Rocket Surgery Made Easy
Rocket Surgery Made Easy

Author: Steve Krug

Publisher: New Riders

Published: 2009-12-08

Total Pages: 169

ISBN-13: 0321702840

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

It's been known for years that usability testing can dramatically improve products. But with a typical price tag of $5,000 to $10,000 for a usability consultant to conduct each round of tests, it rarely happens. In this how-to companion to Don't Make Me Think: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability, Steve Krug spells out a streamlined approach to usability testing that anyone can easily apply to their own Web site, application, or other product. (As he said in Don't Make Me Think, "It's not rocket surgery".) Using practical advice, plenty of illustrations, and his trademark humor, Steve explains how to: Test any design, from a sketch on a napkin to a fully-functioning Web site or application Keep your focus on finding the most important problems (because no one has the time or resources to fix them all) Fix the problems that you find, using his "The least you can do" approach By paring the process of testing and fixing products down to its essentials ("A morning a month, that's all we ask"), Rocket Surgery makes it realistic for teams to test early and often, catching problems while it's still easy to fix them. Rocket Surgery Made Easy adds demonstration videos to the proven mix of clear writing, before-and-after examples, witty illustrations, and practical advice that made Don't Make Me Think so popular.

Don't Make Me Think
Don't Make Me Think

Author: Steve Krug

Publisher: Pearson Education

Published: 2009-08-05

Total Pages: 325

ISBN-13: 0321648781

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Five years and more than 100,000 copies after it was first published, it's hard to imagine anyone working in Web design who hasn't read Steve Krug's "instant classic" on Web usability, but people are still discovering it every day. In this second edition, Steve adds three new chapters in the same style as the original: wry and entertaining, yet loaded with insights and practical advice for novice and veteran alike. Don't be surprised if it completely changes the way you think about Web design. Three New Chapters! Usability as common courtesy -- Why people really leave Web sites Web Accessibility, CSS, and you -- Making sites usable and accessible Help! My boss wants me to ______. -- Surviving executive design whims "I thought usability was the enemy of design until I read the first edition of this book. Don't Make Me Think! showed me how to put myself in the position of the person who uses my site. After reading it over a couple of hours and putting its ideas to work for the past five years, I can say it has done more to improve my abilities as a Web designer than any other book. In this second edition, Steve Krug adds essential ammunition for those whose bosses, clients, stakeholders, and marketing managers insist on doing the wrong thing. If you design, write, program, own, or manage Web sites, you must read this book." -- Jeffrey Zeldman, author of Designing with Web Standards

A Project Guide to UX Design
A Project Guide to UX Design

Author: Russ Unger

Publisher: New Riders

Published: 2012-03-23

Total Pages: 558

ISBN-13: 0132931729

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

User experience design is the discipline of creating a useful and usable Web site or application that’s easily navigated and meets the needs of the site owner and its users. There’s a lot more to successful UX design than knowing the latest Web technologies or design trends: It takes diplomacy, management skills, and business savvy. That’s where the updated edition of this important book comes in. With new information on design principles, mobile and gestural interactions, content strategy, remote research tools and more, you’ll learn to: Recognize the various roles in UX design, identify stakeholders, and enlist their support Obtain consensus from your team on project objectives Understand approaches such as Waterfall, Agile, and Lean UX Define the scope of your project and avoid mission creep Conduct user research in person or remotely, and document your findings Understand and communicate user behavior with personas Design and prototype your application or site Plan for development, product rollout, and ongoing quality assurance

Forms that Work
Forms that Work

Author: Caroline Jarrett

Publisher: Morgan Kaufmann

Published: 2009-03-02

Total Pages: 218

ISBN-13: 0080948480

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Forms that Work: Designing Web Forms for Usability clearly explains exactly how to design great forms for the web. The book provides proven and practical advice that will help you avoid pitfalls, and produce forms that are aesthetically pleasing, efficient and cost-effective. It features invaluable design methods, tips, and tricks to help ensure accurate data and satisfied customers. It includes dozens of examples - from nitty-gritty details (label alignment, mandatory fields) to visual designs (creating good grids, use of color). This book isn't just about colons and choosing the right widgets. It's about the whole process of making good forms, which has a lot more to do with making sure you're asking the right questions in a way that your users can answer than it does with whether you use a drop-down list or radio buttons. In an easy-to-read format with lots of examples, the authors present their three-layer model - relationship, conversation, appearance. You need all three for a successful form - a form that looks good, flows well, asks the right questions in the right way, and, most important of all, gets people to fill it out. Liberally illustrated with full-color examples, this book guides readers on how to define requirements, how to write questions that users will understand and want to answer, and how to deal with instructions, progress indicators and errors. This book is essential reading for HCI professionals, web designers, software developers, user interface designers, HCI academics and students, market research professionals, and financial professionals. *Provides proven and practical advice that will help you avoid pitfalls, and produce forms that are aesthetically pleasing, efficient and cost-effective. *Features invaluable design methods, tips, and tricks to help ensure accurate data and satisfied customers. *Includes dozens of examples -- from nitty-gritty details (label alignment, mandatory fields) to visual designs (creating good grids, use of color).*Foreword by Steve Krug, author of the best selling Don't Make Me Think!

UX Research
UX Research

Author: Brad Nunnally

Publisher: "O'Reilly Media, Inc."

