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Frontend developers have to consider many things: browser compatibility, usability, performance, scalability, SEO, and other best practices. But the most fundamental aspect of creating websites is one that often falls short: accessibility. Accessibility is the cornerstone of any website, and if a website is inaccessible, users won't be able to interact with it, obtain information, sign up for services, or buy products.The Web Accessibility Cookbook provides you with dozens of recipes to help you avoid these failures. You'll learn how to build common components, such as main navigation, filters, and dialogs, in an accessible manner. Each recipe not only explains how to build things but also why. Author Manuel Matuzovic provides the knowledge you need to create your own accessible components and address your users'varying needs, abilities, and preferences.With this practical guide, you will:Learn how to build websites that feature inclusive frontendsDiscover the common obstacles website users face every dayUnderstand how your decisions impact usersLearn how to build accessible frontends step-by-stepWrite high-quality markup and CSSEvaluate the accessibility of frontend components

An understanding of psychology-specifically the psychology behind how users behave and interact with digital interfaces-is perhaps the single most valuable nondesign skill a designer can have. The most elegant design can fail if it forces users to conform to the design instead of working within the'blueprint'of how humans perceive and process the world around them.This practical guide explains how you can apply key principles of psychology to build products and experiences that are more human-centered and intuitive. Author Jon Yablonski deconstructs familiar apps and experiences to provide clear examples of how UX designers can build interfaces that adapt to how users perceive and process digital interfaces.You'll learn:How aesthetically pleasing design creates positive responsesThe principles of psychology most useful for designersHow these psychology principles relate to UX heuristicsPredictive models including Fitts's law, Jakob's law, and Hick's lawEthical implications of using psychology in designA practical framework for applying principles of psychology in your design processThis updated edition includes an even deeper connection to the underlying psychological concepts that govern the principles explored in the book, along with accompanying UX methods and techniques. Examples have been updated to ensure the deconstructed apps and experiences remain familiar and relevant.

Many UX designers are surprised to learn that much of the job isn't about drawing things. It's about knowing what to draw and how to convince people to build it. Whether you're a one-person design team making products from scratch or a C-level product leader managing many products and strategies, UX for Business is your missing guide to real-world business design.You'll not only learn how to think about design as a professional but also discover how design can move the needle for your entire company. Author Joel Marsh helps you understand stakeholders, business models, the process of designing valuable solutions, dangerous choices that can ruin a product, and how to gain the attention your work deserves. You'll also explore the principles of designing common types of digital products and services, from portfolio sites to social networks to ecosystems.With this book, you'll learn:How to design the right things by understanding value, diagnostics, and probabilityHow to conduct UX research and analysis without the luxury of time or moneyThe most important aspects of common digital business modelsMethods for getting things done under less-than-ideal circumstancesHow to avoid common pitfalls caused by inexperience

Product management has become a critical function for modern organizations, from small startups to corporate enterprises. And yet, the day-to-day work of product management remains largely misunderstood. In theory, product managers are high-flying visionaries who build products that people love. In practice, they're hard-working facilitators who bring clarity and focus to their teams.In this thoroughly revised and expanded edition, Matt LeMay provides real-world guidance for current and aspiring product managers. Updated for the era of remote and hybrid work, this book provides actionable answers to product management's most persistent and confounding questions, starting with: What exactly am I supposed to do all day?With this book, you'll learn:What the day-to-day work of product management entails--and how to excel at itWhy no job title or description will resolve the ambiguity of your roleHow to bridge the false dichotomy between'strategy'and'execution'Why the temptation to focus on decks and documentation can be bad for your team (and for you)How to prioritize your time and pick your battles

