Book Description
How do we ensure that our Web sites actually give users what they need? What are the best ways to understand our users' goals, behaviors, and attitudes, and then turn that understanding into business results? Personas bring user research to life and make it actionable, ensuring we're making the right decisions based on the right information. This practical guide explains how to create and use personas to make your site more successful. The User Is Always Right: A Practical Guide to Creating and Using Personas takes you through each step of persona creation, including tips for conducting qualitative user research, new ways to apply quantitative research (such as surveys) to persona creation, various methods for generating persona segmentation, and proven techniques for making personas realistic. You'll also learn how to use personas effectively, from directing overall business strategy and prioritizing features and content to making detailed decisions about information architecture, content, and design.
Customer Reviews:
Fantastic, well-written book on user research and persona creation for interaction designers.......2007-09-22
This comprehensive guide approaches user experience research like never before, and is well-written, easy-to-read, and quite user friendly. It provides real-world examples of how user research is done in just enough detail that it can both inform an executive of the role of usability research as well as introduce methodology for persona creation to someone starting out in user experience design.
"You are not the user."
As an interaction designer and information architect for the past 12 years, I have been most drawn towards books that go far beyond principles and theory to ones I can actually extract from and use their contents for the praxis of the craft, rather than just reading descriptions of a process. This is a great book that is a blueprint to follow to get it right. It defines the entire user research and persona creation process and offers insightful case studies from successful companies that Mulder and Yaar worked with like Vista Print.
The use of personas has become an increasingly popular technique being used by the interaction design community to address user needs. Introduced into the mainstream in 1999 in The Inmates Are Running The Asylum, personas have gained momentum in both the software and website design communities, but still faces hurdles.
What are the benefits of personas?
A key aspect to any practitioner responsible for bringing real user centered design to an organization's product design process, being able to evangelize the importance of user research and persona creation is absolutely key. Many interaction designers understand the importance of persona creation, but lack the arguments to persuade management to both fund user research and persona creation, and to incorporate real users into the design process. This is where the book is particular important - selling proper user research and persona creation to upper management constrained by resources and deadlines.
According to Mulder and Yaar, personas bring many benefits, including these:
* Users' goals, behaviors and attitudes become a common point of focus for the team. (They keep repeating this mantra until I found myself chanting it in the shower)
* The team can concentrate on designing for a manageable set of personas knowing that they represent the needs of many users.
* By always asking, "Would Will use this?" the team can avoid the trap of building what users ask for rather than what they will actually use, or the problem which is far more pernicious - building features that a product champion thinks are important.
* Design efforts can be prioritized based on the personas.
* Disagreements over design decisions can be sorted out by referring back to the personas.
* Designs can be constantly evaluated against the personas, getting better designs into usability testing.
What is a persona anyway??
A persona is a fictional person that the team creates to reflect what is know about one of the key audience groups (sometimes that knowledge is gained from interviews, focus groups, or surveys). Typically, a team creates two or more personas to represent different user segments, while identifying a few key archetypes as the primary personas.
Helpful persona profiles include demographic information, levels of computer expertise, descriptions of the personas' needs for the particular site in development, and the goals and tasks they would have in mind when using the site.
The User Is Always Right takes you through each step of persona creation, including tips for conducting qualitative user research, new ways to apply quantitative research (such as surveys) to persona creation, various methods for generating persona segmentation, and proven techniques for making personas realistic. You'll also learn how to use personas effectively, from directing overall business strategy and prioritizing features and content to making detailed decisions about information architecture, content, and design.
What characteristics are included in a persona?
Some of the information Mulder and Yaar say a persona usually includes:
* a name and picture
* demographics (age, education, ethnicity, family status)
* job title and major responsibilities
* goals and tasks in relation to your product/web site/application
* environment (physical, social, technological)
* a quote that sums up what matters most to the persona with relevance for your site
* A narrative that brings the persona to life
The User Is Always Right is an entertaining and clearly written book that is also filled with great insight into the process, both qualitative, and quantitative, of creating user personas based on real research and how that can help interaction designers, product designers, and other user experience professionals make more usable and useful software. There are also extensive samples and examples throughout the book of real personas, actual user research data, and analysis spreadsheets. These give a very clear idea of how the recommended approaches work in practice.
For the first time (as far as I'm aware), this brings together two very different approaches: qualitative research based on interviews and observation; and quantitative research based on surveys and usage data. The authors' overall methodology provides real answers on when to use field research, when to conduct surveys, and how to combine the two sets of results. The end product are personas that have much greater rigueur and impact.
