Contextual Design : A Customer-Centered Approach to Systems Designs (Interactive Technologies) | 
 enlarge | Authors: Hugh Beyer, Karen Holtzblatt
Publisher: Morgan Kaufmann
Category: Book
List Price: $74.95
Buy New: $60.38
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Avg. Customer Rating:  12 reviews
Sales Rank: 304151
Media: Paperback
Edition: 1st
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 496
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.9
Dimensions (in): 9 x 7.2 x 1
ISBN: 1558604111
Dewey Decimal Number: 004.21
EAN: 9781558604117
ASIN: 1558604111
Publication Date: September 1, 1997
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Shipping: International shipping available
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| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.com Review
There's certainly no shortage of software design methods: most demand total allegiance, and many claim to be the only true way to delivering useful and maintainable software systems in a timely manner. Contextual Design describes another worthwhile software engineering method, one that places the user (or customer) at the forefront of the software design process from beginning to end. This method seems to be a particularly worthwhile addition to the literature. Contextual Design begins with contextual inquiry, where software developers interview users and attempt to understand the way they work. Such "customer empathy" is central to the Contextual Design process and a total understanding of "work" within organizations is the mantra here. The book describes how, later in the process, software developers step back from the user data and do an "affinity," which is an overall analysis of hundreds (or even thousands) of individual facts. Contextual Design then explains the additional steps required to build systems using this method, including building models for flow, sequence, and artifacts, and establishing the cultural and the physical environments for a system. After getting an overview, developers consolidate these initial models, get more user input, and then design user interfaces. This book, written in a clear, informal style without excessive jargon, reads very much like a book on business motivation. Various practitioners of Contextual Design offer short testimonials on the software design method.
Product Description
This book introduces a customer-centered approach to business by showing how data gathered from people while they work can drive the definition of a product or process while supporting the needs of teams and their organizations. This is a practical, hands-on guide for anyone trying to design systems that reflect the way customers want to do their work. The authors developed Contextual Design, the method discussed here, through their work with teams struggling to design products and internal systems. In this book, you'll find the underlying principles of the method and how to apply them to different problems, constraints, and organizational situations.
Contextual Design enables you to
+ gather detailed data about how people work and use systems
+ develop a coherent picture of a whole customer population
+ generate systems designs from a knowledge of customer work
+ diagram a set of existing systems, showing their relationships, inconsistencies, redundancies, and omissions
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| Customer Reviews: Read 7 more reviews...
 Great methodology- for some things. February 6, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
This book is not the end-all be-all methodology for software design. Infact, the authors aren't really suggesting anything new, other than providing a framework within which to assess what they learn through observation and inquiry. And they are a bit redundant in the presentation.
While I might recommend contextual inquiry to developers and analysts as it is presented here, I most certainly wouldn't recommend their design process. It has many holes and there are better ways to complete the process.
 In how many ways can you say it... April 27, 2007
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
If you've got a memory like a gold fish this might be a great book. For others this book is likely to be repetative to the extreme. Half of the pages could easily be cut out. The same message gets repeated over and over again. Many of the ideas are great but.. for many people out there time is a limiting factor, thats my largest issue with both the book and the method in general.
Techniques requirement May 13, 2004
1 out of 27 found this review helpful
This book provided a method to gather requirement efficiently but the rest of the method should be revised.
 Great book, right price February 14, 2002
6 out of 7 found this review helpful
Beyer & Holtzblatt have done an excellent job describing the process of contextual design. I'm currently implementing a new company-wide business process, in conjunction with co-workers, and thought it would simply be a good idea to both refresh my memory, gather ideas, and form concepts that would be helpful in the organizational design process. This book has undoubtedly served the purposes I've wanted it to. Again, excellent book - worth the buy.
Useless November 27, 2001
11 out of 31 found this review helpful
This is quite a useless book about an otherwise interesting subject. The writers give redundancy and repetition new meaning as they repeat themselves by saying the same thing over and over innumerable ways. That said, the examples scattered throughout the text are the most interesting part.
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