How can you design technology that becomes a part of a user's life and not a distraction from it? This practical book explores the concept of calm technology, a method for smoothly capturing a user's attention only when necessary, while calmly remaining in the background most of the time. You'll learn how to design products that work well, launch well, are easy to support, easy to use, and remain unobtrusive. Author Amber Case presents ideas first introduced by researchers at Xerox PARC in 1995, and explains how they apply to our current technology landscape, especially the Internet of Things. This book is ideal for UX and product designers, managers, creative directors, and developers. You'll learn: The importance and challenge of designing technology that respects our attention Principles of calm design-peripheral attention, context, and ambient awareness Calm communication patterns-improving attention through a variety of senses Exercises for improving existing products through calm technology Principles and patterns of calm technology for companies and teams The origins of calm technology at Xerox PARC

Sound can profoundly impact how people interact with your product. Well-designed sounds can be exceptionally effective in conveying subtle distinctions, emotion, urgency, and information without adding visual clutter. In this practical guide, Amber Case and Aaron Day explain why sound design is critical to the success of products, environments, and experiences. Just as visual designers have a set of benchmarks and a design language to guide their work, this book provides a toolkit for the auditory experience, improving collaboration for a wide variety of stakeholders, from product developers to composers, user experience designers to architects. You’ll learn a complete process for designing, prototyping, and testing sound. In two parts, this guide includes: Past, present, and upcoming advances in sound design Principles for designing quieter products Guidelines for intelligently adding and removing sound in interactions When to use voice interfaces, how to consider personalities, and how to build a knowledge map of queries Working with brands to create unique and effective audio logos that will speak to your customers Adding information using sonification and generative audio