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Books & People
Updated: February 2, 2010
The Books & People corner of the Community section
offers lists of books on user interface and graphic design, well-known
UI people, as well as a growing selection of book reviews. On this
page we also present books and UI
and graphic design experts.
Recent Book Reviews
Brenda Laurel: Design Research
(Feb 2, 2010)
Brenda Laurel's book Design Research, Methods and
Perspectives is on the market since
2003 and still finds new readers. Our review author read
the book just
recently and was impressed by it. She felt
like providing a detailed review of the book, because she
found it extremely important for anyone in the user experience
field to read. So, have a look at the review to find out
why!
Read the
review |
Riccardo Mazza: Introduction to Information Visualization
(Dec 17, 2009)
When our author met Robert Spence briefly at the INTERACT
2009 conference in Uppsala, Sweden, Spence mentioned that there
was a good book about visualization for display at the Springer
book stand. Our author had already seen that there was "something" available
about this topic – but actually it was two books: a new
introductory book by Riccardo Mazza and a second, much more
advanced one by Chaomei Chen. The big question for him was:
Which book had Robert Spence been referring to? He decided
to buy both, and because Mazza's book is new and an introductory
textbook that "focuses on the human aspects of the process
of visualization rather than the algorithmic or graphic design
aspects," he realized that this was the book he should
have read first when initially diving into the topic of visualization.
Unfortunately, the book did not appear until this year.
Read the
review |
Graham Pullin: Design Meets Disability (Nov 20, 2009)
Graham Pullin characterizes his book Design Meets Disability as "a
book about how the worlds of design and disability could inspire
each other." In a brief intro, he uses leg splints made
from plywood and designed by Charles and Ray Eames in the 1940s,
which later influenced their famous plywood furniture designs,
to illustrate how disability can inspire design and remarks: "This
sequence of events challenges the so-called trickle down effect
whereby advances in mainstream design are expected to eventually
find their way into specialist products for people with disabilities." In
his opinion, this example of the "flow in the opposite
direction" demonstrates how "the issues around disability
catalyze new design thinking and influence a broader design
culture in return." But how can design inspire the world
of disability? Providing answers to this question is – more
or less – the focus of the book. Read the review to find
out more.
Read the review |
Book Reviews In Preparation
|
New and Recommended
Books
Hartmut Esslinger: A Fine Line – How Design Strategies
Are Shaping the Future of Business (Jan 14, 2010)
For the first time, Hartmut Esslinger, internationally acclaimed
designer and founder of frog design, inc., reveals the secrets
to better business through better design. Having spent forty
years helping build the world's most recognizable brands, Esslinger
shows how business leaders and designers can join forces to
build creative strategies that will ensure a more profitable
and sustainable future.
A Fine Line shares the amazing story of Esslinger's
transformation from industrial design wunderkind to a global
innovation powerhouse, while detailing the very real challenges
facing businesses in the new global economy. Offering companies
far more than a temporary innovation booster, Esslinger shows
how he and frog build creative design into the framework of
an organization's competitive strategy, the same approach that
has worked so well for leading edge companies such as Sony,
Louis Vuitton, Lufthansa, Disney, Hewlett-Packard, SAP, Microsoft,
and Apple. SAP employees will find two pages in the book telling
the enjoy story and a few familiar names...
(From product description, adapted)
Hartmut Esslinger (2009). A Fine Line: How Design Strategies
Are Shaping the Future of Business. Jossey-Bass • ISBN:
978-0470451021 (German version: Schwungrat: Wie Design-Strategien
die Zukunft der Wirtschaft gestalten. Wiley-VCH Verlag
GmbH • ISBN
:978-3527504923)
See the book in the book list... • Overview
of all featured books |
Todd Zaki Warfel: Prototyping – A Practitioner's Guide
(Oct 06, 2009)
Prototyping is a great way to communicate the intent of a
design both clearly and effectively. Prototypes help you to
flesh out design ideas, test assumptions, and gather real-time
feedback from users.
With this book, Todd Zaki Warfel shows how prototypes are
more than just a design tool by demonstrating how they can
help you market a product, gain internal buy-in, and test feasibility
with your development team.
