Anthony Conta, a gamer with an educator’s mindset and years of business experience in game inventions and music product design, shares what he has learned in his first book, published by an imprint of Pearson.¹ The Art and Science of UX Design: A Step-by-Step Guide to Designing Amazing User Experiences provides the reader with an accessible, detailed, indexed, and well-illustrated text on studying and understanding the user experience (UX) to inform design. Since the author is not from the library field, his perspective may allow library UX leaders to take a valuable, broader look into potential projects. Given the wide variety of user considerations in libraries, archives, and learning commons buildings today, there are numerous takeaways to examine.

Conta promises a “step-by-step” guide, and while he does accomplish this, he also takes several steps back to address the concept of UX design and testing. Embarking on a UX project necessitates a full understanding of what is meant by user experience. A simple photograph of a worn path in grass (user experience) leading away from a paved trail (design) begins the explanation of keeping the users and their entire journey in mind, thinking broadly about products, screens, and written instructions. Usability itself is the ease of use, interaction, and task completion. Designers can create the best user experiences with a balance of three elements, at an intersection of business, technology, and users, as illustrated in a Venn diagram. Using brief examples of food delivery apps and search engine screens, Conta presents how the user interface relates to UX and the user’s cognitive load.

To explain human-centered design, a philosophy that extends empathy to the end user, Conta presents five common design thinking models, exploring their similarities and natural progression. The fifth one, the Nielsen Norman Group’s model, NN/g, is the most fully expressed, and Conta uses it as his exemplar. NN/g involves six steps: empathize, define, ideate, prototype, test, and implement. The model is illustrated with a circle, indicating each step can be repeated. Conta presents product development/project management process types as options while moving through the six steps of NN/g. Those process types include waterfall (predefined phases with timelines), agile (lean and iterative), and hybrid (both waterfall and agile). Conta recommends embracing the process that matches your industry and its pace. Library projects can vary from time-sensitive to long-term, so the overview of possibilities is useful.

Step one, empathy, involves conversing with users, using art and science for understanding, and adapting experiences. Observing behaviors and recording opinions are the basis of UX research. Conta explains and illustrates best practices and relevant tools. They include various types of surveys and interviews, how to recruit participants, and how to collect and organize data into “groupings,” such as a technique called affinity mapping.

For step two, defining user problems, Conta asks that you take the research and understanding you have of your users and apply it to your initial problem Your design problem will then become further clarified. He explains this through techniques such as creating personas to represent who you are designing for, user journey maps, and problem statements.

In step three he presents ideation techniques and tools, including what to ideate and types of ideation. These include visual, conceptual, and relational ideation, such as a mind map. This chapter includes best practices in ideation exercises, such as brainstorming with time limits but no content limits and sketching for communication and collaboration.

Prototyping, the fourth step, is coming up with and presenting solutions for the end user need. Conta breaks this down into prototypes of differing time investment. These prototypes are called low-fidelity (paper), mid-fidelity (wireframes), high-fidelity (final visuals), and coded (simulation). He discusses tools and best practices specific to each fidelity.

Next Conta examines step five, testing the design. He details the elements of usability and tools for evaluation, including creating a test plan, defining and tracking the metrics, recruiting users, preparing and framing the session, and conducting the test. Ways to analyze results, including scoring scales, using artifacts such as stoplight charts, and pulling quotes are part of this chapter.

Step six is design implementation. This includes knowing your users’ stories and being able to prioritize them according to one of the methods—such as MoSCoW: must, should, could, won’t. Determining which type of flow chart to create, such as task, user, or wireflow (a user’s steps in completing an online task) is essential for implementation, as are numerous detailed decisions—style, font, icons, and more. Once you’ve determined the design that will work as a solution, you need to communicate this to designers by creating a wireframe with the specifications, functionality, and even pixel sizes. There is mention and illustration of some tools for developing wireframes and multiple workflow options. Then you are able to deliver your design, which is just one part of the continuous NN/g model, since you will readdress it for user improvements.

In sum, steps one through six are clearly explained, even for someone new to UX design and testing. Since the work does not end there, Conta provides additional information on tasks to complete after the design is delivered. This includes recording the work and showing each step of the process and decisions reached in a case study. The final chapter covers further communication options, including providing feedback, setting expectations, and working with stakeholders.

The Art and Science of UX Design ends with a well-illustrated appendix and an index. Library staff interested in embarking on UX testing and design prototyping will easily find applicable tests and methods to use, from informing a single small project to undertaking a larger design.

Notes

1. The Art and Science of UX Design: A Step-by-Step Guide to Designing Amazing User Experiences by Anthony Conta. 2024. New Riders. ⮭