Jesse James Garrett exposes in a very clear way the essence of user experience for the web. He breaks down the ux for the web into five different planes going deep into the vocabulary and strategy for designing better experiences for our digital world.

A slim book with plenty of food for thought. I don't know how useful Garrett's schema really is, because a lot of the elements he describes are subject to the whim of (ahem) other stakeholders in the process. But it's an interesting way to organize your thoughts about a design, and a good reminder of how all the decisions relate to each other.

Long-story short, a reminder for our process and approaches to build a product. For a better outcome of users experience.

Still every bit as valuable as when I read the first edition. Garrett provides a practical framework for building a user experience from the ground up. There may be situations where another approach is called for, but this approach will serve you will for most of the projects you will ever encounter.

Super book.

Succinct, but with all the necessary information to get consensus among a group of stakeholders because of the 5-element approach. Five questions to answer, with some study and designing to do in each question. For most websites, this would do just the trick nicely, particularly in institutions where design has been an afterthought with more and more links and pages just added over time.

An absolutely incredible book for beginner to intermediate user experience designers. If you want to know what the heck UX is, this book is for you. It mostly focuses on web design, but I prefer that side of UX so I was really pleased. Even the book had a great user experience: great pictures, color coded chapters, small text in a big page so you feel like you're reading faster, bolded key information. My only complaint is that some of the graphic design examples are outdated. Garrett walks through every part of the UX design process, from concept to visual product. Garrett also uses really accessible language with a fun and casual tone that kept me interested throughout the entire book.

In my opinion Jesse James Garrett was one of the first to analyze User Experience Design and try to understand how it worked and I thank him for that. But his book doesn't create the kind of epiphany I experienced reading Donald Norman's "The Design of Everyday Things", Steve Krug's "Don't Make me Think" or Susan Weinschenk "100 Things Designers Should Know".

Loved the models

I likely would have rated this book higher had I read it years ago. The content is solid but dry. It reminded me way too much of sitting in core university classes. Garrett's diagram is a great place to start understanding the fundamentals of UX for web. I believe that is all this book intended to be, so I won't criticize it for lacking more practical and interesting concepts. I would certainly recommend it to someone just starting out in UX, but I wouldn't bother with a recommendation to someone with experience in the field. I might ask if they've seen his diagram, and if their mind is blown... then I'd offer up this book that will eventually collect dust.

Read for my interactive design class (aka the bane of my existence), and this textbook was basically one big snooze-fest. The only chapter that was very applicable to my career was the one about sensory design.

(No, I'm not adding textbooks to my reading challenge because I'm desperate to reach my goal. Why do you ask? *COUGH*)

This is a really outdated UX book. Some basic concepts are still valid, but most a very basic and others rely too much on ye olde days waterfall system of design. I guess there's still some value, if this is a first design book you'll ever read.