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User-Driven Applications for Research and Science: Building Programs for Fields with Open Scenarios and Unpredictable User Actions
by Sergey AndreyevBuild programs that give users full control of their applications in order to meet end users' unique needs and scenarios. Over the last couple of decades, there has been an ongoing quandary in the developer world. Developers are enlisted to build applications to meet users’ demands; users get applications that meet the criteria from the developers’ point of view, but they are far from what the users envisioned. The difference is often wide and nearly catastrophic in fields where users’ actions are nearly impossible to predict, such as science, research work, financial analysis, and others. End users get frustrated with the applications because they were not built with their use cases in mind. For a long time, it was assumed that the developers who created the code should drive their programs and be responsible for all scenarios. While generally not an issue in simple programs, this view is wrong for complex applications in the field of science. These end users are the best specialists in their respective fields and need applications to work beyond the scenarios prepared and allowed for by developers.This book teaches you methods to manage your applications in a way that gives control to your target end users. You will learn proven methods using an easy and predictable instrument, the all-powerful algorithm, to create objects that are movable and re-sizable by users.Get ready to learn by example, using an algorithm of total movability and experience, implemented in different situations. You will begin with the simplest code examples and work your way up to real, complicated programs applicable in STEM fields.What You Will Learn Pass the control of your programs from developers to end usersUnderstand that the most valuable result is not the algorithm itself, but the consequence of using itBuild user-driven applications that include total movability of screen elementsSee concepts applied in real situations and scenariosBe exposed to well-known programs and tasks for developing user-driven applicationsAccess accompanying code written in C# and available on GitHub Who This Book Is ForDevelopers who want to write or design programs that give their target end users full control over their application
User-Driven Cross-Border E-Commerce Platform Competition and Policy Analysis (Advanced Studies in E-Commerce)
by Li Xiong Houcai WangThis book constructs a four-dimensional driving model for customer perception of cross-border e-commerce retail imports from a consumer perspective, and constructs a secondary indicator of the four-dimensional driving model for customer perception of cross-border e-commerce retail imports based on product and service theme attributes. It studies the competitive advantages of importing cross-border e-commerce from the perspectives of platform enterprises and users. At the same time, by constructing a research model for evaluating cross-border e-commerce policies, the book analyzes the internal logic and evolution laws of China's cross-border e-commerce policy texts, evaluates the effectiveness of the implementation of policies in the comprehensive experimental zone for cross-border e-commerce, and studies the impact mechanism of environmental factors on policy implementation. This will help readers further understand the implementation of cross-border e-commerce policies and comparethe differences in policy implementation among different comprehensive experimental zones. Improving the accuracy of policy formulation and optimizing and improving the cross-border e-commerce policy system have important theoretical significance and practical value in promoting China's foreign economic development.The translation was done with the help of artificial intelligence. A subsequent human revision was done primarily in terms of content.
User Error: Resisting Computer Culture
by Ellen RoseUser Error explodes the myth of computer technology as juggernaut. Multimedia educator Ellen Rose shows that there is no bandwagon, no out-of-control dynamo, no titanic conspiracy to overwhelm us. Instead, there is our own desire to join the fraternity of users, a fraternity that confers legitimacy and power on those who enter the brave new world. Rose exposes how we surrender decision-making power in personal and workplace computing situations. As users we willingly grant authority to the creators of software, support materials, and the seductive infrastructure of technocracy. “Smart” users are rewarded; reluctant users are pathologized. User identity is deliberately constructed at the crossroads of industry, consumer demand, and complicity. User Error sounds a timely alarm, calling on all of us who use the new technologies to recognize how we are being co-opted. With awareness we can reassert our own responsibility and power in this increasingly important interaction. Savvy, accessible, and up-to-date, User Error offers insight, inspiration, and strategies of resistance to general readers, technology professionals, students, and scholars alike.
User Experience Design: An Introduction to Creating Interactive Digital Spaces
by Mark Wells'A great introduction to the subject and a fascinating read.'- James Friedlander-Boss, Brand Experience Manager, vvastWe all engage with digital user experience design and user interfaces every day - if you are reading this on an e-commerce platform then you are doing it right now. This is an invaluable introduction for designers and creatives on how to create successful digital environments for users.The discipline of graphic design is increasingly carried out in the virtual sphere, with a greater emphasis on user interaction and user experience than ever before. This book takes students through the crucial stages and skills that are needed for creating successful interactive digital environments, including:- Data collection- User analysis - Testing- Creating valid content- Design for different devices and platforms- Prototyping and visualizationVisual examples range from screen shots to diagrams and physical prototypes, while case studies featuring digital agencies and creatives from around the world show how they approach each project.
