User Friendly, Cliff Kuang
User Friendly, Cliff Kuang
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User Friendly
How the Hidden Rules of Design Are Changing the Way We Live, Work, and Play

Author: Cliff Kuang, Robert Fabricant

Narrator: Jean Ann Douglass

Unabridged: 11 hr 18 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 11/19/2019


Synopsis

This program includes material read by the authors.

In User Friendly, Cliff Kuang and Robert Fabricant reveal the untold story of a paradigm that quietly rules our modern lives: the assumption that machines should anticipate what we need.

Spanning over a century of sweeping changes, from women’s rights to the Great Depression to World War II to the rise of the digital era, this audiobook unpacks the ways in which the world has been—and continues to be—remade according to the principles of the once-obscure discipline of user-experience design.

In this essential program, Kuang and Fabricant map the hidden rules of the designed world and shed light on how those rules have caused our world to change—an underappreciated but essential history that’s pieced together for the first time. Combining the expertise and insight of a leading journalist and a pioneering designer, User Friendly provides a definitive, thoughtful, and practical perspective on a topic that has rapidly gone from arcane to urgent to inescapable. In User Friendly, Kuang and Fabricant tell the whole story for the first time—and you’ll never interact with technology the same way again.

About Cliff Kuang

Cliff Kuang is an award-winning journalist and UX designer. He was previously the head of UX at Fast Company, as well as its design editor. In that role, he founded Co.Design, one of the world’s leading design publications.

About Robert Fabricant

Robert Fabricant is the former Vice President of Creative for Frog Design, one of the leading industrial-design studios of the last fifty years, and an award-winning cofounder and partner at Dalberg Design.

About Jean Ann Douglass

Jean Ann Douglass is a playwright, performer, and artist living in Brooklyn, NY. She co-created The Truck Project and Human Head Performance Group with her partner, Eric John Meyer. Jean Ann received an MFA in Performance and Interactive Media Arts from Brooklyn College.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Mike on December 14, 2019

I have been a user experience designer for years and this book made so many things click into place. If you have any role in product design, this should be required reading.......more

Goodreads review by Todd on December 08, 2019

Designs of physical products, online interactions, and real-world experiences is a lot more interesting and backed by an intriguing history than you may think. Most of us understand that things like Apple products have a lot of design built into them, but have we ever thought about the levels and va......more

Goodreads review by Andy on November 25, 2019

This book covers several disparate topics, which unfortunately were not combined in the most cohesive way. Part of it is a history of UX/design, which is interesting, but is not presented linearly which can make it hard to follow. My favorite part was the discussion of the development of industrial......more

Goodreads review by Lori on January 08, 2020

I have this five stars based on the number of Post Its I used and anecdotes I related to my husband. Great stories about why Three Mile Island melted, planes crash and Walt Disney. We take good design based on psychology for granted. After reading this book you will be more aware of how design affec......more

Goodreads review by Nicole on December 12, 2019

User Friendly is a super compelling look at the history and foundations of UX. I like how the story threads together many parts of that history-- as far back as WWII. I think we so often think of technology as this fast-paced thing that we can't ever hold on to or understand. User friendliness is so......more


Awards

  • Amazon.com Best Books of the Year