If you're a new or experienced designer of conversational voice first experiences, this handy reference provides actionable answers to key aspects of eyes-busy, hands-busy, voice-only user interfaces. Designed as a companion to books about conversational voice design, this guide includes important details regarding eyes-free, hands-free, voice-only interfaces delivered by Amazon Echo, Google Nest, and a variety of in-car experiences.Authors Ahmed Bouzid and Weiye Ma provide far-field voice best practices and recommendations in a manner similar to The Elements of Style, the popular American English writing style guide. Like that book, The Elements of Voice First Style provides direct, succinct explanations that focus on the essence of each topic. You'll find answers quickly without having to spend time searching through other sources.With this guide, you'll be able to:Craft just the right language to enable your voicebot to effectively communicate with humansCreate conversational voice interfaces that are robust enough to handle errors and failuresDesign highly usable conversational voice interfaces by paying attention to small details that can make or break the experienceBuild a design for a voice-only smart speaker that doesn't require customers to use their eyes or hands

Take advantage of your C# skills to build UI components and client-side experiences with.NET. With this practical guide, you'll learn how to use Blazor WebAssembly to develop next-generation web experiences. Built on top of ASP.NET Core, Blazor represents the future of.NET single-page application investments. Author David Pine, who focuses on.NET and Azure content development at Microsoft, explains how WebAssembly enables many non-JavaScript-based programming languages to run on the client browser. In this book, you'll learn about real-time web functionality with ASP.NET Core SignalR and discover strategies for bidirectional JavaScript interop. David also covers component data binding, hierarchical event-driven communications, in-memory state management, and local storage. This book shows you how to: Create a beautiful, feature-rich Blazor appDevelop and localize an enterprise-scale app using GitHub Actions and Azure Cognitive Services TranslatorCreate advanced validation scenarios for input-based components with formsAutomatically deploy and host to Azure Static Web Apps, and rely on HTTP servicesUse a geolocation service and speech synthesis and recognition native to the browserAuthor a custom modal verification mechanism for validating a user

Lean UX is synonymous with modern product design and development. By combining human-centric design, agile ways of working, and a strong business sense, designers, product managers, developers, and scrum masters around the world are making Lean UX the leading approach for digital product teams today.In the third edition of this award-winning book, authors Jeff Gothelf and Josh Seiden help you focus on the product experience rather than deliverables. You'll learn tactics for integrating user experience design, product discovery, agile methods, and product management. And you'll discover how to drive your design in short, iterative cycles to assess what works best for businesses and users. Lean UX guides you through this change--for the better.Facilitate the Lean UX process with your team with the Lean UX CanvasEnsure every project starts with clear customer-centric success criteriaUnderstand the role of designer on an agile teamWrite and contribute design and experiment stories to the backlogEnsure that design work takes place in every sprintBuild product discovery into your team's'velocity'

Customers who have inconsistent experiences with products and services are understandably frustrated. But it's worse for organizations that can't pinpoint the causes of these problems because they're too focused on processes. This updated book shows your team how to use alignment diagrams to turn valuable customer observations into actionable insight. With this powerful technique, you can visually map existing customer experience and envision future solutions.Designers, product and brand managers, marketing specialists, and business owners will discover how experience diagramming helps you determine where business goals and customer perspectives intersect. Armed with this insight, you can provide the people you serve with real value. Mapping experiences isn't just about product and service design; it's about understanding the human condition.Emphasize recent changes in business using the latest mapping techniquesCreate diagrams that account for multichannel experiences as well as ecosystem designUnderstand how facilitation is increasingly becoming part of mapping efforts, shifting the focus from a deliverable to actionabilityExplore ways to apply mapping of all kinds to noncommercial settings, such as helping victims of domestic violence

User experience (UX) strategy lies at the intersection of UX design and business strategy, but until now, there hasn't been an easy-to-apply framework for executing it. This hands-on guide introduces lightweight product strategy tools and techniques to help you and your team devise innovative digital solutions that people want.Author Jaime Levy shows UX/UI designers, product managers, entrepreneurs, and aspiring strategists simple to advanced methods that can be applied right away. You'll gain valuable perspective through business cases and historical context. This second edition includes new real-world examples, updated techniques, and a chapter on conducting qualitative online user research.Define value propositions and validate target users through provisional personas and customer discovery techniquesExplore marketplace opportunities by conducting competitive research and analysisDesign experiments using rapid prototypes that are focused on the business modelConduct online user research to gain valuable insights quickly on any budgetTest business ideas and validate marketing channels by running online advertising and landing page campaigns