User Experience Design: An Introduction to Creating Interactive Digital Spaces
by Mark Wells'A great introduction to the subject and a fascinating read.'- James Friedlander-Boss, Brand Experience Manager, vvastWe all engage with digital user experience design and user interfaces every day - if you are reading this on an e-commerce platform then you are doing it right now. This is an invaluable introduction for designers and creatives on how to create successful digital environments for users.The discipline of graphic design is increasingly carried out in the virtual sphere, with a greater emphasis on user interaction and user experience than ever before. This book takes students through the crucial stages and skills that are needed for creating successful interactive digital environments, including:- Data collection- User analysis - Testing- Creating valid content- Design for different devices and platforms- Prototyping and visualizationVisual examples range from screen shots to diagrams and physical prototypes, while case studies featuring digital agencies and creatives from around the world show how they approach each project.
User Experience Design in the Era of Automated Driving (Studies in Computational Intelligence #980)
by Andreas Riener Myounghoon Jeon Ignacio AlvarezThis book is dedicated to user experience design for automated driving to address humane aspects of automated driving, e.g., workload, safety, trust, ethics, and acceptance. Automated driving has experienced a major development boost in recent years. However, most of the research and implementation has been technology-driven, rather than human-centered. The levels of automated driving have been poorly defined and inconsistently used. A variety of application scenarios and restrictions has been ambiguous. Also, it deals with human factors, design practices and methods, as well as applications, such as multimodal infotainment, virtual reality, augmented reality, and interactions in and outside users. This book aims at 1) providing engineers, designers, and practitioners with a broad overview of the state-of-the-art user experience research in automated driving to speed-up the implementation of automated vehicles and 2) helping researchers and students benefit from various perspectives and approaches to generate new research ideas and conduct more integrated research.
User Experience Is Brand Experience: The Psychology Behind Successful Digital Products and Services (Management for Professionals)
by Felix van de Sand Anna-Katharina Frison Pamela Zotz Andreas Riener Katharina HollThis book offers a new method for aligning brand management and user experience goals. Brand management deals with conveying individual brand values at all marketing contact points, the goal being to reach the target group and boost customer retention. In this regard, it is important to consider the uniqueness of each brand and its identity so as to design pleasurable and high-quality user experiences. Combining insights from science and practice, the authors present a strategy for using interaction patterns, visual appearance, and animations to validate the actual brand values that are experienced by users while interacting with a digital product. Further, they introduce a 'UX identity scale' by assigning brand values to UX related psychological needs. The method applied is subsequently backed by theoretical concepts and illustrated with practical examples and case studies on real-world mobile applications.
User Experience Mapping
by Peter W. SzaboUnderstand your users, gain strategic insights, and make your product development more efficient with user experience mapping About This Book • Detailed guidance on the major types of User Experience Maps. • Learn to gain strategic insights and improve communication with stakeholders . • Get an idea on creating wireflows, mental model maps, ecosystem maps and solution maps Who This Book Is For This book is for Product Manager, Service Managers and Designers who are keen on learning the user experience mapping techniques. What You Will Learn • Create and understand all common user experience map types. • Use lab or remote user research to create maps and understand users better. • Design behavioral change and represent it visually. • Create 4D user experience maps, the “ultimate UX deliverable”. • Capture many levels of interaction in a holistic view. • Use experience mapping in an agile team, and learn how maps help in communicating within the team and with stakeholders. • Become more user focused and help your organisation become user-centric. In Detail Do you want to create better products and innovative solutions? User Experience Maps will help you understand users, gain strategic insights and improve communication with stakeholders. Maps can also champion user-centricity within the organisation. Two advanced mapping techniques will be revealed for the first time in print, the behavioural change map and the 4D UX map. You will also explore user story maps, task models and journey maps. You will create wireflows, mental model maps, ecosystem maps and solution maps. In this book, the author will show you how to use insights from real users to create and improve your maps and your product. The book describes each major User Experience map type in detail. Starting with simple techniques based on sticky notes moving to more complex map types. In each chapter, you will solve a real-world problem with a map. The book contains detailed, beginner level tutorials on creating maps using different software products, including Adobe Illustrator, Balsamiq Mockups, Axure RP or Microsoft Word. Even if you don't have access to any of those, each map type can also be drawn with pen and paper. Beyond creating maps, the book will also showcase communication techniques and workshop ideas. Although the book is not intended to be a comprehensive guide to modern user experience or product management, its novel ideas can help you create better solutions. You will also learn about the Kaizen-UX management framework, developed by the author, now used by many agencies and in-house UX teams in Europe and beyond. Buying this map will give you hundreds of hours worth of user experience knowledge, from one of the world's leading UX consultants. It will change your users' world for the better. If you are still not convinced, we have hidden some cat drawings in it, just in case. Style and approach An easy to understand guide, filled with real world use cases on how to plan, prioritize and visualize your project on customer experience
