UX Fundamentals for Non-UX Professionals

What can a WWII-era tank teach us about design? What does a small, blue flower tell us about audiences? What do drunk, French marathon-runners show us about software? In 40+ chapters and stories, you will learn the ways in which UX has influenced history and vice versa, and how it continues to change our daily lives. This book enables you to participate fully in discussions about UX, as you discover the fundamentals of user experience design and research. Rather than grasp concepts through a barrage of facts and figures, you will learn through stories. Poisonous blowfish, Russian playwrights, tiny angels, Texas sharpshooters, and wilderness wildfires all make an appearance. From Chinese rail workers to UFOs, you will cover a lot of territory, because the experiences that surround you are as broad and varied as every age, culture, and occupation. You will start by covering the principles of UX before going into more diverse topics, including: being human, the art of persuasion, and the murky waters of process. Every day, people gather around conference tables, jump onto phone calls, draw on whiteboards, stare at computer monitors, and try to build things — we all create. Increasingly, what we create is something digital. From apps to web sites, and from emails to video games, often the sole evidence of an experience appears on an illuminated screen. We design tiny worlds that thrive or perish at the whim of a device’s on/off button. With this book you will be ready. What You'll Learn Master the fundamentals of UX Acquire the skills to participate intelligently in discussions about UX design and research Understand how UX impacts business, including product, pricing, placement, and promotion as well as security, speed, and privacy Who This Book Is For Professionals who work alongside UX designers and researchers, including but not limited to: project managers, graphic designers, copyeditors, developers, and human resource professionals; and business, marketing, and computer science students seeking to understand how UX affects human cognition and memory, product pricing and promotion, and software security and privacy.