Badass: Making Users Awesome

Badass: Making Users Awesome

by Kathy Sierra
Released January 2015
Publisher(s): O'Reilly Media, Inc.
ISBN: 9781491919071

Read it now on the O’Reilly learning platform with a 10-day free trial.

O’Reilly members get unlimited access to books, live events, courses curated by job role, and more from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers.

Start your free trial

Book description

Note for ebook customers: The design and layout of this book play a key role in conveying the author's message. When creating the ebooks, we've tried to keep the look and feel of the print edition, but this means that not all e-reading devices will support the files. The EPUB format is optimized for iPad. The Mobi files are optimized for Kindle Fire tablets and phones and for Kindle reading apps.

Imagine you’re in a game with one objective: a bestselling product or service. The rules? No marketing budget, no PR stunts, and it must be sustainably successful. No short-term fads.

This is not a game of chance. It is a game of skill and strategy.

And it begins with a single question: given competing products of equal pricing, promotion, and perceived quality, why does one outsell the others?

The answer doesn’t live in the sustainably successful products or services. The answer lives in those who use them.

Our goal is to craft a strategy for creating successful users. And that strategy is full of surprising, counter-intuitive, and astonishingly simple techniques that don’t depend on a massive marketing or development budget. Techniques typically overlooked by even the most well-funded, well-staffed product teams.

Every role is a key player in this game. Product development, engineering, marketing, user experience, support—everyone on the team. Even if that team is a start-up of one. Armed with a surprisingly overlooked science and a unique POV, we can can reduce the role of luck. We can build sustainably successful products and services that rely not on unethical persuasive marketing tricks but on helping our users have deeper, richer experiences. Not just in the moments while they’re using our product but, more importantly, in the moments when they aren’t.

Publisher resources

View/Submit Errata

Table of contents

  1. Cover
  2. Praise
  3. Title
  4. Copyright
  5. Contents
  6. The Challenge (1/11)
  7. The Challenge (2/11)
  8. The Challenge (3/11)
  9. The Challenge (4/11)
  10. The Challenge (5/11)
  11. The Challenge (6/11)
  12. The Challenge (7/11)
  13. The Challenge (8/11)
  14. The Challenge (9/11)
  15. The Challenge (10/11)
  16. The Challenge (11/11)
    1. Think Badass (1/2)
    2. Think Badass (2/2)
    3. The User Journey (1/4)
    4. The User Journey (2/4)
    5. The User Journey (3/4)
    6. The User Journey (4/4)
  17. What Experts Do
    1. Science of Badass (1/4)
    2. Science of Badass (2/4)
    3. Science of Badass (3/4)
    4. Science of Badass (4/4)
    5. Building Skills (1/6)
    6. Building Skills (2/6)
    7. Building Skills (3/6)
    8. Building Skills (4/6)
    9. Building Skills (5/6)
    10. Building Skills (6/6)
    11. Perceptual Exposure (1/6)
    12. Perceptual Exposure (2/6)
    13. Perceptual Exposure (3/6)
    14. Perceptual Exposure (4/6)
    15. Perceptual Exposure (5/6)
    16. Perceptual Exposure (6/6)
  18. Help Them Move Forward
    1. Remove Blocks (1/6)
    2. Remove Blocks (2/6)
    3. Remove Blocks (3/6)
    4. Remove Blocks (4/6)
    5. Remove Blocks (5/6)
    6. Remove Blocks (6/6)
    7. Progress + Payoffs (1/6)
    8. Progress + Payoffs (2/6)
    9. Progress + Payoffs (3/6)
    10. Progress + Payoffs (4/6)
    11. Progress + Payoffs (5/6)
    12. Progress + Payoffs (6/6)
  19. Support Cognitive Resources
    1. Design (1/3)
    2. Design (2/3)
    3. Design (3/3)
    4. Reduce Cognitive Leaks (1/5)
    5. Reduce Cognitive Leaks (2/5)
    6. Reduce Cognitive Leaks (3/5)
    7. Reduce Cognitive Leaks (4/5)
    8. Reduce Cognitive Leaks (5/5)
    9. Escape the Brain’s Spam Filter (1/6)
    10. Escape the Brain’s Spam Filter (2/6)
    11. Escape the Brain’s Spam Filter (3/6)
    12. Escape the Brain’s Spam Filter (4/6)
    13. Escape the Brain’s Spam Filter (5/6)
    14. Escape the Brain’s Spam Filter (6/6)
  20. Epilogue (1/3)
  21. Epilogue (2/3)
  22. Epilogue (3/3)

Product information

  • Title: Badass: Making Users Awesome
  • Author(s): Kathy Sierra
  • Release date: January 2015
  • Publisher(s): O'Reilly Media, Inc.
  • ISBN: 9781491919071