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101 UX Principles – 2nd edition
101 UX Principles – 2nd edition

101 UX Principles – 2nd edition: Actionable Solutions for Product Design Success , Second Edition

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101 UX Principles – 2nd edition

Typography

Typography helps to create a visual hierarchy that can guide users through your product in a logical and easy-to-follow manner, which can in turn help users to achieve their goals. Well-designed typography can help to give your product a more professional and polished look, which can instil trust and confidence in your users.

Don’t Use More than Two Typefaces

It’s a pretty common point of confusion, but typefaces and fonts are different things. “Proper” design professionals call them “typefaces,” while fonts are the files on the device that the software uses to display the typeface. Fonts are the paint on the palette, while the typeface is the masterpiece on the canvas.

For example, Helvetica is one of the most widely used typefaces, but a font is a particular set of glyphs within that font family: for example, Helvetica Condensed Bold, 10pt.

Regardless, too often designers add too many typefaces to their products. You should aim to use two typefaces maximum: one for headings and titles, and another for body copy that is intended to be read in depth.

Use weights and italics within that font family for emphasis—rather than switching to another family. Typically, this means using your corporate brand font as the heading, while leaving the controls...

Users Already Have Fonts on Their Computers, So Use Them

Yes, your corporate brand font is lovely. It’s so playful and charming but it delays the web page display by 4 seconds as the font needs to be downloaded from the server and rendered—and nothing appears until it loads—driving your users crazy.

Including custom display fonts for headings and titles is fine; it helps to brand the product and adds some visual interest. However, using custom fonts for body copy is generally a bad idea.

First of all, these fonts have to be loaded from somewhere, whether it’s Google Fonts, Typekit, or your own content delivery network (CDN). This means that there is an overhead in getting the font files down to the user’s machine. Content-heavy pages will often break while the correct fonts are downloaded and rendered—the dreaded Flash of unstyled content or Flash of unstyled text.

Secondly, if, by specifying wild and wonderful body copy...

Use Type Size and Weight to Depict an Information Hierarchy

This is a simple, but effective, method for organizing your views and making them instantly understandable for a wide range of users. Let’s look at an example of how not to do this in an imagined “Calendar” app user interface:

Figure 10.1: This example shows all the type in the pop-over at the same size and weight

Simply by altering the type size by a noticeable factor, we can show the user the most relevant information first:

Figure 10.2: This example shows how using different type sizes (or weights) can help differentiate information

Scale up the information that you want users to see first, or that you think they’ll find most useful, and they can read on further for extra detail.

Another option is to use type weight instead of scale, as in this example. Using a selection of bold, regular, and light typefaces has a similar effect to altering type size, but reduces...

Use a Sensible Default Size for Body Copy

Your customers will be reading a lot of text across your app or site, so how big should the type be?

The days of fixed-size type are long gone. Most browsers on desktop and mobile will let users scale type up and down, switch into “reading mode,” and apply system-wide accessibility settings, like large type and high-contrast colors.

With that in mind, all you’re doing here is setting the default type size that appears when the product is first opened. Ideally, the type should be big enough to be readable, but not so big as to overwhelm the user or take up too much space in a crowded view.

Body copy in 16px, with a 1.5 line height and “auto” or “default” character spacing, is usually a safe bet and a good default for the vast majority of your users.

This can be achieved easily with the following CSS:

body {
    font-size: 16px;
    line-height: 1.5;
}

Trying to set your...

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Key benefits

  • Browse over 20 years of collected UX insights
  • Challenge your own ideas on UX
  • Join the online community of UX professionals and learn with the experts

