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Featured Books

Updated: May 3, 2013

Here we compile the short presentations of new books from the Book & People page. The books appear in the order in which they have been presented on this Website.

See also the Books page for our book list.

 

Harri Oinas-Kukkonen & Henry Oinas-Kukkonen: Humanizing the Web – Change and Social Innovation

Cover of Humanizing the Web

The authors describe how the Web is transforming from a one-way information delivery channel to a socially rich communication vehicle, resulting in the humanizing of the Web and fulfilling the Web's original promise. They explain how the Web continues to change businesses, software design, the way we perceive people and the skills required of us. The Web's key challenges are defined as six paradoxes and its role as an innovation ecosystem is introduced, emphasizing the consideration of the social Web as a software platform, user experience, and business ecosystem.

The volume explores the challenges related to the search for Zero-to-One innovations, breakthroughs, and the key strategies for discovering these kinds of innovations for the social Web (or through the social Web for non-Web environments). It also envisions the next generation of the Web, including both transformations that are already ongoing and visible as well as new expectations.

An important message for companies and organizations is to adopt a set of core business values that will facilitate innovation processes in this future humanized Web. These business values are very humane. Finally, the authors discuss key threats and opportunities for this future.
(From the book description, adapted)

Harri Oinas-Kukkonen & Henry Oinas-Kukkonen (2013). Humanizing the Web: Change and Social Innovation. Palgrave • ISBN-10: 113730569X, ISBN-13: 978-1137305695

See the book in the book list...

 

Milan Guenther: Intersection – How Enterprise Design Bridges the Gap between Business, Technology, and People

Cover of Intersection

What Is It About? Milan Guenther's book Intersection is about applying the practice of design strategically in complex enterprise environments, consisting of an organization and the ecosystem it is embedded in. It portrays a design approach and an enterprise design framework of 20 aspects to align the overarching strategic efforts of brand identity, enterprise architecture, and experience design on a common course. The book aims to give designers, entrepreneurs, innovators, and leaders a model and a comprehensive vocabulary to tackle complex design challenges, and explains how to navigate key aspects and bridge diverging view points. Designed to help practitioners shape tomorrow's enterprises, Intersection connects design work on aspects as diverse as services, interactions, operational processes, and business models, down to tangible outcomes such as digital apps or physical buildings.

What Has This to Do with User Experience? Experience is one of the most fundamental strategic choices an organization has to face. Designing for experiences of customers, partners, staff, or other stakeholders is about defining the role the enterprise plays in the lives of people it addresses. Its offerings, services, processes, and systems are fulfilling a goal that can be expressed in experiential terms, in the ways they are transforming people's experiences. Experience design therefore is about much more than someone using a device – it touches all activities and parts of an enterprise. The enterprise design framework connects this thinking to applied design work. It brings together practices such as service design, information architecture, and interaction design, but also other aspects such as brand identity, business models, and enterprise architecture.

Is it About Theory or Practice? Although being based on some theory, Intersection attempts to be practical. In nine exemplary case studies, it explains how different organizations are applying design thinking and practice reshape their enterprise, with one example being SAP. Other case studies include Jeppesen (part of the Boeing company), Apple, BBVA, Instagram, and IKEA. Moving from strategy through conceptual design to tangible results, Intersection shows what is relevant at which point, and what expertise to involve when addressing a certain aspect or challenge.
(From the author, adapted)

Milan Guenther (2012). Intersection: How Enterprise Design Bridges the Gap between Business, Technology, and People. Morgan Kaufmann • ISBN-10: 0123884357, ISBN-13: 978-0123884350

See the book in the book list...

 

Tim Kadlec: Implementing Responsive Design – Building Sites for an Anywhere, Everywhere Web

Cover of Implementing Responsive Web Design

New devices and platforms emerge daily. Browsers iterate at a remarkable pace. Faced with this volatile landscape we can either struggle for control or we can embrace the inherent flexibility of the Web. Responsive design is not just another technique – it is the beginning of the maturation of a medium and a fundamental shift in the way we think about the Web.

Implementing Responsive Design is a discussion about how this affects the way we design, build, and think about our sites. Readers will learn how to:

  • Build responsive sites using a combination of fluid layouts, media queries and fluid media
  • Adopt a responsive workflow from the very start of a project
  • Enhance content for different devices
  • Use feature-detection and server-side enhancement to provide a richer experience

As commentators on the book Website write, responsive Web design has "evolved from its original CSS-only definition into a broader adaptive philosophy." The book addresses this broader vision, and it seems to be "the perfect book to pick up after you've read Responsive Web Design by Ethan Marcotte." It builds on the concepts that Marcotte puts forth in his book and takes the whole thing farther with lots of sidebars from other designers who are working on the various problems of responsive design.
(From book description on book Website, adapted)

Tim Kadlec (2012). Implementing Responsive Design: Building Sites for an Anywhere, Everywhere Web. New Riders • ISBN-10: 0321821688, ISBN-13: 978-0321821683

See the book in the book list...

 

Hunter Whitney: Data Insights – New Ways to Visualize and Make Sense of Data

Cover of Data Insights

Data Insights offers multi-disciplinary perspectives and useful information about how visualizations can open your eyes to data. This book takes a conversational approach to presenting an overview of the subject, while also focusing on key details. It highlights the ideas and work of a variety of people who are actively contributing to this still emerging field. Case studies from business analytics, healthcare, games, security, and network monitoring, among others, portray what is going on in data visualization today. A diverse blend of original illustrations and real-world examples, both classical and cutting-edge, help fill in the picture.

This book provides an approachable overview of important aspects of data visualization, and...

  • Demonstrates, with a variety of case studies, how visualizations can foster a clearer and more comprehensive understanding of data
  • Answers the question, "How can data visualization help me?" with discussions of how it fits into a wide array of purposes and situations
  • Makes the case that data visualization is not just about technology; it also involves a deeply human process
(From book description, adapted)

Hunter Whitney (2012). Data Insights: New Ways to Visualize and Make Sense of Data. Morgan Kaufmann • ISBN-10: 0123877938, ISBN-13: 978-0123877932

See the book in the book list...

