Jony Ive: The Genius Behind Apple's Greatest Products


Leander Kahney - 2013
    Doing something that’s genuinely better is very hard.” —Jony IveIn 1997, Steve Jobs returned to Apple as CEO with the unenviable task of turning around the company he had founded. One night, Jobs discovered a scruffy British designer toiling away at Apple’s corporate headquarters, surrounded by hundreds of sketches and prototypes. It was then that Jobs realized he had found a talent who could reverse the company’s long decline.That young designer was Jony Ive. Jony Ive’s collaboration with Jobs would produce some of the world’s most iconic technology products, including the iMac, iPod, iPad, and iPhone. The designs have not only made Apple a hugely valuable company, they’ve overturned entire industries, built a loyal fan base, and created a globally powerful brand. Along the way, Jony Ive has become the world’s leading technology innovator, won countless design awards, earned a place on the 2013 Time 100 list, and was even knighted for his “services to design and enterprise.”Yet despite his triumphs, little is known about the shy and soft-spoken whiz whom Jobs referred to as his “spiritual partner” at Apple. Jony Ive reveals the true story of Apple’s real innovator-in-chief.Leander Kahney, the bestselling author of Inside Steve’s Brain, offers a detailed portrait of a creative genius. He shows us how Jony Ive went from an English art school student with dyslexia to the man whose immense insights have altered the pattern of our lives. From his early interest in industrial design, fostered by his designer father, through his education at Newcastle Polytechnic and meteoric rise at Apple, we discover the principles and practices that he developed to become the designer of his generation.Based on interviews with Jony Ive’s former colleagues and Kahney’s own familiarity with the world of Apple, this book gives insight into how Jony Ive (now senior vice president of design) has redefined the ways in which we work, entertain, and communicate with one another.

Innovating for People: Handbook of Human-Centered Design Methods


LUMA Institute - 2012
    This handbook equips people in various lines of work to become more innovative. It provides specific guidance for bringing new and lasting value into the world. The key ingredient to successful innovation is the everyday practice of Human-Centered Design: the discipline of developing solutions in the service of people. Every story of a good innovation—whether it's a new product, a new service, a new business model or a new form of governance—begins and ends with people. It starts with careful discernment of human needs, and concludes with solutions that meet or exceed personal expectations. This handbook is your essential resource for innovation. It's a compact reference book describing thirty-six methods of Human-Centered Design, organized by way of three key design skills: - Looking: Methods for observing human experience - Understanding: Methods for analyzing challenges and opportunities - Making: Methods for envisioning future possibilities Each featured method includes a brief description; a pictorial example; a listing of benefits; a sampling of method combinations; and a quick guide with helpful hints for initial application. The full collection of methods is small enough to digest quickly, yet large enough to address myriad challenges. This book does not prescribe a formulaic innovation process. Rather, it introduces a versatile set of methods for practicing Human-Centered Design as a daily discipline in order to be more innovative and drive sustainable growth. Learn more at: luma-institute.com

Outcomes Over Output: Why customer behavior is the key metric for business success


Josh Seiden - 2019
    But in today’s service- and software-driven world, “done” is less obvious. When is Amazon done? When is Google done? Or Facebook? In reality, services powered by digital systems are never done. So then how do we give teams a goal that they can work on?Mostly, we simply ask teams to build features—but features are the wrong way to go. We often build features that create no value. Instead, we need to give teams an outcome to achieve. Using outcomes creates focus and alignment. It eliminates needless work. And it puts the customer at the center of everything you do.Setting goals as outcomes sounds simple, but it can be hard to do in practice. This book is a practical guide to using outcomes to guide the work of your team. "Josh’s crisp volume brims with insight about how to fly at just the right level - the level of outcomes. If you’ve ever wondered how M your MVP should be, or how to get more R in your OKRs, this book will help." --Nick Rockwell, CTO, NY Times

Make Space: How to Set the Stage for Creative Collaboration


Scott Doorley - 2011
    Hackett, President and CEO, SteelcaseAn inspiring guidebook filled with ways to alter space to fuel creative work and foster collaboration.Based on the work at the Stanford University d.school and its Environments Collaborative Initiative, Make Space is a tool that shows how space can be intentionally manipulated to ignite creativity. Appropriate for designers charged with creating new spaces or anyone interested in revamping an existing space, this guide offers novel and non-obvious strategies for changing surroundings specifically to enhance the ways in which teams and individuals communicate, work, play--and innovate.Inside are: Tools--tips on how to build everything from furniture, to wall treatments, and rigging Situations--scenarios, and layouts for sparking creative activities Insights--bite-sized lessons designed to shortcut your learning curve Space Studies--candid stories with lessons on creating spaces for making, learning, imagining, and connecting Design Template--a framework for understanding, planning, and building collaborative environments Make Space is a new and dynamic resource for activating creativity, communication and innovation across institutions, corporations, teams, and schools alike. Filled with tips and instructions that can be approached from a wide variety of angles, Make Space is a ready resource for empowering anyone to take control of an environment.

