UX for Beginners

UX for Beginners

by Joel Marsh
Released December 2015
Publisher(s): O'Reilly Media, Inc.
ISBN: 9781491912683

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Book description

Apps! Websites! Rubber Ducks! Naked Ninjas! This book has everything. If you want to get started in user experience design (UX), you've come to the right place: 100 self-contained lessons that cover the whole spectrum of fundamentals.

Forget dry, technical material. This book—based on the wildly popular UX Crash Course from Joel Marsh's blog The Hipper Element—is laced with the author's snarky brand of humor, and teaches UX in a simple, practical way. Becoming a professional doesn't have to be boring.

Follow the real-life UX process from start-to-finish and apply the skills as you learn, or refresh your memory before the next meeting. UX for Beginners is perfect for non-designers who want to become designers, managers who teach UX, and programmers, salespeople, or marketers who want to learn more.

  • Start from scratch: the fundamentals of UX
  • Research the weird and wonderful things users do
  • The process and science of making anything user-friendly
  • Use size, color, and layout to help and influence users
  • Plan and create wireframes
  • Make your designs feel engaging and persuasive
  • Measure how your design works in the real world
  • Find out what a UX designer does all day

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Table of contents

  1. Praise for UX for Beginners
  2. Preface: This Book Truly Practices What It Preaches
    1. This Book Exists Because It Is Needed
    2. Who Is This Book For?
    3. How the Book Is Structured
    4. The Main Goals of this Book
    5. Acknowledgements
  3. I. Key Ideas
    1. 1. What Is UX?
      1. “Doing” UX
    2. 2. The Five Main Ingredients of UX
    3. 3. Your Perspective
      1. Know Thyself
      2. Empathy: Want What They Want
      3. You Know Too Much
    4. 4. The Three “Whats” of User Perspective
      1. “What Is This?”
      2. “What’s in It for Me?”
      3. “What Do I Do?”
    5. 5. Solutions versus Ideas
    6. 6. The Pyramid of UX Impact
  4. II. Before You Start
    1. 7. User Goals and Business Goals
      1. User Goals
      2. Business Goals
        1. Align the goals
    2. 8. UX Is a Process
      1. UX Is Not an Event or a Task
      2. A Company Has a Process, Too
      3. Always Question the Process
    3. 9. Gathering Requirements
      1. Requirements Protect You from Mistakes
      2. Don’t Ask Stakeholders for Solutions or Wishes
    4. 10. Building Consensus
      1. Know Your Craft
      2. DO NOT LIE ABOUT UX. EVER.
  5. III. Behavior Basics
    1. 11. Psychology versus Culture
      1. Psychology
      2. Culture
      3. The Practical Difference
    2. 12. What Is User Psychology?
      1. Why Do We Need User Psychology?
    3. 13. What Is An Experience?
    4. 14. Conscious vs Subconscious Experience
      1. Conscious Experience
      2. Subconscious Experience
    5. 15. Emotions
      1. Gain and Loss
      2. Emotions Are Reactions, Not Goals
      3. Time Makes Emotions More Complicated
    6. 16. What Are Motivations?
      1. The 14 Universal Motivations
        1. Avoid death
        2. Avoid pain
        3. Air/water/food
        4. Homeostasis
        5. Sleep
        6. Sex
        7. Love
        8. Protection of Children
        9. Affiliation
        10. Status
        11. Justice
        12. Understanding (Curiosity)
    7. 17. Motivation: Sex and Love
      1. Sex Is About Reproduction
        1. Think of sexual “rules of engagement” like an auction
      2. Love
    8. 18. Motivation: Affiliation
      1. Affiliation
    9. 19. Motivation: Status
      1. Status
    10. 20. Motivation: Justice
      1. Justice
      2. HOMEWORK!!!!!1!!!