 

Alberto Cairo: The Functional Art – An Introduction to Information Graphics and Visualization

Cover of the Functional Art

In this practical introduction to understanding and using information graphics, readers will learn how to use data visualizations as tools to see beyond lists of numbers and variables and achieve new insights into the complex world around us. Regardless of the kind of data they are working with – business, science, politics, sports, or even their own personal finances – this book sets out to show them how to use statistical charts, maps, and explanation diagrams to spot the stories in the data and learn new things from it.

Readers will also get to peek into the creative process of some designers and visual journalists. Furthermore, the book includes a DVD-ROM containing over 90 minutes of video lessons that expand on core concepts explained within the book and includes even more inspirational information graphics from designers.
(From book description. adapted)

Alberto Cairo (2012). The Functional Art: An Introduction to Information Graphics and Visualization. New Riders • ISBN-10: 0321834739, ISBN-13: 978-0321834737

See the book in the book list...

 

Luke Wroblewski: Mobile First

Cover of Interactive Visualization

According to the publisher, A Book Apart, the industry's long wait for the complete, strategic guide to mobile web design is finally over. Former Yahoo! design architect and co-creator of Bagcheck Luke Wroblewski, who is regarded as knowing more about mobile experience than the rest of us, packs all he knows into Mobile First, an entertaining, to-the-point guidebook. The book's data-driven strategies and battle tested techniques can help designers to become a master of mobile – and to improve their non-mobile design, too. Or as Wroblewski himself puts it: Mobile First is a short but information-packed book that makes the case for why Web sites and applications should increasingly be designed for mobile first and outlines how Web design teams can make the transition from designing for desktops/laptops to designing for mobile by specifying unique design considerations for mobile Web organization, actions, input, and layout.
(From book description and Luke Wroblewski's Website, adapted)

Luke Wroblewski (2011). Mobile First. A Book Apart • ISBN: 978-1-937557-02-7

See the book in the book list...

 

Ethan Marcotte: Responsive Web Design

Cover of Responsive Web Design

From mobile browsers to netbooks and tablets, users are visiting Websites from an increasing array of devices and browsers. Often, designs are not ready for the multitude of form factors and interaction styles. Ethan Marcotte, who coined the term Responsive Web Design (RWD) in an article in A List Apart, wrote the book, Responsive Web Design, in which he shows how to think beyond the desktop and craft beautiful designs that anticipate and respond to the users' needs. He explores CSS techniques and design principles, including fluid grids, flexible images, and media queries, demonstrating how designers can deliver a quality experience to their users no matter how large – or small – their display is.
(From book description, adapted)

Ethan Marcotte (2011). Responsive Web Design. A Book Apart • ISBN: 978-0-9844425-7-7

See the book in the book list...

 

Bill Ferster: Interactive Visualization – Insight through Inquiry

Cover of Interactive Visualization

Interactive visualization is emerging as a vibrant new form of communication, providing compelling presentations that allow viewers to interact directly with information in order to construct their own understandings of it. Building on a long tradition of print-based information visualization, interactive visualization utilizes the technological capabilities of computers, the Internet, and computer graphics to marshal multifaceted information in the service of making a point visually.

Bill Ferster's book Interactive Visualization – Insight through Inquiry offers an introduction to the field, presenting a framework for exploring historical, theoretical, and practical issues. It is not a "how-to" book tied to specific and soon-to-be-outdated software tools, but a guide to the concepts that are central to building interactive visualization projects whatever their ultimate form. The framework the book presents (known as the ASSERT model, developed by the author), allows the reader to explore the process of interactive visualization in terms of: (1) choosing good questions to ask; (2) finding appropriate data for answering them; (3) structuring that information; (4) exploring and analyzing the data; (5) representing the data visually; and (6) telling a story using the data. Interactive visualization draws on many disciplines to inform the final representation, and the book reflects this, covering basic principles of inquiry, data structuring, information design, statistics, cognitive theory, usability, working with spreadsheets, the Internet, and storytelling.
(From book description, adapted)

Bill Ferster (2012). Interactive Visualization: Insight through Inquiry. The MIT Press • ISBN-10: 0262018152, ISBN-13: 978-0262018159

See the book in the book list...Preliminary review page

 

Rachel Hinman: The Mobile Frontier – A Guide to Creating Mobile Experiences

Cover of The Mobile Frontier

According to author Rachel Hinman, mobile user experience is a new frontier for designers and UX professionals. Untethered from a keyboard and mouse, this rich design space is ripe with opportunities to invent new and more human ways for people to interact with information. Hinman's book, The Mobile Frontier, sets out to help readers navigate this unfamiliar and fast-changing landscape, and inspire them to explore the possibilities that mobile technology presents.

The book provides:

  • Basic lessons in mobile UX design meant to enable readers to begin designing mobile experiences with confidence
  • In-depth information on advanced mobile design topics UX professionals will spend the next 10+ years pioneering
  • Interviews with mobile industry experts
  • The tools and frameworks necessary to begin tackling mobile UX problems in a rapidly changing design space.

According to the publisher, it is the "essential UX guide for the mobile frontier."
(From book description, adapted)

Rachel Hinman (2012). The Mobile Frontier: A Guide to Creating Mobile Experiences. Rosenfeld Media • ISBN: 1-933820-55-1 (Paperback), ISBN: 1-933820-05-5 (Digital editions)

See the book in the book list...Read the review

 

Harold G. Nelson & Erik Stolterman: The Design Way – Intentional Change in an Unpredictable World (2nd Ed.)

Cover of The Design Way

According to the authors, Harold Nelson and Erik Stolterman, humans did not discover fire – they designed it. They maintain that design is not defined by software programs, blueprints, or font choice. When we create new things – technologies, organizations, processes, systems, environments, ways of thinking – we engage in design.

With this expansive view of design as their premise, in The Design Way, Nelson and Stolterman make the case for design as its own culture of inquiry and action. They offer not a recipe for design practice or theorizing but a formulation of design culture's fundamental core of ideas. According to the authors, these ideas – which form "the design way" – are applicable to an infinite variety of design domains, from such traditional fields as architecture and graphic design to such nontraditional design areas as organizational, educational, interaction, and health care design.