Tap into the wisdom of experts to learn what every UX practitioner needs to know. With 97 short and extremely useful articles, you'll discover new approaches to old problems, pick up road-tested best practices, and hone your skills through sound advice.Working in UX involves much more than just creating user interfaces. UX teams struggle with understanding what's important, which practices they should know deeply, and what approaches aren't helpful at all. With these 97 concise articles, editor Dan Berlin presents a wealth of advice and knowledge from experts who have practiced UX throughout their careers.Bring Themes to Exploratory Research--Shanti KanhaiDesign for Content First--Marli MesibovDesign for Universal Usability--Ann Chadwick-DiasBe Wrong on Purpose--Skyler Ray TaylorDiverse Participant Recruiting Is Critical to Authentic User Research--Megan CamposPut On Your InfoSec Hat to Improve Your Designs--Julie MeridianBoost Your Emotional Intelligence to Move from Good to Great UX--Priyama Barua

Digital product research doesn't have to be difficult, take a long time, or cost a lot of money. Nor should it be a job solely for scientists or expert researchers. In this practical book, Aras Bilgen, C. Todd Lombardo, and Michael Connors demonstrate how your entire team can conduct effective product research within a couple of weeks--easily, cheaply, and without compromising quality.Drawing from decades of experience in product development, the authors lay out nine simple rules that combine user research, market research, and product analytics to quickly discover insights and build products customers truly need.Recognize and avoid common research pitfallsSwitch to the insight-making mindset that underlies all successful research effortsFind out how to look at data, formulate the right questions, and pick the right research methodLearn interview techniques and research skillsAnalyze for insights collaboratively while avoiding biasInspire action with your insights through powerful presentations and prototypesLearn how to involve a wide variety of stakeholders in research, from developers to executivesDiscover how you can make research a habit, not a one-off effort

Among the text editors being used in the programming community, perhaps the most important family is vi and its derivatives. With this updated edition, Unix and Linux users will learn text editing basics for both vi and Vim ('vi improved') before moving on to advanced editing tools for each editor. Authors Arnold Robbins and Elbert Hannah cover the latest major releases of Vim, including 8.0 and 8.2.If you're a programmer or computer analyst, or you work with browsers or command-line interfaces, using Vim can speed up your work and make complex tasks easier. You'll examine multiwindow editing, global search and replacement, and power tools for programmers, and learn how to write interactive macros and scripts to extend the editor--all in the easy-to-follow style that's made this book a classic.Go beyond the basics to learn which vi commands fit your specific needsLearn advanced vi tools that shift most of the editing burden to the computerExplore Vim tools that provide major improvements over viExamine Vimâ??s multiwindow editing feature, a significant upgrade over viUse Vim scripts to customize and tailor Vim to your needsLook at Vim in modern GUI environments with Graphical Vim (gvim)See Vim in the broader programming milieu, including usingit as an IDE

Designers and managers hope their products become essential for users—integrated into their lives like Instagram, Lyft, and others have become. Such deep integration isn't accidental: it's a process of careful design and iterative learning, especially for technology companies. This guide shows you how to apply behavioral science—research that supports many products—to help your users achieve their goals using your product.In this updated edition, Stephen Wendel, head of behavioral science at Morningstar, takes you step-by-step through the process of incorporating behavioral science into product design and development. Product managers, UX and interaction designers, and data analysts will learn a simple and effective approach for identifying target users and behaviors, building the product, and gauging its effectiveness.Learn the three main strategies to help people change behaviorIdentify behaviors your target audience seeks to change—and obstacles that stand in their wayDevelop effective designs that are enjoyable to useMeasure your product's impact and learn ways to improve itCombine behavioral science with data science to pinpoint problems and test potential solutions

An understanding of psychology—specifically the psychology behind how users behave and interact with digital interfaces—is perhaps the single most valuable nondesign skill a designer can have. The most elegant design can fail if it forces users to conform to the design rather than working within the'blueprint'of how humans perceive and process the world around them.This practical guide explains how you can apply key principles in psychology to build products and experiences that are more intuitive and human-centered. Author Jon Yablonski deconstructs familiar apps and experiences to provide clear examples of how UX designers can build experiences that adapt to how users perceive and process digital interfaces.You'll learn:How aesthetically pleasing design creates positive responsesThe principles from psychology most useful for designersHow these psychology principles relate to UX heuristicsPredictive models including Fitts's law, Jakob's law, and Hick's lawEthical implications of using psychology in designA framework for applying these principles

