Kevin Collamore Braun

Kevin has over 24 years of software design and development experience. The work he has done has helped improve user experiences for world-class companies including Google, Samsung, Rolex, Hyundai, Michael Kors, MIT, Harvard, Cisco Systems, Keurig, and Vermont Teddy Bear. He has also worked with industry leaders in healthcare, insurance, automotive, mobile devices, and consumer goods.


Along with his professional experience, he has more than nine years of experience teaching college level user-centered design and front-end development courses.

Who Should Read This Book

If you are a designer, developer, product owner, or student looking to get into any of these professions, this book will provide you with the methods and tools necessary to enable your teams to design and build experiences customers love and avoid the primary reasons software projects fail.

By reading this book you will learn how to use goals, strategies, and measurable objectives refined with personas, scenarios, and use cases to create useful, usable, and beautiful user experiences. This book covers both UX strategy and execution and will help your company not only improve top-line revenue by creating products users love, but also improve the bottom line by creating operational efficiencies.

I wrote this book with multiple readers in mind. It is written so that it could be read cover to cover for those who want to learn the entire process, or alternatively it can be used as a resource that readers pull off the shelf when guidance is needed on a specific topic. The key concepts are discussed multiple times in different contexts throughout the book to help ensure that all readers are exposed to the most valuable information regardless of their reading style.

Chapter 1
Make it Useful

  • What Are We Trying to Do and How Will We Know If We Did It?

Chapter 2
Make it Usable

  • Who Are We Designing This For?—Personas/User Segments
  • What Do They Need?—Scenarios
  • When Will We Design and Build It?:—The Product Roadmap

Chapter 3
Make it Beautiful

  • Scannability, Readability, Comprehension
  • Using the Inverted Pyramid Model for Content
  • Alignment and the Grid
  • Visual Hierarchy
  • Composition
  • Scope
  • The Golden Triangle
  • The F, Z, and Other Gaze Patterns
  • Gestalt Patterns
  • Color
  • Thematic Appropriateness
  • Data Visualization
  • Further Reading

Chapter 4
Make it Functional

  • Framework-itis and Code Bloat
  • Testing across Platforms, Browsers, and Devices
  • Accessibility
  • Further Reading

Chapter 5
Make It Measurable

  • FaUX
  • Analytics
  • Conversions and Micro Conversions
  • Be Curious and Analytical
  • Google Analytics
  • Mouseflow
  • Reverse Path Analysis to Understand Failure
  • Being Misled by Your Data
  • Fear of Change
  • Ease the Fear of Change with A/B Testing
  • Some Helpful Tools of the Trade
  • Further Reading

Chapter 6
Make It Better

  • Planning Your Iterations
  • Research
  • Analysis
  • Findings
  • Recommendations
  • Prioritization
  • Effort
  • Further Reading

Chapter 7
Make These Methods Work for You

  • Starting with a Greenfield Project or at a Startup
  • Understanding the Market
  • What Comes Next?
  • Working within an Established Company
  • Conclusion

Downloadable
Artifact Templates

  • Workshop Slides
  • Workshop Agenda
  • Personas and Features Matrix
  • GSOT Document
  • Expert Review
  • Heuristic Evaluation

Artifact Downloads

Below are sample artifacts from the book. If you end up using any of these and find them helpful please share a link back to this page on your social media channel of choice. My goal for this book is to help as many people as possible design and build the most useful, usable, and beautiful products. I could use your help in spreading the word.

Workshop Slides

GSOT Document

Persona / Feature Matrix

Workshop Agenda

Heuristic Evaluation

Expert Review