Usable Usability: Simple Steps for Making Stuff Better

by Eric L. Reiss

The A-to-Z guide to spotting and fixing usability problems Frustrated by pop-ups? Forms that make you start over if you miss a field? Nonsensical error messages? You're not alone! This book helps you simply get it right the first time (or fix what's broken). Boasting a full-color interior packed with design and layout examples, this book teaches you how to understand a user's needs, divulges techniques for exceeding a user's expectations, and provides a host of hard won advice for improving the overall quality of a user's experience. World-renowned UX guru Eric Reiss shares his knowledge from decades of experience making products useable for everyone...all in an engaging, easy-to-apply manner.


Reveals proven tools that simply make products better, from the users' perspective Provides simple guidelines and checklists to help you evaluate and improve your own products Zeroes in on essential elements to consider when planning a product, such as its functionality and responsiveness, whether or not it is ergonomic, making it foolproof, and more Addresses considerations for product clarity, including its visibility, understandability, logicalness, consistency, and predictability Usable Usability walks you through numerous techniques that will help ensure happy customers and successful products!

Genres: Design, Nonfiction, Art Design, Programming, Computers, Usability

256 pages, Paperback

First published May 25, 2012

Reviews

[Sabrine Tizaoui · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very good content. Precise, filled with real world examples which make the points memorable. I particularly apprecciated the questions to ask yourself at the end of every chapter, very helpful for a usability testing. I recommend.

[Stephen · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book had been sitting in my To Read pile for a while and I'm glad that i finally got to it. It reminds me of Donald Norman's Psychology of Everyday Things (newer editions being called Design of Everyday Things). Reiss discusses usability both in the virtual world and the real world, which is useful both because the principles of good web design are not that different from good design of physical objects and also because there are many cases of things people do that span the two (for example, shopping at a store which also has a web site). This is a very readable, entertaining, book which weaves stories of his experiences with both bad and good usability, with actionable advice to help you understand both general principles of usability and specific guideline to employ when designing interfaces. The humorous stories of the effects of poor design will help you to remember what not to do, and the simplicity of the examples of good design will inspire you to aim higher in your projects.

This book is especially worth a read if you are building software applications or services that have both a software and concrete component.

[Rob Marchant · Rating 3 out of 5]

There were some good tips in this book, but they seemed few and far between. Also I found that Reiss has a tendency to deviate from the topic, and usually accompanied it with shocking attempts at humour.

On the whole though, the book is worth a read, just for the few hidden gems within its pages.

[Susan · Rating 5 out of 5]

A good overview for creating usable products and services. I now feel compelled to document all the user unfriendly encounters I experience.

[Mike · Rating 3 out of 5]

Slow to start, and then I began enjoying the easy to digest advice and anecdotes about a third of the way through. I would like more practical advice on applying usability research. While the advice seems like common sense - then why doesn’t my cell phones company accept my credit card with their new website redesign?!? I have no idea, and no error messages, MetroPCS probably needs this book.

[Eugenia Sergueeva · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very well written book. Highly recommend to people who care about other people and for those who are interested in how to make things better and pleasant to use.

[Mishaal · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very colloquial. A page-turner. I would highly recommend this to people interested in design - let alone user experience design. As Eric Reiss himself states in the book, it changes way you see the world around you, forces you to start thinking about how fundamental design flaws can be corrected, and to understand how products can be improved to make them more usable for whoever your end-user is. Examples are from every-day life and easy to relate to.

[Sander S. · Rating 4 out of 5]

saw Eric speaking on conference on the same day I'm finishing this book - such a nice and inspirational person. a lot of these things were not so new, as i've worked as product manager for some years now, but the tone of the book was very nice and personal, examples were nice, and the breakdown of UX to 10 key aspects is helpful. also very nice bibliography/further reading recommendations at the end of the book.

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great resource. I liked the questions at ask at the end of every chapter, and the section on things to Google, or other resources. Great conversational tone that made this very readable. It's a very usable book. ;-)

[Loren · Rating 3 out of 5]

Usable Usability is written in a nice conversational tone, and hits on some good points. The main drawback of the book was that it often felt like it discussed the obvious without taking it a step further to build on core usability concepts.

[K.C. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good introduction for someone who isn't familiar with usability. Reiss uses examples that everyone can follow.

[Andrew Leede · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good read, helpful for current professional exercises. Will consult again.

[Justin · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very dense overview of usability with plenty of tips for designers, could be organized a bit better as it is hard to scan this