Talking to people about your designs might seem like a basic skill, but it can be difficult to do well. In many cases, how you communicate with stakeholders, clients, and other nondesigners may be more important than the designs themselves. Because if you can't get their support, your work will never see the light of day—no matter how good it is.This practical guide focuses on principles, tactics, and actionable methods for presenting your designs. Whether you design apps, websites, or products, you'll learn how to get support from people who have influence over the project with the goal of creating the best user experience.Walk through the process of preparing and presenting your designsUnderstand stakeholder perspectives and learn how to empathize with themCultivate both implicit and explicit listening skillsLearn tactics and strategies for expressing the most effective response to feedbackCreate the right documentation for your decisions to avoid repeated conversationsLearn why following through is just as important as the meeting itself

Designing good application interfaces isn't easy now that companies need to create compelling, seamless user experiences across an exploding number of channels, screens, and contexts. In this updated third edition, you'll learn how to navigate through the maze of design options. By capturing UI best practices as design patterns, this best-selling book provides solutions to common design problems.You'll learn patterns for mobile apps, web applications, and desktop software. Each pattern contains full-color examples and practical design advice you can apply immediately. Experienced designers can use this guide as an idea sourcebook, and novices will find a road map to the world of interface and interaction design.Understand your users before you start designingBuild your software's structure so it makes sense to usersDesign components to help users complete tasks on any deviceLearn how to promote wayfinding in your softwarePlace elements to guide users to information and functionsLearn how visual design can make or break product usabilityDisplay complex data with artful visualizations

With the wide variety of devices, touch points, and channels in use, your ability to control how people navigate your well-crafted experiences is fading. Yet it's still important to understand where people are in their journey if you're to deliver the right content and interactions atthe right time and on the right device.This practical guide shows you how storytelling can make a powerful difference in product design. Author Anna Dahlström details the many ways you can use storytelling in your projects and throughout your organization. By applying tried-and-tested principles from film and fiction to the context of design and business, you'll learn to create great product experiences.Learn how the anatomy of a great story can make a difference in product designExplore how traditional storytelling principles, tools, and methods relate to key product design aspectsUnderstand how purposeful storytelling helps tell the right story and move people into actionUse storytelling principles to tell, sell, and present your work

When you depend on users to perform specific actions—like buying tickets, playing a game, or riding public transit—well-placed words are most effective. But how do you choose the right words? And how do you know if they work? With this practical book, you'll learn how to write strategically for UX, using tools to build foundational pieces for UI text and UX voice strategy.UX content strategist Torrey Podmajersky provides strategies for converting, engaging, supporting, and re-attracting users. You'll use frameworks and patterns for content, methods to measure the content's effectiveness, and processes to create the collaboration necessary for success. You'll also structure your voice throughout so that the brand is easily recognizable to its audience.Learn how UX content works with the software development lifecycleUse a framework to align the UX content with product principlesExplore content-first design to root UX text in conversationLearn how UX text patterns work with different voicesProduce text that's purposeful, concise, conversational, and clear

Sound can profoundly impact how people interact with your product. Well-designed sounds can be exceptionally effective in conveying subtle distinctions, emotion, urgency, and information without adding visual clutter. In this practical guide, Amber Case and Aaron Day explain why sound design is critical to the success of products, environments, and experiences.Just as visual designers have a set of benchmarks and a design language to guide their work, this book provides a toolkit for the auditory experience, improving collaboration for a wide variety of stakeholders, from product developers to composers, user experience designers to architects. You'll learn a complete process for designing, prototyping, and testing sound.In two parts, this guide includes:Past, present, and upcoming advances in sound designPrinciples for designing quieter productsGuidelines for intelligently adding and removing sound in interactionsWhen to use voice interfaces, how to consider personalities, and how to build a knowledge map of queriesWorking with brands to create unique and effective audio logos that will speak to your customersAdding information using sonification and generative audio