User Experience Methods and Tools in Human-Computer Interaction
by Gavriel Salvendy Constantine StephanidisThis book covers user experience methods and tools in designing user‑friendly products and servicesby encompassing widely utilized successful methods, including elicitation, analysis and establishment of requirements, collaborative idea generation with design teams and intended users, prototype testing and evaluation of the user experience through empirical and non‑empirical means.This book• Provides methods and tools tailored for each stage of the design process.• Discusses methods for the active involvement of users in the human‑centered design process.• Equips readers with an effective toolset for use throughout the design process, ensuring that what is created aligns with user needs and desires.• Covers a wide array of research and evaluation methods employed in HCI, from the initiation of the human‑centered development cycle to its culmination.This book is a fascinating read for individuals interested in Human-Computer Interaction research and applications.
User Experience Research and Usability of Health Information Technology
by Jessica Lynn CampbellHealth information technology (HIT) is a critical component of the modern healthcare system. Yet to be effective and safely implemented in healthcare organizations and physicians and patients’ lives, it must be usable and useful. User Experience (UX) research is required throughout the full system design lifecycle of HIT products, which involve a user-centered and human- centered approach. This book discusses UX research frameworks, study designs, methods, data-analysis techniques, and a variety of data collection instruments and tools that can be used to conduct UX research in the healthcare space, all of which involve HIT and digital health. This book is for academics and scholars to be used to design studies for graduate dissertation work, in independent research, or as a textbook for UX/usability courses in health informatics or related health information and communication courses. This book is also useful for UX practitioners because it provides guidance on how to design a user research or usability study and focuses on leveraging a mixed- methods approach, including step-by-step by instructions and best practices for conducting: Field studies Interviews Focus groups Diary studies Surveys Heuristic evaluation Cognitive walkthrough Think aloud A plethora of standardized surveys and retrospective questionnaires (SUS, Post-study System Usability Questionnaire (PSSUQ)) are also included. UX researchers and healthcare professionals will gain an understanding of how to design a rigorous, yet feasible study that generates useful insights to inform the design of usable HIT. Everything from consent forms to how many participants to include in a usability study has been covered in this book. The author encourages user-centered design (UCD), mixed-methods, and collaboration amongst interdisciplinary teams. Knowledge from many inter-related disciplines, like psychology, technical communication (TC), and human-computer interaction (HCI), together with experiential knowledge from experts is offered throughout the text.
The User Experience Team of One
by Leah BuleyThe User Experience Team of One prescribes a range of approaches that have big impact and take less time and fewer resources than the standard lineup of UX deliverables. Whether you want to cross over into user experience or you're a seasoned practitioner trying to drag your organization forward, this book gives you tools and insight for doing more with less.
User-Generated Content and its Impact on Branding
by Severin DennhardtThe emergence of social media as one of the driving forces of consumers' online experiences today also challenges our current understanding on marketing and brand management. The effects of brands' social media involvement are to this day uncertain. Severin Dennhardt shows that social media and user-generated brands do have a strong influence on brands. Four independent studies demonstrate that first, successful brands can be created in virtual worlds, second, user-generated content drives the creation of unique brands, third social media strongly influences the social value perception of brands, and fourth, social media impacts consumers' purchase decision process.
User Interface Design: Bridging the Gap from User Requirements to Design
by Larry E. WoodAlthough numerous sources document aspects of user-centered design, there are few references that consider how a designer transforms the information gathered about users and their work into an effective user interface design. This book explains just how designers bridge that gap. A group of leading experts in GUI design describe their methods in the context of specific design projects, and while the projects, processes, and methods vary considerably, the common theme is building a bridge between user requirements and user interface design.