In their book, the authors present design culture in terms of foundations (first principles), fundamentals (core concepts), and metaphysics. They then discuss these issues from both a learner's and a practitioner's perspectives. The text of this second edition is accompanied by new detailed images, "schemas" that visualize, conceptualize, and structure the authors' understanding of design inquiry. This text itself has been revised and expanded throughout, in part in response to reader feedback.
(From book description, adapted)

Harold G. Nelson & Erik Stolterman (2012). The Design Way: Intentional Change in an Unpredictable World (2nd Ed.). The MIT Press • ISBN-10: 0262018179, ISBN-13: 978-0262018173

See the book in the book list...Preliminary review page

 

Tomer Sharon: It's Our Research – Getting Stakeholder Buy-in for User Experience Research Projects

Cover of It's Our Research

Tomer Sharon's book It's Our Research provides a strategic framework for people who practice UX research and who wish to be heard by their stakeholders. It provides readers with the techniques needed to involve stakeholders throughout the process of planning, execution, analysis, and reporting UX research. According to the book description, the book helps readers to dramatically increase the chances that product managers, engineers, and management agree to do research and act upon its results, when they follow the author's techniques and methods detailed inside.

The book...

  • Features a series of video interviews with UX practitioners and researchers
  • Provides dozens of case studies and visuals from international research practitioners
  • Provides a toolset that will help you justify your work to stakeholders, deal with office politics, and hone your client skills
  • Presents tried and tested techniques for working to reach positive, useful, and fruitful outcomes
    (From book description, adapted)

Tomer Sharon (2012). It's Our Research: Getting Stakeholder Buy-in for User Experience Research Project. Morgan Kaufmann • ISBN-10: 0123851300 ISBN-13: 978-0123851307

See the book in the book list...

 

Howard Rheingold: Net Smart – How to Thrive Online

Cover of Net Smart

Like it or not, knowing how to make use of online tools without being overloaded with too much information is an essential ingredient to personal success in the twenty-first century. But how can we use digital media so that they make us empowered participants rather than passive receivers, grounded, well-rounded people rather than multitasking basket cases? In Net Smart, cyberculture expert Howard Rheingold shows us how to use social media intelligently, humanely, and, above all, mindfully.

Mindful use of digital media means thinking about what we are doing, cultivating an ongoing inner inquiry into how we want to spend our time. Rheingold outlines five fundamental digital literacies, online skills that will help us do this: attention, participation, collaboration, critical consumption of information, and network smarts. He points out that there is a bigger social issue at work in digital literacy, one that goes beyond personal empowerment. If we combine our individual efforts wisely, it could produce a more thoughtful society: countless small acts like publishing a Web page or sharing a link could add up to a public good that enriches everybody.
(From book description, adapted)

Rheingold, Howard (2012). Net Smart: How to Thrive Online. The MIT Press • ISBN-10: 0262017458, ISBN-13: 978-0262017459

See the book in the book list...Read the review

 

Daniel Widgor & Denis Wixon: Brave New NUI World – Designing Natural User Interfaces for Touch and Gesture

Cover of Brave New NUI World

Touch and gestural devices have been hailed as next evolutionary step in human-computer interaction. As software companies struggle to catch up with one another in terms of developing the next great touch-based interface, designers are charged with the daunting task of keeping up with the advances in new technology and this new aspect to user experience design. Product and interaction designers, developers and managers are already well versed in UI design, but touch-based interfaces have added a new level of complexity. They need quick references and real-world examples in order to make informed decisions when designing for these particular interfaces. Brave NUI World is the first practical book for product and interaction developers and designing touch and gesture interfaces. Written by developers of industry-first, multi-touch, multi-user products, this book gives readers the necessary tools and information to integrate touch and gesture practices into their daily work, presenting scenarios, problem solving, metaphors, and techniques intended to avoid making mistakes.
(From book description, adapted)

Widgor, Daniel & Wixon, Denis (2011). Brave NUI World: Designing Natural User Interfaces for Touch and Gesture. Morgan-Kaufmann • ISBN-10: 0123822319, ISBN-13: 978-0123822314

See the book in the book list...

 

Luke Williams: Disrupt – Think the Unthinkable to Spark Transformation in Your Business

Cover of Disrupt

In a business world of nonstop change, there's, according to Luke Williams, author of the book Disrupt, only one way to win the game: Transform it entirely. This requires a revolution in thinking – a steady stream of disruptive strategies and unexpected solutions. In his book , Williams shows how to generate those strategies and deliver those solutions.

The book reflects Williams' experience at frog design, one of the world's leading innovation firms. Williams shows how to combine fluid creativity with analytical rigor in a simple, complete, five-stage process for successfully disrupting any market: (1) Craft a disruptive hypothesis, (2) define a disruptive marketing opportunity, (3) generate several disruptive ideas, (4), shape a solution, and (5) make a disruptive pitch. In February 2012, Williams gave a keynote presentation about this topic at the Interaction 2012 conference in Dublin, Ireland, that our author attended.
(From book description, adapted)

Williams, Luke (2010). Disrupt: Think the Unthinkable to Spark Transformation in Your Business. FT Press • ISBN-10: 0137025149, ISBN-13: 978-0137025145

See the book in the book list...

 

Janet H. Murray: Inventing the Medium – Principles of Interaction Design as a Cultural Practice

Cover of Inventing the Medium

Digital artifacts pervade our lives, and the design decisions that shape them affect how we think, act, communicate, and understand the world. But the pace of change has been so rapid that technical innovation is outstripping design and, as a consequence, product design teams struggle to articulate shared and enduring design goals. With Inventing the Medium, Janet Murray addresses this issue and provides a unified vocabulary and a common methodology for the design of digital objects and environments.

Murray explains that interaction designers should think of all objects made with bits as belonging to a single new medium: the digital medium. Designers can speed the process of useful and lasting innovation by focusing on the collective cultural task of inventing this new medium. Exploring strategies for maximizing the expressive power of digital artifacts, Murray identifies and examines four representational affordances of digital environments that provide the core palette for designers across applications: computational procedures, user participation, navigable space, and encyclopedic capacity. Creative exercises for students and thought experiments for practitioners allow readers to apply these ideas to particular design problems.
(From book description, adapted)

Murray, Janet H. (2012). Inventing the Medium: Principles of Interaction Design as a Cultural Practice. The MIT Press • ISBN-10: 0-262-01614-1, ISBN-13: 978-0-262-01614-8

See the book in the book list...Read the review

 

Helmut Degen and XiaoWei Yuan: UX Best Practices – How to Achieve More Impact with User Experience

Cover of UX Best Practices

This book aims to help readers evolve to a user-centered product development philosophy by presenting real-world user experience success strategies from global corporations. It features in-depth case studies from Yahoo!, Siemens, SAP, Haier, Intuit, Tencent, and more and, thus offers proven methods for instituting user-centered design in industrial environments. As a comprehensive guide, the book covers a variety of user experience techniques, such as analyzing user needs and expectations, creating design concepts, prototyping, using agile development, conducting usability testing, developing user interface guidelines, defining user interface patterns, and specifying metrics. (From book description, adapted)

By the way, the SAP case study was contributed by SAP UX colleague Andreas Hauser and focuses on SAP Business ByDesign.

