Universal Methods of Design
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About the Author
Bruce Hanington is an associate professor, director of graduate studies, and former program chair of industrial design in the School of Design at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He has dedicated his teaching and research to methods and practices for human centered design, with an emphasis on design ethnography, participatory design, and the meaning of form in context. He has consulted on design projects with GE Appliance and Johnson and Johnson, and his work has been published in Design Issues, The Design Journal, and Interactions, with chapters in Designing Inclusive Futures and Design and Emotion: The Experience of Everyday Things. Bella Martin is a design practitioner and independent consultant in Atlanta, Georgia, where she brings her expertise for design research methods to companies who are new to user-centered design but eager to give their users a voice in the design process. She holds a Master of Design in Communication Planning and Information Design from Carnegie Mellon University, where she first began her ongoing work in visualizing user-centered research methods.
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4.4 out of 5 stars
13 reviews
13 of 13 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Indispensable
14 Oct 2012
By Arjun Dhillon
- Published on Amazon.com
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
As a user experience designer with 10 years of experience and clients like National Geographic, Stephen Hawking, Best Buy, Bon Iver, and Harvard University, I have experience with nearly every method described in this book. Yet when I pack up to go to work or consulting gigs or client meetings or lectures or workshops, this is the first book that goes into my bag before I leave home. When I'm not carrying it with me it is usually still close at hand. There are many more inspiring, industry-changing texts on the market, but Universal Methods of Design is simply the most valuable book in my day-to-day practice.
I thought of saying that this book is to user-centered designers what Strunk's Elements of Style is to writers, but the analogy isn't quite right. Writers generally know the best practices for semicolon usage and unordered list formatting. In contrast, most people that claim the title "user experience designer" still spend the majority of their time wireframing or designing in Photoshop. It's really not your fault, it is ours; the UX community has done very little to help educate entering UX professionals, so you have likely never been exposed to most of the methods detailed in this text. You don't know how powerful a simple technique like Affinity Mapping can be, or how the investment in LEGO's Serious Play products can yield a hundred-fold return, or how an absurd hour spent writing love letters and hate letters to yourself can significantly improve a product. But for the aspiring UX designer, this book is an essential introduction to the methods used in professional experience design projects.
For those of us that have experience with these design methods: we all have dealt with those challenging projects, difficult stakeholders, or unique product requirements that seem to exhaust our standard design toolbox. Those situations where our usual methods for scoping, defining, researching, modeling, prototyping, producing, and testing seem inadequate. In these situations, there is no better reference than what Hanington and Martin have put together in this book. Buy it, and if you are underwhelmed then I'll buy you a drink and let you hassle me about it when I see you at the next conference.
I thought of saying that this book is to user-centered designers what Strunk's Elements of Style is to writers, but the analogy isn't quite right. Writers generally know the best practices for semicolon usage and unordered list formatting. In contrast, most people that claim the title "user experience designer" still spend the majority of their time wireframing or designing in Photoshop. It's really not your fault, it is ours; the UX community has done very little to help educate entering UX professionals, so you have likely never been exposed to most of the methods detailed in this text. You don't know how powerful a simple technique like Affinity Mapping can be, or how the investment in LEGO's Serious Play products can yield a hundred-fold return, or how an absurd hour spent writing love letters and hate letters to yourself can significantly improve a product. But for the aspiring UX designer, this book is an essential introduction to the methods used in professional experience design projects.
For those of us that have experience with these design methods: we all have dealt with those challenging projects, difficult stakeholders, or unique product requirements that seem to exhaust our standard design toolbox. Those situations where our usual methods for scoping, defining, researching, modeling, prototyping, producing, and testing seem inadequate. In these situations, there is no better reference than what Hanington and Martin have put together in this book. Buy it, and if you are underwhelmed then I'll buy you a drink and let you hassle me about it when I see you at the next conference.
7 of 8 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Current, Comprehensive Survey of Best Practices in Design Research Methodology
23 April 2012
By Robert Chave
- Published on Amazon.com
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
This is a reference book and a survey book, of one hundred current methods in design research methodology, for the fitting of a product, service or system to a user, client or customer population. The survey and the text are the product of the superb learning and research environment for these methods at Carnegie Mellon University.
Methods are listed in alphabetic order. Each is given a two page treatment; one page of text and another of figures and diagram. URLs, standard reference sources are conveniently listed on the same page, and not in an index at the back of the text. The treatment of these diverse methods in identical format makes a cross comparison of methods simple and fast. Further, an indication is given (an index of 1 through 5) of whether the method is useful at the early or the late phases of the research process so that methods can be compared within phase-catagories.
The format and page layout in the hard-copy version are such that moving between methods, and cross comparing methods will be easier in the paper format than in the electronic. At the bargain price of 24 USD this is both an affordable and very complete aid to current best practices in design survey methodology.
Methods are listed in alphabetic order. Each is given a two page treatment; one page of text and another of figures and diagram. URLs, standard reference sources are conveniently listed on the same page, and not in an index at the back of the text. The treatment of these diverse methods in identical format makes a cross comparison of methods simple and fast. Further, an indication is given (an index of 1 through 5) of whether the method is useful at the early or the late phases of the research process so that methods can be compared within phase-catagories.
The format and page layout in the hard-copy version are such that moving between methods, and cross comparing methods will be easier in the paper format than in the electronic. At the bargain price of 24 USD this is both an affordable and very complete aid to current best practices in design survey methodology.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
Awesome overview of research methods
24 April 2012
By Nathanael Boehm
- Published on Amazon.com
Format:Hardcover
I loved Universal Principles of Design so I was confident this book would be good too, and it certainly delivered on it. It's great for a reference and prompt but I even learned some new techniques as well. Beautifully designed and illustrated. Recommended for designers, design researchers and anyone working in business or public sector who cares about people.
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4.4 out of 5 stars
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