User Interface Design of Digital Textbooks
by Elena Aurel RaileanThis book is a synthesis of the complex interdependencies between user interface design of digital screen and learning process. It is analyzed the impact of digital revolution on learning, phases of digital textbooks use and development; specific features of educational system & learning environment; psycho-pedagogical characteristics of XXI students; user interface design topology; user interface design features of digital textbooks in accordance with human thinking paradigms; critical thinking of user interfaces and content (linear, systems, global and metasystems design approach). One special chapter describes innovative organizational forms of learning with digital textbooks. Metasystems learning design of digital textbooks will be of particular interest to the readers because this is an innovative approach of learning design, which proved the experimental data of the instructional dynamic and flexible strategy. It proved the practical application of didactical model of digital textbooks for chemistry and mathematics. The main benefits for reader refers on understanding the applicability of metasystems learning design for digital textbook use and development, in particular for STEM education. It takes more than analysis to help readers overcome the impact of user interface design of digital textbook on learning outcomes.
User Modeling and Adaptation for Daily Routines
by Estefanía Martín Rosa M. Carro Pablo A. HayaUser Modeling and Adaptation for Daily Routines is motivated by the need to bring attention to how people with special needs can benefit from adaptive methods and techniques in their everyday lives. Assistive technologies, adaptive systems and context-aware applications are three well-established research fields. There is, in fact, a vast amount of literature that covers HCI-related issues in each area separately. However, the contributions in the intersection of these areas have been less visible, despite the fact that such synergies may have a great impact on improving daily living. Presenting a comprehensive review of state-of-the-art practices on user modeling and adaptation for people with special needs, as well as some reflections on the challenges that need to be addressed in this direction, topics covered within this volume include the analysis, design, implementation and evaluation of adaptive systems to assist users with special needs to take decisions and fulfil daily routine activities. Particular emphasis is paid to major trends in user modeling, ubiquitous adaptive support, diagnostic and accessibility, recommender systems, social interaction, designing and building adaptive assistants for daily routines, field studies and automated evaluation. Nine leading contributors write on key current research in the domain of adaptive applications for people with special needs, integrating and summarizing findings from the best known international research groups in these areas. User Modeling and Adaptation for Daily Routines highlights how adaptation technologies can ease daily living for all, and support sustainable high-quality healthcare, demographic ageing and social/economic inclusion. highlights how adaptation technologies can ease daily living for all, and support sustainable high-quality healthcare, demographic ageing and social/economic inclusion.
User Research: A Practical Guide to Designing Better Products and Services
by Stephanie MarshMany businesses are based on creating desirable experiences, products and services for users. However in spite of this, companies often fail to consider the end user - the customer - in their planning and development processes. As a result, organizations find themselves spending huge sums of money creating products and services that, quite simply, don't work. User experience research, also known as UX research, focuses on understanding user behaviours, needs and motivations through a range of observational techniques, task analysis and other methodologies. User Research is a practical guide that shows readers how to use the vast array of user research methods available. Covering all the key research methods including face-to-face user testing, card sorting, surveys, A/B testing and many more, the book gives expert insight into the nuances, advantages and disadvantages of each, while also providing guidance on how to interpret, analyze and share the data once it has been obtained.Ultimately, User Research is about putting natural powers of observation and conversation to use in a specific way. The book isn't bogged down with small, specific, technical detail - rather, it explores the fundamentals of user research, which remain true regardless of the context in which they are applied. As such, the tools and frameworks given here can be used in any sector or industry, to improve any part of the customer journey and experience; whether that means improving software, websites, customer services, products, packaging or more.
User Research: Improve Product and Service Design and Enhance Your UX Research
by Stephanie MarshMany businesses are based on creating desirable experiences, products and services for users. However, companies often fail to consider the end user - the consumer - in their planning and development processes. How can marketing practitioners effectively understand their customers and create products and services that work for them? This book has the answers.User experience research, also known as UX research, focuses on understanding user behaviours, needs and motivations through a range of observational techniques, task analysis and other methodologies. User Research is a practical guide that shows readers how to use the vast array of user research methods available. Written by one of the UK's leading UX research professionals, readers can benefit from in-depth knowledge that explores the fundamentals of user research.Covering all the key research methods including face-to-face user testing, card sorting, surveys, A/B testing and many more, the book gives expert insight into the nuances, advantages and disadvantages of each, while also providing guidance on how to interpret, analyze and share the data once it has been obtained. Now in its second edition, User Research provides a new chapter on research operations and infrastructure as well as new material on combining user research methodologies.
