Liftoff: Launching Agile Teams & Projects
Diana Larsen - 2011
As the first act of flight, a rocket launch requires an entire set of systems to lift the vehicle into orbit-not just the vehicle itself, but all the systems needed for smoothly moving off the ground into space. Likewise, your project needs its entire set of supporting systems in place to begin a successful journey to delivery. Whatever you call it (project kickoff, bootcamp, inception, or jump start), liftoff gives your team its trajectory, and launches your project. This critical practice informs, inspires, and aligns everyone to a singular purpose: the successful delivery of software. This success is in your hands! Agile veterans Diana Larsen and Ainsley Nies teach you how to organize and conduct liftoffs, hold team activities to discover what's most important, and offer a working framework for effective and lightweight agile chartering.
Information Design Workbook: Graphic approaches, solutions, and inspiration + 30 case studies
Kim Baer - 2008
The back half of the book contains a wide range of case studies from design firms around the world so designers can see the techniques previously outlined in the first half of the book. The author also critiques and explains why the design is successful in terms of formal quality (Aesthetics) and function (How does it improve communication?).
Visual Thinking for Design
Colin Ware - 2008
Fortunately, results from the relatively new science of human visual perception provide valuable guidance. In Visual Thinking for Design, Colin Ware takes what we now know about perception, cognition, and attention and transforms it into concrete advice that designers can directly apply. He demonstrates how designs can be considered as tools for cognition - extensions of the viewer’s brain in much the same way that a hammer is an extension of the user’s hand. Experienced professional designers and students alike will learn how to maximize the power of the information tools they design for the people who use them.• Presents visual thinking as a complex process that can be supported in every stage using specific design techniques.• Provides practical, task-oriented information for designers and software developers charged with design responsibilities.• Includes hundreds of examples, many in the form of integrated text and full-color diagrams.• Steeped in the principles of “active vision,” which views graphic designs as cognitive tools.
Content Strategy at Work: Real-world Stories to Strengthen Every Interactive Project
Margot Bloomstein - 2012
But what’s in it for you? And if you’re not a content strategist, why should you care?Because even if content strategy isn’t your job, content’s probably your problem-and probably more than you think. You or your business has a message you want to deliver, right? You can deliver that message through various channels and content types, from Tweets to testimonials and photo galleries galore, and your audience has just as many ways of engaging with it. So many ways, so much content… so where’s the problem? That is the problem. And you can measure it in time, creativity, money, lost opportunity, and the sobs you hear equally from creative directors, project managers, and search engine marketing specialists.The solution is content strategy, and this book offers real-world examples and approaches you can adopt, no matter your role on the team. Put content strategy to work for you by gathering this book into your little hands and gobbling up never-before seen case studies from teams at Johns Hopkins Medicine, MINI, Icebreaker, and more. Content Strategy at Work is a book for designers, information architects, copywriters, project managers, and anyone who works with visual or verbal content. It discusses how you can communicate and forge a plan that will enable you, your company, or your client get that message across and foster better user experiences.
Prototyping: A Practitioner's Guide
Todd Zaki Warfel - 2009
Prototypes help you to flesh out design ideas, test assumptions, and gather real-time feedback from users. With this book, Todd Zaki Warfel shows how prototypes are more than just a design tool by demonstrating how they can help you market a product, gain internal buy-in, and test feasibility with your development team. TESTIMONIALS "When someone asks me about prototyping, I'll be pointing them to this book from now on." �Kim Goodwin: VP Design, Cooper; author, Designing for the Digital Age "Todd's text offers a comprehensive view of prototyping--from the role of prototypes in socializing decision making and achieving organizational buy-in, to the actual pragmatics of creating interactive artifacts. This is a solid book for those 'in the trenches'--the designers doing the actual work that ends up in the actual products we use every day." �Jon Kolko: Editor-in-Chief, interactions; Associate Creative Director, Frog "If you design applications and are stuck in the land of task flows and wireframes, you really need to pick up a copy of Prototyping: A Practitioner's Guide. Todd offers practical, hands-on advice to jump start your prototyping and make your designs truly interactive before they are built." �Dan Saffer: Principal, Kicker Studios; author of Designing for Interaction and Designing Gestural Interfaces "Whether you're prototyping to explore ideas or to communicate them, Todd Zaki Warfel's smart, accessible guide will give you the tools you need." �Jesse James Garrett: Author, The Elements of User Experience; President, Adaptive Path
Agile!: The Good, the Hype and the Ugly
Bertrand Meyer - 2014
The book details agile principles, roles, managerial practices, technical practices and artifacts, offering a complete review that will help readers master all the important agile ideas.