Degen, H.; Yuan, X. W. (2011). UX Best Practices: How to Achieve More Impact with User Experience. McGraw-Hill Osborne Media • ISBN-10: 007175251X, ISBN-13: 978-0071752510

See the book in the book list...Read the review

 

Yvonne Rogers, Jenny Preece, and Helen Sharp: Interaction Design – Beyond Human-Computer Interaction (3rd Edition)

Cover of Interaction Design, 3rd Edition

A revision of the #1 text in the human-computer interaction (HCI) field, Interaction Design, the third edition is an ideal resource for learning the interdisciplinary skills needed for interaction design, HCI, information design, Web design, and ubiquitous computing.

The authors are acknowledged leaders and educators in their field, with a strong global reputation. They bring depth of scope to the subject in this new edition, encompassing the latest technologies and devices including social networking, Web 2.0 and mobile devices. The third edition also adds, develops and updates cases, examples and questions to bring the book in line with the latest in Human Computer Interaction.

Interaction Design offers a cross-disciplinary, practical and process-oriented approach to human-computer interaction, showing not just what principles ought to apply to interaction design, but crucially how they can be applied. The book focuses on how to design interactive products that enhance and extend the way people communicate, interact and work. Motivating examples are included to illustrate both technical, but also social and ethical issues, making the book approachable and adaptable for both computer science and non-computer science users. Interviews with key HCI luminaries are included and provide an insight into current and future trends.
(From book description, adapted)

Yvonne Rogers, Jenny Preece, and Helen Sharp (2011). Interaction Design: Beyond Human-Computer Interaction (3rd Edition). John Wiley and Sons • ISBN-10: 0470665769, ISBN-13: 978-0470665763

See the book in the book list...

 

Arnie Lund: User Experience Management – Essential Skills for Leading Effective UX Teams

Cover of User Experience Management

The role of UX manager is of vital importance – it means leading a productive team, influencing businesses to adopt user-centered design, and delivering valuable products customers. Few UX professionals who find themselves in management positions have formal training in management. More often than not they are promoted to a management position after having proven themselves as an effective and successful practitioner.Yet as important as the position of manager is to the advancement of the field there are no books that specifically address the needs of user experience managers. Though information is available on the Web, nothing ties that advice together in the way a manager would need to integrate it in their work.

User Experience Management speaks directly to the UX manager and to the unique challenges one may face. It outlines the robust framework for how to be an effective UX manager, from creating a team, to orchestrating product development, to ensuring UX is not compromised, to achieving company buy-in on results. This acts as a checklist readers can use to make sure they have covered the bases as they think about how to build their own user experience programs. Written by an experienced UX manager, and containing testamonials from many leading managers in the field, managers both current and aspiring will find this an invaluable reference loaded with ideas and techniques for managing user experience.
(From book description, adapted)

Arnie Lund (2011). User Experience Management: Essential Skills for Leading Effective UX Teams. Morgan Kaufmann • ISBN: 978-0123854964

See the book in the book list...

 

Bill Moggridge: Designing Media

Cover of Designing Media

Mainstream media, often known simply as MSM, have not yet disappeared in a digital takeover of the media landscape. But the long-dominant MSM – television, radio, newspapers, magazines, and books – have had to respond to emergent digital media. Newspapers have interactive Web sites; television broadcasts over the Internet; books are published in both electronic and print editions. In Designing Media, Bill Moggridge examines connections and conflicts between old and new media, describing how the MSM have changed and how new patterns of media consumption are emerging. The book features interviews with thirty-seven significant figures in both traditional and new forms of mass communication; interviewees range from the publisher of the New York Times to the founder of Twitter. At the end of each chapter, Moggridge comments on the implications for designing media. Designing Media is illustrated with hundreds of images, with color throughout. A DVD accompanying the book includes excerpts from all of the interviews, and the material can be browsed at www.designing-media.com.
(From book description, adapted)

Bill Moggridge (2010). Designing Media. The MIT Press • ISBN-10: 0262014858, ISBN-13: 978-0262014854

See the book in the book list...

 

Mike Kuniavsky: Smart Things – Ubiquitous Computing User Experience Design

Cover of Smart Things

The world of smart shoes, appliances, and phones is already here, but the practice of user experience (UX) design for ubiquitous computing is still relatively new. Design companies like IDEO and frogdesign are regularly asked to design products that unify software interaction, device design and service design – which are all the key components of ubiquitous computing UX – and practicing designers need a way to tackle practical challenges of design. Theory is not enough for them – the industry is now mature enough to have tried and tested best practices and case studies from the field.

Smart Things presents a problem-solving approach to addressing designers' needs and concentrates on process, rather than technological detail, to keep from being quickly outdated. It pays close attention to the capabilities and limitations of the medium in question and discusses the trade-offs and challenges of design in a commercial environment. Divided into two sections, frameworks and techniques, the book discusses broad design methods and case studies that reflect key aspects of these approaches. The book then presents a set of techniques highly valuable to a practicing designer. It is intentionally not a comprehensive tutorial of user-centered design, but it is a handful of techniques useful when designing ubiquitous computing user experiences. In short, Smart Things gives its readers both the "why" of this kind of design and the "how" in well-defined chunks.
(From book description, adapted)

Mike Kuniavsky (2010). Smart Things: Ubiquitous Computing User Experience Design. Morgan Kaufmann • ISBN-10: 0123748992, ISBN-13: 978-0123748997

See the book in the book list...

 

Donald A. Norman: Living with Complexity

Cover of Living with Complexity

If only today's technology were simpler! It's the universal lament, but it's wrong. We don't want simplicity. Simple tools are not up to the task. The world is complex; our tools need to match that complexity.