User Research with Kids: How to Effectively Conduct Research with Participants Aged 3-16
by Thomas Visby SnitkerIf you are a designer, producer, marketer, or researcher creating products for children, it is essential that you are aware of the key differences between children and adults when it comes to user journeys. While children might speak the same language as adult users, what they are actually communicating can be completely different. User Research with Kids explores these differences and more. Author Thomas Visby Snitker walks you through how to best approach user research with children through the processes of conceptualization, design, prototyping, and eventually the launch. Adults who research kids’ experiences venture into a familiar yet foreign land where the inhabitants speak a different (yet familiar) language and have different behavioral norms and values. It is important for researchers to decipher and understand this language. Including children in the process will lead to better targeted and better designed products, and User Research with Kids will help you attain this goal. Snitker’s useful insights in this book will help professionals and students in all sectors of research, design, and innovation. User Research with Kids will teach you how to better work with children using key approaches, such as understanding what play is and holistically measuring experience from a child’s cognitive perspective. Apply research rigor and best practices for your next product launch, and expand your user understanding with User Research with Kids.What You Will LearnIncorporate play and best practice to a research project with kids as (or among) the participantsApproach, scope, prepare, execute, and report research projectsChoose the method and approach that is best suited for the needs of your project and stakeholdersWho This Book Is ForDesigners, producers, marketers, or researchers with kids as the audience, or students.
User Science and Engineering: 5th International Conference, i-USEr 2018, Puchong, Malaysia, August 28–30, 2018, Proceedings (Communications in Computer and Information Science #886)
by Natrah Abdullah Wan Adilah Wan Adnan Marcus FothThis book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 5th International Conference on User Science and Engineering, i-USEr 2018, held in Puchong, Malaysia, in August 2018. The 32 papers accepted for i-USEr 2018 were selected from 72 submissions with a thorough double-blind review process. The selected papers illustrate how HCI is inclusive and omnipresent within the domains of informatics, Internet of Things, Quality of Life, and others. They are organized in the following topical sections: design, UX and usability; HCI and underserved; technology and adoption; human centered computing; HCI and IT infrastructure; and HCI and analytics.
User Stories Applied: For Agile Software Development
by Mike CohnThis guide describes user stories and explains how they can be used to articulate customer programming needs. It highlights both successful and unsuccessful implementations of the concept, and discusses its application for planning, managing, and testing software development projects. Cohn is a programmer and software project manager. Annotation ©2004 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
User Story Mapping: Discover the Whole Story, Build the Right Product
by Peter Economy Jeff PattonUser story mapping is a valuable tool for software development, once you understand why and how to use it. This insightful book examines how this often misunderstood technique can help your team stay focused on users and their needs without getting lost in the enthusiasm for individual product features.Author Jeff Patton shows you how changeable story maps enable your team to hold better conversations about the project throughout the development process. Your team will learn to come away with a shared understanding of what you're attempting to build and why.Get a high-level view of story mapping, with an exercise to learn key concepts quicklyUnderstand how stories really work, and how they come to life in Agile and Lean projectsDive into a story's lifecycle, starting with opportunities and moving deeper into discoveryPrepare your stories, pay attention while they're built, and learn from those you convert to working software
User Tested: How the World's Top Companies Use Human Insight to Create Great Experiences
by Janelle Estes Andy MacMillanAn insightful discussion and practical guide on how to put customers back into the center of your business model With so many digital experiences touching our lives—and businesses—it’s understandable to feel like you’re drowning in data. There’s a dashboard or chart for just about everything, but data alone can’t help you understand and empathize with your customers. No amount of it will take you inside their heads, help you see the world through their eyes, or let you experience what it’s really like to be your customer. Only human insight from real people can do that. User Tested gives both individual contributors and executives an approachable, pragmatic playbook for stepping beyond standard business metrics and infusing real human insight into every business decision, design, and experience. In this book, you’ll: Learn how businesses became obsessed with data—but disconnected from their customers—and why that’s not sustainable Get the basics about how to capture human insight through user testing, including how to find the right people, ask the right questions, and make sense of and act on all the insights you uncover Dive into a detailed playbook that shares real-world examples of how you can collect and scale human insight across the teams in your organization—from marketing to product, and beyond Learn how to evangelize the power of human insight throughout your organization, so every department can create a culture of customer empathy and share a firsthand understanding of customer needs Find out how companies like Microsoft, AAA Club Alliance, HelloFresh, and Notre Dame’s IDEA Center solidly connect with and elicit meaningful feedback from customers in friendlier, faster, and more direct ways Perfect for any industry, User Tested: How the World's Top Companies Use Human Insight to Create Great Experiences was co-authored by the chief insights officer and the CEO of UserTesting—a SaaS company fundamentally changing the way both B2B and consumer brands find out what real people think and feel. The book reflects the authors’ commitment to helping you position the customer squarely in the center of your business model by weaving their true voices throughout your company’s decision making.
