Showing posts with label usability. Show all posts
Showing posts with label usability. Show all posts

Distinctive Design: A Practical Guide to a Useful, Beautiful Web Review

Distinctive Design: A Practical Guide to a Useful, Beautiful Web
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Distinctive Design: A Practical Guide to a Useful, Beautiful Web ReviewThe purpose of this book is to discuss what makes for good web designs. Much of it is closely related to material on design principles for other media, such as the printed page as for most cases, good design is good design. The author takes another step with respect to web design and discusses topics particular to the web, though, such as how a page appears in different browsers, the effect of add-ins and third party applications, and also spends a good amount of time discussing web design for the latest devices such as mobile, smaller screens, etc.
The topics/chapters are well laid out, the book is easy to read, and the author does a great job at covering the various principles and concepts of good design. Is there unique content to the book? Not really; there are lots of other good books on design out there but this compares favorably with them. It is a good all-in-one reference and I felt it is a useful and practical read - for laymen like me it has a bunch of good ideas. I've read most of them before but it is always good to have a refresher, and just reading the text gives me pointers and reminders of things to make sure I incorporate.
There is an emphasis on making pages user-friendly and ensuring you convey the proper message of the page. It's a practical book. As I mentioned before, the author also emphasizes designing for the latest devices - smart phones, etc., which have a more limited screen space and you have to make sure your message is effective and communicates properly. As another reviewer stated, this is not a book with ready-made templates to try out, or stuff that gets you started right away on a ready-to-go web site. It is a book filled with concepts and principles of good design, applied to the web and as such, the author has written a very useful book.Distinctive Design: A Practical Guide to a Useful, Beautiful Web OverviewLearn to produce a web site that stands out from the crowd
One of the web designer's greatest challenges is to create a site distinctive enough to get noticed among the millions of sites already on the web. This book examines the bond between code, content and visuals to guide you through the factors that increase your design's visibility, usability and beauty. Using this practical advice, even web designers who lack strong artistic skills can develop super sites that strengthen the message and stand out from the crowd.
Most books focus primarily on graphic design principles; this one shows you how to maximize and prioritize every design decision to help your site achieve its primary purpose: showcasing your content and services
Explores the bond between code, content and visuals to guide you through the factors that increase your design's visibility, usability and beauty
Enables even artistically challenged web designers to create elegant, functional layouts that attract visitors and are user-friendly

Every web designer can benefit from this practical advice on creating an informative, attractive, easy-to-use site that gets noticed.

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Programming the Iphone User Experience: Developing and Designing Cocoa Touch Applications Review

Programming the Iphone User Experience: Developing and Designing Cocoa Touch Applications
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Programming the Iphone User Experience: Developing and Designing Cocoa Touch Applications ReviewThe book is short, and while it has quite a number of code samples buried within it, it has only a few real gems that I thought were worthwhile. If you're looking for code examples on how to do fancy UI things with the iPhone or iPod touch - don't go here. It's really more of a conceptual overview of what an iPhone user experience should be including categorizing some common elements and patterns in use.
In the code samples, I found a useful nugget: a tidbit on how to improve the app startup/loading experience, with code samples. Otherwise most of the code samples were almost more of a "hey look, I can do the same thing that Interface Builder does, except in code" and re-hashes of example code that you can find on the web or in Apple's sample code projects. I suppose it's a lot easier than screenshots illustrating how to replicate with Interface Builder. The fact that you could do many of these patterns with Interface Builder seemed to escape comment in the text.
In terms of something to think about for how you're going to set up a user experience, it gives some patterns and anti-patterns that complement Apple's iPhone HIG. I thought at a fairly high level, those were pretty good. I didn't agree with all of them, and some segments seemed to be so wishy washy as to be useless (like wether or not to use Core Data) - but some were good too.
I wouldn't run out to go get this book and read it, but if you're looking for a paper copy of another point of view on the UI patterns of designing iPhone applications, this book might be worthwhile for you.Programming the Iphone User Experience: Developing and Designing Cocoa Touch Applications Overview
Apple's iPhone and iPod Touch not only feature the world's most powerful mobile operating system, they also usher in a new standard of human-computer interaction through gestural interfaces and multi-touch navigation. This book provides you with a hands-on, example-driven tour of UIKit, Apple's user interface toolkit, and includes common design patterns to help you create new iPhone and iPod Touch user experiences. Using Apple's Cocoa Touch framework, you'll learn how to build applications that respond in unique ways when users tap, slide, swipe, tilt, shake, or pinch the screen. Programming the iPhone User Experience is a perfect companion to Apple's Human Interface Guidelines, and provides the practical information you need to develop innovative applications for the iPhone and iPod Touch, whether you're a CTO, developer, or UI/UX designer.