In summary, this is a must-have book for people tackling the design of complex sites, applications or devices, or for user-centered designers seeking more rigorous methodologies when creating personas. I cannot recommend this book too highly.
Showing the business impact of personas in the IA process.......2007-07-02
When companies want to skimp in a development process, whether that be for a web application, a desktop application, a content management implementation, a usability project, or a documentation set, the first thing they'll cut (if they even thought of it at all) is doing persona development. They'll say it's not important, or that it will get captured in the scenarios (if they do those), or in the use cases - and that's if they do the types of use cases that capture user experience, not the type that simply talk about database interactions. In their book, The User Is Always Right: A Practical Guide to Creating and Using Personas for the Web, Steve Mulder and Ziv Yaar dispel all those naive notions and show how personas set a sound foundation on which to build. Skipping this step means building on what is likely an unstable foundation - and from the world of bricks and mortar, we know the steep costs associated with shoring up buildings with badly-constructed underpinnings. A great book with concrete suggestions for practitioners.
Steve Mulder is right!.......2006-12-12
I recently finished Steve Mulder's book and today, I had the privilege of seeing him speak at Web Design World 2006 in Boston. His approach to capturing the essence of users and taking this knowledge all the way through design and marketing, into strategic business decisions not only makes good sense: one wonders how much of a web-based operation is pure luck without taking this framework into consideration.
Mulder presents various options depending on the level of time and investment you can afford to make, ranging from strictly qualitative approaches that take relatively little to gather user data and come up with some form of segmentation, to all-out statistically-loaded qualitative studies with the end goal of defining a user as clearly as possible, giving him/her a name, traits, goals and a whole personality that your organization can relate to.
After personas have been defined, the book helps you use them to drive decision making about site structure, content and design, so as to ensure success getting the users they represent to accomplish their goals, while you make your company money. This makes this book a must-read for all people involved in the early stages of conceptualizing for a web site design or redesign, whether you are a designer, product manager or simply in charge of changes to a web site.
What would "Bob" do?.......2006-10-05
When creating a web site, it's very easy to fall into the trap of designing it for yourself. Unfortunately, you're not the typical user in most cases, nor are you the intended audience. You can avoid this problem with the use of "personas". The subject is covered very well in this book.
User-driven design means that you focus on what the user needs in a system instead of designing features because they're "cool". Personas are imaginary users of your system that you keep in mind while designing how the application will work. But it's much more than just picking a name like Bob and then coding away...
This book goes into the process of interviewing the user base of your proposed application, determining the needs and abilities of that base. A system that is to be used by computer-savvy accountants will not have the same look and feel as a system that is intended for your grandmother. By conducting these interviews and consolidating the results, the designer can get a good idea as to what a typical user will look like. That information is then used to create a number of personas, or fictitious people who will be the target audience. These personas come complete with names, pictures, and a background. Then instead of building features based on how you feel about them, you look at the feature through the eyes of "Bob", based on his attitudes, experience, and personality. It's like having a user available to you 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
The User Is Always Right takes you through the steps necessary to understand the audience for your system, as well as how to make that audience "real" in terms of individual people. The authors do a nice job in making the process clear and understandable, and by the end you can start building your imaginary friends with confidence. The process outlined here is one that you wouldn't necessarily use for every project, as you could spend days gathering and distilling the data you collect. But the concepts they present, once understood, will allow you to build your "Bob"s even with small systems. Then armed with that knowledge, you can anticipate answers to the question "what would Bob do?"
So... If you are tired of designing really cool systems (to you) that don't ever seem to get used, it may be because you missed the real users. Give the persona technique a try, and I think you'll be pleasantly surprised at how it affects your development.
Besides, how else could you actually be commended for inviting and talking to imaginary friends?
Book Description
Rules for successful trading, direct from the traders who practice them every day
Even with today's high-speed computers, online accounts, and information access, traders still live or die based on their abilities to control fear, greed, and emotion. The Market Is Always Right gives traders battle-proven advice for avoiding common trading setbacks by understanding human natureboth their own and others'and directing it toward profitable outcomes.
Distilling the wisdom of hundreds of traders, this proactive book starts with 10 overriding rulesfor example, "Evaluate your performance"and then lists the subrules within each, such as "Qualify and quantify your trading pattern." Other examples include:
- Never chase trades
- Watch the opendon't trade it
- When in doubt, get out
Download Description
Even with today's high-speed computers, online accounts, and information access, traders still live or die based on their abilities to control fear, greed, and emotion. The Market Is Always Right gives traders battle-proven advice for avoiding common trading setbacks by understanding human natureboth their own and others'and directing it toward profitable outcomes.
