The Joy of Ux: User Experience and Interactive Design for Developers

“For years now, I’ve been running around preaching to anyone who’ll listen that UX is something that everybody (not just UX people) needs to be doing. Dave has done an excellent job of explaining what developers need to know about UX, in a complete but compact, easy-to-absorb, and implementable form. Developers, come and get it!”

―Steve Krug, author of Don’t Make Me Think! A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability

Master User Experience and Interaction Design from the Developer’s Perspective

For modern developers, UX expertise is indispensable: Without outstanding user experience, your software will fail. Now, David Platt has written the first and only comprehensive developer’s guide to achieving a world-class user experience.

Quality user experience isn’t hard, but it does require developers to think in new ways. The Joy of UX shows you how, with plenty of concrete examples. Firmly grounded in reality, this guide will help you optimize usability and engagement while also coping with difficult technical, schedule, and budget constraints.

Platt’s technology-agnostic approach illuminates all the principles, techniques, and best practices you need to build great user experiences for the web, mobile devices, and desktop environments. He covers the entire process, from user personas and stories through wireframes, layouts, and execution. He also addresses key issues―such as telemetry and security―that many other UX guides ignore. You’ll find all the resources and artifacts you need: complete case studies, sample design documents, testing plans, and more.

This guide shows you how to

• Recognize and avoid pitfalls that lead to poor user experiences
• Learn the crucial difference between design and mere decoration
• Put yourself in your users’ shoes―understand what they want (and where, when, and why)
• Quickly sketch and prototype user interfaces for easy refinement
• Test your sketches on real users or appropriate surrogates
• Integrate telemetry to capture the best possible usage information
• Use analytics to accurately interpret the data you’ve captured
• Solve unique experience problems presented by mobile environments
• Secure your app without compromising usability any more than necessary
• “Polish” your UX to eliminate user effort everywhere you can

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David S. Platt teaches .NET programming at Harvard University Extension School and at companies all over the world. He’s the author of 11 programming books, including Why Software Sucks (Addison-Wesley, 2006) and Introducing Microsoft .NET (Microsoft Press, 2002). Microsoft named him a Software Legend in 2002.