Description

“This updated version of 101 UX Principles is a delight. It's an educational and fun provocation to look at the world of UX differently – solidly from the user's point of view." -Elizabeth Churchill, Director of User Experience, Google “A phenomenal reference guide. Complete with case studies, a record of personal experience, and visual examples, Grant makes it clear why these techniques have found their way into the canon of UX best practices.” -Jeff Gothelf, Author of Lean UX “..I recommend it to anyone looking to learn the basics and also for more experienced designers - the author’s candid opinions will force you to revisit some of your established assumptions!" -Anne Marie-Leger, Staff Product Designer, Shopify “An absolute must-read, not only for UX designers, but this book is also super relevant for product managers trying to get better at product usability. Two enthusiastic thumbs up!" -Trent Blakely, Sr. Product Manager, Equinix This book is a manifesto of UX/UI design best practices to help you put the focus back on what really matters: the user. From UX laws to practical UI, color, typography, and accessibility advice, it’s all packed into this easy-to-consult and fun read: Essential UX laws Handy best practices Snippets of technical knowledge for anyone who wants to work in the digital space 101 UX Principles demonstrates the success from best-in-class products and leads the way to delight your users. Keep it on your desk for quick reference, send as a gift to colleagues to build allies, or brandish it as your weapon of choice during meetings to fight for your users’ right to a better digital experience. Sneak a peek at some of the new and updated principles in this UX design book: Work with user expectations, not against them Make interactive elements obvious and discoverable Optimize your interface for mobile Streamline creating and entering passwords Respect users' time and effort in your forms Use animation with care in user interfaces How to handle destructive user actions Chatbots are usually a bad idea – and how to make them better Use A/B testing to test your ideas Let users give feedback, but don't hassle them Make it clear to users if they're joining or signing-in Only use modal views for blocking actions How complexity can be good for some users

Who is this book for?

This book is a distillation of Will's 20+ years of experience in the form of successful design principles to help early career UX designers learn the ropes and provide experienced professionals with new ideas when building their products. UX/UI designers, product managers, entrepreneurs, aspiring strategists, and anyone creating a digital product, service or a campaign will find this book extremely useful.

What you will learn

  • Work with user expectations, not against them
  • Make interactive elements obvious and discoverable
  • Optimize your interface for mobile
  • Streamline creating and entering passwords
  • Use animation with care in user interfaces
  • How to handle destructive user actions

Product Details

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Publication date, Length, Edition, Language, ISBN-13
Publication date : May 20, 2022
Length: 454 pages
Edition : 2nd
Language : English
ISBN-13 : 9781803230511

What do you get with eBook?

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Product feature icon AI Assistant (beta) to help accelerate your learning

Product Details

Publication date : May 20, 2022
Length: 454 pages
Edition : 2nd
Language : English
ISBN-13 : 9781803230511

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Table of Contents

17 Chapters
UX Field Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Typography Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Controls Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Content Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Navigation Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Iconography Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Input Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Forms Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
User Data Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Progress Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Accessible Design Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Journeys and State Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Terminology Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Expectations Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
UX Philosophy Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Other Books You May Enjoy Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Index Chevron down icon Chevron up icon

Customer reviews

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Rating distribution
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Half star icon 4.7
(60 Ratings)
5 star 80%
4 star 15%
3 star 3.3%
2 star 1.7%
1 star 0%
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Matthew Dalley May 25, 2023
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The best part of this book is the different sections to help aid your work when you run into some sort of a block. It’s written easy enough to read one principle a day if you want or just skim through to find the principle you’ve been looking for.
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Rajdeep Majumder Mar 27, 2023
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Excellent book which teach fellow UXers on each every principles that are applicable in UX field, be it for the users or for the organization. Must read for those in UX field. Would surely be left with great insight.
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Amar Aug 20, 2023
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"101 UX Rules" is the best and most insightful way in the world of user experience (UX) design. Written by industry expert, this comprehensive guide provides a wealth of content, concepts and best practices that form the foundation for creating exceptional digital experiences. Whether you're an experienced user or a beginner who just wants to learn the basics, this book is accessible and practical for a wide audience.This book is well organized and divided into chapters covering a variety of topics for user experience building. Every principle is explained clearly and concisely, from understanding user needs and research to creating simple communication and improving usability.The author has established the best balance between theoretical and practical ideas, making it easier for readers to absorb and apply the knowledge.
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Cla Jun 23, 2022
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Highly recommended to any UX and product designer, at any stage of your career. You can read it chronologically from start to finish, having a general overview of the best practices. Afterwards, it's still going to be a great reference book to consult on specific points to validate or double-check your UX and interaction patterns.
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Michael Oct 26, 2022
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I like that this book is written with the beginner in mind; it's easy to follow and understand. I also think it's a great refresher tool, there were certainly some things that I had forgotten about and it was good to be reminded of them. The learning points are a great summary to a lesson. This book, possibly combined with a boot camp would help out a lot of people trying to break into UX.
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