Understand the basics of the Cocoa Touch framework for building iPhone and iPod Touch applications
Learn theory and best practices for using Cocoa Touch to develop applications with engaging and effective user interfaces
Apply your knowledge of Objective-C to the iPhone/iPod Touch framework
Customize standard UIKit views according to Apple's Human Interface Guidelines and usability principles
Learn patterns for handling user experience concerns outside of the interface, such as network- and location-awareness


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Building Enterprise Taxonomies Review

Building Enterprise Taxonomies
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Building Enterprise Taxonomies ReviewStewart has written a book that pulls together concepts, terminology and processes for folks who need to organize digital information, and he does it in a beautiful publication -- great layout, readable text and plenty of illustrative graphics. Topics span a comprehensive range of interrelated issues, from findability and controlled vocabularies, to taxonomies and ontologies. Important terms are highlighted in bold throughout. The material has been carefully researched over the past few years and presented in earlier forms as lectures in a series of university courses. Chapters are supported by extensive bibliographic notes, as well as an Index that practices what the book preaches -- that terms are polysemic (look it up here!) and that the first problem for the knowledge worker is disambiguation -- or clarifying which concept is intended when several are possible. Add in the pervasive humor, and you have a text that students should find to be an excellent learning tool.Building Enterprise Taxonomies Overview
Taxonomies have been fundamental to organizing knowledge and information for centuries. Now they are the backbone of well organized information systems and the lynchpin of findability in an online world. This book is the first taxonomy primer to present how to design, create, apply and maintain structured vocabularies, including taxonomy, thesauri, ontology and folksonomy, specifically for digital information. This comprehensive and accessible guide explains how to make sure both content creators and content consumers are speaking the same language. (Second Edition)

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The Ten Golden Rules Of Online Marketing Workbook Review

The Ten Golden Rules Of Online Marketing Workbook
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The Ten Golden Rules Of Online Marketing Workbook ReviewThis is a book that sets the foundation on Internet marketing. Great tool for understandig the basics and the foundation for leveraging the power and real value of doing business supported in the online world.
Full of examples and tips allows anyone to get going fast for value from internet as a business tool.
The person who recommended it to me, explained that it is a required read to anyone who wants to work and understand the new world of Marketing, and I believe so.
The Ten Golden Rules Of Online Marketing Workbook Overview

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ReviewThis book lays a good foundation for web design by emphasizing planning, meeting clients' goals, and understanding the target audience. Wroblewski emphasizes usability when describing the core of the site- structure, navigation, content- and how it will affect the experience of the audience. He uses numerous examples to illustrate layout, visual heirarchy, color schemes, and how they work together (or don't!) to communicate quickly and effectively to the site visitor.
I got frustrated about the amount of fluff surrounding actual information. He makes plenty of good points and then buries them beneath a barrage of condescending, long-winded metaphors, like the way we can read a map and know that blue represents water. The analogy itself could be helpful, but three paragraphs to explain the analogy is just distracting.
I'm glad I read it... it opened my eyes to many challenges that web designers face, and inspired me to infuse life and personality into my own site. I'm also glad I highlighted the meaningful parts so I (or friends who borrow it) can skip past the fluff in the future. OverviewAlthough Web usability has received lots of hype, especially during the dot-com meltdown, the focus has been mostly on technical issues. Usability experts stress the pitfalls of frames and too many images on Web pages. They recommend editing out unnecessary words and writing in a non-linear style-all valuable advice, of course. But less frequently do they highlight the importance of the visual presentation of Web pages.The Web is a communication medium that does most of its talking visually. What you see on a Web page tells you what you might find within the site, how to get there, and why it might interest you-not to mention the instinctive emotional response that shapes your Web experience. As a result, Web usability issues are communication issues. Easy-to-use sites are those that communicate quickly and effectively.Site-Seeing takes a fresh approach to Web usability by applying visual communication principles and decision-making to Web design. Specifically, readers will learn the key concepts behind visual organization, look and feel, technical considerations, and clear planning that stem from audience awareness. Through numerous, full-color examples author Luke Wroblewski deconstructs "the good, the bad, and the ugly" of Web design.The visual presentation of a site does more than merely making it pretty. It organizes information according to function. It creates distinct and appropriate personalities. It provides emotional impact and attachment. In short, it engages the audience-and keeps them coming back.