User Training for Busy Programmers
by William RiceThis book is concise and pithy, focusing on action rather than theory. While many books explore the subject of adult learning, User Training for Busy Programmers shows the reader how to apply a proven method in a systematic way enabling busy programmers to produce excellent results without adding too much to their workload. William's approach is to start in the middle and work your way outward. He based this approach on an article he wrote about how to develop user documentation. "I wrote this when I realized that my method for creating user documentation and training under tight deadlines was nothing like what I learned in school. I really expected heavy criticism from other writers and trainers when I published this article, but apparently my heresy was well-received. It's one of the most-linked-to and highest-rated articles on my website. By the time I saw the need for a book that enables non-trainers to develop software training courses, I had thoroughly developed the middle-out approach." Do you need to write a successful software training course? Are you unsure of how to start? Would you like a step-by-step project plan to guide you in the development of your software class? This book gets right to the point with clear, concise directions for developing an end-user software course.
User Unfriendly: Consumer Struggles with Personal Technologies, from Clocks and Sewing Machines to Cars and Computers
by Joseph J. CornWe’ve all been there. Seduced by the sleek designs and smart capabilities of the newest gadgets, we end up stumped by their complicated set-up instructions and exasperating error messages. In this fascinating history, Joseph J. Corn maps two centuries of consumer frustration and struggle with personal technologies.Aggravation with the new machines people adopt and live with is as old as the industrial revolution. Clocks, sewing machines, cameras, lawn mowers, bicycles, electric lights, cars, and computers: all can empower and exhilarate, but they can also exact a form of servitude. Adopters puzzle over which type and model to buy and then how to operate the device, diagnose its troubles, and meet its insatiable appetite for accessories, replacement parts, or upgrades. It intrigues Corn that we put up with the frustrations our technology thrusts upon us, battling with the unfamiliar and climbing the steep learning curves. It is this ongoing struggle, more than the uses to which we ultimately put our machines, that animates this thought-provoking study.Having extensively researched owner’s manuals, computer user-group newsletters, and how-to literature, Corn brings a fresh, consumer-oriented approach to the history of technology. User Unfriendly will be valuable to historians of technology, students of American culture, and anyone interested in our modern dependence on machines and gadgets.
A User's Guide to Business Analytics
by Ayanendranath Basu Srabashi BasuA User's Guide to Business Analytics provides a comprehensive discussion of statistical methods useful to the business analyst. Methods are developed from a fairly basic level to accommodate readers who have limited training in the theory of statistics. A substantial number of case studies and numerical illustrations using the R-software package are provided for the benefit of motivated beginners who want to get a head start in analytics as well as for experts on the job who will benefit by using this text as a reference book. The book is comprised of 12 chapters. The first chapter focuses on business analytics, along with its emergence and application, and sets up a context for the whole book. The next three chapters introduce R and provide a comprehensive discussion on descriptive analytics, including numerical data summarization and visual analytics. Chapters five through seven discuss set theory, definitions and counting rules, probability, random variables, and probability distributions, with a number of business scenario examples. These chapters lay down the foundation for predictive analytics and model building. Chapter eight deals with statistical inference and discusses the most common testing procedures. Chapters nine through twelve deal entirely with predictive analytics. The chapter on regression is quite extensive, dealing with model development and model complexity from a user’s perspective. A short chapter on tree-based methods puts forth the main application areas succinctly. The chapter on data mining is a good introduction to the most common machine learning algorithms. The last chapter highlights the role of different time series models in analytics. In all the chapters, the authors showcase a number of examples and case studies and provide guidelines to users in the analytics field.