    11. 21. Motivation: Understanding (Curiosity)
      1. How to Screw It Up
  6. IV. User Research
    1. 22. What Is User Research?
      1. Different People Will Say That User Research Happens at Different Stages in the Process
      2. Subjective Research
      3. Objective Research
      4. Sample Size
        1. Lots of subjective opinions can become... almost objective?! WTF
    2. 23. What Isn’t User Research?
      1. You Are Not Testing the Users; They Are Testing You
      2. Users Are Not a Crystal Ball
        1. Don’t ask users how they want their problems solved
      3. Consensus Is Not a UX Strategy
    3. 24. How Many Users Do You Need?
      1. The Less Obvious the Problem, the More People You Need to Find It
      2. Get Users Who Fit the Profile and A Couple Who Don’t
    4. 25. How to Ask Questions
      1. Three Basic Types of Questions
        1. Important
    5. 26. How to Observe a User
      1. Remember: Your Memory Sucks
      2. Read Between the Lines
      3. Watch How They Choose, Not Just What They Choose
      4. Do Not Help
      5. True Story: People Will Lie to Get Your Approval
    6. 27. Interviews
      1. What Is an Interview?
        1. Interviews are good because...
        2. Interviews are bad because...
        3. You should do interviews when...
    7. 28. Surveys
      1. What Is a Survey?
        1. Surveys are good because...
        2. Surveys are bad because...
        3. You should use surveys when...
    8. 29. Card Sorting
      1. What Is Card Sorting?
        1. Card sorting is good because...
        2. Card sorting is bad because...
        3. Use card sorting when...
    9. 30. Creating User Profiles
      1. What a Profile Is Not
      2. So, What Is a User Profile/Persona?
        1. Bad profile
        2. Why it’s bad
        3. Useful profile
        4. Why it’s useful
      3. Think of “Ideal” Users; Several of Them!
    10. 31. Devices
  7. V. The Limits of Our Minds
    1. 32. What Is Intuition?
      1. As a UX Designer, Gut Feelings Can Be Your Worst Enemy
      2. A UX Designer’s Job Is to Design for Other People’s Gut Feelings
    2. 33. What Is a Cognitive Bias?
    3. 34. The Illusion of Choice
    4. 35. Attention
      1. What Are You Sacrificing to Get Attention?
    5. 36. Memory
      1. Memory Is Really Cool
      2. All Memories Are Not Created Equal
      3. Emphasize with Bias
      4. Research and Memory
      5. Beware of False Memory
    6. 37. Hyperbolic Discounting
      1. Motivations versus Time
      2. Usability Is a Two-Way Street
  8. VI. Information Architecture
    1. 38. What Is Information Architecture?
      1. Deep or Flat, Not Both
    2. 39. User Stories
    3. 40. Types of Information Architecture
    4. 41. Static and Dynamic Pages
      1. What Is a Static Page?
      2. What Is a Dynamic Page?
      3. Things versus Containers
      4. Create No-Fail Scenarios
    5. 42. What Is a Flow?
      1. Don’t Count Clicks or Pages
      2. Avoid Making a “Dead End”
    6. 43. Users Don’t Go Backward
      1. User Motivation Is Rare, Not Common
      2. Users Only Go Backward When Confused or Lost—That’s Bad
      3. Make Loops If You Want Users to Go Backward
  9. VII. Designing Behavior
    1. 44. Designing with Intention
      1. UX Design Is Not a Matter of Opinion
    2. 45. Rewards and Punishments
      1. Feelings, Not Things
      2. Feedback to Yourself
      3. Learning = Associations = Beliefs
    3. 46. Conditioning and Addiction
      1. “The First Taste Is Free”
        1. Types of conditioning
        2. Type of rewards and punishments
        3. Shape Their Behavior
      2. Timing Matters
      3. Make It Addictive
    4. 47. Gamification
      1. What Is a Feedback Loop?
        1. Loop it
      2. Progressive Challenges