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Bulletproof Web Design: Improving flexibility and protecting against worst-case scenarios with XHTML and CSS (2nd Edition) Review

Bulletproof Web Design: Improving flexibility and protecting against worst-case scenarios with XHTML and CSS (2nd Edition)
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Bulletproof Web Design: Improving flexibility and protecting against worst-case scenarios with XHTML and CSS (2nd Edition) ReviewIf you are just coming over the the standards-compliant light, this book is the best for showing real, working techniques. Great examples that work. A cookbook. Cederholm won my heart and my mind with "Web Standards Solutions" and this book builds on that theme. The man is a good writer, easy to understand, and he makes compelling and lucid points.
Cederholm's presentation is great: he states a problem or goal, then examines several different ways of solving it. The examinations are just a paragraph or two long -- short and to the point. He points out the strengths and weaknesses of the various solutions, then concludes with a "best practices" solution. Finally, he builds on and refines the best practices solution to deliver a finished piece. When there is no clear-cut best way, he lays the cards on the table and let's you decide what is best for your specific application. He talks about the compromises between pixel-perfect layouts and fluid layouts and how each effects design and useability issues.
It is not stand-alone because a good reference is still useful to have by your side.Bulletproof Web Design: Improving flexibility and protecting against worst-case scenarios with XHTML and CSS (2nd Edition) OverviewNo matter how visually appealing or content-packed a Web site may be, if it's not adaptable to a variety of situations and reaching the widest possible audience, it isn't really succeeding. In Bulletproof Web Desing, author and Web designer extraordinaire, Dan Cederholm outlines standards-based strategies for building designs that provide flexibility, readability, and user control--key components of every sucessful site. Each chapter starts out with an example of an unbulletproof site one that employs a traditional HTML-based approach which Dan then deconstructs, pointing out its limitations. He then gives the site a make-over using XHTML and Cascading Style Sheets (CSS), so you can see how to replace bloated code with lean markup and CSS for fast-loading sites that are accessible to all users. Finally, he covers several popular fluid and elastic-width layout techniques and pieces together all of the page components discussed in prior chapters into a single-page template.

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101 Ways to Promote Your Web Site (101 Ways series) Review

101 Ways to Promote Your Web Site (101 Ways series)
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101 Ways to Promote Your Web Site (101 Ways series) ReviewWhen I first picked up 101 Ways to Promote Your Web Site, I really didn't expect to find 101 different methods. After reading the book I am sure that 101 is a conservative number.
The author includes two chapters on search engine considerations, as well as chapter-length treatment of marketing in newsgroups, signature files, e-mail, discussion lists, newsletters, link trading, award recognitions, meta-indexes, online advertising, affiliate programs, cybermalls, encouraging repeat visits, press releases, e-zines, web rings, offline promotion, traffic analysis, webcasting, and launching a website. In addition, the book has five appendices, including a brief glossary and a sample implementation and maintenance schedule. The book is especially rich in providing URLs for hundreds of sites that provide additional information.
I was disappointed to find little or no treatment of two very important Web marketing strategies: search engine positioning through doorway pages and viral marketing.
Sweeney does a great job of exposing the reader to the wide variety of methods that can be used to promote a website, but for an in-depth treatment of any of these, the reader will need to consult more specialized books. 101 Ways to Promote Your Website provides an excellent introduction to Web marketing for small to medium-size businesses, and deserves the wide acceptance it has already found in the marketplace.101 Ways to Promote Your Web Site (101 Ways series) OverviewWith hundreds of proven tips, tools, and techniques, this freshly updated edition explains how to make the most of the latest Web 2.0 trends and techniques such as RSS, blogs, podcasting, and mobile marketing for online success. Entrepreneurs, corporate marketing managers, small business owners, consultants, webmasters, individuals, new media professionals, and website designers will find this guidebook invaluable for developing online strategies. A companion website provides up-to-the-minute internet marketing news and expanded information. From optimizing websites for search engines and incorporating dynamic public relations strategies to offline promotion and ensuring customer satisfaction, this handbook is unbeatable for helpful online promotional resources.

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Complete Web Monitoring: Watching Your Visitors, Performance, Communities, and Competitors Review