Simplicity turns out to be more complex than we thought. In his provocative and informative book, Living with Complexity, Don Norman writes that the complexity of our technology must mirror the complexity and richness of our lives. It's not complexity that's the problem, it's bad design. Bad design complicates things unnecessarily and confuses us. Good design can tame complexity.

Norman gives us a crash course in the virtues of complexity. But even such simple things as salt and pepper shakers, doors, and light switches become complicated when we have to deal with many of them, each somewhat different. Managing complexity, says Norman, is a partnership. Designers have to produce things that tame complexity. But we too have to do our part: we have to take the time to learn the structure and practice the skills. This is how we mastered reading and writing, driving a car, and playing sports, and this is how we can master our complex tools.

Complexity is good. Simplicity is misleading. The good life is complex, rich, and rewarding – but only if it is understandable, sensible, and meaningful.
(From product description, adapted)

Donald A. Norman (2010). Living with Complexity. The MIT Press • ISBN-10: 0262014866, ISBN-13: 978-0262014861

See the book in the book list...Read the review

 

Manuel Imaz & David Benyon: Designing with Blends – Conceptual Foundations of Human-Computer Interaction and Software Engineering

Cover of Designing with Blends

The evolution of the concept of mind in cognitive science over the past 25 years creates new ways to think about the interaction of people and computers. New ideas about embodiment, metaphor as a fundamental cognitive process, and conceptual integration – a blending of older concepts that gives rise to new, emergent properties – have become increasingly important in software engineering (SE) and human-computer interaction (HCI). If once computing was based on algorithms, mathematical theories, and formal notations, now the use of stories, metaphors, and blends can contribute to well-informed, sensitive software design. In Designing with Blends, Manuel Imaz and David Benyon show how these new metaphors and concepts of mind allow us to discover new aspects of HCI-SE. The authors argue that the dominance of digital media in our lives demands changes in HCI-SE based on advances in cognitive science. They offer both theoretical grounding and practical examples that illustrate the advantages of applying cognitive concepts to software design. A new view of cognition, they argue, will develop a cognitive literacy in software and interaction design that helps designers understand the opportunities of digital technology and provides people with a more satisfying interactive experience.
(From book presentation, adapted)

Manuel Imaz & David Benyon (2007). Designing with Blends: Conceptual Foundations of Human-Computer Interaction and Software Engineering . The MIT Press • ISBN-10: 0262090422, ISBN-13: 978-0262090421

See the book in the book list...

 

Thomas Erickson & David W. McDonald: HCI Remixed – Reflections on Works That Have Influenced the HCI Community

Cover of HCI Remixed

Over almost three decades, the field of human-computer interaction (HCI) has produced a rich and varied literature. Although the focus of attention today is naturally on new work, older contributions that played a role in shaping the trajectory and character of the field have much to tell us. The contributors to HCI Remixed were asked to reflect on a single work at least ten years old that influenced their approach to HCI. The result is this collection of fifty-one short, engaging, and idiosyncratic essays, reflections on a range of works in a variety of forms that chart the emergence of a new field. Taken together, the essays offer an accessible, lively, and engaging introduction to HCI research that reflects the diversity of the field's beginnings.
(From book presentation, adapted)

Thomas Erickson & David W. McDonald (2008). HCI Remixed: Reflections on Works That Have Influenced the HCI Community. The MIT Press • ISBN-10: 0262050889, ISBN-13: 978-0262050883

See the book in the book list...

 

Derek Hansen, Ben Shneiderman & Marc Smith: Analyzing Social Media Networks with NodeXL

Cover of Analyzing Social Media Networks with NodeXL

Businesses, entrepreneurs, individuals, and government agencies alike are looking to social network analysis (SNA) tools for insight into trends, connections, and fluctuations in social media. Microsoft's NodeXL is a free, open-source SNA plug-in for use with Excel. It provides instant graphical representation of relationships of complex networked data. NodeXL was developed by a multidisciplinary team of experts that bring together information studies, computer science, sociology, human-computer interaction, and over 20 years of visual analytic theory and information visualization into a simple tool anyone can use. This makes it of interest not only to end-users but also to researchers and students studying visual and network analytics and their application in the real world. In Analyzing Social Media Networks with NodeXL, members of the NodeXL development team up provide readers with a thorough and practical guide for using the tool.
(From book presentation, adapted)

Derek Hansen, Ben Shneiderman & Marc Smith (2010). Analyzing Social Media Networks with Node XL. Morgan Kaufmann • ISBN 13: 978-0123822291

See the book in the book list...Read the ReviewBook Website

 

Whitney Quesenbery & Kevin Brooks: Storytelling for User Experience

Cover of Storytelling for User Experience

Telling stories is one of the most natural ways to share information, as old as the human race. This book is not about a new technique, but how to use something we already know in a new way. Stories help us gather and communicate user research, put a human face on analytic data, communicate design ideas, encourage collaboration and innovation, and create a sense of shared history and purpose. This book looks across the full spectrum of user experience design to discover when and how to use stories to improve our products. Whether you are a researcher, designer, analyst or manager, you will find ideas and techniques you can put to use in your practice. If you need to share research and design insights in a compelling and effective way, struggle to communicate the meaning of a large body of data in a way that everyone just "gets," or want to explore a new, innovative idea, and imagine its future, this book can help you, by showing you how and when to choose, create and use stories.
(From book presentation, adapted)

Whitney Quesenbery & Kevin Brooks (2010). Storytelling for User Experience. Rosenfeld Media • ISBN: 1-933820-47-0 (Paperback + PDF), ISBN: 1-933820-03-9 (2 PDF editions)

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Jeff Johnson: Designing with the Mind in Mind – A Simple Guide to Understanding User Interface Design Rules

Cover of Designing with the Mind in Mind

Early user interface (UI) practitioners were trained in cognitive psychology, from which UI design rules were based. But as the field evolves, designers enter the field from many disciplines. Practitioners today have enough experience in UI design that they have been exposed to design rules, but it is essential that they understand the psychology behind the rules in order to effectively apply them. In Designing with the Mind in Mind, Jeff Johnson, provides designers with just enough background in perceptual and cognitive psychology that UI design guidelines make intuitive sense rather than being just a list of rules to follow.
(From book presentation, adapted)

