Effective Ui: The Art of Building Great User Experience in Software

People are beginning to demand a higher standard of user experience (UX) quality from the software systems they use in their business and personal lives, and companies are looking to UX to help drive business value and increase brand strength. Effective UI provides a complete roadmap to building groundbreaking software centered on UX quality, including how to generate management support, employing product management strategies proven to deliver greater success, and how to manage the design, engineering, staffing, and business considerations that must be centered on the user's needs and working effectively in tandem all throughout the project.

With a focus on UX, software can exceed expectations by:

• Accounting for how people work with, think about, and consume information.
• Establishing richer means of collaboration and communication
• Reducing frustration by streamlining complex tasks and creating more intuitive processes.
• Generating more engaging and interactive experiences between consumers and businesses, or between businesspeople and their information systems.
• Powerfully differentiating products, services, and brands to create a competitive advantage.

For business and product managers trying to get innovative products funded and successfully built, for software professionals struggling to advance the cause of better UX, and for anyone else who needs to effectively advocate for and deliver on the promise of higher quality software, Effective UI is a comprehensive, valuable resource.

People expect effortless, engaging interaction with desktop and web applications, but producing software that generates enjoyable user experiences is much harder than many companies anticipate. With Effective UI, you'll learn proven user-experience strategies that will satisfy your clients and customers, drive business value, and increase brand strength.

This book shows you how to capture the collaborative and cooperative spirit among designers, engineers, and management required for building engaging software. You'll also learn valuable methods for maintaining focus throughout the process — whether you're a product manager who needs a clear roadmap, a developer or designer looking for guidance and advocacy, or a businessperson who wants to understand and manage user-experience software initiatives.

Learn how to build software that will:

• Generate engaging and interactive experiences between consumers and businesses, or between businesspeople and their information systems
• Account for how people work with, think about, and consume information
• Establish a richer means of collaboration and communication
• Reduce frustration by streamlining complex tasks and creating processes that are more intuitive
• Distinguish products, services, and brands to create a competitive advantage
• Create scalable systems that adapt to changing user needs and behaviors

Jonathan Anderson helped found EffectiveUI before becoming managing editor of UX Magazine, an online resource for user experience professionals and enthusiasts. In this role, Jonathan develops and oversees original content creation and sourcing that explores the maturing field of UX and details industry trends and emerging technologies.

John McRee is a lead experience architect for EffectiveUI and has been designing highly intuitive and engaging user interfaces for more than a decade. Specializing in design process management, user research, information architecture and interaction design, John has designed software for a diverse group of clients, including many Fortune 500 companies.

Robb Wilson is co-owner of UX Magazine and a technology research consultant for many Fortune 500 companies, including Qwest and National Geographic. An active member in the UX community, Robb's work affords him the unique opportunity to meld business strategy with creative processes and emerging technologies. He has worked as a creative executive at Time Warner and is an industry thought leader, providing innovative insight on emerging technologies and trends. Robb has founded four successful technology companies.