Rating: 
Summary: Read this book¿ it will make life easier !
Review: .....especially if everyone who is a part of the product creation, business and marketing "food chain" reads it! Karen clearly, immediately and with great impact explains how and why we like some stuff and not others, and that this IS the bottom line. She relates human characteristics like trust, loyalty, familiarity, curiosity, desire to product success and profitability. This is the first business book that tangibly quantifies "soft" human characteristics and ties them to value, profitability and staying-power in the marketplace. Her case studies are great examples of how a user-centric approach worked from concept, design, testing through product launch. Donoghue's other key point feels sometimes forgotten in the rush-to-market. That it takes many disciplines (dare I say a village) on every side of the problem, working together to create best practices and best solutions, and it doesn't stop at product launch. This approach has to be one's design and business attitude for life. As I was reading the book, I thought of my parents in West Virginia, friends in Bangkok, a client in Seattle- and me at work (wherever that may be) trying to educate my clients to this perspective. How much easier it would be if business goals and user experience design disciplines sat together with real people (users) to create products. Gee, wouldn't that be great! and fun! and a lot more satisfying on all counts. Hey, Karen, do you have quantity discounts? I'd like to give one to every one in my current and future "food chain"! Or maybe it could be distributed with the Yellow Pages... : )
Rating:
Summary: What's In It For Me?
Review: Before reading Built for Use, I had no idea how corporations measured the success or failure of an expensive Web site. I knew there was more to online shopping than grammatical sentences and attractive graphics, but I was clueless about how I could ensure that the Web site I was developing would not become an object of ridicule. Built for Use introduced me to the things that professional Web usability experts already know: that the Web site design process must be a collaboration between all of the people who will use the site, and that failure to take usability into account means failure, period. It was good for me, a solitary author, to be told again and again that Web Site Design was a Team Sport. It was also good for me to be reminded that I needed to design my site around the needs of my users. After all, why was I building a Web site in the first place? To show off my book's beautiful cover? To impress my publisher? To convince people to buy my book? Or to answer a potential reviewer's questions -- posed at 2:00 a.m., when they are finally getting around to writing the review -- without having to make myself available via telephone? I enjoyed the chapter on "Nine Things a Marketer Needs to Know About User Experience Strategy." It was good to learn that "easy to use today does not mean easy to use tomorrow, when the site is six times as large, you have 100 additional offerings, and your competitors are increasing exponentially." Donoghue points out that spending fifteen to twenty thousand dollars to check your Web site's usability is a good investment if it allows you to make $500,000 worth of Web development more appealing to your customers. Spending $20 on a copy of Built for Use is an even better investment, if it helps you avoid usability problems in the first place.
Rating:
Summary: What's In It For Me?
Review: Before reading Built for Use, I had no idea how corporations measured the success or failure of an expensive Web site. I knew there was more to online shopping than grammatical sentences and attractive graphics, but I was clueless about how I could ensure that the Web site I was developing would not become an object of ridicule. Built for Use introduced me to the things that professional Web usability experts already know: that the Web site design process must be a collaboration between all of the people who will use the site, and that failure to take usability into account means failure, period. It was good for me, a solitary author, to be told again and again that Web Site Design was a Team Sport. It was also good for me to be reminded that I needed to design my site around the needs of my users. After all, why was I building a Web site in the first place? To show off my book's beautiful cover? To impress my publisher? To convince people to buy my book? Or to answer a potential reviewer's questions -- posed at 2:00 a.m., when they are finally getting around to writing the review -- without having to make myself available via telephone? I enjoyed the chapter on "Nine Things a Marketer Needs to Know About User Experience Strategy." It was good to learn that "easy to use today does not mean easy to use tomorrow, when the site is six times as large, you have 100 additional offerings, and your competitors are increasing exponentially." Donoghue points out that spending fifteen to twenty thousand dollars to check your Web site's usability is a good investment if it allows you to make $500,000 worth of Web development more appealing to your customers. Spending $20 on a copy of Built for Use is an even better investment, if it helps you avoid usability problems in the first place.
