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Design for Real Life
(A Book Apart #18)
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You can’t always predict who will use your products, or what emotional state they’ll be in when they do. But by identifying stress cases and designing with compassion, you’ll create experiences that support more of your users, more of the time.
Join Sara Wachter-Boettcher and Eric Meyer as they turn examples from more than a dozen sites and services into a set of principles ...more
Join Sara Wachter-Boettcher and Eric Meyer as they turn examples from more than a dozen sites and services into a set of principles ...more
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Showing 1-30
Mar 14, 2016
Kerry-Anne Gilowey
rated it
it was amazing
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review of another edition
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content-strategy
I cannot recommend this book highly enough. If your work involves any form of design, please read it. We need to do better. Sara and Eric present the case for compassionate design in a way that is impossible to ignore, and they give several practical frameworks for thinking about hard problems and selling the answers on to your stakeholders.
The concept of "stress cases" is the most useful design principle I've encountered in a long time, and is changing the way I think about my work.
Buy this boo ...more
The concept of "stress cases" is the most useful design principle I've encountered in a long time, and is changing the way I think about my work.
Buy this boo ...more
Lots of crazy stories and lessons learned (e.g. Facebook's Year in Review) plus resources to avoid similar traps.
Favorite concepts:
1. Conduct a 'premortem' exercise as part of research and discovery. Inform the team that the project has somehow failed spectacularly. Everyone then independently writes down every reason they can think of for the failure.
2. There are basically three business cases for anything – it will make money (distinguish from competition), it will save money (cut operating c ...more
Favorite concepts:
1. Conduct a 'premortem' exercise as part of research and discovery. Inform the team that the project has somehow failed spectacularly. Everyone then independently writes down every reason they can think of for the failure.
2. There are basically three business cases for anything – it will make money (distinguish from competition), it will save money (cut operating c ...more
A must-read for everyone making products for people. This book is powerful and I'll be re-reading it often to inspire compassion, think about pain points and broken flows, and people in crisis reading and interacting with websites and apps and really any software.
There were times when this seemed very close to common sense, but it's obviously needed. Compassion isn't something that's always first nature for people, especially when they're on a deadline. I love the framing of "edge cases" as "stress cases."
One odd thing I found about this book (and writings about web standards back in the day) is that it tries to train people to be apologists for this kind of process. Why not just talk about its benefits and let people decide to do it either because it's ...more
One odd thing I found about this book (and writings about web standards back in the day) is that it tries to train people to be apologists for this kind of process. Why not just talk about its benefits and let people decide to do it either because it's ...more
This gave me flashbacks to the time I had to explain miscarriages to a bunch of dudes building a baby registry app. I found it hilarious that they suggest the "designated dissenter" who looks for edge cases should rotate among the team members, so nobody hates one particular person, since raising risks in software is my full-time job.
A very nuanced look at how design can effect a wide variety of people - particularly those who are considering edge cases in most senses of the phrase. The anecdotes were personal and moving. The advice was practical. The resources in the back... it's going to take me some time to get through them all, but I want to jump right in. A very good book!
Good, but a lot of the same content as Technically Wrong. Pick one or the other, there's no reason to read but. Design for Real Life is targeted more at designers whereas Technically Wrong has a more general audience.
Key takeaways: The mundane, seemingly easy experiences we ask our users to go through are not always as easy or mundane as WE think they are. Edge cases are important. Stop doing what's convenient and helpful, for you; start doing what's convenient and helpful for them.
We're so quick to build the latest app or software that we forget to be compassionate to our users. This book goes into how teams can incorporate good practices to provide a useful experience when times can be stressful. Just like we should design for emotion, when should design for compassion.
An easy read that helps remind us that we need to be mindful of who are users REALLY are. While meant to be about web design, the lessons here are really valuable to any service profession (which is ultimately ALL of them).
I may have to buy a copy for myself - I read this through ILL.
I may have to buy a copy for myself - I read this through ILL.
This book is fantastic, whether you are a web designer, a content creator, or even just a consumer of information on the web. Just as accessibility makes things easier even for those without a disability, compassionate design makes life better for everyone.
