Contextual design

What Hacker News says

1. angiolilloOct 2025
   > any good resources for developing good UX for necessarily complex use cases?

   For teasing apart complex workflows I'd suggest Holtzblatt and Beyer's Contextual Design book, I taught a user-centered research and design class many years ago and used that as our textbook, hopefully it still holds up.

   For organizing complex applications I like to start with affinity diagrams, card sorts, and collaborative whiteboard sessions. And of course once you have a working prototype, spend as much time as possible quietly watching people interact with your software.

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2. tejcirkulateNov 2018
   If you're willing to put in the effort for some serious study, then try these 2 books. They worked very well for me.

   a. About Face 3 by Alan Cooper

   b. Contextual Design by Karen Holtzblatt

   These two will set you up.

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3. kentlyonsJun 2016
   Ethnographers tend to be rather hands off (/against) directly changing who they're observing. Contextual Inquiry (http://www.usabilitynet.org/tools/contextualinquiry.htm, http://www.amazon.com/Contextual-Design-Customer-Centered-In...) is a fairly light weight method and I think would benefit a lot of startups.
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4. wittysenseMay 2013
   1. [Visual Grammar](http://books.google.com/books/about/VISUAL_GRAMMAR.html?id=w...) by Christian Leborg

   2. [Emotional Design: Why We Love (or Hate) Everyday Things](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0465051359/) by Don Norman

   3. [The Elements of Typographic Style](http://www.amazon.com/Elements-Typographic-Style-Robert-Brin...) by Robert Bringhurst

   4. [Grid Systems](http://www.amazon.com/Systems-Graphic-Systeme-Visuele-Gestal...) by Josef Muller-Brockmann

   5. [Ordering Disorder: Grid Principles for Web Design](http://www.amazon.com/Ordering-Disorder-Principles-Design-Vo...) by Khoi Vinh

   6. [Why Customers Really Buy: Uncovering the Emotional Triggers That Drive Sales](http://www.amazon.com/Why-Customers-Really-Buy-Uncovering/dp...) by Linda Goodman (I've had the pleasure of meeting her and overhearing her office conversation during my daily tasks at the office in Houston, where she worked for a spell. Incredibly sharp, and it is clear that her principles exposed in this book are thorough-going in her interactions with people. I think it would be important to apply her research to Lean methodologies, building Features only around Emotional Triggers. This is what we are aiming at, but I am making this connection right now, I believe, in saying this.)

   7. [Contextual Design: Defining Customer-Centered Systems](http://www.amazon.com/Contextual-Design-Customer-Centered-In...) by Hugh Beyer, Karen Holtzblatt

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5. mrshoeOct 2010
   My favorite UX books:

   The Design of Everyday Things (http://www.amazon.com/Design-Everyday-Things-Donald-Norman/d...)

   The Humane Interface (http://www.amazon.com/Humane-Interface-Directions-Designing-...)

   Contextual Design (http://www.amazon.com/Contextual-Design-Customer-Centered-In...)

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6. andrewtbhamOct 2010
   From another recent thread: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1768358

   Favorite UX books

   The Design of Everyday Things

   The Humane Interface

   Contextual Design

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