Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

Web designers are no longer just web designers. To create a successful web product that's as large as Etsy, Facebook, Twitter, or Pinterest-or even as small as a tiny app-you need to know more than just HTML and CSS. You need to understand how to create meaningful online experiences so that users want to come back again and again.

In other words, you have to stop thinking like a web designer or a visual designer or a UX designer or an interaction designer and start thinking like a product designer.

In this breakthrough introduction to modern product design, Etsy Creative Director Randy Hunt explains the skills, processes, types of tools, and recommended workflows for creating world-class web products. After reading this book, you'll have a complete understanding of what product design really is and you'll be equipped with the best practices necessary for building your own successful online products.

Table of contents provided by Syndetics

• Foreword
• Introduction
• Section 1 On Product Design
• Chapter 1 What Is Product Design?
• Chapter 2 The Jobs To Be Done
• Section 2 Think Like A Product Designer
• Chapter 3 Story first
• Chapter 4 No dead ends
• Chapter 5 Feedback loops
• Chapter 6 Remember the invisible features
• Chapter 7 Effective over clever
• Chapter 8 Carrots, not sticks
• Chapter 9 Ship early. Ship often
• Chapter 10 Rinse and repeat
• Chapter 11 People matter most
• Chapter 12 The product is never done
• Section 3 Get it built
• Chapter 13 Change and happiness
• Chapter 14 The design process
• Chapter 15 Use whatever works
• Chapter 16 Listen and Learn
• Chapter 17 Design Together

Reviews provided by Syndetics

CHOICE Review

This book is about software (product) design--what is involved in designing web apps and how the process works. The book's 15 chapters are divided into four sections: "On Product Design," "Think like a Product Designer," "Get It Built," and "The Product Is Never Done." Hunt (creative director, Etsy) shares his knowledge and experience in an easily understood manner. He stresses the need for continual refinement and improvement based on actual feedback. Hunt also distinguishes between websites (mostly static, like brochures) and web products (a participative experience compelling site visitors to return again and again). This meshes well with the emerging concept of web apps--websites with a focused purpose that are part of a much more complex ecosystem. The main emphasis of the book is user experience (UX, UI, and all the related terms). Readers are encouraged to "lead with the narrative of your product, and never stop telling it." The author stresses the importance of the web product experience (emphasizing the use of effective rather than clever wording). The numerous examples provided illustrate what works and what does not. This is a useful resource for both novices and experienced web product developers. Summing Up: Recommended. Students of all levels; professionals/practitioners. M. B. DuBois Illinois Central College