Books Guide: Usability & User Experience

Great user experiences (UX) are essential for products today, but designing one can be a lengthy and expensive process. With this practical, hands-on book, you’ll learn how to do it faster and smarter using Lean UX techniques. UX expert Laura Klein shows you what it takes to gather valuable input from customers, build something they’ll truly love, and reduce the time it takes to get your product to market.

People are beginning to demand a higher standard of user experience (UX) quality from the software systems they use in their business and personal lives, and companies are looking to UX to help drive business value and increase brand strength.

Handbook of Usability Testing, Second Edition, is a nuts-and-bolts guide for beginners, loaded with tips and tricks for effectively testing products of all types. From software, GUIs, and technical documentation, to medical instruments and exercise bikes, no matter what type of product, readers will learn to design and administer reliable tests to ensure that people find it easy and desirable to use.

This completely updated volume presents the effective and practical tools you need to design great desktop applications, Web 2.0 sites, and mobile devices. You'll learn the principles of good product behavior and gain an understanding of Cooper’s Goal-Directed Design method, which involves everything from conducting user research to defining your product using personas and scenarios. Ultimately, you’ll acquire the knowledge to design the best possible digital products and services.

In just over a decade, the Web has evolved from an experimental tool for a limited community of technically inclined people into a day-to-day necessity for millions upon millions of users.

Beta testing is a complex process that, when properly run, provides a wealth of diverse information. But when poorly executed, it delivers little or no data while wasting time and money. Written by a leading expert in the field, this book will help you reach the full potential that beta testing has to offer. Michael Fine compiles the best practices to date so you can effectively bring beta testing into your company's process to improve product quality.

In a world of information overload and dying dot.coms, your homepage must grab the attention of visitors, tell them where they are, and let them know where they can go. Does your site pass the test? Homepage Usability is all about making that first impression. Is your tag line effective? Can visitors find your search box? How difficult is the page to navigate? What percentage of your homepage is devoted to actual content?

Users can experience the usability of a site before they have committed to using it and before they have spent any money on potential purchases. The web is the ultimate environment for empowerment, and he or she who clicks the mouse decides everything. In this landmark design reference, the world's acknowledged authority on web usability. Jakob Nielson, shares with you the full weight of his wisdom and experience.