UXSG @ SJSU iSchool Members Book Reviews – Introduction to Design Thinking for UX Beginners

Reviewed By: Lynn Reeves
Available: Paperback and audiobook

You don’t get very far in user experience (UX) before you run into the idea of design thinking. If you have spent time in this area, you probably already have a good understanding of the basics of the design thinking process, but many of our club members, myself included, only learned about UX when introduced to it in INFO 202 and are new to this field. The book Introduction to Design Thinking for Beginners, by Uijun Park, is a quick read that helps people new to user experience understand the basics of designing a product or service with the user in mind.

What I liked:

• Succinct overview of what user experience is and why it is important.
• Clear definitions and explanations of the 5 steps of design thinking.
• Informal, conversational tone, which made for a quick read.
• Extra content, like a brief introduction to beginning design principles, information architecture, and UX as a career.
• Good examples of concepts in real life.
• Tool recommendations and websites for further learning.
• List of recommended readings at the end.

 What I found challenging:

• I wanted some parts to go more in depth on an idea or concept. The book moves quickly! 
• I would have liked to know more about the background or a brief history of design thinking.

Great Quotes:

• “Design thinking is a methodology that seeks to innovate, with the product user at the center, to solve a problem.” 
• “See failure as a learning opportunity that allows you to try another idea and solution based on the learning.”

This is a wonderful book to lay a quick foundation about design thinking and, really, about UX in general. These ideas can be applied to any product or service that a library offers to improve the user experience. For more information on design thinking, I recommend taking Professor Bell’s INFO 287: Design Thinking.