      3. Game Mechanics Are Motivations and Emotions
    5. 48. Social/Viral Structure
      1. Virality Is Much More Than Sharing: It’s a Feature
        1. The Basic Formula
      2. Why Does This Work?
    6. 49. How to Create Trust
      1. Trust Is a Critical Element in Everything You Do
    7. 50. How Experience Changes Experience
      1. Power Users Are the Minority
      2. Hidden versus Visible: The Paradox of Choice
      3. Recognition versus Memory
      4. Learning Is Slow; Habits Are Fast
  10. VIII. Visual Design Principles
    1. 51. Visual Weight (Contrast and Size)
      1. Contrast
      2. Depth and Size
    2. 52. Color
      1. Meaning
      2. Recede or Advance
      3. Keep Wireframes Simple
      4. Combine Visual Principles
    3. 53. Repetition and Pattern-Breaking
      1. Breaking a Pattern
      2. Combine Your Principles
    4. 54. Line Tension and Edge Tension
      1. Line Tension
      2. Edge Tension
      3. Combine Your Principles
    5. 55. Alignment and Proximity
      1. Alignment
      2. Proximity
    6. 56. Using Motion for UX
      1. If Motion Makes People Wait, It’s Bad
      2. Motion Is Noticed First
        1. Straight lines point in a direction
        2. Curved lines make people follow the curve
  11. IX. Wireframes and Prototypes
    1. 57. What Is a Wireframe?
    2. 58. What Isn’t a Wireframe?
    3. 59. Learn Skills, Not Tools
      1. Different Tools Work in Different Situations
      2. Design the Best Solution, Not the Solution the Tool Can Design
    4. 60. Avoid Convenient Examples
      1. How Short Can It Be?
      2. How Long Can It Be?
      3. What If It Doesn’t Exist?
      4. What If Someone Deletes It?
      5. What’s the Worst That Can Happen?
    5. 61. What Is a Design Pattern?
    6. 62. Z-Pattern, F-Pattern, Visual Hierarchy
      1. The Z-Pattern
      2. F-Pattern
        1. Why Is This Important?
      3. Create a Visual Hierarchy
    7. 63. Layout: Page Framework
      1. Footers
      2. Navigation
      3. Huge Submenus Are Never a Good Idea
      4. tl;dr
    8. 64. Layout: The Fold, Images, and Headlines
      1. The Fold
      2. Images
      3. Headlines
      4. tl;dr
    9. 65. Layout: The Axis of Interaction
      1. Find the Edges
    10. 66. Forms
      1. One Long Page or a Few Short Pages?
      2. Input Types
      3. Labels and Instructions
      4. Preventing and Handling Mistakes
      5. Speed versus Mistakes
    11. 67. Primary and Secondary Buttons
      1. Primary Buttons
      2. Secondary Buttons
      3. Importance Is a BIG Exception
      4. Special Buttons
    12. 68. Adaptive and Responsive Design
      1. Adaptive Design Is Really Just a Couple of Different Designs
      2. Responsive Design Is One Design That Fits All Screens
    13. 69. To Design or Redesign?
      1. Define the Problem First
      2. Make the Smallest Change You Can Make
      3. Sometimes the Best Redesign Is Less
    14. 70. Touch versus Mouse
      1. A Mouse Has Some Advantages Over a Finger
      2. Your Finger Has Some Advantages Over a Mouse
  12. X. Psychology of Usability
    1. 71. What Is Usability, Really?
      1. Usability = Cognitive Load
      2. Don’t Ignore Beauty!
    2. 72. Simple, Easy, Fast, or Minimal
      1. Simpler: Fewer Steps
      2. Easier: More Obvious Steps
      3. Faster: Less Time to Complete/Repeat the Process
      4. Minimal: Fewer Functions
      5. A Mix of Strategies Is Usually Best
    3. 73. Browsing, Searching, or Discovery
      1. Browsing
      2. Searching
      3. Discovery
        1. “If you liked that, you’re gonna love this...”
    4. 74. Consistency and Expectations
      1. Patterns Require Consistency
      2. Consistency Is a Tool, Not a Rule
    5. 75. Anti-UX
      1. The Good, The Bad, and The Anti
        1. Good UX
        2. Bad UX