Jeff Johnson (2010). Designing with the Mind in Mind: A Simple Guide to Understanding User Interface Design Rules. Morgan Kaufmann • ISBN-10: 1-012375030X, ISBN-13: 978-0123750303

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Nathan Shedroff: Design Is the Problem

Cover of Design is the Problem

Design makes a tremendous impact on the produced world in terms of usability, resources, understanding, and priorities. What we produce, how we serve customers and other stakeholders, and even how we understand how the world works is all affected by the design of models and solutions. Designers have an unprecedented opportunity to use their skills to make meaningful, sustainable change in the world – if they know how to focus their skills, time, and agendas. In Design is the Problem: The Future of Design Must be Sustainable, Nathan Shedroff examines how the endemic culture of design often creates unsustainable solutions, and shows how designers can bake sustainability into their design processes in order to produce more sustainable solutions.
(From book presentation, adapted)

Nathan Shedroff (2009). Design Is the Problem. Rosenfeld Media • ISBN: 1-933820-00-4 (Paperback + PDF), ISBN: 1-933820-01-2 (2 PDF editions)

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Clarisse Sieckenius de Souza, & Carla Faria Leitão: Semiotic Engineering Methods for Scientific Research in HCI

Cover of Semiotic Engineering Methods for Scientific Research in HCI

Semiotic engineering was originally proposed as a semiotic approach to designing user interface languages. Over the years, it evolved into a semiotic theory of human-computer interaction (HCI). It views HCI as computer-mediated communication between designers and users at interaction time. The system speaks for its designers in various types of conversations specified at design time. These conversations communicate the designers' understanding of who the users are, what they know the users want or need to do, in which preferred ways, and why. The designers' message to users includes even the interactive language in which users will have to communicate back with the system in order to achieve their specific goals. Hence, the process is, in fact, one of communication about communication, or metacommunication. Semiotic engineering has two methods to evaluate the quality of metacommunication in HCI: the semiotic inspection method (SIM) and the communicability evaluation method (CEM). Up to now, they have been mainly used and discussed in technical contexts. In this book, the authors discuss how SIM and CEM, which are both qualitative methods, can also be used in scientific contexts to generate new knowledge about HCI. To illustrate their points, they present an extensive case study with the free open-source digital audio editor Audacity. They show how the results obtained with a triangulation of SIM and CEM point at new research avenues not only for semiotic engineering and HCI but also for other areas of computer science such as software engineering and programming.
(From book abstract, adapted)

Clarisse Sieckenius de Souza, & Carla Faria Leitão (2009). Semiotic Engineering Methods for Scientific Research in HCI. Morgan & Claypool Publishers • ISBN: 9781598299441 (Paperback), ISBN: 9781598299458 (Online version)

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Garr Reynolds: Presentation Zen Design – Simple Design Principles and Techniques to Enhance Your Presentations

Cover of Presentation Zen Design

In his book Presentation Zen: Simple Ideas on Presentation Design and Delivery, Garr Reynolds gave readers the framework for planning, putting together, and delivering successful presentations. Now, he takes us further into the design realm and shows how we can apply time-honored design principles to presentation layouts. Throughout Presentation Zen Design, Garr shares his lessons on designing effective presentations that contain text, graphs, color, images, and video. After establishing guidelines for each of the various elements, he explains how to achieve an overall harmony and balance using the tenets of Zen simplicity. Not only will you discover how to design your slides for more professional-looking presentations, you'll learn to communicate more clearly and will accomplish the goal of making a stronger, more lasting connection with your audience.
(From product description, adapted)

Garr Reynolds (2009). Presentation Zen Design: Simple Design Principles and Techniques to Enhance Your Presentations. New Riders Press • ISBN: 0321668790

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Hartmut Esslinger: A Fine Line – How Design Strategies Are Shaping the Future of Business

Cover of A Fine Line

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)

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Todd Zaki Warfel: Prototyping – A Practitioner's Guide

Cover of Prototyping - A Practitioner's Guide

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

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Riccardo Mazza: Introduction to Information Visualization

Cover of Introduction to Information Visualization

Information Visualization is a relatively young field that is acquiring more and more consensus in both academic and industrial environments. This concise introduction to the subject explores the use of computer-supported interactive graphical representations to explain data and amplify cognition. Written in a lively, yet rigorous, style the book explores ways of communicating ideas or facts about data, and shows how to validate hypotheses, and facilitate the discovery of new facts via exploration.

The concepts outlined in the book are illustrated in a simple and thorough manner, building a reference for those situations in which graphic representation of information, generated and assisted by the use of computer tools, can help in visualizing ideas, data and concepts. With suggestions for setting communications systems based on, or availing of, graphic representations, this textbook illustrates cases, situations, tools and methods which help make the graphic representations of information effective and efficient.
(From product description, adapted)

Riccardo Mazza (2009). Introduction to Information Visualization. Springer. ISBN: 978-1848002180

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Robert Schumacher: Handbook of Global User Research

Cover of Handbook of Global User Research

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

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Dan Saffer: Designing for Interaction

Cover of Designing for Interaction

Designing for Interaction is an introduction to the practice of interaction design, the design discipline behind such products as the iPhone and other touchscreen devices and innovative Web sites like Flickr. Aimed at new practitioners and students – as well as user experience professionals and developers – it is a comprehensive look at the discipline, from current methods to its future. This guide takes a holistic approach looking at interaction design for the Web, software, and devices. This new edition adds information on design strategy, extended research analysis, conceptual models, brainstorming, and user testing and development.

More than just a how-to manual, this is the only book on the subject coming from a design rather that computer science background. Filled with tips, real-world projects, and interviews of leading practitioners such as Marc Rettig, Brenda Laurel and Hugh Dubberly, the book promises readers to get a solid grounding in everything they need to successfully tackle interaction design.
(From book cover, adapted)

Dan Saffer (2009). Designing for Interaction (2nd Edition). New Riders Press. ISBN: 978-0321643391

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Graham Pullin: Design Meets Disability

Cover of Design Meets Disability

In Design Meets Disability, Graham Pullin shows us how design and disability can inspire each other. In the Eameses' work there was a healthy tension between cut-to-the-chase problem solving and more playful explorations. Pullin offers examples of how design can meet disability today. Why, he asks, shouldn't hearing aids be as fashionable as eyewear? What new forms of braille signage might proliferate if designers kept both sighted and visually impaired people in mind? Can simple designs avoid the need for complicated accessibility features? Can such emerging design methods as "experience prototyping" and "critical design" complement clinical trials?

