Books:

• Mental Models by Indi Young, Rosenfeld Media
• Card Sorting by Donna Spencer, Rosenfeld Media
• Observing the user experience by Mike Kuniavsky, Morgan-Kaufman
• Handbook of task analysis by Dr D. Diaper
• User and task analysis for Interface Design by Hackos & Redish, Wiley
• Design Research Now contains an essay by Wolfram Jonas, Birkhäuser Basel
• Measuring the user experience by Tullis & Albert, Morgan-Kaufman
• Contextual Design by Beyer & Holtzblatt, Morgan-Kaufman
• Analyzing and Interpreting Ethnographic Data by Margaret LeCompte, Alta Mira Press
• Creating Breakthrough Ideas by Squires and Byrne, Bergin & Garvey
• The User is Always Right by Steve Mulder & Ziv Yaar, New Riders Press
• Design Research: Methods and Perspectives edited by Brenda Laurel, MIT Press

Articles on analysing design research:

• Demystifying Data Analysis by Rachel Hinman, Adaptive Path Essays
• Analysis, plus Synthesis by Lindsay Ellerby, UX Matters
• Contextmapping: experiences from practice by Sleeswijk Visser, Stappers, van der Lugt and Sanders (PDF)

Couple of points: I haven’t read all of these, so can’t vouch for just how well they actually cover analysis; these are mostly recommendations from others. And, I’ll keep adding to the list as more responses come in, but feel free to add to the list via comments.

Analysis is that oft-glossed over, but extremely important step in the research process that sits between observation (data gathering) and our design insights or recommendations. In many respects, analysis is crucial to realizing the value of our research since good analysis can salvage something from bad research, but the converse is not so true. This is where the literature tends to fall a little silent, jumping over the analysis techniques straight to a discussion of how best to document and communicate the findings from analysis. This article seeks to begin to redress that imbalance by breaking down the analysis black box into its major sub-techniques.

Please take a read and let me know what you think.