Published: 2016-11-15

Total Pages: 255

ISBN-13: 1491951265

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

One key responsibility of product designers and UX practitioners is to conduct formal and informal research to clarify design decisions and business needs. But there’s often mystery around product research, with the feeling that you need to be a research Zen master to gather anything useful. Fact is, anyone can conduct product research. With this quick reference guide, you’ll learn a common language and set of tools to help you carry out research in an informed and productive manner. This book contains four sections, including a brief introduction to UX research, planning and preparation, facilitating research, and analysis and reporting. Each chapter includes a short exercise so you can quickly apply what you’ve learned. Learn what it takes to ask good research questions Know when to use quantitative and qualitative research methods Explore the logistics and details of coordinating a research session Use softer skills to make research seem natural to participants Learn tools and approaches to uncover meaning in your raw data Communicate your findings with a framework and structure

GUI Bloopers 2.0
GUI Bloopers 2.0

Author: Jeff Johnson

Publisher: Elsevier

Published: 2007-10-04

Total Pages: 433

ISBN-13: 0080552145

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

GUI Bloopers 2.0, Second Edition, is the completely updated and revised version of GUI Bloopers. It looks at user interface design bloopers from commercial software, Web sites, Web applications, and information appliances, explaining how intelligent, well-intentioned professionals make these mistakes – and how you can avoid them. GUI expert Jeff Johnson presents the reality of interface design in an entertaining, anecdotal, and instructive way while equipping readers with the minimum of theory. This updated version reflects the bloopers that are common today, incorporating many comments and suggestions from first edition readers. It covers bloopers in a wide range of categories including GUI controls, graphic design and layout, text messages, interaction strategies, Web site design – including search, link, and navigation, responsiveness issues, and management decision-making. Organized and formatted so information needed is quickly found, the new edition features call-outs for the examples and informative captions to enhance quick knowledge building. This book is recommended for software engineers, web designers, web application developers, and interaction designers working on all kinds of products. - Updated to reflect the bloopers that are common today, incorporating many comments and suggestions from first edition readers - Takes a learn-by-example approach that teaches how to avoid common errors - Covers bloopers in a wide range of categories: GUI controls, graphic design and layout, text messages, interaction strategies, Web site design -- including search, link, and navigation, responsiveness issues, and management decision-making - Organized and formatted so information needed is quickly found, the new edition features call-outs for the examples and informative captions to enhance quick knowledge building - Hundreds of illustrations: both the DOs and the DON'Ts for each topic covered, with checklists and additional bloopers on www.gui-bloopers.com

Just Enough Research
Just Enough Research

Author: Erika Hall

Publisher: Book Apart

Published: 2019-10-21

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9781952616464

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Start doing good research faster than you can plan your next pitch.

Writing for the Web
Writing for the Web

Author: Lynda Felder

Publisher: New Riders

Published: 2012

Total Pages: 192

ISBN-13: 0321794435

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Many books offer instruction on how to use software programs to build Web sites, podcasts, and illustrations. But 'Writing for the Web' explains when and why an author might choose an illustration over a photograph, motion graphics over text, or a slice of Beethoven's Fifth over the sound of a bubbling brook. Focusing on storytelling techniques that work best for digital media, this book describes the essential skills and tools in a Web author's toolbox, including a thorough understanding of grammar and style, a critical eye for photography, and an ear for just the right sound byte for a podcast.

Pandora's Box
Pandora's Box

Author: Andrew A. Adams

Publisher: John Wiley & Sons

Published: 2008-01-29

Total Pages: 674

ISBN-13: 0470065532

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Computing technology is constantly evolving and changing, developing and consolidating its position as a vital component of our lives. It no longer plays a minor part in society – it is embedded in, and affects, all aspects of life, from education to healthcare to war. Dealing with the implications of this is a major challenge, and one that can impact upon us, both personally and professionally. As a consequence, it is vital that all in the computing industry make wise decisions regarding their conduct. Using case studies and discussion topics drawn from entertaining real world examples, Pandora’s Box examines the background of a wide range of vital contemporary issues, encouraging readers to examine the social, legal and ethical challenges they will face in their own careers. Written in an engaging style and packed with international examples, this book addresses topics which have come to the forefront of public consciousness in recent years, such as online crime, piracy and peer to peer file sharing. Comprehensive coverage is provided of digital entertainment, censorship and privacy issues, presenting a rich source of context in which to consider ethical matters. Suitable for students on computer science degree programmes, as well as those taking IT related modules on other courses which consider the impact of technology on 21st century living, Pandora’s Box is an essential read and a unique and timely textbook.

It Ain't Rocket Surgery
It Ain't Rocket Surgery

Author: Brian McKittrick

Publisher:

Published: 2021-08-03

Total Pages: 288

ISBN-13:

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Whether you are in your first sales position or your fortieth, this book will help you. If you catch just ONE thing that you can add to your repertoire that leads to a deal, then reading this will have been worth your time. I fully believe that none of us are as smart as all of us, and sometimes, hearing information in a new way can inspire a change or light a fire of momentum that will carry you to new places. As you read this book, you may ask yourself, "Is it really that simple?" The answer will be a loud & resounding, "Yes!" Humans have a tendency to over-complicate the mess out of nearly everything we do. We use nine words when five will do. We feel better to "think about it" when it's time for a new item to buy than to just act upon it, even though our mind was made up before we even got to the store. We research, then research, and research some more. I once had a client meeting with a lady on a health insurance plan, and she had almost filled a composition notebook with graphs, charts, and numbers. She was cross-referencing carriers, deductibles, copays, and premiums. In three questions, I was able to show her the EXACT plan she needed. But she spent who knows how many hours writing this all out. The purpose of me writing this book is to give sales pros of all walks of life simple action items that can be done by anyone that will make an impact on growing their business. Whether you are a fantastic relationship builder that grows a book of residual clients, or you are in a transactional business model that is mostly single item sales, this book will give you pieces to add to your sales arsenal that can be implemented immediately.