Rating:
Summary: Voice of a Consultant
Review: Built for Use, by user experience strategist Karen Donoghue, is a compendium of knowledge that anyone hoping to build a truly usable user interface should possess. Donoghue draws on her many years of experience as an industry consultant to present analyses of how websites and other human-machine interfaces succeed and fail. She also channels her extensive contacts in industry and academia to present sage advice and best practices for achieving usability. With a post-bubble eye sharply focused on the bottom line, Donoghue emphasizes that experiences users love don't necessarily coincide with the experiences they will pay for, and that revenue must be the ultimate driver of design choices. Reading Built for Use, it's hard not to picture oneself as one of Donoghue's clients, and the book as the voice of Donoghue. The book has the pragmatic tone of a consultant who is aware of the fact that your time (and hers) is valuable. She emphasizes the points that need emphasizing, and doesn't spend a lot of time considering ultimately rejected alternatives. You hire Ms. Donoghue, or read her book, because you need to know how to create the best -- and most profitable -- user interfaces right now, and you can't afford to make costly mistakes. From her war stories and references, it's pretty clear that she knows how, and she won't beat around the bush very much before telling you. One also gets the impression that Donoghue's clients span a broad range of knowledge and experience. In Part I, I counted, I believe, five different occurrences of a variant of "Don't put a tripwire at the checkout counter!" -- in other words, don't put an obstacle in front of a customer who's already been convinced to buy something, has taken out their credit card, and is trying to complete a transaction. "Don't make your first page impossible to get through!" is another oft-repeated dictum. Evidently more than a few of Donoghue's clients insisted on making those mistakes. On the other hand, her detailed accounts of best-practice project planning for usability will be of interest to seasoned veterans of successful projects. Along with her pragmatic tone, Donoghue endeavors to formulate general principles and practices that underlie the best, most-usable interfaces. It was revealing to me to read about the meticulous and principled planning behind one of my personal favorites, the Fidelity Brokerage website, that distinguishes it from similar, but less usable competitors. Donoghue takes a more speculative point of view in Part III, which discusses future developments. There, she expresses confidence that we will soon be designing for systems that cross the "wet-dry interface" - in other words, parts of the system will be composed of traditional electronic circuits, and other parts will consist of biological components such as neurons in a human body. Donoghue's clients, and the readers of this book, are a demanding audience. They need to know in practical terms what to do right now to compete in a confusing, rapidly developing arena. They also need an awareness of a future where user experiences that today sound like science fiction will be commonplace. Fortunately Donoghue, with her combination of down-to-earth advice and insight into the fundamental principles that will influence future trends, meets both requirements.
Rating:
Summary: Voice of a Consultant
Review: Built for Use, by user experience strategist Karen Donoghue, is a compendium of knowledge that anyone hoping to build a truly usable user interface should possess. Donoghue draws on her many years of experience as an industry consultant to present analyses of how websites and other human-machine interfaces succeed and fail. She also channels her extensive contacts in industry and academia to present sage advice and best practices for achieving usability. With a post-bubble eye sharply focused on the bottom line, Donoghue emphasizes that experiences users love don't necessarily coincide with the experiences they will pay for, and that revenue must be the ultimate driver of design choices. Reading Built for Use, it's hard not to picture oneself as one of Donoghue's clients, and the book as the voice of Donoghue. The book has the pragmatic tone of a consultant who is aware of the fact that your time (and hers) is valuable. She emphasizes the points that need emphasizing, and doesn't spend a lot of time considering ultimately rejected alternatives. You hire Ms. Donoghue, or read her book, because you need to know how to create the best -- and most profitable -- user interfaces right now, and you can't afford to make costly mistakes. From her war stories and references, it's pretty clear that she knows how, and she won't beat around the bush very much before telling you. One also gets the impression that Donoghue's clients span a broad range of knowledge and experience. In Part I, I counted, I believe, five different occurrences of a variant of "Don't put a tripwire at the checkout counter!" -- in other words, don't put an obstacle in front of a customer who's already been convinced to buy something, has taken out their credit card, and is trying to complete a transaction. "Don't make your first page impossible to get through!" is another oft-repeated dictum. Evidently more than a few of Donoghue's clients insisted on making those mistakes. On the other hand, her detailed accounts of best-practice project planning for usability will be of interest to seasoned veterans of successful projects. Along with her pragmatic tone, Donoghue endeavors to formulate general principles and practices that underlie the best, most-usable interfaces. It was revealing to me to read about the meticulous and principled planning behind one of my personal favorites, the Fidelity Brokerage website, that distinguishes it from similar, but less usable competitors. Donoghue takes a more speculative point of view in Part III, which discusses future developments. There, she expresses confidence that we will soon be designing for systems that cross the "wet-dry interface" - in other words, parts of the system will be composed of traditional electronic circuits, and other parts will consist of biological components such as neurons in a human body. Donoghue's clients, and the readers of this book, are a demanding audience. They need to know in practical terms what to do right now to compete in a confusing, rapidly developing arena. They also need an awareness of a future where user experiences that today sound like science fiction will be commonplace. Fortunately Donoghue, with her combination of down-to-earth advice and insight into the fundamental principles that will influence future trends, meets both requirements.
