Practical UX Design

by Scott Faranello

Key FeaturesImprove your UX design awareness and skillsGain greater confidence to know when you have delivered a “good” UX designLearn by example using a book designed by a UX mind for a UX mindBook DescriptionWritten in an easy-to-read style, this book provides real-world examples, a historical perspective, and a holistic approach to design that will ground you in the fundamental essentials of interactive design, allow you to make more informed design decisions, and increase your understanding of UX in order to reach the highest levels of UX maturity. As you will see, UX is more than just delighting customers and users. It is also about thinking like a UX practitioner, making time for creativity, recognizing good design when you see it, understanding Information Architecture as more than just organizing and labeling websites, using design patterns to influence user behavior and decision making, approaching UX from a business perspective, transforming your client's and company's fundamental understanding of UX and its true value, and so much more.

This book is an invaluable resource of knowledge, perspective, and inspiration for those seeking to become better UX designers, increase their confidence, become more mature design leaders, and deliver solutions that provide measurable value to stakeholders, customers, and users regardless of project type, size, and delivery method.

What you will learnAwaken your UX mind and dispel the myths of non-UX thinkersCreate the six optimal conditions for your best ideas to appearIdentify and incorporate the ten design principles found in all good UX designDevelop a broader understanding of Information Architecture (IA) to better engage, guide, and informDevelop a fundamental understanding of patterns and the properties that create themRaise your level of UX maturity with a strategy that transforms your approach to problem solving and helps others understand the true value of your workUtilize important tools of the UX trade that never go out of styleIncrease your knowledge of UX, incorporate valuable ideas and insights into your work, and look at design from a very unique perspectiveAbout the AuthorScott Faranello has been a dedicated and passionate UX professional for well more than a decade now, working with many companies in very diverse organizational cultures. His experience includes intensive customer, user, and business research, conceptual wireframes, designing information architecture, conducting user and usability tests, measuring the ROI of usability, creating visual design, and staying abreast of the current UX technology trends. Scott is also the author of Balsamiq Wireframes Quickstart Guide (2012) and Practical UX Design (2016), Packt Publishing.

Table of ContentsThe User Experience MindsetCreative UXGood UX DesignFoundations of Good IAPatterns, Properties, and Principles of Good UX DesignAn Essential Strategy for UX MaturityUX ToolsFinal Thoughts and Additional Resources

346 pages, Kindle Edition

Published April 28, 2016

Reviews

[Bryan Whitehead]

I read this while on a quest for a textbook for a freshman-level User Experience Design class, and wow was this ever not what I was looking for. The author serves abstruse design theory buried under a blizzard of baffling buzzwords. The result appears to be aimed at MBAs and MFAs without really meeting the needs of either (let alone the beginning-level students that are supposedly part of the target audience). The illustrations were a further obstacle to understanding, mostly screen caps from popular (in 2016) web sites that either did or didn’t clearly illuminate the point at hand. A sprinkling of errors – both typographical and factual – didn’t add to the credibility of the text. If you’re headed to a cocktail party where you’ll need to sound smart (without actually being smart) about UX, these lessons will do nicely. For other approaches to the subject, seek elsewhere.

[Gaurav Mathur]

Too shallow.
And quite poorly designed, for a book which is teaching design.

[Gloria Marcano Cerisano]

Great book about UX and I have to re-read it again later, I need to under the UI and UX more and how I can incorporate it into my web design skills

[Tara Maulida]

Agree, for a book that is educating design, this book is poorly designed. Also, if you include quotes from a high profile that seem to be in line with your idea, it doesn't mean that every idea you propose will automatically be valid, so for books that teaching about deep validated research, this book is too superficial. Not to mention some of the unfitting analogies referring to The Simpsons or depicting Henry Ford as a problem-solver or UX practitioner, when in fact he was an opportunistic business practitioner.