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UX Fundamentals for Non-UX Professionals: User Experience Principles for Managers, Writers, Designers, and Developers
Demystify UX and its rules, contradictions, and dilemmas. This book provides real-world examples of user experience concepts that empower teams to create compelling products and services, manage social media, interview UX candidates, and oversee product teams.
From product decisions to performance reviews, your ability to participate in discussions about UX has become vital to your company's success as well as your own. However, UX concepts can seem complex. Many UX books are written by and for UX professionals. UX Fundamentals for Non-UX Professionals serves the needs of project managers, graphic designers, copyeditors, marketers, and others who wish to understand UX design and research.
You will discover how UX has influenced history and continues to affect our daily lives. Entertaining real-world examples demonstrate what a massive, WWII-era tank teaches us about design, what a blue flower tells us about audiences, and what drunk marathoners show us about software.
What You'll Learn
Know the fundamentals of UX through real-world examples
Acquire the skills to participate intelligently in discussions about UX design and research
Understand how UX impacts business, including product, pricing, placement, and promotion as well as security, speed, and privacy
Who This Book Is For
Professionals who work alongside UX designers and researchers, including but not limited to: project managers, graphic designers, copyeditors, developers, and human resource professionals; and business, marketing, and computer science students seeking to understand how UX affects human cognition and memory, product pricing and promotion, and software security and privacy.
From product decisions to performance reviews, your ability to participate in discussions about UX has become vital to your company's success as well as your own. However, UX concepts can seem complex. Many UX books are written by and for UX professionals. UX Fundamentals for Non-UX Professionals serves the needs of project managers, graphic designers, copyeditors, marketers, and others who wish to understand UX design and research.
You will discover how UX has influenced history and continues to affect our daily lives. Entertaining real-world examples demonstrate what a massive, WWII-era tank teaches us about design, what a blue flower tells us about audiences, and what drunk marathoners show us about software.
What You'll Learn
Know the fundamentals of UX through real-world examples
Acquire the skills to participate intelligently in discussions about UX design and research
Understand how UX impacts business, including product, pricing, placement, and promotion as well as security, speed, and privacy
Who This Book Is For
Professionals who work alongside UX designers and researchers, including but not limited to: project managers, graphic designers, copyeditors, developers, and human resource professionals; and business, marketing, and computer science students seeking to understand how UX affects human cognition and memory, product pricing and promotion, and software security and privacy.
- GenresDesignNonfiction
363 pages, Paperback
Published September 12, 2018
26 people are currently reading
132 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
January 9, 2020
Work reading.
Some Goodreads reviews kvetch about the book's examples. I liked them; this book is well-written, the vignettes short and varied -- all helped keep my attention.
Bits I flagged, mostly because these bits validate my instincts:
"we need to balance the number of choices with the speed of making a choice. Choices should illuminate the user experience, not snuff it out." (61)
"Unfamiliar experiences require controlled attention. Navigating a new application can feel a lot like a treasure hunt. You search for products. You consider a purchase. You add to your cart. Over time, some of these actions become automatic through repetition, but complex actions require some controlled processing regardless of how many times you do them. Many e-commerce websites have nearly perfected the transformation from controlled to automatic processing. Websites, such as Amazon.com, remove persistent navigation to reduce the user's controlled processing needs. After all, one person's controlled processing is another person's sale." (91)
"Where can I add smaller, easily achievable goals?" (99)
"Improve UX by simplifying, reducing, and removing decisions." (150)
"People use software for the benefits it provides -- not the features it offers." (173)
"problem statement describes what, why, and how we intend to solve a problem." (224)
"The careful reconciliation of user needs and business goals is where great software is born. Build an app that addresses only business goals and no users will use it; build an app that addresses only user goals and you'll likely go out of business." (260)
"Once you apply a heuristic across your application, you indicate what works and what does not -- what needs your attention and what can wait.... Heuristic scoring uses numeric or Boolean values to evaluate the fitness of an experience." (310)
"The pursuit of minor details frequently leads to uncovering major issues." (262)
Book recommendation: Lean UX: Applying Lean Principles to Improve User Experience (Jeff Gotthelf and Josh Seiden)
Some Goodreads reviews kvetch about the book's examples. I liked them; this book is well-written, the vignettes short and varied -- all helped keep my attention.
