book

The UX Book

by Rex Hartson, Pardha S. Pyla

January 2012

Intermediate to advanced

976 pages

29h 21m

English

Morgan Kaufmann

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Goals for this bookUsability is still importantBut user experience is more than usabilityA practical approachOrder of the materialOur audienceIncreasing maturity of the discipline and audienceWhat we do not coverAbout the exercisesProjectsOrigins of the bookArousing the design “stickler” in youFurther information on our websiteAbout the authors
Objectives1.1 Ubiquitous interaction1.2 Emerging desire for usability1.3 From usability to user experience1.4 Emotional impact as part of the user experience1.5 User experience needs a business case1.6 Roots of usability

Objectives2.1 Introduction2.2 A UX process lifecycle template2.3 Choosing a process instance for your project2.4 The system complexity space2.5 Meet the user interface team2.6 Scope of UX presence within the team2.7 More about UX lifecyclesThe Pre-Design Part of the UX Lifecycle
Objectives3.1 Introduction3.2 The system concept statement3.3 User work activity data gathering3.4 Look for emotional aspects of work practice3.5 Abridged contextual inquiry process3.6 Data-driven vs. model-driven inquiry3.7 History
Objectives4.1 Introduction4.2 Organizing concepts: work roles and flow model4.3 Creating and managing work activity notes4.4 Constructing your work activity affinity diagram (WAAD)4.5 Abridged contextual analysis process4.6 History of affinity diagrams
Objectives5.1 Introduction5.2 Needs and requirements: first span of the bridge5.3 Formal requirements extraction5.4 Abridged methods for requirements extraction
Objectives6.1 Introduction6.2 Design-informing models: second span of the bridge6.3 Some general “how to” suggestions6.4 A New example domain: slideshow presentations6.5 User models6.6 Usage models6.7 Work environment models6.8 Barrier summaries6.9 Model consolidation6.10 Protecting your sources6.11 Abridged methods for design-informing models extraction6.12 Roots of essential use cases in software use cases
Objectives7.1 Introduction7.2 Design paradigms7.3 Design thinking7.4 Design perspectives7.5 User personas7.6 Ideation7.7 Sketching7.8 More about phenomenology
Objectives8.1 Introduction8.2 Mental models8.3 Conceptual design8.4 Storyboards8.5 Design influencing user behavior8.6 Design for embodied interaction8.7 Ubiquitous and situated interaction
Objectives9.1 Introduction9.2 Macro view of lifecycle iterations for design9.3 Intermediate design9.4 Detailed design9.5 Wireframes9.6 Maintain a custom style guide9.7 Interaction design specifications9.8 More about participatory designSummary of the Flow of Actitives in Chapters 3 through 9
Objectives10.1 Introduction10.2 UX goals10.3 UX target tables10.4 Work roles, user classes, and ux goals10.5 UX measures10.6 Measuring instruments10.7 UX metrics10.8 Baseline level10.9 Target level10.10 Setting levels10.11 Observed results10.12 Practical tips and cautions for creating ux targets10.13 How UX targets help manage the user experience engineering process10.14 An abridged approach to UX goals, metrics, and targets
Objectives11.1 Introduction11.2 Depth and breadth of a prototype11.3 Fidelity of prototypes11.4 Interactivity of prototypes11.5 Choosing the right breadth, depth, level of fidelity, and amount of interactivity11.6 Paper prototypes11.7 Advantages of and cautions about using prototypes11.8 Prototypes in transition to the product11.9 Software tools for prototyping
Objectives12.1 Introduction12.2 Formative vs. summative evaluation12.3 Types of formative and informal summative evaluation methods12.4 Types of evaluation data12.5 Some data collection techniques12.6 Variations in formative evaluation results
Objectives13.1 Introduction13.2 Design walkthroughs and reviews13.3 UX Inspection13.4 Heuristic evaluation, a UX inspection method13.5 Our practical approach to UX Inspection13.6 Do UX Evaluation rite13.7 Quasi-empirical UX evaluation13.8 Questionnaires13.9 Specialized rapid UX evaluation methods13.10 More about “discount” UX engineering methods
Objectives14.1 Introduction14.2 Plan for rigorous empirical UX evaluation14.3 Team roles for rigorous evaluation14.4 Prepare an effective range of tasks14.5 Select and adapt evaluation method and data collection techniques14.6 Select participants14.7 Recruit participants14.8 Prepare for participants14.9 Do final pilot testing: fix your wobbly wheels14.10 More about determining the right number of participants
Objectives15.1 Introduction15.2 Preliminaries with participants15.3 Protocol issues15.4 Generating and collecting quantitative UX data15.5 Generating and collecting qualitative UX data15.6 Generating and collecting emotional impact data15.7 Generating and collecting phenomenological evaluation data15.8 Wrapping up an evaluation session15.9 The humaine project
Objectives16.1 Introduction16.2 Informal summative (quantitative) data analysis16.3 Analysis of subjective questionnaire data16.4 Formative (qualitative) data analysis16.5 Cost-importance analysis: prioritizing problems to fix16.6 Feedback to process16.7 Lessons from the field
Objectives17.1 Introduction17.2 Reporting informal summative results17.3 Reporting qualitative formative results17.4 Formative reporting content17.5 Formative reporting audience, needs, goals, and context of use
Objectives18.1 Goal-directed UX evaluation18.2 Choose your UX evaluation methods18.3 Focus on the essentials18.4 Parting thoughts: be flexible and avoid dogma during UX evaluation18.5 Connecting back to the lifecycle
Objectives19.1 Introduction19.2 Basics of agile se methods19.3 Drawbacks of agile se methods from the UX perspective19.4 What is needed on the UX side19.5 Problems to anticipate19.6 A synthesized approach to integrating UX
Objectives20.1 What are affordances?20.2 A little background20.3 Four kinds of affordances in UX design20.4 Affordances in interaction design20.5 False cognitive affordances misinform and mislead20.6 User-created affordances as a wake-up call to designers20.7 Emotional affordances
Objectives21.1 Introduction21.2 The interaction cycle21.3 The user action framework—adding a structured knowledge base to the interaction cycle21.4 Interaction cycle and user action framework content categories21.5 Role of affordances within the uaf21.6 Practical value of uaf
Objectives22.1 Introduction22.2 Using and interpreting design guidelines22.3 Human memory limitations22.4 Selected ux design guidelines and examples22.5 Planning22.6 Translation
22.8 Outcomes22.9 Assessment22.10 Overall22.11 Conclusions
Objectives23.1 Introduction23.2 Locus of influence in an organization23.3 Which scenario is right for you?23.4 Foundations for success in SE–UX development23.5 The challenge of connecting SE and UX23.6 The ripple model to connect SE and UX23.7 Conclusions
Objectives24.1 Putting it to work as a new practitioner24.2 Be a smart ux practitioner24.3 UX professionalism24.4 Cost-justifying UX24.5 UX within your organization24.6 Parting words
Introduction to exercisesChapter 3 exercisesChapter 4 exercisesChapter 5 exercisesChapter 6 exercisesChapter 7 exercisesChapter 8 exercisesChapter 9 exercisesChapter 10 exercisesChapter 11 exercisesChapter 13 exercisesChapter 14 exercisesChapter 15 exercisesChapter 16 exercisesChapter 17 exercises

Overview

The UX Book: Process and Guidelines for Ensuring a Quality User Experience aims to help readers learn how to create and refine interaction designs that ensure a quality user experience (UX). The book seeks to expand the concept of traditional usability to a broader notion of user experience; to provide a hands-on, practical guide to best practices and established principles in a UX lifecycle; and to describe a pragmatic process for managing the overall development effort. The book provides an iterative and evaluation-centered UX lifecycle template, called the Wheel, for interaction design. Key concepts discussed include contextual inquiry and analysis; extracting interaction design requirements; constructing design-informing models; design production; UX goals, metrics, and targets; prototyping; UX evaluation; the interaction cycle and the user action framework; and UX design guidelines. This book will be useful to anyone interested in learning more about creating interaction designs to ensure a quality user experience. These include interaction designers, graphic designers, usability analysts, software engineers, programmers, systems analysts, software quality-assurance specialists, human factors engineers, cognitive psychologists, cosmic psychics, trainers, technical writers, documentation specialists, marketing personnel, and project managers.

A very broad approach to user experience through its components—usability, usefulness, and emotional impact with special attention to lightweight methods such as rapid UX evaluation techniques and an agile UX development process
Universal applicability of processes, principles, and guidelines—not just for GUIs and the Web, but for all kinds of interaction and devices: embodied interaction, mobile devices, ATMs, refrigerators, and elevator controls, and even highway signage
Extensive design guidelines applied in the context of the various kinds of affordances necessary to support all aspects of interaction
Real-world stories and contributions from accomplished UX practitioners
A practical guide to best practices and established principles in UX
A lifecycle template that can be instantiated and tailored to a given project, for a given type of system development, on a given budget