As technology becomes deeply integrated into every aspect of our lives, we've begun to expect more emotionally intelligent interactions. But smartphones don't know if we're having a bad day, and cars couldn't care less about compassion. Technology is developing more IQ, but it still lacks EQ.In this book, Pamela Pavliscak—design researcher and advisor to Fortune 500 companies—explores new research about emotion, new technology that engages emotion, and new emotional design practices. Drawing on her own research and the latest thinking in psychology, neuroscience, and behavioral economics, Pamela shows you how design can help promote emotional well-being.You'll learn:How design has transformed emotion and how tech is transforming it againNew principles for merging emotional intelligence and design thinkingHow to use a relationship model for framing product interactions and personalityMethods for blending well-being interventions with design patternsHow emotional resonance can guide designers toward ethical futuresImplications of emotionally intelligent technology as it scales from micro- to mega-emotional spheres

Today we have the ability to connect speech, touch, haptic, and gestural interfaces into products that engage several human senses at once. This practical book explores examples from current designers and devices to describe how these products blend multiple interface modes together into a cohesive user experience.Authors Christine Park and John Alderman explain the basic principles behind multimodal interaction and introduce the tools you need to root your design in the ways our senses shape experience. This book also includes guides on process, design, and deliverables to help your team get started.The book covers several topics within multimodal design, including:New Human Factors: learn how human sensory abilities allow us to interact with technology and the physical worldNew Technologies: explore some of the technologies that enable multimodal interactions, products, and capabilitiesMultimodal Products: examine different categories of products and learn how they deliver sensory-rich experiencesMultimodal Design: learn processes and methodologies for multimodal product design, development, and release

A good product roadmap is one of the most important and influential documents an organization can develop, publish, and continuously update. In fact, this one document can steer an entire organization when it comes to delivering on company strategy.This practical guide teaches you how to create an effective product roadmap, and demonstrates how to use the roadmap to align stakeholders and prioritize ideas and requests. With it, you'll learn to communicate how your products will make your customers and organization successful.Whether you're a product manager, product owner, business analyst, program manager, project manager, scrum master, lead developer, designer, development manager, entrepreneur, or business owner, this book will show you how to:Articulate an inspiring vision and goals for your productPrioritize ruthlessly and scientificallyProtect against pursuing seemingly good ideas without evaluation and prioritizationEnsure alignment with stakeholdersInspire loyalty and over­-delivery from your teamGet your sales team working with you instead of against youBring a user­ and buyer-­centric approach to planning and decision-makingAnticipate opportunities and stay ahead of the gamePublish a comprehensive roadmap without over­committing

In today's lightning-fast technology world, good product management is critical to maintaining a competitive advantage. Yet, managing human beings and navigating complex product roadmaps is no easy task, and it's rare to find a product leader who can steward a digital product from concept to launch without a couple of major hiccups. Why do some product leaders succeed while others don't?This insightful book presents interviews with nearly 100 leading product managers from all over the world. Authors Richard Banfield, Martin Eriksson, and Nate Walkingshaw draw on decades of experience in product design and development to capture the approaches, styles, insights, and techniques of successful product managers. If you want to understand what drives good product leaders, this book is an irreplaceable resource.In three parts, Product Leadership helps you explore:Themes and patterns of successful teams and their leaders, and ways to attain those characteristicsBest approaches for guiding your product team through the startup, emerging, and enterprise stages of a company's evolutionStrategies and tactics for working with customers, agencies, partners, and external stakeholders

Augmented Reality (AR) blurs the boundary between the physical and digital worlds. In AR's current exploration phase, innovators are beginning to create compelling and contextually rich applications that enhance a user's everyday experiences. In this book, Dr. Helen Papagiannis—a world-leading expert in the field—introduces you to AR: how it's evolving, where the opportunities are, and where it's headed.If you're a designer, developer, entrepreneur, student, educator, business leader, artist, or simply curious about AR's possibilities, this insightful guide explains how you can become involved with an exciting, fast-moving technology.You'll explore how:Computer vision, machine learning, cameras, sensors, and wearables change the way you see the worldHaptic technology syncs what you see with how something feelsAugmented sound and hearables alter the way you listen to your environmentDigital smell and taste augment the way you share and receive informationNew approaches to storytelling immerse and engage users more deeplyUsers can augment their bodies with electronic textiles, embedded technology, and brain-controlled interfacesHuman avatars can learn our behaviors and act on our behalf

