No product is an island. People switch freely between desktop apps and web sites, so studying your product in isolation can't reveal the true pattern of your customer's behavior. Cameron Turner describes several kinds of user studies and the kinds of insight each can offer.

How can a research plan change the future of your company? Why is it important to know that your customers begin work on Mondays and can work at home or in the office? It's now possible to capture every click and every change of context, so smart filtering and sampling are important. Studies must comply with privacy laws, a particular challenge with subjects in many countries. But the benefit of new analytics tools are worth the effort.

Cameron Turner shares his experience and gives examples of how users' behavior can be captured and and analyzed to improve product designs.