10/24/20 Update after 2nd reading: This book has aged well and should be required reading for developers, too.

Original review: Enjoyed this more than I expected. The author includes enough simple examples to make it a great introductory text, as well as plenty of theory to provide reference in the future. I used some of his points as starting places for further research, both online and internal to my organization, and I'm excited to see where that research will take me. For a newbie to UX, this book was well worth reading!

Somewhere, Nietzsche has a quote (probably directed at Kant) dissing philosophers who, rather than introduce new ideas or vectors of exploration, simply schematize already existing terms. That is, they take a bunch of signifiers and try to ground them in reality or each other.
Jesse James Garrett takes schematization to a new level in The Elements of User Experience: User-Centered Design for the Web, unfortunately. See, the problem with user experience is we haven't defined its constituent terms enough. I bet you didn't know that it's composed of six layers, each bifurcated into two semi-planes, subdivided by topics which sometimes overlap those semi-planes, did you? If you didn't and you think that that sounds like knowledge, then this book is for you.
This is not a bad book and I needed to read it. It considers many aspects of designing an intuitive and user-friendly website which other, far longer, texts leave out. All that said, the basic premise that what these many undifferentiated fields (interface design, information architecture, user experience, web design, strategic planning, et al) truly need is a dictionary and a schema is laughable. Fractal overspecification.

This book essentially dissects the process of website creation, clearly defining every element that goes into planning and implementing a website. This would have provided an invaluable visual map during our last website redesign. Rather than a tangled ball of yarn, I can now see all of the wheels and cogs fit together in a logical manner.

It seems that, of the five planes of the user experience development process (the surface plane, the skeleton plane, the structure plane, the scope plane and the strategy plane), I am most interested in the skeleton plane (i.e. navigation, interface and information design) and the structure plane (information architecture).

I might have to own this book.

Favorite Quotes:

If your site consists mainly of what we Web types call "content" - that is, information - then one of the main goals of your site is to communicate that information as effectively as possible. It's not enough just to put it out there. It has to be presented in a way that helps people absorb it and understand it. Otherwise, the user might not ever find out that you offer the service or product they're looking for.

Habit and reflex are the foundation for much of our interaction with the world...

If it involves providing users with the ability to do things, it's interface design...If it involves providing users with the ability to go places, it's navigation design...If it involves communicating ideas to the user, it's information design.

Making your interface consistent with others that your users are already familiar with is important, but even more important is making your interface consistent with itself.

An interface that gives a small number of extreme cases the same weight as the needs of the vast majority of users ends up ill-equipped to make either audience happy.

Presenting a style on your web site that's inconsistent with your style in other media doesn't just affect the audience's impression of the site; it affects their impression of your company as a whole.

[Effective content] requires effective maintenance.

[Information architecture] draws on a number of disciplines that historically have been concerned with the organization, grouping, ordering, and presentation of content: library science, journalism, and technical communication, among others.

[Information architecture and interaction design] are about understanding people, the way they work, and the way they think.

“The world's most powerful functionality will falter and fail if users can't figure out how to make it work”

It is a common practice that when a product is being developed, people pay a great deal of attention to what it does. User experience is the other, often overlooked, side of the equation - how it works - that can often make the difference between a successful product and a failure.

But the fact is despite the vital strategic importance of User eXperience to the success of a web site, the simple matter of understanding what people want and need has been a low priority for the most of the history of the web. Many organizations paid little attention to what actual users liked, found valuable, or were really able to use. Hence why, the relationship between a user and a product has not always been fruitful.

In the software development world, that meant we're standing on the verge of creating a product that users will love and use, or something that’s barely alive to see its first birthday. Something in between might work, but only temporarily until your users find something more exciting / engaging / efficient to use.

Most of the time, users are alone in facing a product. Even though sometimes companies do provide training and customer support, the users will still have to face the product on their own, hence why a cohesive and consistent User eXperience would greatly enhance the usability, and functionality of a product.

Those understanding come from a book titled “The Elements of User Experience” written by Jesse James Garret from Adaptive Path, a San Francisco based user experience Consultancy Company. Jesse first took the role of User eXperience Designer back in 1999, after years of practicing Information Architecture. This book is the culmination of his years of practicing. Though released back in 2003, this book lays a wonderful base to understand what a User eXperience is, and how it would contribute positively in a web site / web application developments. Though uses Web development project as its main examples, the principles basically applies to general software development as well.

This book explains the User eXperience through what Jesse refers as “The Five Planes”:
1.tThe Surface Plane, is where users will encounter images and text that perform some sort of functions, the User Interface design of your application
2.tThe Skeleton Plane, is where we seek to optimize the arrangement of buttons, tabs, photos, texts, to maximum effects and efficiency
3.tThe Structure Plane, defines how to categorize contents, how users can get there, and went somewhere else after the task has been completed
4.tThe Scope Plane, determines what features and functions should be included
5.tThe Strategy Plane, determines what the business want to get out of the site, as well as what the users want to get out of the site

Each plane is explained with their own necessities and contributions into a project. This book also informs us on how to measure the ROI (Return of Investment) of User eXperience implementation in Website projects.

Written in simple language, completed with real life examples, and has nothing too technical, this book fits for those wanting to know about User eXperience without having to become an IT expert first. It cuts through the complexity with clear explanations and vivid illustration that focus on ideas rather than tools or techniques. This book is suitable for Web Developers, Project Managers, or Decision makers looking into application of User eXperience in their Product Development process. (bay)

Originally written for Mitrais's Software Development Newsletter Q2 2010 here: http://www.mitraissoftware.com/news/P...

Read for the April UX Book Club.

This is a good grounding in how to do user experience design, though I didn't find much new here that I wasn't already aware of before.

I expect that this would make a great introduction to the field for people who want to get into it, or who need to work with UX people.

I call it Bible

One of the fundamentals! Although the book has been published for quite some time, Jesse James Garrett's main model is still very much in force. It will help you have a holistic view and a solid foundation in user-centered design.

As far as my professional experience is concerned, the model of the five planes has given me a solid foundation, while at the same time it has provided me with a systematic basis to address different situations around the design of products/services.

In other words, the model helps you structure, in a practical way, the big picture that every team needs to make conscious design decisions at different levels.

A must-read for every programmer! Most of the books teach you how to program, or how to use your specific language features, but none of them will teach you how to ACTUALLY write clean and maintainable code. This one does!

Многое устарело. Язык немного муторный. Основную мысль с полезной информацией можно уместить в статью.

This is a perfect introduction book for people who are interested in User Experience Design.

Though digital design has evolved dramatically since this book was first published, every element still rings true.

Like the well designed products for which JJG is providing a blueprint, the book is beautifully structured, its messages clearly and succinctly articulated - providing readers with an enjoyable experience that educates and entertains. This is a must read for any designer or marketer.

Мнение сугубо личное, но думаю, с ним согласятся специалисты со стажем.
Книга будет интересна только новичкам или узкопрофильным специалистам. Большинство рекомендаций из области "здравого смысла", которые приобрели популярность с распространением IT технологий в массах.
Очень трудно было читать на русском - во первых, перевод если и без грубых ошибок, то все же написан слишком формальным языком и, как следствие, воспринимается в большим трудом; во вторых - мне лично очень редко приходится читать что-то околокомпьтерное на русском (на языке оригинал, к сожалению, под рукой не оказалось).