(From product description)
Todd Zaki Warfel ( 2009). Prototyping – A Practitioner's
Guide. Rosenfeld Media. ISBN: 978-1933820217
See the book in the book list... • Overview
of all featured books |
Robert Schumacher: Handbook of Global User Research (Aug 05,
2009)
User research is global – yet despite its pervasiveness,
practitioners are not all well equipped to work globally. What
may have worked in Nigeria may not be accepted in Russia, may
be done differently in Brazil, may partly work in China, and
may completely fail in Kuwait. And what often goes less noticed,
but can be equally vexing are technical, logistical and planning
issues such as hiring qualified translators, payment procedures,
travel issues, setting up facilities and finding test participants.
The Handbook of Global User Research is the first
book to focus on global user research. The book collects insight
from UX professionals from nine countries and, following a
typical project timeline, presents practical insights into
the preparation, fieldwork, analysis and reporting, and overall
project management for global user research projects.
Any user experience professional that works on global projects – including
those new to the field, UX veterans who need information on
this expanding aspect of user research, and students – will
need this book to do their job effectively.
(From product description, adapted)
Robert Schumacher (2009). Handbook of Global User Research.
Morgan Kaufmann. ISBN: 978-0123748522
See the book in the book list... • Overview
of all featured books |
Featured UI & Design
People
Hartmut Esslinger (Jan 14, 2010)
Hartmut Esslinger is the founder and longtime co-CEO of frog
design, and now serves as strategic and creative advisor to
the company under the title of frog fellow. His vision has
defined frog and his work has helped to develop the modern
consumer aesthetic, through products like the Sony Trinitron
and Apple Macintosh computer. When Esslinger founded frog design
in his native Germany in 1969, his unique cultural style sparked
a design revolution, pushing industry leaders to address users'
functional and emotional needs simultaneously, and approach
that formed the cornerstone of frog design. In 1996, Esslinger
led frog design through the development of a digital media
group, extending the company's product design concepts into
the virtual world, and on into higher-level business strategy.
frog design's client list is long and includes SAP, where the
company was involved in the enjoy initiative (see philosophy
edition) that revolutionized SAP's user interface.
Esslinger is Founding Professor of the Hochschule für
Gestaltung in Karlsruhe, Germany, and Professor for Convergent
Design at the University of Applied Arts in Vienna, Austria.
His designs are in the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the
Smithsonian Institute, and Neue Sammlung, Munich. He was featured
in the German pavilion at Expo 2000 in Hannover, Germany. Esslinger
wrote several books, the newest one from 2009 is titled A
Fine Line – How Design Strategies Are Shaping the Future
of Business.
(From frog design Website, adapted)
Bio: http://www.frogdesign.com/about/management-team#hartmut-esslinger
See the data in the people
list... • Overview of
all featured people |
Kristina Höök (Nov 24, 2009)
Kristina Höök is the lab manager of the interaction lab at
SICS. She also upholds a position as Professor in Human-Machine
Interaction at Department of Computer and Systems
Sciences that belongs both to Stockholm
University and Royal Institute of Technology (KTH).
Since 1994 Höök took part in establishing the HUMLE
laboratory, first through leading one group within the lab,
and then 2000-2003 as the laboratory manager. When she was
appointed professor in 2003, she formed a new group at the
university, but kept a part-time employment at SICS. At SICS,
in October 2004, she formed a new laboratory named the Interaction
Laboratory, and now spends about half-time at SICS and half-time
at the university. Among her research topics are social navigation
and the field of affective interaction. Höök has
published over 50 scientific papers in journals and is a frequent
speaker at conferences.
(From the biography and c.v. on her homepage at SICS; adapted)
Bio: www.sics.se/~kia • C.V.: www.sics.se/~kia/cv.html
See the data in the people list... • Overview
of all featured people |
Richard Anderson (Nov 24, 2009)
Richard I. Anderson, also called Riander, is a user experience
practice, management, and organizational strategy consultant
with more than 20 years of experience. His work has spanned
multiple roles, including managing director, consultant, advisor,
facilitator, practitioner, and teacher. He offers services
in the following areas: leadership/management, mentoring/support,
or guided exploration and learning. Anderson is a frequent
speaker at conferences and maintains a blog.
In 2007, Anderson has been named Incoming Co-Editor-in-Chief
of the interactions magazine (with Jon Kolko)."
(From Website,
adapted) |
About: www.well.com/~riander/about.html
See the data in the people
list... • Overview
of all featured people |
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