The book is nice — the first half in particular.
It does go on for a bit too long and repeats itself a lot in the second half.
Nonetheless, a very important topic for designers, worth the easy and short read 👍
It does go on for a bit too long and repeats itself a lot in the second half.
Nonetheless, a very important topic for designers, worth the easy and short read 👍
The very best read on designing with compassion. Valuable for not just digital product design, but anything a human being will touch.
Good walkthrough on how we all could add more compassion to our design and development processes.
Inspiring. Practical. Especially appreciated the chapter on winning over the business.
"Be conservative in what you do, be liberal in what you accept from others!"
This book is full of many fabulous examples of this statement from Jon Postel.
This book is full of many fabulous examples of this statement from Jon Postel.
Incredibly important content but repetitive. I truly appreciate the author's taking their painful experiences and transforming them into powerful lessons for the web community.
more compassion in design
An excellent read! A must for everyone involved in designing and creating websites and apps.
Good on a new perspective. Bad on tactical recommendations.
Some good insights, but a few weak examples/conclusions.
Our users are not us. "Designing for real life" encourages to look beyond that ideal persona and ask question “How will someone in different context perceive it?” It explains how thinking through all stress-case scenarios, we can get better at prioritizing information, removing fluff, and stay focused on our users.
"WHEN YOU ASSUME, YOU MAKE AN ASS OF U AND ME."
"WHEN YOU ASSUME, YOU MAKE AN ASS OF U AND ME."
A good about, that open the mind to think outside the box, leaving in consideration that humans isn't perfect like personas.
Highly recommend this book for all people who make digital products or services for others.
really important topic and some great examples. felt a bit short tho.
Eric Meyer and Sara Wachter-Boettcher have written a book that does three things:
1. Explain what "stress cases" are and how they impact us as users of products.
2. Provide ample examples of places where designers have failed to take stress cases into account, whether it's by not accounting for people in emergencies, or by not accounting for the built-in diversity of "people" in the first place.
3. Provide multiple techniques that a designer can use to uncover these issues in advance, design with ...more
1. Explain what "stress cases" are and how they impact us as users of products.
2. Provide ample examples of places where designers have failed to take stress cases into account, whether it's by not accounting for people in emergencies, or by not accounting for the built-in diversity of "people" in the first place.
3. Provide multiple techniques that a designer can use to uncover these issues in advance, design with ...more
The title evokes Papanek's classic "Design for the Real World," but the area of overlap is limited. Papanek looks at how design should extend its practice to the massive portion of our population that's underserved, and the consequences of design choices & outcomes on a global and societal scale. Here, Meyer & Wachter-Boettcher look at how to treat those we currently service with compassion, and the consequences of design choices & outcomes on an individual and human scale.
Design for ...more
Design for ...more
The books by publisher a book apart are always interesting. Most of them are more for web-designers, but a few can be applied to other design matters. I thought that this book was very interesting. It's very focused on questions on online surveys or questions a website does to it's users. Which questions are usually made, and how you reformulate questions for them to be more inclusive, etc. What makes this even more interesting is the use of case studies with real cases. If you're a designer che
...more
The case studies provided on how user interface decisions can alienate users are insightful and helpful. This volume also includes some advice on how to make the business case for compassionate design processes.
It's hard to argue against compassionate design, but this book doesn't sit entirely well with me. It seems to ignore **why** we need more compassion in design. It's not only because technology touches so many lives, all of those heartbeats, but because so much technology has led us to believe that giving away our most intimate information is OK and without consequence. It also seems that the case for compassionate design is easier to make, that stress cases are easier to identify, when talking a
...more
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Eric A. Meyer has been working with the Web since late 1993 and is an internationally recognized expert on the subjects of HTML and Cascading Style Sheets (CSS). He is the principal consultant for Complex Spiral Consulting and lives in Cleveland, Ohio, which is a much nicer city than you've been led to believe. A graduate of and former Webmaster for Case Western Reserve University and an alumnus o ...more
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