How can we build bridges from the digital world of the Internet to the analog world that surrounds us? By bringing accessibility to embedded components such as sensors and microcontrollers, JavaScript and Node.js might shape the world of physical computing as they did for web browsers. This practical guide shows hardware and software engineers, makers, and web developers how to talk in JavaScript with a variety of hardware platforms. Authors Patrick Mulder and Kelsey Breseman also delve into the basics of microcontrollers, single-board computers, and other hardware components.Use JavaScript to program microcontrollers with Arduino and EspruinoPrototype IoT devices with the Tessel 2 development platformLearn about electronic input and output components, including sensorsConnect microcontrollers to the Internet with the Particle Photon toolchainRun Node.js on single-board computers such as Raspberry Pi and Intel EdisonTalk to embedded devices with Node.js libraries such as Johnny-Five, and remotely control the devices with BluetoothUse MQTT as a message broker to connect devices across networksExplore ways to use robots as building blocks for shared experiences

Product management has become a critical connective role for modern organizations, from small technology startups to global corporate enterprises. And yet the day-to-day work of product management remains largely misunderstood. In theory, product management is about building products that people love. The real-world practice of product management is often about difficult conversations, practical compromises, and hard-won incremental gains.In this book, author Matt LeMay focuses on the CORE connective skills— communication, organization, research, execution—that can build a successful product management practice across industries, organizations, teams, andtoolsets.For current and aspiring product managers, this book explores:? On-the-ground tactics for facilitating collaboration and communication? How to talk to users and work with executives? The importance of setting clear and actionable goals? Using roadmaps to connect and align your team? A values-first approach to implementing Agile practices? Common behavioral traps that turn good product managers bad

Bad design is everywhere, and its cost is much higher than we think. In this thought-provoking book, authors Jonathan Shariat and Cynthia Savard Saucier explain how poorly designed products can anger, sadden, exclude, and even kill people who use them. The designers responsible certainly didn't intend harm, so what can you do to avoid making similar mistakes?Tragic Design examines real case studies that show how certain design choices adversely affected users, and includes in-depth interviews with authorities in the design industry. Pick up this book and learn how you can be an agent of change in the design community and at your company.You'll explore:Designs that can kill, including the bad interface that doomed a young cancer patientDesigns that anger, through impolite technology and dark patternsHow design can inadvertently cause emotional painDesigns that exclude people through lack of accessibility, diversity, and justiceHow to advocate for ethical design when it isn't easy to do soTools and techniques that can help you avoid harmful design decisionsInspiring professionals who use design to improve our world

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 questionsKnow when to use quantitative and qualitative research methodsExplore the logistics and details of coordinating a research sessionUse softer skills to make research seem natural to participantsLearn tools and approaches to uncover meaning in your raw dataCommunicate your findings with a framework and structure

Voice user interfaces (VUIs) are becoming all the rage today. But how do you build one that people can actually converse with? Whether you're designing a mobile app, a toy, or a device such as a home assistant, this practical book guides you through basic VUI design principles, helps you choose the right speech recognition engine, and shows you how to measure your VUI's performance and improve upon it.Author Cathy Pearl also takes product managers, UX designers, and VUI designers into advanced design topics that will help make your VUI not just functional, but great.Understand key VUI design concepts, including command-and-control and conversational systemsDecide if you should use an avatar or other visual representation with your VUIExplore speech recognition technology and its impact on your designTake your VUI above and beyond the basic exchange of informationLearn practical ways to test your VUI application with usersMonitor your app and learn how to quickly improve performanceGet real-world examples of VUIs for home assistants, smartwatches, and car systems