Complete Web Monitoring: Watching Your Visitors, Performance, Communities, and Competitors
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Complete Web Monitoring: Watching Your Visitors, Performance, Communities, and Competitors ReviewThis book will change the way you think about your online business. From page performance, to conversions, to user experience, to social media, "Complete Web Monitoring" covers the gamut of tools, techniques, and services that exist today to help you truly optimize the success of your online business.
The book breaks down all online business into four categories: Media, Transaction, Collaboration, and SaaS. Throughout the book, as you learn about the various flavors of analytics, usability, surveys, page performance, monitoring, online community management, collaboration...and how all of this fits together...you are given specific, direct, and actionable steps to take that apply to your specific business model. For example, "Transaction" businesses must focus on conversions, uptime of the checkout process, and what customers are saying about their products. "SaaS" companies should focus on the performance of their most common paths through the application, popularity of specific features, and the user experience of the holistic product.
The amount of data and the number of tools at your disposal are overwhelming. At times this book is rather overwhelming. Choosing between an analytics provider, a monitoring service, or a social media tracking service could keep you from actually accomplishing real work. Sometimes too much choice and too much data is a very dangerous thing. It's important to remember to step back, remember the goals behind your measurements, and focus on solving the problems of your customers. With that in mind, the lessons learned in this book will help you zero in on optimizing those end goals.
"Complete Web Monitoring" is valuable for the same reason it is difficult to categorize. The various tools and services that you learn about are generally used by many different departments across an organization, all for very different reasons, generally without any sort of collaboration. What you realize reading this book is that there is a lot more to the success of your business than the limited visibility you get from using these tools independently. To truly understand how your business is doing, and how you can improve not only revenue but also how you build your business, you need a holistic picture that includes data from numerous sources. "Complete Web Monitoring" gives you more then anything I've come across previously in giving you the tools, pointing you to the techniques, and teaching you to focus on what is most important.Complete Web Monitoring: Watching Your Visitors, Performance, Communities, and Competitors Overview
Do you really understand your online presence? Are you confident that visitors can use your website? Do you know their motivations? How do online communities perceive your company? To innovate and adapt your business quickly, you must know the answers to these questions.Complete Web Monitoring demonstrates how to measure every aspect of your web presence -- including analytics, backend performance, usability, communities, customer feedback, and competitive analysis -- whether you're running an e-commerce site, a community, a media property, or a Software-as-a-Service company. This book's concrete examples, clear explanations, and practical recommendations make it essential for anyone who runs a website. With this book you will:



Discover how visitors use and interact with your site through web analytics, segmentation, conversions, and user interaction analysis
Find out your market's motivations with voice-of-the-customer research
Measure the health and availability of your website with synthetic testing and real-user monitoring
Track communities related to your online presence, including social networks, forums, blogs, microblogs, wikis, and social news aggregators
Understand how to assemble this data into clear reports tailored to your organization and audience

You can't fix what you don't measure. Complete Web Monitoring shows you how to transform missed opportunities, frustrated users, and spiraling costs into online success. "This is a very comprehensive view of just about everything one needs to know about how websites work and what one needs to know about them. I'd like to make this book required reading for every employee at Gomez." -- Imad Mouline, CTO of Gomez


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Information Architecture for the World Wide Web: Designing Large-Scale Web Sites Review

Information Architecture for the World Wide Web: Designing Large-Scale Web Sites
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Information Architecture for the World Wide Web: Designing Large-Scale Web Sites ReviewWhat this book does is show you how librarians fit into 21st century. The book does very good promotion of IA itself, and shows why it's important.
The first half of the book is somewhat theoretical and hard to read. However, it's really worth reading. It will explain some concepts (thesaurus, categorization,...) librarians have used for a very long time, and how to easily used them while designing web sites.
The second part is where the book gets more practical and actually shows how to use IA in practice, which was, at least for me, the more interesting part. If you are in any way connected to web development, you should read this book.
The entire book is exactly what it says it is - "Designing large-scale web sites". Although some concepts can be applied to smaller sites, you will hardly find resources to make use of some of the things authors talk about.
There are many books on usability out there, but this one is dedicated to findability. If these terms are new to you, I recommend you read Steve Krug's "Don't Make Me Think" and Jakob Nielsen's "Prioritizing Web Usability" before reading this book. It might make it easier to read, and the book will definitely make more sense to you.Information Architecture for the World Wide Web: Designing Large-Scale Web Sites Overview
The post-Ajaxian Web 2.0 world of wikis, folksonomies, and mashups makes well-planned information architecture even more essential.How do you present large volumes of information to people who need to find what they're looking for quickly? This classic primer shows information architects, designers, and web site developers how to build large-scale and maintainable web sites that are appealing and easy to navigate.

The new edition is thoroughly updated to address emerging technologies -- with recent examples, new scenarios, and information on best practices -- while maintaining its focus on fundamentals. With topics that range from aesthetics to mechanics, Information Architecture for the World Wide Web explains how to create interfaces that users can understand right away. Inside, you'll find:

An overview of information architecture for both newcomers and experienced practitioners
The fundamental components of an architecture, illustrating the interconnected nature of these systems. Updated, with updates for tagging, folksonomies, social classification, and guided navigation
Tools, techniques, and methods that take you from research to strategy and design to implementation. This edition discusses blueprints, wireframes and the role of diagrams in the design phase
A series of short essays that provide practical tips and philosophical advice for those who work on information architecture
The business context of practicing and promoting information architecture, including recent lessons on how to handle enterprise architecture
Case studies on the evolution of two large and very different information architectures, illustrating best practices along the way

How do you document the rich interfaces of web applications? How do you design for multiple platforms and mobile devices? With emphasis on goals and approaches over tactics or technologies, this enormously popular book gives you knowledge about information architecture with a framework that allows you to learn new approaches -- and unlearn outmoded ones.