Customer Reviews:
A well written book. Interesting. Definitely a pager turner.......2004-01-01
This is a 100% trading psychology book. No FA, no TA, but ten chapters or the author's so called principles on trading psychology, which are
1. The market is always right.
2. It's all in your head.
3. You cant prepare enough.
4. Supply and demand rule the markets
5. Commit your thoughts to paper
6. Developing and perfecting your trading shtick
7. Enhancing your shtick
8. Discipline
9. Staying the course
10. On becoming the ideal trader
Though the above can be commonly found in most trading books, the author had done it relatively well by drawing many uncommon analogies, stories, idiomatic phrases that put life into the book. In particular I like his description of successful traders as captains in the oceans, mice in the laboratories and actuaries in insurance companies.
In short, if you wanna read a good trading psychology book, this is it. If you want TA or FA knowledge, look somewhere else.
p.s. The seven cardinal sins of trading in the last chaper is a favorite of mine. They are:-
1. Pride, which challenges the first rule of trading: The market is always right.
2. Greed, holding onto trades hoping for more and more profits while all TA signals are telling you the party is over.
3. Envy, drains positive energy from their psyche, leaving them mean spirited and weak.
4. Anger, that when Greek gods decided to destroy a human, they got him angry and let him destroy himself.
5. Lust, equates to ignoring key defensive rules or self control. The unbridled gambler is the epitome of lust, doubling up after every loss.
6. Gluttony, a lack of focus. Trading becomes obsession They eat and sleep trading.
7. Sloth, that a lazy successful trader is an oxymoron. He or she just doesnt exist.
Exceptional advice from a seasoned veteran.......2003-08-12
I have read other books by Mr. McCafferty and have found this one to be the most valuable, not to mention entertaining. It seems as though most of the newer books out there are just a rehashing of commonly known techniques and offer little valuable insight into how the market actually operates, that is not the case with this fine book. Mr McCafferty seems to understand the way the markets operate and the players in the trading community. He mentions several successful traders and their methods and explains them very well, probably better than those traders could themselves, which is a true testament to his ability as a writer. I learned specific strategies that have changed the way I trade and have been surprised by how well the simple things Tom mentions (and many of us overlook) have worked for me. I can say that I am a more profitable trader because of what I read in this book and for the [$$] it cost me, that is an unbelievable deal. Thank you for unselfishly sharing your trading experiences with us Tom, my life has been enriched because or your words.
Average customer rating:
- Required daily reading for anyone with customers
|
The Customer Is Always Right!: Thought Provoking Insights on the Importance of Customer Satisfaction from Today's Business Leaders
Manufacturer: Harvard Business School Pr
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
 General
| Business & Investing
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Customer Service
| Industries & Professions
| Business & Investing
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Total Quality Management
| Management & Leadership
| Business & Investing
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Techniques
| Sales & Selling
| Marketing & Sales
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Look Inside Business Books
| Trip
| Specialty Stores
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ASIN: 0070342091 |
Book Description
Line employees are often given mandates to satisfy the customer, but are rarely told why customer service is important. A collection of more than 150 quotes from leaders in business industry and government, this book will inspire professionals at all levels of business to focus on customer needs. These enlightening and inspiring takes on the importance of the customer reflect the perspective of individuals who have staked their professional reputations on putting the customer first, including: Bob Allen, Chairman and CEO of AT&T; H. Wayne Huizenga, Chairman and CEO of Blockbuster Entertainment; Bernard Marcus, Chairman and CEO of the Home Depot; Michael R. Quinlan, Chairman and CEO of McDonald's Corporation; Leonard Riggio, Chairman and CEO of Barnes & Nobles; Charles Schwab, Chairman and CEO of Charles Schwab & Co.
Customer Reviews:
Required daily reading for anyone with customers.......1996-05-14
Kabodian's book is a concise, handy summary of the
principles of customer satisfaction from those who should
know: successful business people. Anyone with customers
should read a page of this book before meeting the first
customer of the day. Essential inspiration for anyone
who has customers.
