Elements of User Experience, The

Best ever book for designers. It's on adaptive theory. user-centric design approach.

This book is written in a bit of a dull and boring tone, and gives a view of the UX / product design process that's rigid and suitable for bureaucratic big companies, not an independent developer like myself or a startup consisting of 6, not 60000, people. For example, the author breaks down the process into five planes — strategy, scope, structure, skeleton, surface — which is interesting, but I didn't learn enough about each of these planes that I don't already know. What, then, is the point in defining these five planes? It seems excessive and defining concepts without giving enough actionable advice. Something like 37 signals's Rework or Getting Real is 10 times more practical and useful. [...] Some of the suggestions in this book have since been discredited. For example, the functional spec — 37 signals points out that that's vague and leads to illusions of agreement. [...] Sometimes the author misses what is even to a non-expert like myself well-known. For example, he talks about the tension between designing for novices vs power users, without saying that the first step should be to try to do both. Shortcuts are an obvious example. Another is a customisable toolbar that has the tools beginners would use, but advanced users would be able to add tools for functions they use more often. The author misses such well-known methods to have the best of both worlds. On multiple occasions, I found myself waiting for the book to say something like "Instead of all that, a better technique is to..." but that never comes. I ended up doubting the author's competence. This book told me things I already know, or it defines new things I didn't know, like contextual inquiry, without telling me enough about how to use it. I'm not interested in reading a definition for its own sake, but parts of the book read like a catalog of definitions. Instead of defining a half dozen terms, tell me about one, and in the context of how I can use it to solve a practical problem. This book is also web-specific, and not the best reference if you're building a native app.

Always wanted to buy...

Very accessible and clear, this book is a pleasure to read, providing a method for User-Centred Design perfect for ‘evangelization’ of the discipline. A must-read to designers and non-designers alike, especially to anyone involved with or interested in the Product development cycle.

I really enjoyed reading this book. I am about to star a course on UX design and I think it presents a very simple and schematic approach to a design discipline. Maybe the real world won't be as simple and easy and simple but this book surely will help me as a guideline for best practises and basics of the expertise.

Having worked in this industry for many years, I was pleasantly surprised to come across such a clear primer. Although this book borders on conceptual, it covers enough practical details to make it an invaluable resource for those new to the trade, or anyone looking to improve their process with industry best practices. This is a book I will now highly recommend to anyone new to our organization. It also provided me with a great set of tools to help explain the process to others (including clients). If you are an expert looking for specific details and/or a cookbook style approach, you probably want to look elsewhere -- for everyone else, it's worth picking up.

Letto e studiato tutto, questo libro fornisce delle nozioni fondamentali sull'User Experience e le spiega molto bene. Sono poche pagine, ma c'è tutto quello che serve

Ce livre est parfait ! Il contient toutes les bases de l'expérience utilisateur ainsi que les méthodes et techniques à appliquer pour ses projets. Je le recommande grandement ! Mathieu <...>