Graphic Design Thinking: Beyond Brainstorming
Ellen Lupton - 2011
Graphic Design Thinking explores a variety of techniques to stimulate fresh thinking to arrive at compelling and viable solutions. Each approach is explained with a brief narrative text followed by a variety of visual demonstrations and case studies. Lupton's hands-on, close-up approach, made famous with Thinking with Type, makes the creative process accessible to anyone and removes the myth that creativity is an in-born talent.Presents a wide range of methods applicable to any brainstorming scenario.• Techniques are grouped around the three basic phases of the design process: defining the problem, inventing ideas, and creating form• From informal strategies that are ideal for quick, seat-of-the-pants thinking, to formal research methods• Learn to approach problems through focus groups, interviewing, brand mapping, and co-designIncludes discussions with leading professional designers: Art Chantry, Ivan Chermayeff, Jessica Helfand, Steven Heller, Abbott Miller, Christoph Niemann, Paula Scher, and Martin Venezk reveal how they get ideas and overcome blocks to creativity.Graphic Design Thinking is directed at working designers, design students, and anyone who wants to apply inventive thought patterns to everyday creative challenges in the design process.
PHP Solutions: Dynamic Web Design Made Easy
David Powers - 2006
How easy is easy? It's not like an instant cake mix: just add water and stir. Dynamic web design is--well-- dynamic. Every website is different, so it's impossible to grab a script, paste it into a web page, and expect it to work. Building dynamic sites involves diving into the code and adju- ing it to your own requirements. If that thought makes you break out in a cold sweat, just relax for a moment. PHP is not difficult, and I've written this book very much with the n- programmer in mind. I've done so because I don't come from a computing background myself. In fact, I went to school in the days before pocket calculators were invented, never mind personal computers. As a result, I don't assume that you drank in knowledge of arrays, loops, and conditional statements with your mother's milk. Everything is explained in plain, straightforward l- guage, and I've highlighted points where things may go wrong, with advice on how to solve the problem. At the same time, if you're working with computers and websites, you're bound to have a certain level of technical knowledge and skill. So I don't talk down to you either.
Managing The Design Factory: A Product Developer's Toolkit
Donald G. Reinertsen - 1997
In Managing the Design Factory Donald G. Reinertsen presents concepts and practical tools that will be invaluable for anyone trying to get products out of the pipeline and into the market.The first book to put the principles of World Class Manufacturing to work in the development process, Managing the Design Factory combines the powerful analytical tools of queuing, information, and system theories with the proven ideas of organization design and risk management. The result: a methodical approach to consistently hit the "sweet spot" of quality, cost, and time in developing any product. Reinertsen illustrates these concepts with concrete examples drawn from his work with many leading companies across different industries.Fresh and thought-provoking, the book challenges many of the conventional approaches to product development. "There are no best practices," Reinertsen writes, "the idea of best practices is a seductive but dangerous trap." Unlike other books that promote rules and rituals based on benchmarking "best practices," this book focuses on practical tools that account for varied situations. He breaks new ground with a disciplined, quantitative approach for making decisions on critical issues: When should we use a sequential or concurrent process? Centralized or decentralized control? Functional or team organizations?Full of practical techniques, concrete examples, and solid general principles, this is a real toolkit for product developers. Moreover, it is written with the clarity, precision, and humor that are Reinertsen's trademarks. He promises to challenge the thinking of anyone involved in product development.
