Exploring Experience Design

Key Features

An introductory guide to Experience Design that will help you break into XD as a career by gaining A strong foundational knowledge
Get acquainted with the various phases of a typical Experience Design workflow
Work through the key process and techniques in XD, supported by most of the common use cases

Book Description

We live in an experience economy in which interaction with products is valued more than owning them. Products are expected to engage and delight in order to form the emotional bonds that forge long-term customer loyalty:

Products need to anticipate our needs and perform tasks for us: refrigerators order food, homes monitor energy, and cars drive autonomously; they track our vitals, sleep, location, finances, interactions, and content use; recognize our biometric signatures, chat with us, understand and motivate us. Beautiful and easy to use, products have to be fully customizable to match our personal preferences.

Accomplishing these feats is easier said than done, but a solution has emerged in the form of Experience design (XD), the unifying approach to fusing business, technology and design around a user-centered philosophy.

This book explores key dimensions of XD: Close collaboration among interdisciplinary teams, rapid iteration and ongoing user validation. We cover the processes, methodologies, tools, techniques and best-practices practitioners use throughout the entire product development life-cycle, as ideas are transformed to into positive experiences which lead to perpetual customer engagement and brand loyalty.

What you will learn

Understand why Experience Design (XD) is at the forefront of business priorities, as organizations race to innovate products and services in order to compete for customers in a global economy driven by technology and change
Get motivated by the numerous professional opportunities that XD opens up for practitioners in wide-ranging domains, and by the stories of real XD practitioners
Understand what experience is, how experiences are designed, and why they are effective
Gain knowledge of user-centered design principles, methodologies, and best practices that will improve your product (digital or physical)
Get to know your X's and D's—understand the differences between XD and UX, CX, IxD, IA, SD, VD, PD, and other design practices

About the Author

Ezra Schwartz is a multidisciplinary design leader with a holistic approach to experience strategy and design. He led projects in diverse settings, from Fortune 50 companies to start-ups in finance, healthcare, aviation, manufacturing, education, research, and other industries, and is the author of two books on prototyping.

Throughout his career, Ezra has been devising and refining qualitative and quantitative design methods, advancing rapid interactive prototyping techniques, streamlining iterative design guided by continuous user feedback, advocating for accessible design, and mentoring junior practitioners.

Ezra lives in Hyde Park, Chicago, where he draws serenity and often conceives design solutions while running along the shores of the magnificent Lake Michigan.

Table of Contents

Experience Design In The World
The Experience Design Process – An Overview
Business Context and Experience Strategy
The User and Context of Use
Human Experience – Perception, Cognition and Emotions
Design Disciplines
The Design Team
How to Delight and Engage
Tying It Together - Concept Development
Design Testing
The Design Continuum