Sketching User Experiences: Getting the Design Right and the Right Design

by Bill Buxton

Book Overview

Sketching User Experiences approaches design and design thinking as something distinct that needs to be better understood--by both designers and the people with whom they need to work-- in order to... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0123740371
• ISBN13: 9780123740373
• Release Date: April 2007
• Publisher: Morgan Kaufmann Publishers
• Length: 448 Pages
• Weight: 1.87 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 7.4" x 9.1"

Customer Reviews

Insightful and inspirational book about design

I am not a designer, nor do I have a very strong design sense. None the less, I found this book to be amazing. It shares tremendous insight into how to design products in creative and useful ways. It also givers great inspiration to not only the value of design, but how design fits within a larger organizational context.

But one can sketch in code too

This is a compelling book. It manages to blend business, organizational and design thinking on the user experience. In doing this, Bill Buxton makes the case for (i) the centrality of design in driving business value and (ii) the importance of investing in the design process. The importance of exploration and play in design is called out, and the role of making multiple light, inexpensive sketches of alternatives as an important part of the design process. Buxton also brings together the separate histories of the industrial design (the people who make things) and the software design worlds, sprinkling in some lessons from film making for good measure. And he reinforces the importance of knowing the traditions and their high points if you want to innovate. All of these lessons are vital to our collective future. I liked this book enough to buy copies for people on my design and business teams, and I will probably give my copy to my boss. I may get a copy for my son as well, who is involved in furniture design in Vancouver. The book does have a couple of weaknesses. The most serious is that Bill seems to think that people don't sketch in code. I am pretty sure that this is not what he thinks - he has seen plenty of people sketch in code and most of the code created by university researchers is a form of sketch - branching code that explores, plays and demonstrates possibilities. The book can also be read as advocating a waterfall process rather than something more agile. One reason may be that he is focused on the design of interactive objects and environments where there are high production costs. But this kind of waterfall approach is not all that useful for people (such as myself) who are building businesses around the delivery of software as a service. And taking Bill's own advice, and looking out a few years, it seems likely that most of us will have 3D printers in our homes and that eventually these 3D printers will be able to print 3D programmable objects. With shape memory plastics and other such smart materials, one of the things with behaviours (interactions) may even be the shape itself. Still an important book, and one that points to more thinking and more learning. The gallery of important user experience sketches is worth deep study.

vital, practical, inspiring

This book pulled me in like a fictional thriller, but I read it little by little, ensuring I had quality time and head space to savor each chapter. Bill Buxton's narrative style is engaging but not wasteful--it's got the deep content of a textbook, yet is very fun to read. Every single page has something you can apply as a designer or software engineer. There are so many great ideas and insights that I found myself pausing often, staring off into space, visualizing my own scenarios and sketches, jotting notes in my notebook. This highly influential book has already helped me get breakthroughs in my thinking I couldn't have achieved without diving in and acting things out, drawing, or building a simple model. It has shaped the way I approach my work.

great read with tips on creating the future cheaply

Sketching User Experiences by Bill Buxton This is a great book, for anyone involved with innovation, product management, communication of new ideas or product development. Bill Buxton has put forth some great examples of what a Sketch is how it is a prelude to a prototype and how to "create" the future cheaply for testers and user groups to experience things with in expensive and fast tools. The idea is to create rapid examples of future good and services to see how well they work. As Buxton mentions in the book, fail fast and early, learn fast and early. Redesigning a product or relaunching one is very expensive. This is a great read and deals with products and services in their "wholistic" setting. A new idea exists in a context and that context determines its success or failure. I would strongly recommend you buy this book or e-mail me and I might just lend you my copy. I keep only 1 of 10 books I read, but this one I will be holding onto or lending out. Some fun quotes from the book: Tell me and I forget, Show me, and I may remember. Involve me, and I will understand. Confucius And a personal favorite of mine from an anthropologist: Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed people can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has. Margaret Meade Also from Buxton himself: Innovation in process trumps innovation in product. The idea is that corporations that innovate processes or better yet internalize innovation as a process will win hands down over those focused on tweaking a product. And finally Buxton closes the book with a quote from T.E. Lawrence: All men dream: but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds wake in the day to find that it was vanity: but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act their dreams with open eyes, to make it possible. Buxton's last words are: May you dream in the day. This isn't your average designer hand book and if you want to be an above average creator this is a powerful tool.

Great handbook on design thinking

If you're interested in ways to improve the process of design and design thinking, this is a book for you. The theme is sketching for design but the underlying idea is really about a better design process. I found it extremely practical and thought that the early chapters did a good job of conveying both the creative and business aspects of design...something most design books I've read don't discuss together. If you're a designer, this book should be in your library. If you're in business and design plays an important role in your product or service, this book should be in your library.