User-Centered Design: An Integrated Approach

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Summary: Finally, a practical and usable book about UCD
Review: As a usability specialist for the past 14 years, I gravitate toward books that I can actually extract from and use their contents, rather than just reading descriptions of a process. The book emphasizes the importance of a multi-disciplinary team and steps us through the different phases of the UCD process. It also includes a great FAQ section. The CD that comes with the book includes movies addressing the various stages of a user-centered design process and many other resources. This is a must-have book for all those involved in developing products and services that people can easily use.

Rating:
Summary: Finally, a practical and usable book about UCD
Review: As a usability specialist for the past 14 years, I gravitate toward books that I can actually extract from and use their contents, rather than just reading descriptions of a process. The book emphasizes the importance of a multi-disciplinary team and steps us through the different phases of the UCD process. It also includes a great FAQ section. The CD that comes with the book includes movies addressing the various stages of a user-centered design process and many other resources. This is a must-have book for all those involved in developing products and services that people can easily use.

Rating:
Summary: An important book, I highly recomment it!
Review: From one who has been in the HCI/Usability field for 20+ years, finally a book that documents a sound and thorougly researched approach for interweaving the best-bang-for-the-buck usability engineering techniques throughout the design and development process. The UCD approach documented here focuses on solving real business problems. A critical book for those wanting to implement a sound user-centered design approach in companies.

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Summary: A solid process to develop usable products.
Review: I am a certified professional ergonomist(software specialist) with over 25 years experience. I wish this book had been publish 20 years ago - it could have saved many hours of work. In a very practical and clear way, this book presents a blueprint for how to integrate the UCD usability process into a project so that your product matches customer needs. The book gives clear step by step instructions on the methods for understanding your customer's requirements and developing a product that matches those needs. The book presents the process in a simple, thorough, cook-book way. Sample forms and case studies are plentiful. In addition to the process, it also covers practical issues such as how to sell UCD to your organization and the cost benefits of UCD. If you are a beginner you will have no trouble understanding the book. If you are an experienced practitioner you may find the material can save you some work. The sample plans, forms, presentations, and project templates alone are worth the price.