A little light on content. Basically breaks UX Design info five 'planes' building from the bottom up (with each plane split into 'product as functionality' and 'product as information'):
5. The Surface Plane (Sensory / Design) - images, buttons, controls, etc
4. The Skeleton Plane (Interface Design / Navigation Design) - placement/arrangement of elements.
3. The Structure Plane (Interaction Design / Information Architecture) - Site Mapping/Card Sorting/Categorizing and how things fit together.
2. The Scope Plane (Functional Specifications / Content Requirements) - Features of site.
1. The Strategy Plane (User Needs / Product Objectives) - Strategic goals of site.

It's a good book to follow as you are the Principal Designer of the company. The book provides a broad range of UX from the Ground level (Strategy) to the top (Surface). The knowledge in this book is timeless and can be applied to the whole process of development. The downside is the details in this book were made nearly 20 years ago, even the second edition has updated a lot more new definitions and methods, it is still a bit out-dated in the fast-moving world.

Essential reading, for almost every aspect of website development, including management, will be a book that is kept handy to my desk from now on.

Good book for the beginners, easy to read and to understand.

Fundamentals, nothing earth shattering. A good overview and breakdown of design layers.

I've recently had a growing interest in the field of User Experience and Human Computer Interaction and this book was a great launching point for that field. It gave a really good idea of what work goes into the field and explained concepts in a very approachable manner.

This book holds up very well. The framework is still solid. It does apply to products other than web sites. It's worth thinking about the diagram at the heart of it all.

Too many platitudes, not enough concrete examples. The only useful page was the model of the 5 planes itself.

For years, this book serves as the foundation for the UX career path. Even when you learn all the processes and skills that make up UX Design, this book maintains itself as a worthwhile reference. There are many crucial pieces of advice in this book, regardless if you're

Crucial foundation for those developing a product. Especially if you're in the field of UX Design. Great to keep to referencing structure ideas for project planning.

Smart organizations recognize that Web design is more than just creating clean code and sharp graphics. A site that really works fulfills your strategic objectives while meeting the needs of your users. Even the best content and the most sophisticated technology won't help you balance those goals without a cohesive, consistent user experience to support it.

User testing is important, but the author suggests that user testing should never replace a thoughtful design process.

If I read this a year ago, I would have awarded it 5 stars. It's still a great book and explains the basic principles of UX really well but overall, nothing was really fresh to me. It's rewarding to notice my knowledge progression from novice to competent in the academic arena of UXD.

Garrett touched on the importance of success metrics early into the book and it sparked my interest. With so much to cover in such a small time, this subject wasn't discussed in my curriculum. When applying learned UX skills to real world opportunities, I view marketing companies/firms as holding great potential. I'd recommend this book to anyone curious about UX strategy and design.