Designed for Use

Book description

Have you ever been angry at your computer or cell phone? Do you sometimes wonder why it's so hard to set your watch to the correct time, or why getting your DVR to record your favorite shows is such a chore? Do you dream of making products that are free of these issues and that your customers can actually figure out how to use? This book shows you how to design applications and websites that people will not only use but will absolutely love.

Table of contents

  1. Designed for Use
    1. Copyright
    2. For the Best Reading Experience...
    3. Table of Contents
    4. What Readers Are Saying About Designed for Use
    5. Before We Start, a Word
      1. Technique Chapters
      2. Idea Chapters
      3. How the Book Is Organized
      4. Just One More Thing
    6. Part 1: Research
      1. Chapter 1: User Research
      2. Chapter 2: Job Shadowing and Contextual Interviews
        1. What Are the Techniques?
        2. Why Is This a Good Idea?
        3. Are There Any Prerequisites?
        4. Observing Your Audience
        5. Job Shadowing
        6. Contextual Interviews
        7. Remote Shadowing
        8. Limitations of Contextual Interviews
        9. The BizTwit Case
        10. Takeaway Points
        11. Further Reading
      3. Chapter 3: Personas
        1. What’s the Technique?
        2. Why Is This a Good Idea?
        3. Are There Any Prerequisites?
        4. What Are Personas, Again?
        5. Problems with Personas
        6. Creating Personas
        7. Working with Personas
        8. Personas Do Not Replace User Research
        9. The BizTwit Case
        10. Takeaway Points
        11. Further Reading
      4. Chapter 4: Activity-Centered Design
        1. Takeaway Points
        2. Further Reading
      5. Chapter 5: Time to Start Working on Documentation
        1. What’s the Technique?
        2. Why Is This a Good Idea?
        3. Are There Any Prerequisites?
        4. The Manual
        5. Blog Posts
        6. Screencasts
        7. Press Releases
        8. Talk About Tasks
        9. The BizTwit Case
        10. Takeaway Points
        11. Further Reading
      6. Chapter 6: Text Usability
        1. Why Words Matter
        2. People Don’t Want to Read
        3. Say Less
        4. Make Text Scannable
        5. No Fluff
        6. Sentences Should Have One Obvious Interpretation
        7. Talk Like a Human, Not Like a Company
        8. Illustrate Your Points
        9. Use Words People Understand
        10. Test Your Text
        11. Display Legible Text
        12. Takeaway Points
        13. Further Reading
      7. Chapter 7: Hierarchies in User Interface Design
        1. Creating Hierarchical Structure Visually
        2. Takeaway Points
        3. Further Reading
      8. Chapter 8: Card Sorting
        1. What’s the Technique?
        2. Why Is This a Good Idea?
        3. Are There Any Prerequisites?
        4. Designing Hierarchies
        5. Card Sorting
        6. Preparing for a Card Sort
        7. Participants
        8. Running a Card Sort
        9. Running a Remote Card Sort
        10. Evaluating the Results
        11. Guidelines for Creating Usable Hierarchies
        12. Takeaway Points
        13. Further Reading
      9. Chapter 9: The Mental Model
        1. What People Think
        2. Three Different Models
        3. Hiding Implementation Details
        4. Leaky Abstractions
        5. Designing for Mental Models
        6. Takeaway Points
        7. Further Reading
    7. Part 2: Design
      1. Chapter 10: Sketching and Prototyping
        1. What’s the Technique?
        2. Why Is This a Good Idea?
        3. Are There Any Prerequisites?
        4. Designing the Structure
        5. Flow Diagrams
        6. Storyboards
        7. Sketching
        8. Wireframes
        9. Mock-ups
        10. Tools
        11. Takeaway Points
        12. Further Reading
      2. Chapter 11: Paper Prototype Testing
        1. What’s the Technique?
        2. Why Is This a Good Idea?
        3. Are There Any Prerequisites?
        4. Guerilla Paper Prototype Testing
        5. Running Full Usability Tests with Paper Prototypes
        6. Takeaway Points
        7. Further Reading
      3. Chapter 12: Realism
        1. Symbols
        2. Virtual Versions of Real-World Objects
        3. Replicating Physical Constraints in Digital Products
        4. Takeaway Points
        5. Further Reading
      4. Chapter 13: Natural User Interfaces
        1. Avoid Gesture Magic
        2. Recognizing Gestures
        3. Accidental Input
        4. Conventions
        5. Takeaway Points
        6. Further Reading
      5. Chapter 14: Fitts’s Law
        1. Screen Edges Have Infinite Size
        2. Radial Context Menus Decrease Average Distance
        3. Small Targets Need Margins
        4. Sometimes, Smaller Is Better
        5. Takeaway Points
        6. Further Reading
      6. Chapter 15: Animations
        1. Explaining State Changes
        2. Directing User Attention
        3. Avoid Unimportant Animations
        4. Help Users Form Suitable Mental Models
        5. Learning from Cartoons
        6. Takeaway Points
        7. Further Reading
      7. Chapter 16: Consistency
        1. Identifying Archetypes
        2. Behavioral Consistency
        3. Takeaway Points