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Designing Web Interfaces: Principles and Patterns for Rich Interactions Review

Designing Web Interfaces: Principles and Patterns for Rich Interactions
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Designing Web Interfaces: Principles and Patterns for Rich Interactions ReviewIf you are brand spanking new to web design, and have never coded a single site, you may want to hold off on this book for a minute. I'm not saying it is not for beginners, because it is. Those new to HTML and CSS may want to get the hang of that before jumping into incorporating Ajax and JavaScript along with advanced CSS techniques.
Who is it for? I would recommend this book for art directors, project managers, web designers (all levels), interactive designers, DVD menu designers (though not directly related, you can still take away some important aspects or "patterns"), and especially those that design online training modules (we all know how dull they can be.) Like the DVD menu designers I mentioned above, I think Flash designers can benefit greatly, as well. Though the book is not directly geared toward Flash design, the patterns and "anti-patterns" talked about can easily be used when designing for a Flash experience.
The layout of the book is broken up into the 6 "principles" described in the product description of this book. The sections "Make It Direct" and "Stay on the Page" are by far the two largest sections, for they are the most important of the 6. "Keep it Lightweight" is the shortest section/principle, but by no means is rushed or glossed over. It poses some great design ideas to keep it intuitive, discoverable and keep you from designing 'mouse traps.'
In order to get the most out of this book, you would have to have designed a web site before reading this book. If you are a project manager or art director in charge of a team designing a web site (but not a web designer yourself), it would benefit you greatly to have a general understanding of web design, HTML, what Ajax is, CSS, cross-browser compatibilities, and Javascript. If you are just managing a team, you do NOT have to know how to code these languages/techniques, but in order to really benefit form this book, it would be better if you generally know what each does.
This book could also help bridge the gap for some managers by equipping them with the correct terminology of web design. Just speaking the language of user interface design can help speed up the time it takes to turn your directions into an interface that works the way you intended.
The book is detailed and to the point of the benefits of discoverability and weighing your options in the case of just how intuitive you need to make the interface. This book does not read like a my-way-or-the-highway kind of book. Scott mentions the potential pitfalls, disadvantages and possible alternate scenarios that depend on your interactive goals as set by the audience visiting your site.
A good number of the examples are from Yahoo! and Netflix sites (because Scott used to work for Yahoo! and now works for Netflix), but I never once felt like it was an advertisement for either one. He manages to spread the love around and uses examples from the Gap, iPhone, blogs, Google, Amazon, and others.
In short, the book is an easy read, something that one could go through in a long weekend. There are screenshots and visual examples on virtually every page, so in no way are we left to imagine the event happening. Multiple screenshots are taken when the event happens over the period of several steps. There is even a couple free companion web sites that will show the screenshots in a larger format than the book would allow. While reading the book, you will undoubtedly have many 'ah ha!' moments, or times when you rush to check your previously-designed web sites to see if you need to make a correction to your interface (admit it, we all do.)
I highly recommend this book for anyone that designs interfaces, even if they are for mp3 players, touch screens for electronics, or those interactive lobby displays. We all need some help in the area of user interface design.
***NOTE: there is NO code in this book. This the theory of designing user interfaces for the web, NOT the code.Designing Web Interfaces: Principles and Patterns for Rich Interactions Overview
Want to learn how to create great user experiences on today's Web? In this book, UI experts Bill Scott and Theresa Neil present more than 75 design patterns for building web interfaces that provide rich interaction. Distilled from the authors' years of experience at Sabre, Yahoo!, and Netflix, these best practices are grouped into six key principles to help you take advantage of the web technologies available today. With an entire section devoted to each design principle, Designing Web Interfaces helps you:

Make It Direct-Edit content in context with design patterns for In Page Editing, Drag & Drop, and Direct Selection
Keep It Lightweight-Reduce the effort required to interact with a site by using In Context Tools to leave a "light footprint"
Stay on the Page-Keep visitors on a page with overlays, inlays, dynamic content, and in-page flow patterns
Provide an Invitation-Help visitors discover site features with invitations that cue them to the next level of interaction
Use Transitions-Learn when, why, and how to use animations, cinematic effects, and other transitions
React Immediately-Provide a rich experience by using lively responses such as Live Search, Live Suggest, Live Previews, and more

Designing Web Interfaces illustrates many patterns with examples from working websites. If you need to build or renovate a website to be truly interactive, this book gives you the principles for success.