        3. The problem
      2. Anti-UX
      3. Dirty UX Tricks Hurt Us All
    6. 76. Accessibility
      1. Accessibility Is Visual
      2. Accessibility Is Technology
      3. Accessibility Is Content
      4. Accessibility Is Extra Thoughtful
  13. XI. Content
    1. 77. UX Copywriting versus Brand Copywriting
      1. Copywriting in UX Is Usability
      2. Copywriting in Branding Should Create Associations
      3. Work Together!
      4. Choose Your Battles
    2. 78. The Call-To-Action Formula
      1. Verb
      2. Benefit
      3. Urgent Time or Place
      4. Wild Card
      5. Things to Avoid
    3. 79. Instructions, Labels and Buttons
      1. Labels
    4. 80. Landing Pages
      1. Think About Your Site or App Like an Airport
      2. Three Whats = One job
      3. Your Site Can Have Many Landing Pages
      4. Landing Pages Are Important
    5. 81. Readability
      1. Forget About Choosing Serif or Sans Serif
      2. Readability Is a Combination of Things
    6. 82. The Persuasion Formula
      1. The Persuasion Formula
        1. Before the Interaction
        2. During the Interaction
        3. After the Interaction
    7. 83. How to Motivate People to Share
  14. XII. The Moment of Truth
    1. 84. The Launch Is an Experiment
      1. The Scientific Method
        1. The Question/Problem
        2. Hypothesis
        3. Prediction
        4. Experiment
        5. Results
  15. XIII. Data for Designers
    1. 85. Can You Measure a Soul?
      1. Neuromarketing
      2. Groups Are Reliable; Individuals, Not So Much
    2. 86. What Are Analytics?
      1. Data Is Objective
      2. Data Is Made of People
      3. More Data Is Better Data
        1. A few ways to collect objective user data
    3. 87. Graph Shapes
      1. Traffic Graphs
        1. General Trend
        2. Random/Unexpected/One-time event
      2. Predictable Traffic
      3. Structured Behavior Graphs
        1. Exponential/Long Tail
        2. Exponential with Unexpected Order
        3. Exponential with Power Users
        4. Exponential with Conversion Problem
    4. 88. Stats—Sessions versus Users
      1. Everything Is Relative
      2. A User Is Actually a Device. Wait, What?!
    5. 89. Stats—New versus Return Visitors
      1. New Visitors
      2. Return Visitors
    6. 90. Stats—Pageviews
    7. 91. Stats—Time
      1. Don’t Assume That Time Is Good
      2. Compare Time and Other Stats to Learn More
    8. 92. Stats—Bounce Rate and Exit Rate
      1. Exit Rate
    9. 93. The Probabilities of Interaction
      1. 1% of People Will Do Anything
      2. 90% Is Everybody
      3. Probabilities Are Not Intuitive
    10. 94. Structure versus Choice
      1. Order versus Appeal
      2. Content Attention versus Surface Attention
      3. Hierarchy versus Motivation
    11. 95. A/B Tests
      1. What Is an A/B Test?
        1. Some tips
    12. 96. A Multi-what-now Test?!
    13. 97. Sometimes A/B Testing Is the Only Way to Know
  16. XIV. Get a Job, You Dirty Hippy
    1. 98. What Does a UX Designer Do All Day?
      1. Different UX Jobs Are Different
    2. 99. Which UX Job Is Right For You?
      1. UI versus UX
      2. Generalist versus Specialist
      3. Information Architecture
      4. Interaction Design
      5. UX
      6. UX Strategy
      7. UX Research
      8. Agency, In-House, or Startup?
        1. Agency
        2. In-House
        3. Startup
    3. 100. What Goes in a UX Portfolio?
      1. Tell Short, Visual Stories
      2. Focus on Problems, Insights, and Results
      3. No Experience? Make Some!
      4. Be Yourself
  17. Index
  18. About the Author
  19. Copyright

Product information

  • Title: UX for Beginners
  • Author(s): Joel Marsh
  • Release date: December 2015
  • Publisher(s): O'Reilly Media, Inc.
  • ISBN: 9781491912683