Rapid Contextual Design: A How-to Guide to Key Techniques for User-Centered Design

by Karen Holtzblatt, Jessamyn Burns Wendell, Shelley Wood

Is it impossible to schedule enough time to include users in your design process? Is it difficult to incorporate elaborate user-centered design techniques into your own standard design practices? Do the resources needed seem overwhelming?

This handbook introduces Rapid CD, a fast-paced, adaptive form of Contextual Design. Rapid CD is a hands-on guide for anyone who needs practical guidance on how to use the Contextual Design process and adapt it to tactical projects with tight timelines and resources.

Rapid Contextual Design provides detailed suggestions on structuring the project and customer interviews, conducting interviews, and running interpretation sessions. The handbook walks you step-by-step through organizing the data so you can see your key issues, along with visioning new solutions, storyboarding to work out the details, and paper prototype interviewing to iterate the design—all with as little as a two-person team with only a few weeks to spare!

*Includes real project examples with actual customer data that illustrate how a CD project actually works.
*Covers the entire scope of a project, from deciding on the number and type of interviews, to interview set up and analyzing collected data. Sample project schedules are also included for a variety of different types of projects.
*Provides examples of how-to write affinity notes and affinity labels, build an affinity diagram, and step-by-step instructions for consolidating sequence models.
*Shows how to use consolidated data to define a design within tight time frames with examples of visions, storyboards, and paper prototypes.
*Introduces CDTools™, the first application designed to support customer-centered design.

Genres: Design, Usability, Research, Nonfiction

320 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2004

Reviews

[Konstancja · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rapid Contextual Design is a book that provides a detailed guide to key techniques for user-centered design. The book focuses on the importance of understanding the context in which a product will be used, and how to use this understanding to inform the design process.

One key learning point from the book is the importance of gathering and analyzing user data to inform the design process. The authors advocate for a rapid, iterative design process that involves conducting user research, prototyping, and testing in order to quickly gather and incorporate feedback from users. This approach helps to ensure that the final product is more closely aligned with the needs and preferences of the target audience.

Another key learning point is the importance of involving users in the design process. The authors recommend involving users at every stage of the design process, from gathering initial requirements to testing and iterating on prototypes. This helps to ensure that the final product is more closely aligned with the needs and preferences of the target audience.

Overall, I would rate the book 4/5. The methodology described in the book is well-organized and easy to follow, and the authors provide a wealth of practical tips and examples to illustrate key concepts. However, some of the techniques and tools described in the book may be more applicable to certain types of products and industries, so it may not be as useful for designers working in other contexts.

[Phượng Minh · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is very practical for learning about UX. There is a great detail about how to interview and build prototypes with specific examples. High recommended!

[Kate]

Recommended inRunning Lean