Book Review - The Elements of User Experience

The web industry's best known method of designing websites keeping the user needs in mind every step of the way, in an easy to understand systematic process.

This book is about website user experience and how to apply it's principles to any website or webapp. User Experience is the overall satisfaction of the user when they are using the web. The book beaks experience development down into five levels. It also separately talks about 2 types of websites, software interface and hypertext system (or information delivery site). This review primarily focuses on the hypertext system side. The book covers the whole spectrum of a very deep process. It's written for a quick read to get anyone up to speed over a weekend. I would consider this a "must read" for anyone in the web design or web development industry.

Listed below are the 5 levels and a quick summary of the elements and tasks they contain. Each layer can get very deep and can have a whole science behind it. The Elements of User Experience gives an overview of each experience layer. There are many books that individually focus on topics mentioned here.

Strategy

Site Objectives – Define what stake holders want out of the site and their business goals.

• Brand Identity
• Call to actions
• Success Metric (effectiveness measurement)
  

User Needs – Define what your users are looking for or reasons they are at your site.

• Establish user needs with a questionnaire
• Practice User Segmentation by creating user types (key characters) and imagine what their user experience will be on your new site.
• Focus Groups, Usability Testing, Contextual Inquiry

Scope (Functional Specifications and Content Requirements)

• List of how to satisfy all Site Objectives and User Needs
• Address potential rough spots while the project is still hypothetical
• Understand what content we currently have and if we can organize it better
• Create a Content Requirement list of additional content to be created
• Define Software Interface Functional Specifications

Structure (Information Architecture)

• Explain how the content requirements fit together to form a cohesive whole
• Define navigational paths on how users get to particular information
• Create a structured experience with interaction design techniques
• Apply Information Architecture techniques by organizing, groping ordering and layout presentation of content
• Create sitemap

Skeleton (Navigation Design & Information Design)

• Design wire frames
• List navigation elements to bring the user through the information
• Navigation elements could include: Global Nav, Sub-Nav, Sequence Maps, Contextual Links, Curtsey Nav.
• Establish Information Design Format (how to present our information for best comprehension for all types of viewers)
• Information Design Formats could include: Charts, Graphs, Tables, Instructional Graphics
• Establish relationships between information elements with supporting links

Surface (Visual Design)

• Design User Interface
• Producing all Graphic elements
• Address Information Architecture with Typography, Color, Contrast, Copy Formatting
• Create Instructional Graphics