Pullin also presents a series of interviews with leading designers about specific disability design projects, including stepstools for people with restricted growth, prosthetic legs (and whether they can be both honest and beautifully designed), and text-to-speech technology with tone of voice. When design meets disability, the diversity of complementary, even contradictory, approaches can enrich each field.
(From book cover, adapted)

Graham Pullin (2009). Design Meets Disability. The MIT Press. ISBN: 978-0262162555

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Hasso Plattner, Christoph Meinel & Ulrich Weinberg: Design Thinking (in German)

Cover of Design Thinking

In multidisciplinary teams astoundingly creative processes can be stimulated. But how can this be accomplished? The authors, including SAP co-founder Hasso Plattner, propose to use Design Thinking, a groundbreaking method to spur innovation. In their book of the same name, Design Thinking, they demonstrate how you can think creatively and in a user-oriented way and thus are able to create innovative, market-oriented products. The method is comprised of the following steps:

  • Understand: Analyze the problem and its environment
  • Comprehend: Observe users and define starting points for innovation
  • Visualize: Think visually in the whole team
  • Solve: Build prototypes that users can put their hands on
  • Test: Check products jointly with users

Design Thinking – the first book about the Design Thinking method – combines the craft of engineers with creativity in an impressing manner.
(From book advertisement, translated and adapted)

Hasso Plattner, Christoph Meinel & Ulrich Weinberg (2009). Design Thinking. mi-Wirtschaftsbuch. ISBN-10: 3868800131, ISBN-13: 978-3868800135

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Ben Shneiderman, Catherine Plaisant, Maxine Cohen & Steven Jacobs: Designing the User Interface (5th Edition)

Cover of Designing the User Interface, 5th edition

The much-anticipated fifth edition of the all-time classic textbook Designing the User Interface is a totally updated resource with extensive fresh material and references in every chapter. The opening more ambitiously positions user interfaces as the critical determinant of consumer product and professional tool success.  The authors have also been getting bolder in claiming HCI's role for successes such as cell phones, iPhones, YouTube, Netflix, Amazon, etc.  Similarly in the afterword, they take on the concerns of social impact and eight enduring controversies in our field such as user control versus autonomous agents and 2D versus 3D visualizations. The authors use a full page wordle display for each chapter opening – these displays really show that each chapter is about users but each has a distinct set of terms, wonderfully rendered by Jonathan Feinberg's clever program wordle.
(From Ben Shneiderman, pers. comm., adapted)

Ben Shneiderman, Catherine Plaisant, Maxine Cohen & Steven Jacobs (2009). Designing the User Interface: Strategies for Effective Human-Computer Interaction (5th ed). Pearson Addison-Wesley. ISBN-10: 0321537351, ISBN-13: 978-0321537355 1

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Dana Chisnell & Jeffrey Rubin: Handbook of Usability Testing (2nd Edition)

Cover of Handbook of Usability Testing (2nd ed.)

Whether its software, a cell phone, or a refrigerator, your customer wants – no, expects – your product to be easy to use. This fully revised handbook provides clear, step-by-step guidelines to help you test your product for usability. Completely updated with current industry best practices, it can give you that all-important marketplace advantage: products that perform the way users expect. You'll learn to recognize factors that limit usability, decide where testing should occur, set up a test plan to assess goals for your products usability, and more.
(From book cover, adapted)

Dana Chisnell & Jeffrey Rubin (2008). Handbook of Usability Testing: How to Plan, Design, and Conduct Effective Tests (2nd ed.). John Wiley & Sons. ISBN-10: 0470185481, ISBN-13: 978-0470185483

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Kim Goodwin: Designing for the Digital Age

Cover of Designing for the Digital Age

Designing successful products and services in the digital age requires a multi-disciplinary team with expertise in interaction design, visual design, industrial design, and other disciplines. It also takes the ability to come up with the big ideas that make a desirable product or service, as well as the skill and perseverance to execute on the thousand small ideas that get your design into the hands of users. It requires expertise in project management, user research, and consensus-building. Designing for the Digital Age addresses all of these and more with detailed how-to information, real-life examples, and exercises. Topics include assembling a design team, planning and conducting user research, analyzing your data and turning it into personas, using scenarios to drive requirements definition and design, collaborating in design meetings, evaluating and iterating your design, and documenting finished design in a way that works for engineers and stakeholders alike.
(From book description, adapted)

Kim Goodwin (2009). Designing for the Digital Age: How to Create Human-Centered Products and Services. John Wiley & Sons. ISBN-10: 0470229101, ISBN-13: 978-0470229101

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Gary M. Olson, Ann Zimmerman & Nathan Bos (Eds.): Scientific Collaboration on the Internet

Cover of Scientific Collaboration on the Internet

Modern science is increasingly collaborative, as signaled by rising numbers of coauthored papers, papers with international coauthors, and multi-investigator grants. Historically, scientific collaborations were carried out by scientists in the same physical location – the Manhattan Project of the 1940s, for example, involved thousands of scientists gathered on a remote plateau in Los Alamos, New Mexico. Today, information and communication technologies allow cooperation among scientists from far-flung institutions and different disciplines. Scientific Collaboration on the Internet provides both broad and in-depth views of how new technology is enabling novel kinds of science and engineering collaboration. The book offers commentary from notable experts in the field along with case studies of large-scale collaborative projects, past and ongoing.
(From book cover, adapted)

Gary M. Olson, Ann Zimmerman & Nathan Bos (Eds.) (2008). Scientific Collaboration on the Internet. The MIT Press. ISBN-10: 0262151200, ISBN-13: 978-0262151207

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Nevin Berger, Michael Arent, Jonathan Arnowitz & Fred Sampson: Effective Prototyping with Excel

Cover of Effective Prototyping with Excel

Although recognized as a key to the design process, prototyping often falls victim to budget cuts, deadlines, or lack of access to sophisticated tools. This can lead to sloppy and ineffective prototypes or the abandonment of them altogether. Rather than lose this important step, people are turning to Microsoft Excel? to create effective, simple, and inexpensive prototypes. Conveniently, the software is available to nearly everyone, and most are proficient in its basic functionality. Effective Prototyping with Excel offers how-to guidance on how everyone can use basic Excel skills to create prototypes – ranging from narrative wire frames to hi-fidelity prototypes. A wide array of software design problems and business demands are solved via practical step-by-step examples and illustrations.
(From book cover, adapted)