Web Analytics 2.0: The Art of Online Accountability & Science of Customer Centricity [With CDROM]


Avinash Kaushik - 2009
    "Web Analytics 2.0" presents a new framework that will permanently change how you think about analytics. It provides specific recommendations for creating an actionable strategy, applying analytical techniques correctly, solving challenges such as measuring social media and multichannel campaigns, achieving optimal success by leveraging experimentation, and employing tactics for truly listening to your customers. The book will help your organization become more data driven while you become a super analysis ninja Note: CD-ROM/DVD and other supplementary materials are not included as part of eBook file.

Nicely Said: Writing for the Web with Style and Purpose


Nicole Fenton - 2014
    You’ll learn how to write web copy that addresses your readers’ needs and supports your business goals.Learn from real-world examples and interviews with people who put these ideas into action every day: Kristina Halvorson of Brain Traffic, Tiffani Jones Brown of Pinterest, Gabrielle Blair of Design Mom, Mandy Brown of Editorially, Randy J. Hunt of Etsy, Sarah Richards of GOV.UK, and more.Topics:* Write marketing copy, interface flows, blog posts, legal policies, and emails* Develop behind-the-scenes documents like mission statements, survey questions, and project briefs* Find your voice and adapt your tone for different situations* Build trust and foster relationships with readers* Make a simple style guide and collaborate with your team

Practical Ethnography: A Guide to Doing Ethnography in the Private Sector


Sam Ladner - 2013
    Sam Ladner fills the gap by advancing rigorous ethnographic practice that is tailored to corporate settings where colleagues are not steeped in social theory, research time lines may be days rather than months or years, and research sponsors expect actionable outcomes and recommendations. Ladner provides step-by-step guidance at every turn--covering core methods, research design, using the latest mobile and digital technologies, project and client management, ethics, reporting, and translating your findings into business strategies. This book is the perfect resource for private-sector researchers, designers, and managers seeking robust ethnographic tools or academic researchers hoping to conduct research in corporate settings. More information on the book is available at http://www.practicalethnography.com/.

Remote Research: Real Users, Real Time, Real Research


Nate Bolt - 2010
    In Remote Research, Nate Bolt and Tony Tulathimutte teach you how to design and conduct remote research studies, top to bottom, with little more than a phone and a laptop. TESTIMONIALS "Nate and Tony have done it! They've described beautifully one of the user experience profession's best-kept secrets-conducting remote usability tests. This book is a must-have for anyone thinking about remote testing, since it tackles everything you need from soup to nuts. I can't wait to get a copy for my own bookshelf. Oh, it also will melt your face remotely." ?Jared Spool CEO and Founding Principal, User Interface Engineering "Remote Research is filled with sage advice, entertaining case studies, methods, and clear procedures that will benefit both new and experienced user researchers. Remote Research is an absorbing book that should be on the reading list of every user researcher. Kudos to Bolt and Tulathimutte for an engaging and informative guide to better remote research." ?Chauncey Wilson Senior Manager, AEC User Research, Autodesk, Inc. "The techniques in this book will make every designer's and user researcher's life much easier. Nate and Tony use the attitude and power of Web 2.0 technologies to create a new way of thinking about user experience research. They share their expertise clearly, concisely, and with a great sense of humor, giving practitioners step-by-step details to conduct remote research of virtually any complexity." ?Mike Kuniavsky author, Observing the User Experience "No longer must you only test your interfaces with people who come to your office or some expensive lab. So stop doing boring research! Stop having a boring life! Read this book!" ?Mark Trammell User Researcher, Twitter

The Systems Bible: The Beginner's Guide to Systems Large and Small: Being the Third Edition of Systemantics


John Gall - 1977
    Hardcover published by Quadragle/The New York Times Book Co., third printing, August 1977, copyright 1975.

Useful, Usable, Desirable: Applying User Experience Design to Your Library


Amanda Etches - 2014
    Every decision you make affects how people experience your library. In this useful primer, user experience (UX) librarians Schmidt and Etches identify 19 crucial touchpoints such as the library website, email, furniture, parking lot, events, and newsletters. They explain why each is important to your library's members and offer guidance on how to make improvements. From library administrators to public relations and marketing staff, anyone concerned with how members experience your library will benefit from this book's * Coverage of the eight principles of library UX design, explaining how they can guide you to better serve your library's members * Advice on simple, structured ways to evaluate and improve aspects such as physical space, service points, policies and customer service, signage and wayfinding, online presence, and using the library * Scorecard system for self evaluation, which includes methods for determining how much time, effort, and skill will be involved in getting optimum performance

Whiplash: How to Survive Our Faster Future


Joichi Ito - 2016
    The world is more complex and volatile today than at any other time in our history. The tools of our modern existence are getting faster, cheaper, and smaller at an exponential rate, transforming every aspect of society, from business to culture and from the public sphere to our most private moments. The people who succeed will be the ones who learn to think differently. In Whiplash, Joi Ito and Jeff Howe distill that logic into nine organizing principles for navigating and surviving this tumultuous period: Emergence over AuthorityPull over PushCompasses over MapsRisk over SafetyDisobedience over CompliancePractice over TheoryDiversity over AbilityResilience over StrengthSystems over Objects Filled with incredible case studies and cutting-edge research and philosophies from the MIT Media Lab and beyond, Whiplash will help you adapt and succeed in this unpredictable world.

