The book I co-authored EffectiveUI: The Art of Building Great User Experience in Software is going to ship on February 8th according to Amazon. As a person who is deeply prone to self-criticism and abasement, it’s always very difficult for me to decide wether or not my ideas matter to other people. Putting ideas down in a book that other people will pay for is totally contrary to my personality. But I kept thinking to myself throughout the process that, as long as I would want a client of mine to read the book before an engagement began, everything would be okay.
I would love for my clients to read this book. I believe in what’s in it, and I know first hand that the most successful projects I’ve been involved with have closely followed the patterns and strategies outlined in this book. Here’s the official blurb:
EffectiveUI today announced the release of “Effective UI: The Art of Building Great User Experience in Software,” a comprehensive and valuable resource for business and product managers trying to get innovative products funded and successfully built, software professionals struggling to advance the cause of better UX and anyone else who needs to effectively advocate for and deliver on the promise of higher-quality software.
O’Reilly Media, the technology industry’s leading provider of knowledge resources, published “Effective UI” as the latest in its series of educational books, services, magazines, research and conferences. The book is an informative guide to getting management support, employing successful product management strategies and and ensuring a management style that fosters a user-centered focus and collaborative environment, from working with the design and development teams to handling business and staffing needs.
Key Facts:
- “Effective UI” provides an overview of what UX is, what a good UX accomplishes and why engagement and a good UX matter.
- The book details how to win support for a better UX, educate key stakeholders and quantify the business value of a good UX.
- “Effective UI” addresses the problems inherent to traditional planning and project requirements and suggests alternative approaches to help elminate uncertainty and the unknown when developing software.
- This informative guide explores the importance of building and maintaining stakeholder buy-in throughout a software development project and offers tips for educating and communicating with stakeholders to solidify their support.
- The book recommends the ideal characteristics and composition of a successful project team, with special emphasis on the critical roles of stakeholders and the project leader.
- “Effective UI” suggests new approaches to how projects should be planned, designed and built and underscores the importance of restraint and user-centered design to reduce project risk and ensure high-quality results.
- The publication explains the importance and value of user research, key concepts underlying it, its goals and methodologies and how to combat pressures to skip this important step.
- “Effective UI” examines the initial product architecture stage of a software project — which includes UX and technical architecture — during which key foundational decisions are made.
- “Effective UI” explains how Agile methodology and iterative development concepts can be applied to the unified design and development of a product and highlights the importance of designers, developers, stakeholders and users actively collaborating during a product’s development.
- “The authors of “EffectiveUI” recommend a software-building approach that increases the final product’s usability and overall success while reducing pain, uncertainty and risk.
- “Effective UI” has the honor of being part of O’Reilly’s venerable animal series, which is well-known and respected in the software community. The animal on the cover is a Rainbow Lorikeet.
“Effective UI” was authored by Jonathan Anderson, John McRee and Robb Wilson. The book retails for $44.99 and will be available for purchase at major retailers including Amazon.com and through O’Reilly Media at www.oreilly.com.