        4. Further Reading
      8. Chapter 17: Discoverability
        1. What to Make Discoverable
        2. When to Make Things Discoverable
        3. How to Make Things Discoverable
        4. Takeaway Points
      9. Chapter 18: Don’t Interrupt
        1. Make Decisions for Your User
        2. Front Load Decisions
        3. Interrupt Users Only For Truly Urgent Decisions
        4. Interruptions Are Rude
        5. Takeaway Points
        6. Further Reading
      10. Chapter 19: Instead of Interrupting, Offer Undo
        1. Let Users Undo Their Actions
        2. Temporary Undo
        3. Takeaway Points
      11. Chapter 20: Modes
        1. Nonobvious Modes
        2. Unexpected Modes
        3. Sticky Modes
        4. Modes Are Not Always Bad
        5. Quasimodes
        6. Takeaway Points
        7. Further Reading
      12. Chapter 21: Have Opinions Instead of Preferences
        1. What I’m Not Talking About
        2. Why Preferences Are Bad
        3. How to Avoid Preferences
        4. If You Can’t Avoid Preferences
        5. Takeaway Points
        6. Further Reading
      13. Chapter 22: Hierarchies, Space, Time, and How We Think About the World
        1. Hierarchies
        2. Space
        3. Time
        4. A Better Hierarchical System
        5. The BizTwit Case
        6. Takeaway Points
        7. Further Reading
      14. Chapter 23: Speed
        1. Responsiveness
        2. Progress Feedback
        3. Perceived Speed
        4. Slowing Down
        5. Takeaway Points
        6. Further Reading
      15. Chapter 24: Avoiding Features
        1. Remember the User’s Goals
        2. The Five Whys
        3. Instead of Adding a New Feature, Make an Existing Feature More Usable
        4. Solve Several Problems with One Change
        5. Consider the Cost
        6. Make It Invisible
        7. Provide an API and a Plug-in Architecture
        8. Listen to Your Users
        9. But Don’t Listen to Your Users Too Much
        10. Not All Users Need to Be Your Users
        11. Takeaway Points
        12. Further Reading
      16. Chapter 25: Removing Features
        1. Do the Research
        2. Inform Your Users
        3. Provide Alternatives
        4. It’s Your Product
        5. Takeaway Points
        6. Further Reading
      17. Chapter 26: Learning from Video Games
        1. What’s Fun?
        2. Why Your Product Is Not Like a Game
        3. What We Can Learn from Games
        4. Fun vs. Usability
        5. Takeaway Points
        6. Further Reading
    8. Part 3: Implementation
      1. Chapter 27: Guerilla Usability Testing
        1. What’s the Technique?
        2. Why Is This a Good Idea?
        3. Are There Any Prerequisites?
        4. Guerilla Style
        5. How Often to Test
        6. Preparing for the Test
        7. How Do You Find Testers?
        8. How Many Testers
        9. Running the Test
        10. The Results
        11. Takeaway Points
      2. Chapter 28: Usability Testing
        1. What’s the Technique?
        2. Why Is This a Good Idea?
        3. Are There Any Prerequisites?
        4. Usability Tests Don’t Have to Be Expensive
        5. How Often to Test
        6. How Many Testers
        7. Who Should Test Your Product?
        8. How to Find Testers
        9. Different Types of Tests
        10. Preparing for the Test
        11. Running the Test
        12. Takeaway Points
      3. Chapter 29: Testing in Person
        1. What’s the Technique?
        2. Why Is This a Good Idea?
        3. Are There Any Prerequisites?
        4. Running the Test
        5. Takeaway Points
        6. Further Reading
      4. Chapter 30: Remote Testing
        1. What’s the Technique?
        2. Why Is This a Good Idea?
        3. Are There Any Prerequisites?
        4. Moderated Remote Testing
        5. Unmoderated Remote Testing
        6. Takeaway Points
        7. Further Reading
      5. Chapter 31: How Not to Test: Common Mistakes
        1. Don’t Use Words That Appear in the User Interface
        2. Don’t Influence the Tester
        3. Avoid Stressful Situations
        4. Takeaway Points
      6. Chapter 32: User Error Is Design Error
        1. Don’t Blame Your Users in Your Error Messages
        2. No Error, No Blame
        3. Takeaway Points
      7. Chapter 33: A/B Testing
        1. What’s the Technique?
        2. Why Is This a Good Idea?
        3. Are There Any Prerequisites?
        4. When to Do A/B Testing
        5. What’s Success?
        6. Preparing for the Test
        7. Running the Test
        8. Interpreting the Results
        9. Keep in Mind
        10. Takeaway Points
      8. Chapter 34: Collecting Usage Data
        1. What’s the Technique?
        2. Why Is This a Good Idea?
        3. Are There Any Prerequisites?
        4. Measure Speed
        5. Exit Points
        6. Measure Failure
        7. User Behavior
        8. Takeaway Points
        9. Further Reading
      9. Chapter 35: Dealing with User Feedback
        1. Unexpected Uses
        2. Bad Feedback
        3. Takeaway Points
      10. Chapter 36: You’re Not Done
    9. Appendix 1: Acknowledgments
    10. Bibliography

Product information

  • Title: Designed for Use
  • Author(s): Lukas Mathis
  • Release date: June 2011
  • Publisher(s): Pragmatic Bookshelf
  • ISBN: 9781934356753