experience frameworks that communicate clearly with all stakeholders, from business leaders to design practitioners. User Experience Research: Discover What Customers Really Want is an indispensable, fully illustrated, step-by-step manual for anyone seeking a more predictable pathway to the design of new or improved experiences that users truly desire and would find valuable.

Fundamentals of Cognitive Neuroscience: A Beginner's Guide, Second Edition, is a comprehensive, yet accessible, beginner's guide on cognitive neuroscience. This text takes a distinctive, commonsense approach to help newcomers easily learn the basics of how the brain functions when we learn, act, feel, speak and socialize. This updated edition includes contents and features that are both academically rigorous and engaging, including a step-by-step introduction to the visible brain, colorful brain illustrations, and new chapters on emerging topics in cognition research, including emotion, sleep and disorders of consciousness, and discussions of novel findings that highlight cognitive neuroscience's practical applications. Written by two leading experts in the field and thoroughly updated, this book remains an indispensable introduction to the study of cognition.