Recently I am reading the book 用户体验：理论与实践（新编21世纪心理学系列教材）User Experience: Theory and Practice.

In this textbook, the very important methodology in user experience is user research Methodology. In Chapter 3, user research methods are explained in detail. These common methods are questionnaire, observation, interviews, focus groups, portrait and experimental method. I am now teaching another bilingual course Human Factors and Ergonomics in Consumer Product Design this term. In Chapter 1 and 3, common research methodologies and contextual data gathering smart product design methods are mentioned. Common research methodologies such as surveys, one-on-one interviews, focus groups, contextual inquiry, comparative analysis, usability testing and observational research are presented in one table. Contextual data gathering smart product design methods such as field study user observation (Preece et al. 1994), identify stakeholders (Taylor 1990), survey of existing users (Preece et al. 1994), context of use analysis (Thomas and Bevan 1995; Maguire 2001a, 2001b), diary keeping (Poulson, Ashby, and Richardson 1996) and task analysis (Kirwan and Ainsworth 1992) are illustrated in another table. Many of these methods are included in user research methodology. But these methods are not explained and elaborated in detail. In order to give us a global and total review on these important user research methodologies, I will have a summary to illustrate them within later posts.