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A Project Guide to UX Design: For user experience designers in the field or in the making Review

A Project Guide to UX Design: For user experience designers in the field or in the making
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A Project Guide to UX Design: For user experience designers in the field or in the making ReviewA Project Guide to UX Design is a book that defines the micro and macroscopic views of user experience design and its role in the project life cycle. Russ and Carolyn do a great job of reiterating what the core of user experience design is as well as identifying the different roles that utilize it. The book covers a lot of ground and takes a transcendental approach of showing the underlying purpose for each role in order to promote a synthetic comprehension of user experience design as opposed to shallow memorization.
The main target audience of the book are Information Architects, Interaction Designers, User Researchers, and other project stakeholders (Business Analysts, Content Strategists, Copywriters, Visual Designers, and Front-end Developers).
To make the contents more inviting, I've created an enclosing outline to provide abstract classifications for several groups of chapters. Each number represents the number of pages in each chapter:
+ Introduction
- Chapter 1: The Tao of UXD (8)
- Chapter 2: The Project Ecosystem (29)
+ Business Perspective
- Chapter 3: Proposals for Consultants and Freelancers (15)
- Chapter 4: Project Objectives and Approach (10)
- Chapter 5: Business Requirements (15)
+ Research
- Chapter 6: User Research (26)
- Chapter 7: Personas (13)
- Chapter 8: User Experience Design and SEO (17)
+ Information Architecture / Interaction Design
- Chapter 9: Transition from Defining to Designing (18)
- Chapter 10: Site Maps and Task Flows (17)
- Chapter 11: Wireframes and Annotations (17)
- Chapter 12: Prototyping (15)
- Chapter 13: Design testing with Users (25)
- Chapter 14: Transition: From Design to Development and Beyond (10)
The book also contains frequent references to books, online resources, and user experience groups and authors throughout as opposed to an Appendix or a 'For further reading' section nested in the back. This helps to drive home the thoughts as you read them, rather than 'when you are finished'.
As an aspiring user experience professional, I do believe that this book is worth owning, reading, and referencing as a compass to create effective user experience in any project setting.A Project Guide to UX Design: For user experience designers in the field or in the making Overview"If you are a young designer entering or contemplating entering the UX field this is a canonical book. If you are an organization that really needs to start grokking UX this book is also for you. " -- Chris Bernard, User Experience Evangelist, MicrosoftUser experience design is the discipline of creating a useful and usable Web site or application—one that's easily navigated and meets the needs of both the site owner and its users. But there's a lot more to successful UX design than knowing the latest Web technologies or design trends: It takes diplomacy, project management skills, and business savvy. That's where this book comes in. Authors Russ Unger and Carolyn Chandler show you how to integrate UX principles into your project from start to finish.• Understand the various roles in UX design, identify stakeholders, and enlist their support• Obtain consensus from your team on project objectives• Define the scope of your project and avoid mission creep• Conduct user research and document your findings• Understand and communicate user behavior with personas• Design and prototype your application or site• Make your product findable with search engine optimization• Plan for development, product rollout, and ongoing quality assurance

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Return on Engagement: Content, Strategy, and Design Techniques for Digital Marketing Review

Return on Engagement: Content, Strategy, and Design Techniques for Digital Marketing
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Return on Engagement: Content, Strategy, and Design Techniques for Digital Marketing ReviewFirst off, David Meerman Scott praises the book on the back cover. If you don't know who he is, check out his Gobbledygook Manifesto [...]
In it he says, "Marketers don't understand buyers, the problems buyers face, or how their product helps solve these problems. That's where the gobbledygook happens." He also states, "Because these writers don't understand how their products solve customer problems, they cover by explaining how the product works and pepper this blather with industry jargon." Return on Engagement (ROE) is far from that and exactly the type of book that satisfies David Meerman Scott.
I read Tim's first book, Managing Interactive Products, and Tim sticks to his guns again: be real, have something to offer, and be interesting. He shows marketers how to do that and drive the right audience to your site by focusing earning their trust. Tim explains that the reality is that blogs, social media sites, etc., should be used to help people, build a reputation, earn their trust, and then earn their business as they become advocates for you and your brand.
You probably already know a little bit about the digital technologies mentioned in this book. However, ROE shows how to create a digital strategy and the workflow to execute the tactics. Tim starts by explaining how to listen to online conversations and learn what ideas people have about you and how and why these should form your strategy. He teaches the importance of relevant content, how to publish effectively, and how to integrate your keyword strategy across all touch points/channels.
This books gets you thinking and jotting down notes. All sections contain bullet points with relevant questions that you should answer during your planning stage. Tim practices what he preaches. This book is part of the off-site technique to drive traffic to his site. It's all about driving people to the web. That's why you have to visit the website to download the mobile chapter. Highly suggested!
Return on Engagement: Content, Strategy, and Design Techniques for Digital Marketing Overview

