Louis Rosenfeld of Rosenfeld Media went to bat for our book before it was even a book, and surely allowed this project to become what it is: the greatest work of literature in any language.

Marta Justak, our wonderful main editor, initiated us into the terrifying and desolate world of technical book writing, and also forgave our San Francisco liberal attitudes visá-vis deadlines and template conformity. Our technical editors, Chauncey Wilson (Chapter 1–Chapter 5, Chapter 7–Chapter 9) and Donna Tedesco (Chapter 6–Chapter 8), helped us dig up references, challenged sloppy thinking, put our thoughts in train, and kept it very real.

Many thanks to all our contributors: Peter Merholz, Andy Budd, Brian Beaver, Julia Houck-Whitaker, Dana Chisnell, Emilie Gould, and Carol Farnsworth. They wrote the words we were simply too afraid to write. Thanks also to Elizabeth Bacon from Devise for providing great supplementary info for Chapter 8 and to Danny Hope for providing photos of the Brighton University Usability Lab.

The early feedback of our preview editors—Lori Baker, Kyle Soucy, and Caleb Brown[md] helped us to look smarter than we are. Also thanks to our amazing Bolt | Peters team of remote pioneers—Cyd Harrell, Frances James, Kate Nartker, Julia Houck-Whitaker, Mike Towber, Julian Wixson, Brian Enright, and Alana Pechon[md]for battling out remote testing over the years and for their practical UX research insights, extracted by the authors with many a harassing early-AM phone call. Now the advisors: many thanks to Donna Spencer and her book, Card Sorting, for the professional advice on (what else but) card sorting. Elizabeth Bacon offered lots of tool references for Chapter 8. Matt Thomson of Kronenberger | Burgoyne advised us on matters of Internet privacy, recording, and consent law. Susan Kornfield also provided much helpful guidance.

Part of Chapter 5 was adapted from an article Tony Tulathimutte and Cyd Harrell wrote for UPA Magazine (Vol. 7.3). Parts of Chapter 9 were adapted from our earlier writing, which appeared on the Web site Boxes and Arrows (www.boxesandarrows.com) and in a paper for IA Summit 2008 called “Portable Research.”