Undercover User Experience Design by Bowles, Cennydd, Box, James [New Riders,2010]

by Bowles

Undercover User Experience Design by Bowles, Cennydd, Box, James. Published by New Riders,2010, Paperback

Genres: Design, Nonfiction, Business, Web, Art Design, Programming, Website Design

Paperback

First published September 17, 2010

Reviews

[Marvin Vista · Rating 4 out of 5]

A little dated and focused on the web but the underlying principles are still relevant.

[Travis · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is my primary text for teaching User Experience Design. Undercover User Experience Design is a great outline of the foundational User Experience Design methods and phases. Great job making it applicable, tangible and ready-to-use with varied levels of methods for quick 1 hour or a longer week investment at any stage. Also included is a great overview of the different "players" in a product and engineering development group and how UX Design relates to each.

This is a valuable resource for every UX Designer and well worth a read from Product Managers and Engineers as well.

[Mike Ncube · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is a good resource for anyone looking at building or great website from scratch or redesigning a current one. The ideas are simple and anyone new to UX should be able to follow easily. The authors explain the steps clearly and suggest some tools that can be used whether you’re an in-house person or outsourced consultant.

[Pascal Htt · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved this book

[Michael · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent practical guide to UX design.

[Lau Riva Palacio · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really good but kind of outdated. Still great for people starting with UX research since it explains the complete journey a designer would take to adopt UX practices.

[Carla Kusuma · Rating 5 out of 5]

good

[Karen Mardahl · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this for the Copenhagen UX Book Club. I liked the practical approach of the book. This makes it a book that you don't just read once, but refer to again and again.

I recommend it to anyone in a place where there is no usability or user experience person in place. That may mean that no one knows much about UX, so this book can be your guide to teaching them the purpose of usability and the need to think about usability. I think technical communicators will also find it quite valuable for much the same reasons. It is also useful for a tech. comm. person transitioning to UX work.

The book's design made it easy to navigate and read. That's something I am grateful for more and more, especially when it is a reference book that you want to revisit many times.

Because I have only read it once, I refer you to the blurbs on the book for more info. I will be digesting some of this stuff over the coming years... I found it valuable and perhaps a 5-star book for my purposes. However, I haven't "lived" enough of the examples to know whether it holds true. Therefore, I am a bit cautious and give it a 4. I will say that no one in my book club, not even the super experienced people, could find anything negative to say about it. Well, the more I think about it, I must give it a 5. It's great for beginners and advanced practitioners of UX.

[Alexander Debkaliuk · Rating 4 out of 5]

‘Undercover User Experience Design’ by Cennydd Bowles and James Box is a great thorough starter manual for a broad audience of junior to regular UX practitioners and those shifting into this field. The manual covers not only the undercover techniques, but the whole range of UX methods and approaches, following through all of the design stages, taking the perspective of both the ‘innie’ and an ‘outie’.

I think that Cennydd and James went a little too broad and got too much info into the book without providing finer details and more examples of ‘undercover work’.

All good though — an invaluable resource I wish I had on the table back a few years ago.

The title of the book should better match the broader scope of it.

[Grant · Rating 2 out of 5]

stretches a good but simple idea ("undercover" UX) fairly thin and only provides rudimentary coverage of fundamental IA/UX concepts, e.g. prototyping, low- vs. hi-fidelity wireframes, sketching, etc. Concepts that are covered in much more substantial detail in many other UX books, e.g. the "polar bear" book. A surprising amount of time spent talking about working with different departments/roles toward end of chapter. A lot of that can surely just be consolidated. Overall, didn't really see this book as adding much new to the "UX conversation."

[Dave Emmett · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the best UX books I've read, and I've read a few of 'em. It's full of practical advice for how to become a better UX practitioner, covering diverse areas like user reasearch, design games, and even just how to sketch better.

While some of the info wasn't new to me, I found it served as a bit of a kick to start doing some of the things I'm not currently doing, but *should* be.

[Riss · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great for practical advice, but not very deep in regards to theory. It had a lot of basics that are wonderful for its intended audience (someone just starting out in UX). The value in this book for me was its list of "further reading" material at the end of each chapter and the plethora of online resources and tools it mentioned throughout.

[Pete Williams · Rating 5 out of 5]

This a great book for anyone new to the field of UX or looking to move into it. It not only goes over the prerequisite processes and deliverables, but provides the sort of infiltration tips and career guidance just not found in other books - This isn't just a book, it's your very own UX mentor.

[Brian Gupton · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an excellent and above all practical guide to user experience design. The book concentrates on the low hanging UX fruit that most products and companies just don't bother to do. Great book for anyone who builds products or touches user experience.

[Ethan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Practical, pragmatic, concise and well illustrated approach to UX under real world constraints. If you've ever been in an environment hostile to 'wasting time' with usability testing, this book is perfect.

If you want more theory, I'd recommend "Elements of UX", by Garrett.

[Edgaras Benediktavicius · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good book for somebody who is starting up or working as a "undercover" user experience designer in the company. A lot of tips, tricks, advices and tools for starting to move company closed to user-centered design process.

[Rogério Pereira]

Este livro é tão bom quanto "Não me faça pensar" Simples e bem objetivo no propósito de fazer UX design de verdade.

[Martinxo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Marvellous book, as with Krug's 'Don't Make Me Think' this is a key book for anyone new to User Experience design and even for old hands as well. Essential.

[Mekayla · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very focused on user experience as classically defined (and pretty basic user input), but useful ways about thinking how to interface with different people in an organization.

[Marcela · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very useful with good overview of process and resources.

[Grayson Lawrence · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really excellent primer for anyone wanting to understand more about UX and wanting some practical applications.

[Holly Kennedy · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great introduction to the UX field with a lot of practical tips - I did a lot of folding down pages to refer to later!

[Stefano Bussolon · Rating 3 out of 5]

Can be useful for the beginners, but I found it a little too verbose.

[Norman · Rating 4 out of 5]

An easy enjoyable read on USEABILITY and web design. The authors do state this internally but I felt it should have been more overt (but this is Undercover work!). Otherwise full of simple ideas around the structure given