What I’ve been reading
1. Sketching User Experiences, by Bill Buxton. I first learned about Buxton after I saw his MIX10 keynote (highest-rated). This book has thought-provoking examples about the importance of integrating design within the business model, and throughout the product life cycle.
2. The Design of Everyday Things, by Donald Norman. A wonderful take on everyday things that also applies to software, this book will make you look at things in a different way—why they don’t work and ways to improve their design. Norman, a cognitive scientist by profession, knows how both machines and people work, how to bridge the gulf between the human mind and the devices used. If you design or use devices for use by humans, then this book is a must-read.
3. About face 2.0: The Essentials of Interaction Design, by Alan Cooper and Robert Riemann. The key take-away is goal-directed design, as opposed to designing for tasks. Version 3.0 includes tools for designing desktop apps, web 2.0 sites, and mobile devices.
4. The Dispossessed, by Ursula K. Le Guin. Not so much sci-fi as her other book The Left Hand of Darkness, but still a good read after a full day of immersing myself in design research. It’s more a political/socio-economic satire that compares two fictional utopian/dystopian worlds Anarres/Urras (switch the two depending on your perspective). Le Guin’s skill as a writer is apparent because it is not obvious which world she’s advocating, and she has set up the challenge for you, the reader, to decide. Readers of a more philosophical bent will enjoy this more than sci-fi fans.