Design has become the key link between users and today's complex and rapidly evolving digital experiences, and designers are starting to be included in strategic conversations about the products and services that enterprises ultimately deliver. This has led to companies building in-house digital/experience design teams at unprecedented rates, but many of them don't understand how to get the most out of their investment. This practical guide provides guidelines for creating and leading design teams within your organization, and explores ways to use design as part of broader strategic planning.You'll discover:Why design's role has evolved in the digital ageHow to infuse design into every product and service experienceThe 12 qualities of effective design organizationsHow to structure your design team through a Centralized PartnershipDesign team roles and evolutionThe process of recruiting and hiring designersHow to manage your design team and promote professional growth

Customers who have inconsistent, broken experiences with products and services are understandably frustrated. But it's worse when people inside these companies can't pinpoint the problem because they're too focused on business processes. This practical book shows your company how to use alignment diagrams to turn valuable customer observations into actionable insight. With this unique tool, you can visually map your existing customer experience and envision future solutions.Product and brand managers, marketing specialists, and business owners will learn how experience diagramming can help determine where business goals and customer perspectives intersect. Once you're armed with this data, you can provide users with real value.Mapping Experiences is divided into three parts:Understand the underlying principles of diagramming, and discover how these diagrams can inform strategyLearn how to create diagrams with the four iterative modes in the mapping process: setting up a mapping initiative, investigating the evidence, visualizing the process, and using diagrams in workshops and experimentsSee key diagrams in action, including service blueprints, customer journey maps, experience maps, mental models, and spatial maps and ecosystem models

Those who have made the switch from a Windows PC to a Mac have made Switching to the Mac: The Missing Manual a runaway bestseller. The latest edition of this guide delivers what Apple doesn't—everything you need to know to successfully and painlessly move your files and adapt to Mac's way of doing things. Written with wit and objectivity by Missing Manual series creator and bestselling author David Pogue, this book will have you up and running on your new Mac in no time.

Lean UX has become the preferred approach to interaction design, tailor-made for today's agile teams. In the second edition of this award winning book, leading advocates Jeff Gothelf and Josh Seiden expand on the valuable Lean UX principles, tactics, and techniques covered in the first edition to share how product teams can easily incorporate design, experimentation, iteration, and continuous learning from real users into their Agile process.Inspired by Lean and Agile development theories, Lean UX lets you focus on the actual experience being designed, rather than deliverables. This book shows you how to collaborate closely with other members of your Agile product team, and gather feedback early and often. You'll learn how to drive the design in short, iterative cycles to assess what works best for the business and the user. Lean UX shows you how to make this change—for the better.Frame a vision of the problem you're solving and focus your team on the right outcomesBring the designers'toolkit to the rest of your product teamShare your insights with your team much earlier in the processCreate Minimum Viable Products to determine which ideas are validIncorporate the voice of the customer throughout the project cycleMake your team more productive: combine Lean UX with Agile's Scrum frameworkUnderstand the organizational shifts necessary to integrate Lean UX

p>Great user experiences (UX) are essential for products today, but designing one can be a lengthy and expensive process. With this practical, hands-on book, you'll learn how to do it faster and smarter using Lean UX techniques. UX expert Laura Klein shows you what it takes to gather valuable input from customers, build something they'll truly love, and reduce the time it takes to get your product to market.No prior experience in UX or design is necessary to get started. If you're an entrepreneur or an innovator, this book puts you right to work with proven tips and tools for researching, identifying, and designing an intuitive, easy-to-use product.Determine whether people will buy your product before you build itListen to your customers throughout the product's lifecycleUnderstand why you should design a test before you design a productGet nine tools that are critical to designing your productDiscern the difference between necessary features and nice-to-havesLearn how a Minimum Viable Product affects your UX decisionsUse A/B testing in conjunction with good UX practicesSpeed up your product development process without sacrificing quality

