Global UX - Design and Research in a Connected World

The rise of network-based, automated services in the past decade has definitely changed the way businesses operate, but not always for the better. Offering services, conducting transactions and moving data on the Web opens new opportunities, but many CTOs and CIOs are more concerned with the risks. Like the rulers of medieval cities, they've adopted a siege mentality, building walls to keep the bad guys out. It makes for a secure perimeter, but hampers the flow of commerce.

Fortunately, some corporations are beginning to rethink how they provide security, so that interactions with customers, employees, partners, and suppliers will be richer and more flexible. Digital Identity explains how to go about it. This book details an important concept known as "identity management architecture" (IMA): a method to provide ample protection while giving good guys access to vital information and systems. In today's service-oriented economy, digital identity is everything. IMA is a coherent, enterprise-wide set of standards, policies, certifications and management activities that enable companies like yours to manage digital identity effectively--not just as a security check, but as a way to extend services and pinpoint the needs of customers.

Author Phil Windley likens IMA to good city planning. Cities define uses and design standards to ensure that buildings and city services are consistent and workable. Within that context, individual buildings--or system architectures--function as part of the overall plan. With Windley's experience as VP of product development for Excite@Home.com and CIO of Governor Michael Leavitt's administration in Utah, he provides a rich, real-world view of the concepts, issues, and technologies behind identity management architecture.

How does digital identity increase business opportunity? Windley's favorite example is the ATM machine. With ATMs, banks can now offer around-the-clock service, serve more customers simultaneously, and do it in a variety of new locations. This fascinating book shows CIOs, other IT professionals, product managers, and programmers how security planning can support business goals and opportunities, rather than holding them at bay.

Do you really understand your online presence? Are you confident that visitors can use your website? Do you know their motivations? How do online communities perceive your company? To innovate and adapt your business quickly, you must know the answers to these questions.

Complete Web Monitoring demonstrates how to measure every aspect of your web presence -- including analytics, backend performance, usability, communities, customer feedback, and competitive analysis -- whether you're running an e-commerce site, a community, a media property, or a Software-as-a-Service company. This book's concrete examples, clear explanations, and practical recommendations make it essential for anyone who runs a website.

With this book you will:

• Discover how visitors use and interact with your site through web analytics, segmentation, conversions, and user interaction analysis
• Find out your market's motivations with voice-of-the-customer research
• Measure the health and availability of your website with synthetic testing and real-user monitoring
• Track communities related to your online presence, including social networks, forums, blogs, microblogs, wikis, and social news aggregators
• Understand how to assemble this data into clear reports tailored to your organization and audience

You can't fix what you don't measure. Complete Web Monitoring shows you how to transform missed opportunities, frustrated users, and spiraling costs into online success.

"This is a very comprehensive view of just about everything one needs to know about how websites work and what one needs to know about them. I'd like to make this book required reading for every employee at Gomez." -- Imad Mouline, CTO of Gomez

Want to learn how to create great user experiences on today's Web? In this book, UI experts Bill Scott and Theresa Neil present more than 75 design patterns for building web interfaces that provide rich interaction. Distilled from the authors' years of experience at Sabre, Yahoo!, and Netflix, these best practices are grouped into six key principles to help you take advantage of the web technologies available today. With an entire section devoted to each design principle, Designing Web Interfaces helps you:

• Make It Direct-Edit content in context with design patterns for In Page Editing, Drag & Drop, and Direct Selection
• Keep It Lightweight-Reduce the effort required to interact with a site by using In Context Tools to leave a "light footprint"
• Stay on the Page-Keep visitors on a page with overlays, inlays, dynamic content, and in-page flow patterns
• Provide an Invitation-Help visitors discover site features with invitations that cue them to the next level of interaction
• Use Transitions-Learn when, why, and how to use animations, cinematic effects, and other transitions
• React Immediately-Provide a rich experience by using lively responses such as Live Search, Live Suggest, Live Previews, and more

Designing Web Interfaces illustrates many patterns with examples from working websites. If you need to build or renovate a website to be truly interactive, this book gives you the principles for success.