Designing for the Digital Age: How to Create Human-Centered Products and Services [Paperback]

Kim Goodwin (Author), Alan Cooper (Foreword)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0470229101 | ISBN-13: 978-0470229101 | Publication Date: March 3, 2009 | Edition: 1

Whether you’re designing consumer electronics, medical devices, enterprise Web apps, or new ways to check out at the supermarket, today’s digitally-enabled products and services provide both great opportunities to deliver compelling user experiences and great risks of driving your customers crazy with complicated, confusing technology.

Designing successful products and services in the digital age requires a multi-disciplinary team with expertise in interaction design, visual design, industrial design, and other disciplines. It also takes the ability to come up with the big ideas that make a desirable product or service, as well as the skill and perseverance to execute on the thousand small ideas that get your design into the hands of users. It requires expertise in project management, user research, and consensus-building. This comprehensive, full-color volume addresses all of these and more with detailed how-to information, real-life examples, and exercises. Topics include assembling a design team, planning and conducting user research, analyzing your data and turning it into personas, using scenarios to drive requirements definition and design, collaborating in design meetings, evaluating and iterating your design, and documenting finished design in a way that works for engineers and stakeholders alike.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Kim’s book is nothing less than a complete handbook for an entire profession. Kim’s unique background in the practice, pedagogy, and epistemology of the design business has given her the experience needed to write the ultimate ‘how-to’ book. Every step in this fascinating and multi-faceted discipline is described in detail in simple, readable prose, richly illustrated with examples taken from real products, real clients, and real design problems. This book is comprehensive in its scope, exhaustive in its depth, authoritative in its practice, and priceless in its wisdom. I’ve no doubt that this will become the most dog-eared, annotated and worn-from-many-readings volume in your library." —Alan Cooper, bestselling author of The Inmates Are Running the Asylum and About Face 3: The Essentials of Interaction Design

"Kim is one of the brightest minds in the world of user experience design. Her work on Goal-Directed Design and persona development has set a standard." —Jared Spool, Founding Principal, User Interface Engineering

From the Back Cover

Whether you're designing consumer electronics, medical devices, enterprise Web apps, or new ways to check out at the supermarket, today's digitally-enabled products and services provide both great opportunities to deliver compelling user experiences and great risks of driving your customers crazy with complicated, confusing technology.

Designing successful products and services in the digital age requires a team with expertise in interaction design, visual design, industrial design, and other disciplines. It also takes the ability to come up with the big ideas that make a desirable product or service, as well as the skill and perseverance to execute on the thousand small ideas that get your design into the hands of users. It requires expertise in project management, user research, and consensus-building. This comprehensive volume addresses all of these and more.

Kim's book is nothing less than a complete handbook for an entire profession. Kim's unique background in the practice, pedagogy, and epistemology of the design business has given her the experience needed to write the ultimate 'how-to' book. Every step in this fascinating and multi-faceted discipline is described in detail in simple, readable prose, richly illustrated with examples taken from real products, real clients, and real design problems. This book is comprehensive in its scope, exhaustive in its depth, authoritative in its practice, and priceless in its wisdom. I've no doubt that this will become the most dog-eared, annotated and worn-from-many-readings volume in your library."

Alan Cooper

Bestselling author of The Inmates Are Running the Asylum and

About Face 3: The Essentials of Interaction Design

Kim is one of the brightest minds in the world of user experience design.

Her work on Goal-Directed Design and persona development has set

a standard."

Jared Spool

CEO & Founding Principal, User Interface Engineering

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 768 pages
• Publisher: Wiley; 1 edition (March 3, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0470229101
• ISBN-13: 978-0470229101
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 7.4 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #103,181 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #91 in Books > Computers & Technology > Graphic Design > Interface Design

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A "desert island" design book, and an excellent guide, September 6, 2009

By 

Carl Seglem (United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Designing for the Digital Age: How to Create Human-Centered Products and Services (Paperback)

Kim Goodwin has written a book that I've been hoping for for years.

