This completely updated volume presents the effective and practical tools you need to design great desktop applications, Web 2.0 sites, and mobile devices. You’ll learn the principles of good product behavior and gain an understanding of Cooper’s Goal-Directed Design method, which involves everything from conducting user research to defining your product using personas and scenarios. Ultimately, you’ll acquire the knowledge to design the best possible digital products and services.
About Face 3: The Essentials of Interaction Design
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Book Description
Frequently Bought Together
Editorial Reviews
From the Back Cover
When the first edition of About Face was published in 1995, the idea of designing products based on human goals was a revolutionary concept. Thanks to the work of Alan Cooper and other pioneers, interaction design is now widely recognized as a unique and vital discipline, but our work is far from finished.
This completely updated volume presents the effective and practical tools you need to design great desktop applications, Web 2.0 sites, and mobile devices. This book will teach you the principles of good product behavior and introduce you to Cooper's Goal-Directed Design method, from conducting user research to defining your product using personas and scenarios. In short, About Face 3 will show you how to design the best possible digital products and services.
About the Author
For over 30 years Alan Cooper has been a pioneer of the modern computing era. His groundbreaking work in software design and construction has influenced a generation of programmers and business people—and helped a generation of users. He is best known as the "Father of Visual Basic," inventor of personas, and founder of Cooper, the leading design consultancy.
As Director of Design R&D at Cooper, Robert Reimann led dozens of design projects and helped develop many of the methods described in About Face 3. Currently, he is Manager of User Experience at Bose Corporation and President of IxDA, the Interaction Design Association.
David Cronin is Director of Interaction Design at Cooper, where he's led the design of products for such diverse users as surgeons, museum visitors, online shoppers, automobile drivers, financial analysts, and the elderly.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
54 of 57 people found the following review helpful
By ...Bill
Format:Paperback
I read (and still have) the previous two editions of this book. Unlike the usual "complete revised and updated" hype for new editions, this one has had some serious re-work and expansion.
The whole structure of the book is new and very close to being a complete course/textbook in the Cooper approach to Goal-based Design. All the sections have been expanded based upon reactions to the previous version(s) as well as their collective experience. The most obvious changes are towards describing in greater detail the process and how to integrate it into the large design/development cycle.
For those who have not read (about) Cooper (and his firm's) work, this book is the complete approach in detail. It is written for professional UI designer and developers and makes some assumptions about the background of the reader.
Executives, stakeholders or those needing a more general overview should pick up his other book "The Inmates are Running the Asylum" which was written for that audience. That book includes more business cases and rationale without the heavy details.
As a UI professional for over 20 years find his approach to be the most useful in creating truly useful and usable applications. This book continues to point out how get beyond mere incremental design enhancements to truly revolutionary and winning designs.
The whole structure of the book is new and very close to being a complete course/textbook in the Cooper approach to Goal-based Design. All the sections have been expanded based upon reactions to the previous version(s) as well as their collective experience. The most obvious changes are towards describing in greater detail the process and how to integrate it into the large design/development cycle.
For those who have not read (about) Cooper (and his firm's) work, this book is the complete approach in detail. It is written for professional UI designer and developers and makes some assumptions about the background of the reader.
Executives, stakeholders or those needing a more general overview should pick up his other book "The Inmates are Running the Asylum" which was written for that audience. That book includes more business cases and rationale without the heavy details.
As a UI professional for over 20 years find his approach to be the most useful in creating truly useful and usable applications. This book continues to point out how get beyond mere incremental design enhancements to truly revolutionary and winning designs.
18 of 18 people found the following review helpful
By butterbean
Format:Paperback
If you only get one book on interaction design, this is the one.
I picked up the second edition when I was just starting out as an interaction designer; it was a great primer and filled in a lot of the missing pieces for me. Now that I've been at it a while, it's still the book I go to whenever I have a question. I found the book reads well cover to cover, and also serves well as a handbook. The info you need on a topic is usually well contained in a section.
Not only does this book cover the general principles and theory behind interaction design, but also provides lots of real-world practical information. The writers call on designers not simply to follow rigid interaction design rules, but to create elegant, informative and respectful interfaces. That's a loftier goal, and this book give you the tools to attain it. The updated edition also spans new technologies and paradigms that have emerged, and covers them thoroughly.
