Contextual Design: Design for Life

by Karen Holtzblatt, Hugh Beyer

Contextual Design for Life, Second Edition, describes the core techniques needed to deliberately produce a compelling user experience. Contextual design was first invented in 1988 to drive a deep understanding of the user into the design process. It has been used in a wide variety of industries and taught in universities all over the world. Until now, the basic CD approach has needed little revision, but with the wide adoption of handheld devices, especially smartphones, the way technology is integrated into people’s lives has fundamentally changed. Contextual Design V2.0 introduces both the classic CD techniques and the new techniques needed to "design for life", fulfilling core human motives while supporting activities.

This completely updated and revised edition is written in a clear, informal style without excessive jargon, and is the must-have book for any UX Design library. Users will find coverage of mobile devices and consumer and business products, all illustrated with new examples, case studies, and discussions on how to use CD with the agile development and other project requirements methods.

Provides tactics on how to gather detailed data on how people live, work, and use products Helps develop a coherent picture of a whole user population Presents tactics on how to use the seven "Cool Concepts" to support core human motives and generate new product concepts guided by user data, ideation techniques, and principles key to producing a compelling user experience Explains how to structure the system and user interface to best support the user across place, time, and platform

Genres: Design

491 pages, Kindle Edition

Published November 16, 2016

Reviews

[Dipika Shrihari · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read this book for learning/education, not fun. If you are a user-centered research nerd like me, you will love this book!

Just based on how fast tech & design trends change, I don't really trust old time authors- but Karen Holtzblatt TOTALLY GETS IT! I am totally that she nailed great user-centric research/design back in the 90's, in the 00' and now in our current decade.

She sees trends in technology that is just emerging (like the trend towards creating suites of products over a single monolith one) and has great models to match it (identity model, day in the life model etc.). I honestly hated the models we did in our old HCI classes, but these make so much sense! I can't wait to use them at work.

For all the old-timers who studied human-computer interaction, READ THIS BOOK!! It is SO much better than the previous version, which felt so dated even when we were reading it in school. If you are feeling lazy, maybe just read (uncurated) my highlights, lol.

The book started to feel VERY long towards the end. In the author's defense, it is a textbook not a novel..

[Kristen Byers · Rating 3 out of 5]

It’s a textbook so not much to say here. I’m not sure I agree with all of the methodology because every aspect of the process seems to take far too long for industry folks to be able to use it. We will see if I find myself reaching for this as a resource in the future.

[Ritesh · Rating 3 out of 5]

Informative. Lengthy and boring.