Book Description
’GIVE ME PATIENCE, GOD - BUT HURRY!’ When we’re waiting on God to answer prayer, our timing and His timing are rarely the same. Sometimes it seems like God is in a different time zone altogether. We sometimes feel like we picked one of those numbers in the bureau of motor vehicle line and there are 78 others ahead in line. But we need God to wait on us--right away. This book is about trusting God even when it seems He is running late. It’s about God’s perfect control over the times and events of our lives--and about His perfect power to order those events in a loving and meaningful way. Despite our anxiousness, impatience, and worry, God is faithful to work in our lives at just the right time. He’ll never be late. God’s Never Late is the third book in a popular trilogy including: God Has Never Failed Me. . . But He’s Sure Scared Me to Death a Few Times The Buzzards are Circling, But God’s Not Finished with Me Yet
Average customer rating:
|
My timing is always right (Trusting intuition)
Helene Lerner-Robbins
Manufacturer: HarperCollins
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
Religion & Spirituality
| Subjects
| Books
| Authors, A-Z
| Bible & Other Sacred Texts
| Books on CD
| Books on Cassette
| Buddhism
| Christianity
| Earth-Based Religions
| Fiction
| General
| Hinduism
| Islam
| Judaism
| Large Print
| New Age
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| Other Eastern Religions
| Other Practices
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| Self-Help
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General
| Psychology & Counseling
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ASIN: 0062553038 |
Book Description
There once was an organization where the prevailing attitude was "I am right and you are wrong." Everywhere, groups were at odds: women versus men, management versus employees, line versus staff departments. In this land of "us versus them," discussion was sparse and compromise was unthinkable. After all, each group was right, of course, and they knew it!
In this delightful parable (in the spirit of A Peacock in the Land of Penguins and Pigeonholed in the Land of Penguins), Hateley, Schmidt, and Weiss collaborate again to create witty narration and wry illustrations that make a critical point. When conflict paralyzes the company, a gentle sound rises above the din. "Uhhmm," this voice says, "maybe I was mistaken." To which another voice responds, "Perhaps you were right." The ensuing dialogue leads to mutually beneficial solutions.
This inspiring tale about defeating divisiveness in the workplace demonstrates how conflict can be a positive force for change when managed correctly. Readers find tips and models to help apply what they've learned to real-life situations.
Customer Reviews:
More power to you.......2001-06-08
The short time it took to read this book remind me of being consciously aware of the power in not always being right.
Having experienced the stress attached to being right for most of my life and then, over the past few years, finally letting go of being so right by listening and allowing the opinions,knowledge and experience of others enhance my way of being over the past few years, reading this book made it so simple.
Everyone should be give this a manual for living when they become a teenager and then re-read it every few years as a reminder.
This writing team continues to deliver books that are not only a breeze to read, but cut away the superfluous detail and get right to the essence.
Average customer rating:
- Now I know, love is the answer
|
Love is Always Right
Norm Geisler , and
Josh McDowell
Manufacturer: Thomas Nelson
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
Ethics & Morality
| Philosophy
| Nonfiction
| Subjects
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Faith
| Christian Living
| Christianity
| Religion & Spirituality
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General
| Christian Living
| Christianity
| Religion & Spirituality
| Subjects
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Ethics
| Theology
| Christianity
| Religion & Spirituality
| Subjects
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General
| Religion & Spirituality
| Subjects
| Books
McDowell, Josh
| ( M )
| Authors, A-Z
| Religion & Spirituality
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Health, Mind & Body
| Subjects
| Books
Similar Items:
-
Tuesdays with Morrie: An Old Man, a Young Man, and Life's Greatest Lesson
ASIN: 0849939658 |
Book Description
Through real-life scenarios and practical illustrations, the authors address complex ethical dilemmas to everyday moral decisions. Learn to make moral choices based on God's love and His absolute truth.
Customer Reviews:
Now I know, love is the answer.......2000-03-15
This is an awesome book. The authors begin with a few chapters building the scriptural basis for the importance of love. Then they logically build a case that when there is no direct guidance from the scriptures, the loving alternative is the best alternative. The remainder contains a number of specific examples of how to make the right decision in today's ethical delimas, using the biblical principle of love as a basis for the decision. It is a must for all Christians.
Average customer rating:
|
Is it always right to be right?
Warren H Schmidt
Manufacturer: Wadsworth Pub. Co
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding
United States
| World Literature
| Literature & Fiction
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| 18th Century
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| General
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| History & Criticism
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| Jewish American
| Letters & Correspondence
| Native American
| Poetry
| Short Stories
| Women Writers
ASIN: 0534000533 |
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Designing Interactions