Bits I flagged, mostly because these bits validate my instincts:
"we need to balance the number of choices with the speed of making a choice. Choices should illuminate the user experience, not snuff it out." (61)
"Unfamiliar experiences require controlled attention. Navigating a new application can feel a lot like a treasure hunt. You search for products. You consider a purchase. You add to your cart. Over time, some of these actions become automatic through repetition, but complex actions require some controlled processing regardless of how many times you do them. Many e-commerce websites have nearly perfected the transformation from controlled to automatic processing. Websites, such as Amazon.com, remove persistent navigation to reduce the user's controlled processing needs. After all, one person's controlled processing is another person's sale." (91)
"Where can I add smaller, easily achievable goals?" (99)
"Improve UX by simplifying, reducing, and removing decisions." (150)
"People use software for the benefits it provides -- not the features it offers." (173)
"problem statement describes what, why, and how we intend to solve a problem." (224)
"The careful reconciliation of user needs and business goals is where great software is born. Build an app that addresses only business goals and no users will use it; build an app that addresses only user goals and you'll likely go out of business." (260)
"Once you apply a heuristic across your application, you indicate what works and what does not -- what needs your attention and what can wait.... Heuristic scoring uses numeric or Boolean values to evaluate the fitness of an experience." (310)
"The pursuit of minor details frequently leads to uncovering major issues." (262)
Book recommendation: Lean UX: Applying Lean Principles to Improve User Experience (Jeff Gotthelf and Josh Seiden)
July 13, 2022
Principles of UX on a Platter: Informative, Insightful and Entertaining
We crave for positive user experiences every day. Sometimes we are delighted, and sometimes we are frustrated. Edward Stull through this book presents the primacy of UX in people's lives and the book is a treasure trove of observations, advice and opinions. The book is for anybody who works on digital products.The principles of UX are adumbrated followed by chapters on being human, persuasion, and process. By the time we finish reading the book, we form a firm understanding of UX and its importance in human lives. The USP of the book is in the way the information has been presented. Through a plethora of examples drawn from several fields it makes for an interesting , informative and an entertaining read.Edward Stull does an excellent job at convincing the readers that when UX done intentionally, it leads to richer yields(great user experiences).
We crave for positive user experiences every day. Sometimes we are delighted, and sometimes we are frustrated. Edward Stull through this book presents the primacy of UX in people's lives and the book is a treasure trove of observations, advice and opinions. The book is for anybody who works on digital products.The principles of UX are adumbrated followed by chapters on being human, persuasion, and process. By the time we finish reading the book, we form a firm understanding of UX and its importance in human lives. The USP of the book is in the way the information has been presented. Through a plethora of examples drawn from several fields it makes for an interesting , informative and an entertaining read.Edward Stull does an excellent job at convincing the readers that when UX done intentionally, it leads to richer yields(great user experiences).
April 4, 2019
I liked his examples in the beginning but now an then it was not clear what this story has to do with this chapter. If you have no idea from UX than this book can help you to understand what it UX about from a business perspective. As I read it for preparing my lecture I found he repeated himself often with some conepts in different chapters. I liked the second part about the human way of understanding the world, because it really gives you a good impression about the process without being annoying.
May 29, 2021
Provides a very good introduction to UX for beginners. Covers various interesting topic and suggestions like always think about user, how and when business values might be in conflict with what user wants, how basic psychological themes like perception, attention can affect the success or failure of your product. Keeping things simple while speedy at the same time. It is a very good book overall.
January 7, 2020
An excellent book for 3 reasons:
1. It explains what the hell UX is all about, but in a breezy, relatable and insightful way
2. Brilliant use of fascinating metaphors bring clarity to key UX concepts - stories about a poisonous fish, WW2 tanks and drunk marathoner worked like mnemonics, lodging forgettable principles firmly in my brain.
3. It helped persuade me to study UX Design
1. It explains what the hell UX is all about, but in a breezy, relatable and insightful way
2. Brilliant use of fascinating metaphors bring clarity to key UX concepts - stories about a poisonous fish, WW2 tanks and drunk marathoner worked like mnemonics, lodging forgettable principles firmly in my brain.
3. It helped persuade me to study UX Design
August 24, 2021
The book speaks with the same ease to everyone from beginners to experts who are designers, product developers and application developers. The fundamentals are explained with a lot of heart using stories across the world. I can guarantee you that it will be become your go-to guide whenever you need to take user centric decisions.
April 12, 2023
The examples stick with you and the writing is entertaining. I laughed a few times. I’ve continued to use this book as a quick reference and refresher over the years. It’s great to have the examples in your back pocket when you need to bring account/marketing/design along for a project where UX is the linchpin.
May 7, 2019
I've read more than half of this book and my overall opinion is good. However, I think the author goes off topic a bit too often and talks about things that have nothing to do with UX. Some of the stories are cool and relevant, others are just boring although informative.
September 12, 2019
A nice introduction to the techniques of the UX design. Some of the most important concepts are explained well. The author is indulging in various comparisons so this book is not too dense.
May 6, 2023
Best UX book to start. Thoroughly enjoyed the book from start to end. So many examples from around the world made an interesting read and easy to understand.
August 22, 2021
When I have been searching the book of UX which could help to improve my knowledge I had found this one. And for me, it was the best place where I could start to dive deep into UX fundamentals. Each part of the book consists of the examples which best conform to the topic of the part. The structure is simple and you may travel by the book skipping or returning to the theme which you are interested in or not. Also, this book will be valuable for all kinds of marketers like product owners, designers, market managers and so on. Without any hesitation, the author did the best job.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews