Overview
Smart organizations recognize that Web design is more than just creating clean code and sharp graphics. A site that really works fulfills your strategic objectives while meeting the needs of your users. Even the best content and the most sophisticated technology won't help you balance those goals without a cohesive, consistent user experience to support it.
But creating the user experience can seem overwhelmingly complex. With so many issues involved-usability, brand identity, information architecture, interaction design-it can seem as if the only way to build a successful site is to spend a fortune on specialists who understand all the details.
The Elements of User Experience cuts through the complexity of user-centered design for the Web with clear explanations and vivid illustrations that focus on ideas rather than tools or techniques. Jesse James Garrett gives readers the big picture of Web user experience development, from strategy and requirements to information architecture and visual design. This accessible introduction helps any Web development team, large or small, to create a successful user experience.
Synopsis
Smart organizations recognize that Web design is more than just creating clean code and sharp graphics. A site that really works fulfills your strategic objectives while meeting the needs of your users. Even the best content and the most sophisticated technology won't help you balance those goals without a cohesive, consistent user experience to support it.
But creating the user experience can seem overwhelmingly complex. With so many issues involved-usability, brand identity, information architecture, interaction design-it can seem as if the only way to build a successful site is to spend a fortune on specialists who understand all the details.
The Elements of User Experience cuts through the complexity of user-centered design for the Web with clear explanations and vivid illustrations that focus on ideas rather than tools or techniques. Jesse James Garrett gives readers the big picture of Web user experience development, from strategy and requirements to information architecture and visual design. This accessible introduction helps any Web development team, large or small, to create a successful user experience.
Editorials
From Barnes & Noble
The Barnes & Noble ReviewNobody’s better at helping web professionals think about the “big picture” than Jesse James Garrett. In 2000, his one-page diagram, “The Elements of User Experience,” became a touchstone for web designers and information architects worldwide. Now he’s expanded that diagram into a wonderfully sensible guide to all five “planes” of user experience, from strategy to visual design.
Garrett begins by deconstructing the “neat, tidy experience” of buying a book online: an experience that “results from a whole set of decisions -- some small, some large -- about how the site looks, how it behaves, and what it allows you to do.” Decisions made on one plane influence and constrain other key decisions -- often in surprising ways. When the decisions on each layer don’t align with each other, you’ll miss your deadlines and budgets and wind up with a site users can’t stand.
Garrett shows how to create a clearly articulated strategy that informs all the decisions you make afterward, and how to translate user needs and site objectives into specific requirements for content and functionality. You’ll learn how to build on your requirements to develop a conceptual site structure -- and how to make that structure tangible through interface, navigation, and information design. Finally, you’ll learn how to build a visual design that supports all the goals and choices you’ve already made.
Whether you’re leading, participating in, or hiring a “user experience” team, spend an hour or two with this book. It’ll show you how to bring web design, navigation, information architecture, features, and strategy together -- seamlessly. Bill Camarda
Bill Camarda is a consultant, writer, and web/multimedia content developer. His 15 books include Special Edition Using Word 2000 and Upgrading & Fixing Networks For Dummies®, Second Edition.