Today many companies are employing a user-centered design (UCD) process, but for most companies, usability begins and ends with the usability test. Although usability testing is a critical part of an effective user-centered life cycle, it is only one component of the UCD process. This book is focused on the requirements gathering stage, which often receives less attention than usability testing, but is equally as important. Understanding user requirements is critical to the development of a successful product.

Understanding Your Users is an easy to read, easy to implement, how-to guide on usability in the real world. It focuses on the “user requirements gathering” stage of product development and it provides a variety of techniques, many of which may be new to usability professionals. For each technique, readers will learn how to prepare for and conduct the activity, as well as analyze and present the data -all in a practical and hands-on way. In addition, each method prese… More >>

Understanding Your Users: A Practical Guide to User Requirements Methods, Tools, and Techniques

“The Flexible AC Transmission System (FACTS) — a new technology based on power electronics — offers an opportunity to enhance controllability, stability, and power transfer capability of AC transmission systems. Pioneers in FACTS and leading world experts in power electronics applications Narain G. Hingorani and Laszlo Gyugyi have teamed together to bring you the definitive book on FACTS technology. Hingorani and Gyugyi present a practical approach to FACTS that will enable electrical engineers working in the power industry to understand the principles underlying this advanced system. UNDERSTANDING FACTS will also enhance expertise in equipment specifications and engineering design, offering an informed view of the future of power electronics in AC transmission systems. This comprehensive reference book provides an in-depth look at:Power semiconductor devicesVoltage-sourced and current-sourced convertersSpecific FACTS controllers including SVC, STATCOM, TCSC, SSSC, UPFC… More >>

Understanding FACTS: Concepts and Technology of Flexible AC Transmission Systems

How are you affected by the media that surrounds you every day? Do you understand how technology works, develops and changes over time? What can you do to use the media more effectively? How can you make the media responsive to you? MEDIA NOW is the first mass communication text to encourage critical thinking about the media and its effects on culture while providing a thorough understanding of how the media technologies develop, operate, converge, and affect our greater society. Unlike other introductory mass communication books, MEDIA NOW prepares you for a career in the expanded field of telecommunications, interactive media, and traditional media industries. MEDIA NOW provides you with a book that will teach you the foundational theories, concepts, and technical knowledge to help you thrive in your chosen career. It has “news you can use” that will guide you to impact the media as much as they impact you…. More >>

Media Now: Understanding Media, Culture, and Technology, 2008 Update

UNDERSTANDING FOOD SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY is a comprehensive introductory level text that provides thorough up-to-date coverage of a broad range of topics in food science and technology. The text begins with an explanation of the interdisciplinary nature of food science (including biology, engineering, chemistry, and physics) and describes avenues of advanced study in the field. The text explores key food commodities and food composition with an emphasis on the functional properties of each commodity. Three chapters on food chemistry cover the chemical and physical properties of foods through the use of many easy to understand figures, tables, and illustrated concepts. Next the text includes an overview of food law that provides historical perspective as well as the latest information on nutrition labeling and food regulation. Thorough coverage of processing methods in included in all major food commodities as well as a background in microbiology and fermentation, food handling an… More >>

Understanding Food Science and Technology

Teaching for Understanding with Technology is part of the “Teaching for Understanding” project at Harvard University. It focuses on using new technologies to enhance the learning experience. Teachers will learn how they can access online curricula resources, web information, and professional networks to research topics to teach, set short- and long-term learning goals, create assignments, and assess student understanding. … More >>

Teaching for Understanding with Technology

Understanding Wine Technology was originally written for students of the diploma examination of the Wines & Spirits Education Trust in the United Kingdom, and the Master of Wine examination as set by the Institute of Masters of Wine. However, this is the only book to explain the complexities of the science and technology of wine in simple terms, and therefore fills a gap in the large market of wine information by making wine’s technical mysteries accessible to those with no scientific education. This new edition brings the literature up-to-date, relaying in its plainspoken tradition the recent advances in wine science and technology. The topics covered range from the secrets of the vineyard, the processing of grapes to produce juice, the intricacies of fermentation, stabilization of the resulting wine, treatments, quality control and quality assurance, and bottling…. More >>

Understanding Wine Technology: The Science of Wine Explained, New Edition