The book includes good discussions of personas, user-centered design, user testing, wireframes, prototyping and more. There’s also a strange chapter on search engine optimisation (SEO). Why? SEO has nothing to do with the user experience, even though there are certain techniques that enhance both (such as descriptive link titles). The chapter feels as if it has been bolted on, probably because it has: it’s the only chapter in the book not written by the authors. From a UX point of view, you only need to read one line from the summary: “Thoughtful search engine optimisation starts with quality UX.”
For its size, I can’t imagine a more thorough summary of UX practice.
Hi there,
First and foremost, thanks so much for the review–I really appreciate seeing it out there. I did want to give some quick feedback on the comment on the SEO chapter–we get some feedback about this chapter as well as the chapter on Contracts, and I’ll share a little more about that.
The SEO Chapter wasn’t bolted on at all; SEO is something that should be considered for all projects, and if UX practitioners have a good foundation in the core of that, a project can be planned out better.
Much like a solid Content Strategy, a solid plan for SEO upfront can save a lot of time and headaches down stream.
Aside from that, Jonathan Ashton is one of those folks in the SEO space that really knows his stuff, and I couldn’t think of a better person to help share a solid foundation in SEO with UX folks.
Thanks again for the review!
I see your points about SEO. And I suppose that SEO is important to the UX of your site, since with poor SEO the user may not find your site at all! Even though I don’t think the SEO chapter fits smoothly with the rest of the book, it’s certainly a useful read in itself. As I say, the book covers a lot of important ground really well.