With the coming flood of connected products, many UX and interaction designers are looking into hardware design, a discipline largely unfamiliar to them. If you're among those who want to blend digital and physical design concepts successfully, this practical book helps you explore seven long-standing principles of industrial design.Two present and former design directors at IDEO, the international design and innovation firm, use real-world examples to describe industrial designs that are sensorial, simple, enduring, playful, thoughtful, sustainable, and beautiful. You'll learn how to approach, frame, and evaluate your designs as they extend beyond the screen and into the physical world.Sensorial: create experiences that fully engage our human sensesSimple: design simple products that provide overall clarity in relation to their purposeEnduring: build products that wear well and live on as classicsPlayful: use playful design to go beyond functionality and create emotional connectionsThoughtful: observe people's struggles and anticipate their needsSustainable: design products that reduce environmental impactBeautiful: elevate the experience of everyday products through beauty

Prototyping and user testing is the best way to create successful products, but many designers skip this important step and use gut instinct instead. By explaining the goals and methodologies behind prototyping—and demonstrating how to prototype for both physical and digital products—this practical guide helps beginning and intermediate designers become more comfortable with creating and testing prototypes early and often in the process.Author Kathryn McElroy explains various prototyping methods, from fast and dirty to high fidelity and refined, and reveals ways to test your prototypes with users. You'll gain valuable insights for improving your product, whether it's a smartphone app or a new electronic gadget.Learn similarities and differences between prototyping for physical and digital productsKnow what fidelity level is needed for different prototypesGet best practices for prototyping in a variety of mediums, and choose which prototyping software or components to useLearn electronics prototyping basics and resources for getting startedWrite basic pseudocode and translate it into usable code for ArduinoConduct user tests to gain insights from prototypes

Apps! Websites! Rubber Ducks! Naked Ninjas! This book has everything. If you want to get started in user experience design (UX), you've come to the right place: 100 self-contained lessons that cover the whole spectrum of fundamentals.Forget dry, technical material. This bookâ??based on the wildly popular UX Crash Course from Joel Marshâ??s blog The Hipper Elementâ??is laced with the author's snarky brand of humor, and teaches UX in a simple, practical way. Becoming a professional doesnâ??t have to be boring.Follow the real-life UX process from start-to-finish and apply the skills as you learn, or refresh your memory before the next meeting. UX for Beginners is perfect for non-designers who want to become designers, managers who teach UX, and programmers, salespeople, or marketers who want to learn more.Start from scratch: the fundamentals of UXResearch the weird and wonderful things users doThe process and science of making anything user-friendlyUse size, color, and layout to help and influence usersPlan and create wireframesMake your designs feel engaging and persuasiveMeasure how your design works in the real worldFind out what a UX designer does all day

How can you design technology that becomes a part of a user's life and not a distraction from it? This practical book explores the concept of calm technology, a method for smoothly capturing a user's attention only when necessary, while calmly remaining in the background most of the time. You'll learn how to design products that work well, launch well, are easy to support, easy to use, and remain unobtrusive.Author Amber Case presents ideas first introduced by researchers at Xerox PARC in 1995, and explains how they apply to our current technology landscape, especially the Internet of Things. This book is ideal for UX and product designers, managers, creative directors, and developers. You'll learn:The importance and challenge of designing technology that respects our attentionPrinciples of calm design—peripheral attention, context, and ambient awarenessCalm communication patterns—improving attention through a variety of sensesExercises for improving existing products through calm technologyPrinciples and patterns of calm technology for companies and teamsThe origins of calm technology at Xerox PARC

Pixels use electricity, and a lot of it. If the Internet were a country, it would be the sixth largest in terms of electricity use. That's because today's average web page has surpassed two megabytes in size, leading to slow load times, frustrated users, and a lot of wasted energy. With this practical guide, your web design team will learn how to apply sustainability principles for creating speedy, user-friendly, and energy-efficient digital products and services.Author Tim Frick introduces a web design framework that focuses on four key areas where these principles can make a difference: content strategy, performance optimization, design and user experience, and green hosting. You'll discover how to provide users with a streamlined experience, while reducing the environmental impact of your products and services.Learn why 90% of the data that ever existed was created in the last yearUse sustainability principles to innovate, reduce waste, and function more efficientlyExplore green hosting, sustainable business practices, and lean/agile workflowsPut the right things in front of users at precisely the moment they need them—and nothing moreIncrease site search engine visibility, streamline user experience, and make streaming video more efficientUse Action Items to explore concepts outlined in each chapter