Cooper has an unrivaled depth of experience to draw on, creating a truly comprehensive book.
I picked up the second edition when I was just starting out as an interaction designer; it was a great primer and filled in a lot of the missing pieces for me. Now that I've been at it a while, it's still the book I go to whenever I have a question. I found the book reads well cover to cover, and also serves well as a handbook. The info you need on a topic is usually well contained in a section.
Not only does this book cover the general principles and theory behind interaction design, but also provides lots of real-world practical information. The writers call on designers not simply to follow rigid interaction design rules, but to create elegant, informative and respectful interfaces. That's a loftier goal, and this book give you the tools to attain it. The updated edition also spans new technologies and paradigms that have emerged, and covers them thoroughly.
Cooper has an unrivaled depth of experience to draw on, creating a truly comprehensive book.
102 of 127 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
This book, as with Alan's earlier editions, is quite good, certainly 5 stars. Not only a good read, but thought provoking. There is very little repetition of ealier material or examples.
However the quality of the paper is just a step above newsprint, the illustrations are all in B&W and the cover lamination peeling off after only 3 chapters read. Published by Wiley.
Compare this with Martin Evening's "Photoshop CS2 for Photographers" at the same price. Martin's book is in full color, coated papers and fine binding. Published by Focal Press.
Really makes you feel like you are getting ripped off by the publisher.
Alan... get a better publisher!
However the quality of the paper is just a step above newsprint, the illustrations are all in B&W and the cover lamination peeling off after only 3 chapters read. Published by Wiley.
Compare this with Martin Evening's "Photoshop CS2 for Photographers" at the same price. Martin's book is in full color, coated papers and fine binding. Published by Focal Press.
Really makes you feel like you are getting ripped off by the publisher.
Alan... get a better publisher!
Most Recent Customer Reviews
4.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent book on Interaction Design
About Face is really foundational; but in it's breadth it can also become monotonous. I've been reading 2~3 chapters a week and I haven't finished in 9 weeks.
Published 2 months ago by Zachary Spencer
4.0 out of 5 stars
Helpful for starting UX career
This is a great book to get when starting your UX career and especially if you're going to get into user testing.
Published 3 months ago by C. Brillhart
1.0 out of 5 stars
About Face 3
This book is way too preachy. There is great information, but I just got tired of being hammered with well grounded, but overbearing opinion.
Published 4 months ago by Wayne E. Dick
1.0 out of 5 stars
Get to the point already
This book is terrible at best. It's another example of a scholar trying to impress another scholar with verbose language, rather than concise factual explanations. Read more
Published 4 months ago by jpvisual
5.0 out of 5 stars
An Essential Framework for Interaction Design
I strongly recommend this book as a way to establish a coherent framework for interaction design and for approaching design generally in an organization. Read more
Published 7 months ago by Alexei
4.0 out of 5 stars
If you're an interface dummy like me, this is a good read.
I'm a full-time software engineer/consultant who couldn't interface design his way out of the proverbial wet paper bag.
This book didn't really change that. Read more
This book didn't really change that. Read more
Published 8 months ago by Chris R.
5.0 out of 5 stars
great even for programmers with no design experience
I really learned a lot from this book. I can't think of any reason to give it less than 5 stars.
It's a great overview of a field I'm not particularly familiar with, so... Read more
It's a great overview of a field I'm not particularly familiar with, so... Read more
Published 14 months ago by Chad Mills
5.0 out of 5 stars
Buy it already!
I am a UX specialist and have read most of the titles in the subject. This one is far superior by being most comprehensive yet well organized and able to teach you actually how to... Read more
Published on May 15, 2011 by bulut sakcak
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great book
This book is an exceptional read, the A-Z of interaction design's methodology, process and discussion. Read more
Published on March 30, 2011 by Louisa Nicholson
4.0 out of 5 stars
good but not complete
For me it is not complete.. I do have to grab other books to get the whole picture.
Published on July 10, 2010 by Q. G. H. Berk
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