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Clout: The Art and Science of Influential Web Content (Voices That Matter) Review

Clout: The Art and Science of Influential Web Content (Voices That Matter)
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Clout: The Art and Science of Influential Web Content (Voices That Matter) ReviewFirst, I'd like to say that I normally don't write book reviews. Being a student of the web, I read *a lot* of material and I typically don't have time to write a reaction. But every once and a while, something strikes me as noteworthy. Clout is just such a book.
Having run an industry publication on User Experience Design for quite some time, I'm of course familiar with the discipline of Content Strategy. Unfortunately, though, running it means that most of what I read online or hear at conferences sounds the same. "Yes, I know I have to prioritize things and think strategically about content, thanks." What I like about Clout is how novel it really is. In short, Clout:
(1) Got my attention: its a new angle on what could easily be seen as a tired subject.
(2) Is very "practice" driven: I don't like reading about theory, I want to see how content strategy functions in the real world.
(3) Is for beginners and experts: Clout starts small--a bit of history--and ends with a bang, a call to action for all web professionals.
The author, Colleen, did a great job gathering insightful case studies and overseeing the creation of illustrative diagrams. Reading about content strategy is one thing, but *seeing* it is quite another, and Clout delivers. I find it quite remarkable that such an unassuming volume delivers such a high quantity of information. Here you'll also find some of the major takeaways from books such as Groundswell and Here Comes Everybody.
So, save yourself some reading and grab a copy of Clout. For the budding content strategist, blogger, entrepreneur, etc., I highly recommend it.Clout: The Art and Science of Influential Web Content (Voices That Matter) OverviewResults. Everyone wants them, whether to sell more products, spread good ideas, or win more funding. In our busy digital world, the way to results is influencing people on the web. But how? An ad campaign won't cut it. A Twitter account doesn't guarantee it. Manipulative tricks will backfire. Instead, you need quality, compelling web content that attracts people and engages them for the long haul. Clout explains the key principles of influence and how to apply them to web content. Along the way, those principles come to life with practical examples from HowStuffWorks.com, Newell Rubbermaid, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and many more brands. With this book, you'll:
Discover why a technology feature, marketing campaign, SEO effort, or redesign aren't enough to influence online.
Understand the business value of compelling web content.
Learn 8 principles for influence from the art of rhetoric and the science of psychology.
Find out what context is and why it's so important to influence.
Jump start your planning for content with a content brief.
Learn how to evaluate your web content and determine whether it's making a difference.
Foreword by Karen McGrane, managing partner of Bond Art + Science

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Web Style Guide, 3rd edition: Basic Design Principles for Creating Web Sites (Web Style Guide: Basic Design Principles for Creating Web Sites) Review

Web Style Guide, 3rd edition: Basic Design Principles for Creating Web Sites (Web Style Guide: Basic Design Principles for Creating Web Sites)
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Web Style Guide, 3rd edition: Basic Design Principles for Creating Web Sites (Web Style Guide: Basic Design Principles for Creating Web Sites) ReviewMy impression after relying on 2nd edition to teach web design all these years is similar to the 2-star reviewer who wrote this version is laced with jargon and a difficult read. It seems this book has gone from a fundamental primer on basic web design principles that served as an excellent introduction to web design for novices to some kind of "introduction to large-scale web design" that throws newcomers off into the deep end of "analytics," "metrics," and "wireframes." I am seriously reconsidering if I can use this book in my beginning web design course anymore. I understand design tools have evolved and the Internet has become much more dynamic, and that it is certainly a challenge to know where to draw the line between "basic" and "advanced" web design concepts, but this 3rd edition seems to have over-corrected and gotten away from its core strengths. I may just stick with the 2nd edition as it seems to cover the basics much better without the addition of the new content in this 3rd edition...Web Style Guide, 3rd edition: Basic Design Principles for Creating Web Sites (Web Style Guide: Basic Design Principles for Creating Web Sites) OverviewConsistently praised in earlier editions as the best volume on classic elements of web site design, Web Style Guide, now in its Third Edition, continues its tradition of emphasis on fundamentals. Focusing on the needs of web site designers in corporations, government, nonprofit organizations, and academic institutions, the book explains established design principles and how they apply in web design projects in which information design, interface design, and efficient search and navigation are of primary concern. New in this edition: -a full chapter devoted to Universal Usability-guidelines and techniques for creating universally usable designs
-a full chapter on Information Architecture and how best to promote its robust development-information on Search Engine Optimization and the designs that improve it-techniques for using Cascading Style Sheets for layouts and typographic design-185 illustrations, all in full color