Validating Product Ideas


Tomer Sharon - 2016
    With step-by-step guidance, Validating Product Ideas shows you how to tackle the research to build the best possible product.

The Systems Thinking Playbook: Exercises to Stretch and Build Learning and Systems Thinking Capabilities


Linda Booth Sweeney - 2010
    It provides short gaming exercises that illustrate the subtleties of systems thinking. The companion DVD shows the authors introducing and running each of the thirty games. The thirty games are classified by these areas of learning: Systems Thinking, Mental Models, Team Learning, Shared Vision, and Personal Mastery. Each description clearly explains when, how, and why the game is useful. There are explicit instructions for debriefing each exercise as well as a list of all required materials. A summary matrix has been added for a quick glance at all thirty games. When you are in a hurry to find just the right initiative for some part of your course, the matrix will help you find it. Linda Booth Sweeney and Dennis Meadows both have many years of experience in teaching complex concepts. This book reflects their insights. Every game works well and provokes a deep variety of new insights about paradigms, system boundaries, causal-loop diagrams, reference modes, and leverage points. Each of the thirty exercises here was tested and refined many times until it became a reliable source of learning. Some of the games are adapted from classics of the outdoor education field. Others are completely new. But all of them complement readings and lectures to help participants understand intuitively the principles of systems thinking. Biography Linda Booth Sweeney, Ed. D., is a researcher and writer dedicated to making the principles of systems thinking and sustainability accessible to children and others. She has worked with Outward Bound, Sloan School of M.I.T., and Schlumberger Excellence in Educational Development, or SEED. She is the author of The Systems Thinking Playbook; When a Butterfly Sneezes: A guide for helping children explore interconnections in our world through favorite stories; The SEED Water Book ; and numerous academic journals and newsletters. Sweeney liv

Jobs to Be Done: A Roadmap for Customer-Centered Innovation


Stephen Wunker - 2016
    Yet innovation is notoriously difficult. Only one in 100 new products is successful enough to cover development costs, and even fewer impact a company's growth trajectory. So how do you pinpoint the winning ideas that customers will love?Sifting through purchasing data for clues about what might sell and haphazardly brainstorming ideas are typical strategies. But Jobs to Be Done offers a far more precise and effective approach: determining the drivers of customer behavior - those functional and emotional goals that people want to achieve. Using the Jobs method, it becomes easy to see that people don't really need a quarter-inch drill bit but a quarter-inch hole. They're not buying just ice cream but also celebration, bonding, and indulgence. This simple shift in perspective opens up new insights about your customers and a wealth of hidden opportunities. Social media newcomer Snapchat, for example, used the Jobs process to capture the millennial demographic. By reducing functionality, the company satisfied its users' unmet need to document real life in the moment, without filters and "like" buttons.Packed with similar examples from every industry, this complete innovation guide explains both foundational concepts and a detailed action plan developed by innovation expert Stephen Wunker and his team. From unlocking customer insights to ideation to iteration, you'll learn how to:- Figure out what customers really want, even if they can't express it- Sort out valuable insights from less useful customer data- Dig into the underlying "why" of consumer behavior, not just the "what"- Target unaddressed jobs to be done that have the power to disrupt- Identify key customer segments you didn't know existed- Develop solutions that work with ingrained habits, not against them- Use a Jobs-based lens to get a broader view of the competition- Generate better ideas in brainstorming sessions and vet your solutions- Sidestep common mistakes, such as engaging in "feature wars"- Spot emerging trends that are changing how customers will behave- Work customer insights into the design process- And much moreJobs to Be Done gives you a clear-cut framework for thinking about your business, outlines a road map for discovering new markets, new products, and new services, and helps you generate creative opportunities to innovate your way to success.

Designing Products People Love: How Great Designers Create Successful Products


Scott Hurff - 2015
    You'll understand how to discover and interpret customer pain, and learn how to use this research to guide your team through each step of product creation.Written for designers, product managers, and others who want to communicate better with designers, this book is essential reading for anyone who contributes to the product creation process.Understand exactly who your customers are, what they want, and how to build products that make them happyLearn frameworks and principles that successful product designers useIncorporate five states into every screen of your interface to improve conversions and reduce perceived loading timesDiscover meeting techniques that Apple, Amazon, and LinkedIn use to help teams solve the right problems and make decisions fasterDesign effective interfaces across different form factors by understanding how people hold devices and complete tasksLearn how successful designers create working prototypes that capture essential customer feedbackCreate habit-forming and emotionally engaging experiences, using the latest psychological research