It's the book I turn to when I want thorough yet approachable guidance or reminders for how to do design.

I told a colleague of mine: "Finally! The textbook and handbook for the practice of interaction design!" Much inspiring and useful work has come before, but I haven't found such a comprehensive and useful how-to book for practicing and aspiring interaction designers.

If I could only have three books on my shelf to refer to in my interaction design (or if I were on a desert island where I was going to be designing interactive systems with people), I'd have:
* Kim Goodwin's Designing for the Digital Age for process,
* Jennifer Tidwell's Designing Interfaces for patterns, and
* Alan Cooper et al's About Face (3) for principles.

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Goodwin explains it all...., February 18, 2009

By 

John McSwain "Compound J" (Atlanta, GA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Designing for the Digital Age: How to Create Human-Centered Products and Services (Paperback)

Designing for the Digital Age: How to Create Human-Centered Products and Services serves as an excellent guide and reference for new and experienced human centered design practitioners. Kim Goodwin (VP of Cooper) does a great job translating her goal-oriented design processes into clear and understandable terms. Human/user centered design books can easily be littered with heavy jargon or unintelligible references that make it difficult or impossible to understand or practice. Goodwin makes a conscious effort to explain and visualize many of the concepts introduced in each chapter and keeps the research lingo within reason. For example, in Chapter 12: Defining Requirements, Goodwin dispels what requirements aren't (i.e. features or specifications) and promptly outlines what is needed to generate effective requirements (i.e. data needs, functional needs, product / service qualities, constraints). In addition, Goodwin's writing style guarantees a cognitive learning experience with most readers by providing multiple exercises and scenarios that engage and evoke a desire for comprehension. The photography, diagrams, and charting are plentiful and supplement the subject matter effectively also.

I believe that this book is easily a pylon supporting the ever-swelling weight of UCD with its hoard of overlapping design disciplines. I recommend it to anyone interested in design or the design process...

Table of Contents:

Getting Started
Chapter 1: Goal-Directed Product and Service Design
Chapter 2: Assembling the Team
Chapter 3: Project Planning
Research
Chapter 4: Research Fundamentals
Chapter 5: Understanding the Business
Chapter 6: Planning User Research
Chapter 7: Understanding Potential Users and Customers
Chapter 8: Example Interview
Chapter 9: Other Sources of Information and Inspiration
Modeling
Chapter 10: Making Sense of Your Data: Modeling
Chapter 11: Personas
Requirements
Chapter 12: Defining Requirements
Chapter 13: Putting It All Together: The User and Domain Analysis
Framework
Chapter 14: Framework Definition: Visualizing Solutions
Chapter 15: Principles and Patterns for Framework Design
Chapter 16: Designing the Form Factor and Interaction Framework
Chapter 17: Principles and Patterns in Design Language
Chapter 18: Developing the Design Language
Chapter 19: Communicating the Framework and Design Language
Detailed Design
Chapter 20: Detailed Design: Making Your Ideas Real
Chapter 21: Detailed Design Principles and Patterns
Chapter 22: Detailed Design Process and Practices
Chapter 23: Evaluating Your Design
Chapter 24: Communicating Detailed Design
Ensuring Success
Chapter 25: Supporting Implementation and Launch
Chapter 26: Improving Design Capabilities in Individuals and Organizations

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Finally, a comprehensive book on the UX process, August 27, 2009

By 

Ryan L. Winzenburg "UX Designer" (Denver, CO United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Designing for the Digital Age: How to Create Human-Centered Products and Services (Paperback)

I have been looking for a book like this for over 10 years. Designing for the Digital Age puts forth a comprehensive framework for ux design and development. I have a large library of ux books that go into great detail on the the various phases of the UX process, they are all great, but it is up to the reader to blend a process from all of these disparate subjects. Kim's book is a logical step-by-step guide to creating meaningful solutions for clients and users. What i like most about this book is that it creates a foundation for the profession. Not that it is definitive, but it creates a starting point for ux professions to move forward from.