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Convert: Designing Web Sites to Increase Traffic and Conversion Review

Convert: Designing Web Sites to Increase Traffic and Conversion
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Convert: Designing Web Sites to Increase Traffic and Conversion ReviewI've been building websites for 12 years and have long believed that most sites are a waste of money; they look pretty but don't generate profits for the client. I tell prospects that if no one can find your site - and they don't do what you want (buy, donate, sign up, order) when they get there - it's money down the drain.
Still, web design courses have focused on how a site LOOKS ("graphic design") or the technical aspects of building a site. Ben Hunt goes beyond that. He marries technical knowledge with solid marketing fundamentals in a clear and compelling way. And best of all he provides examples of sites he's redesigned, explaining the reasoning behind each revision.
If you design websites, if you do copywriting for websites, if you simply want to understand how "online marketing" is SUPPOSED to work - get this book!Convert: Designing Web Sites to Increase Traffic and Conversion OverviewSolve your traffic troubles and turn browsers into buyers
When web design expert Ben Hunt set out to quantify the difference between an ordinary web site and a great one, he expected to find the key in design simplicity. But when his team more than doubled the conversion rates for a wide range of sites, they identified simple yet powerful solutions involving design, copy, appropriate analysis, classic optimization techniques, and targeted testing. You'll find the fixes easy to implement, and they're all right here.
Understand the essentials - your market, your proposition, and your delivery.
Create a site that is seen by the right people, provides a compelling experience, and generates the desired action.
Learn how to use testing to improve your site's conversion rate.
Discover the holistic nature of web site optimization and why multiplicity matters.
Examine dozens of simple techniques for building traffic, engaging your audience, and crafting effective calls to action.
Combine creativity with analysis for the best possible results.

Ben Hunt is Principal Consultant for Scratchmedia Ltd. He operates webdesignfromscratch.com, which provides tutorials and advice to over 120,000 web developers each month. Ben has been designing, coding, and producing web sites for clients worldwide for more than 15 years, and is considered a leader in the web usability industry.
Forewords by Ken McCarthy, founder of the System Seminar, and Drayton Bird, Drayton Bird Associates.

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Undercover User Experience Design (Voices That Matter) Review

Undercover User Experience Design (Voices That Matter)
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Undercover User Experience Design (Voices That Matter) ReviewIn the past few years, I have read many UX books, and most of them were either extremely boring or very badly written, so I approached this one with a lot of cynicism. Luckily, it is neither boring nor badly written: it actually has a very good pace, talks about most aspects of User Experience just in the right length, and maintains a tone throughout that relaxes you and makes you feel that you're actually doing something that you enjoy.
The authors maintain the position that some UX work in design is better than none, and show ways how research, design and production can be influenced by User Experience work (performed by you, the reader) without big budgets or a sense of perfectionism.
Having worked in various companies large and small for UX teams both successfully and unsuccessfully, I found that the relaxed approach by the authors resonated with me. It's a bit like books by Steve Krug, but less descriptive in what needs to be done. "Undercover User Experience Design" rather gives you a range of possibilities to tackle problems along the way, and it's up to the user which one to pick. The book quite masterfully describes the techniques with just the right amount of detail: if you're okay with a bit of uncertainty, you can probably do the exercises straight away, but if you're a bit anxious because you've never done it before, the book gives you plenty of leads to follow up on.
I rarely recommend a book for both beginners in UX and seasoned professionals, but I felt that it spoke very well to both parties: beginners get a 5-star introduction into what can be done, a bit of how-to as well, while professionals can use it as a quick-reference guide in case they hit a snag somewhere in their projects.
Oh, and it's under 200 pages, which makes it much more likely for you to actually read ;-)Undercover User Experience Design (Voices That Matter) OverviewOnce you catch the user experience bug, the world changes. Doors open the wrong way, websites don't work, and companies don't seem to care. And while anyone can learn the UX remedies usability testing, personas, prototyping and so on unless your organization 'gets it', putting them into practice is trickier. Undercover User Experience is a pragmatic guide from the front lines, giving frank advice on making UX work in real companies with real problems. Readers will learn how to fit research, ideation, prototyping and testing into their daily workflow, and how to design good user experiences under the all-too-common constraints of time, budget and culture.

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