SOA: Principles of Service Design
Thomas Erl - 2007
It is through an understanding of service design that truly service-oriented solution logic can be created in support of achieving the strategic goals associated with SOA and service-oriented computing. Bestselling SOA author Thomas Erl guides you through a comprehensive, insightful, and visually rich exploration of the service-orientation design paradigm, revealing exactly how services should and should not be designed for real-world SOA. concise introduction to SOA and service-oriented computing concepts and benefits* A thorough exploration of the service-orientation design paradigm as represented by eight specific design principles* A comparison of service-oriented and object-oriented concepts and principles and a clear definition of what qualifies as service-oriented logic* Detailed coverage of four different forms of service-related design granularity* An exhaustive examination of service contracts, with an emphasis on standardization, abstraction, and the utilization of WS-Policy, XML Schema, and WSDL definitions* A comprehensive study of various forms of service-related coupling with an emphasis on the requirements to attaining a suitable level of loose coupling.* achieve truly agnostic and reusable service logic* Techniques for maximizing service reliability, scalability, and performance by instilling high levels of autonomy and emphasizing stateless design* Approaches for positioning services as highly discoverable and interpretable enterprise resources* Unprecedented coverage of how to design services for participation in complex compositions* The definition of concrete links between each design principle and the strategic goals and benefits of SOA and service-oriented computing* Numerous cross-references to key design patterns documented separately in SOA: Design Patterns www.soabooks.com supplements this book with a variety of resources, including content updates, corrections, and sample chapters from other books. www.soaspecs.com provides further support by establishing a descriptive portal to industry specifications referenced in all of the series titles. www.soaglossary.com establishes a master glossary for all SOA titles in this series. www.prenhallprofessional.comwww.soabo... Foreword Chapter 1: OverviewChapter 2: Case Study Background Pa
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.
Everyware: The Dawning Age of Ubiquitous Computing
Adam Greenfield - 2006
How will it change us? how can we shape its emergence? Smart buildings, smart furniture, smart clothing... even smart bathtubs. networked street signs and self-describing soda cans. Gestural interfaces like those seen in Minority Report. The RFID tags now embedded in everything from credit cards to the family pet. All of these are facets of the ubiquitous computing author Adam Greenfield calls everyware. In a series of brief, thoughtful meditations, Greenfield explains how everyware is already reshaping our lives, transforming our understanding of the cities we live in, the communities we belong to--and the way we see ourselves. What are people saying about the book? Adam Greenfield is intense, engaged, intelligent and caring. I pay attention to him. I counsel you to do the same. --HOWARD RHEINGOLD, AUTHOR, SMART MOBS: THE NEXT SOCIAL REVOLUTION A gracefully written, fascinating, and deeply wise book on one of the most powerful ideas of the digital age--and the obstacles we must overcome before we can make ubiquitous computing a reality.--STEVE SILBERMAN, EDITOR, WIRED MAGAZINE Adam is a visionary. he has true compassion and respect for ordinary users like me who are struggling to use and understand the new technology being thrust on us at overwhelming speed.--REBECCA MACKINNON, BERKMAN CENTER FOR INTERNET AND SOCIETY, HARVARD UNIVERSITY Everyware is an AIGA Design Press book, published under Peachpit's New Riders imprint in partnership with AIGA.
Web 2.0: A Strategy Guide
Amy Shuen - 2007
If you're executign strategy and want to know how the Web is changing business, this is the book you need.
Reengineering Retail: The Future of Selling in a Post-Digital World
Doug Stephens - 2017
As predicted, online giants like Amazon and Alibaba.com are growing at a dizzying pace. Hundreds of well-known brick and mortar retailers have closed their doors, and brands and retailers across categories are struggling to understand the shifting needs and expectations of a new consumer.Picking up where The Retail Revival left off, Reengineering Retail explores the coming revolution in the global retail and consumer goods market, offering sales and marketing executives a roadmap to the future.Author and internationally renowned consumer futurist, Doug Stephens, paints a bold vision of the future where every aspect of the retail experience as we know it, will be radically transformed. From online to bricks and mortar, the very concept of what stores are, how consumers shop them, and even the core economic model for revenue, will be will be profoundly reinvented; changes sure to affect not only retailers large and small but any business with a stake in the global retail industry.Infused with real world examples and interviews with industry disruptors, Reengineering Retail illustrates the vast opportunities at play for bold brands and business leaders. Stephens’ strategies will provide businesses with the foresight required to move quickly and effectively into the future.
Designing for the Social Web
Joshua Porter - 2008
With tons of examples from real-world interfaces and a touch of the underlying social psychology theory, Joshua Porter shows you how to design your next great social web application.