Rating: 
Summary: Four Plus or 5 Minus
Review: Fabulous message and important concepts. My main complaint is that the message was 'restricted' in how it is applied. The issues raised and the corresponding solutions are applicable to all aspects of designing human interactions with business...and not just considering customers (who are often engaged in roles for which the term 'user' is inappropriate... a term I abhor because of its lack of 'universality'). To follow the model given in the introduction, by considering the strategic implications of the customer and the business anyone could easily come up with solutions that fly in the face of the abilities and values of the employees as human beings. All stakeholder factors have to be put in balance with those of the business. In addition, the concepts apply outside the typical business model and/or products. A good example is home design (not decor) which typically doesn't consider many 'functions' that occur within its walls other than sleeping, washing, bathing, and eating. Many of the concepts presented here can/should be applied in other problem/solution settings. I contend that every business project that involves some human interaction is subject to these principles. The models/recommendations within this book, with a few tweaks, can and should be applied to designing human interaction in many yet-untapped areas/markets (leaving tremendous business potential lying all around). The recommendations given specifically as to better 'online' design can and should be applied to all points of interaction a business has with all stakeholders. I highly recommend this book with the caveat that you take its potential application beyond the dimensions within which it is presented. The word 'customer' can often be replaced with 'stakeholder'. When encountering the term 'user experience' drop the term 'user' and focus on the 'experience' (since most individuals measure the value of their experience with a business based on all points of interaction, not just online).
Rating:
Summary: Use it and don't lose it
Review: San Jose, CA, USA
As a marketing director of a B2B dot com, I found Donoghue's book hit the nail on the head. Her book offers sound advice that will outlive most companies-Internet or conventional. Placing customers first is the cornerstone of all successful business strategies built to last, yet this fundamental premise is frustratingly absent in the many high technology companies, large and small---in Silicon Valley. Many of these companies, still stubbornly cling to a feature/product-focus, which drag their customers around in an unresponsive or poorly response-able product or user experience. To be sure, the challenge of finding out what customer WILL WANT in technologies customers don't even know how to pronounce, is a daunting task for all marketing managers. But there are ample case studies to draw from, both in Donoghue's book, and from the marketing intelligence already developed by other industries. New and unimaginable products will continue to be introduced at increasingly rapid speeds, but human behavior around new product adoption has some very predictable elements.
Karen Donohue's book is a timely analysis of what went wrong with a "great idea" called the Internet. While the Internet is still alive ---the critical lessons Donoghue speaks about did not have to be learned the hard way. Reading this book will help marketing managers avoid another unnecessary repetition of this recent, painful business failure.
Rating:
Summary: Buy this book and give it to management
Review: This is the book to read and pass along to Marketing, R&D, Sales, etc. It will help you know the words to say to justify spending time and money on user experience research and design. I read it before starting a new job in Human Factors and passed it up the management chain to widen the perception of what it's all about. It gives you and "them" a common language.
Rating:
Summary: Buy this book and give it to management
Review: This is the book to read and pass along to Marketing, R&D, Sales, etc. It will help you know the words to say to justify spending time and money on user experience research and design. I read it before starting a new job in Human Factors and passed it up the management chain to widen the perception of what it's all about. It gives you and "them" a common language.
Rating:
Summary: Use this to build better customer experiences
Review: This is the first book on user experience design to strike the critical balance between business and design contexts. No rants about Flash animation here. Practitioners of every discipline will come away with an enhanced vocabulary and appreciation of what it takes to effectively evaluate and design on-line experiences that are compelling, usable, and profitable. Several case studies illustrate the concepts. The author has considerable experience bridging the chasm between the concerns of professional managers and the realm of creative designers. She shares a great deal of her wisdom in this book. I've worked as a Internet strategy consultant and I wish I could have shared this book with clients and colleagues years ago. The dot.com meltdown has not changed a fundamental truth: the on-line experience provides an opportunity for a very intimate relationship with customers. Ms. Donoghue's new book will help your business take advantage of this fundamental truth.
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