Nevin Berger, Michael Arent, Jonathan Arnowitz & Fred Sampson (2009). Effective Prototyping with Excel: A Practical Handbook for Developers and Designers (Interactive Technologies). Morgan Kaufmann. ISBN-10: 0120885824, ISBN-13: 978-0120885824

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Ben Fry: Visualizing Data

Cover of Visualizing DataVisualizing Data is Ben Fry's book about computational information design. It covers the path from raw data to how we understand it, detailing how to begin with a set of numbers and produce images or software that lets you view and interact with information. Unlike nearly all books in this field, it is a hands-on guide intended for people who want to learn how to actually build a data visualization.
(From Ben Fry's Website, adapted)

Ben Fry (2008). Visualizing Data. O'Reilly. ISBN-10: 0596514557, ISBN-13: 978-0596514556 (Paperback)

 

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Bill Buxton: Sketching User Experiences – Getting the Design Right and the Right Design

Cover of Sketching User Experiences

Hardly a day goes by that we don't see an announcement for some new product or technology that is going to make our lives easier, solve some or all of our problems, or simply make the world a better place. However, the reality is that few of these products survive, much less deliver on their promise. But are we learning from these expensive mistakes? Rather than rethink the underlying process that brings these products to market, the more common strategy seems to be the shotgun method, that is, keep blasting away in the hope that one of the pellets will eventually hit the bull's eye. This book's goal is to help with this problem: to inspire and encourage HCI and other design professionals to try new methods, test themselves with the exercises and projects, and see an improvement in innovative interaction design that works.
(From amazon.com, adapted)

Bill Buxton (2007). Sketching User Experiences: Getting the Design Right and the Right Design. Morgan Kaufmann. ISBN-10: 0123740371, ISBN-13: 978-0123740373

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Colin Ware: Visual Thinking for Design

Cover of Visual Thinking: For Design

Increasingly, designers need to present information in ways that aid their audiences thinking process. Fortunately, results from the relatively new science of human visual perception provide valuable guidance. In Visual Thinking: For Design, Colin Ware takes what we now know about perception, cognition, and attention and transforms it into concrete advice that designers can directly apply. He demonstrates how designs can be considered as tools for cognition – extensions of the viewers brain in much the same way that a hammer is an extension of the users hand. Experienced professional designers and students alike will learn how to maximize the power of the information tools they design for the people who use them.
(From book cover, adapted)

Colin Ware (2008). Visual Thinking: For Design . Morgan Kaufmann. ISBN-10: 0123708966, ISBN-13: 978-0123708960

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Alan Cooper, Robert M. Reimann & Dave Cronin: About Face 3.0

Cover of About Face 3.0This completely updated volume presents the effective and practical tools you need to design great desktop applications, Web 2.0 sites, and mobile devices. You'll learn the principles of good product behavior and gain an understanding of Cooper's Goal-Directed Design method, which involves everything from conducting user research to defining your product using personas and scenarios. Ultimately, you'll acquire the knowledge to design the best possible digital products and services.
(From book cover, adapted)

Alan Cooper, Robert M. Reimann & Dave Cronin (2007). About Face 3.0: The Essentials of Design. John Wiley & Sons. ISBN: 0470084111 (Paperback)

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Rich Gold: The Plenitude – Creativity, Innovation, and Making Stuff

Cover of The Plenitude

According to John Seeley Brown, this small book "is a gem that will shape your way of seeing and thinking about the world forever." Rich, who died in 2003, was, as Brown puts it, "one of the true visionaries of Xerox PARC and this unique book, in both its form and content, provides a window into a brilliant and incredibly imaginative mind at work." Gold writes his book from the seemingly contradictory perspectives of an artist, scientist, designer, and engineer – all professions pursued by him, sometimes simultaneously, in the course of his career – and illustrates it with witty cartoons.
(From book cover, adapted)

Gold, Rich (2007). The Plenitude: Creativity, Innovation, and Making Stuff. The MIT Press. ISBN-10: 0262072890, ISBN-13: 978-0262072892

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Harold Thimbleby: Press On – Principles of Interaction Programming

Cover of Press On

Interactive systems and devices, from mobile phones to office copiers, do not fulfill their potential for a wide variety of reasons – not all of them technical. In his book, Thimbleby shows that we can design better interactive systems and devices if we draw on sound computer science principles. While sound programming concepts improve device design, Press On also provides the insights, concepts, and programming tools to improve usability.
(From book cover, adapted)

Harold Thimbleby (2007). Press On: Principles of Interaction Programming.The MIT Press. ISBN-10: 0262201704, ISBN-13: 978-0262201704

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Casey Reas & Ben Fry: Processing – A Programming Handbook for Visual Designers and Artists

Cover of Processing

This book is an introduction to the concepts of computer programming within the context of visual arts. It offers a comprehensive reference and text for Processing (www.processing.org), an open source programming language that can be used by students, artists, designers, architects, researchers, and anyone to wants to program images, animation, and interactivity. Tutorial units make the bulk of the book.
(From book cover, adapted)

Casey Reas & Ben Fry (2007). Processing: A Programming Handbook for Visual Designers and Artists. The MIT Press. ISBN-10: 0262182629, ISBN-13: 978-0262182621

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Jeff Johnson: GUI Bloopers 2.0 – Common User Interface Design Don'ts and Dos

Cover of GUI Bloopers 2.0

A major revision of a classic reference, GUI Bloopers 2.0 looks at user interface design bloopers from commercial software, Websites, Web applications, and information appliances, explaining how intelligent, well-intentioned professionals make these mistakes – and how you can avoid them. While equipping you with the minimum of theory, author Jeff Johnson presents the reality of interface design in an entertaining, anecdotal, and instructive way.
(From amazon.com, adapted)

Jeff Johnson (2007). GUI Bloopers 2.0: Common User Interface Design Don'ts and Dos. Morgan Kaufmann. ISBN: 0123706432

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Petra Abele, Jörn Hurtienne, & Jochen Prümper: Usability Management bei SAP-Projekten. Grundlagen – Vorgehen – Methoden (in German)

Cover of Usability Management bei SAP-Projekten

Until now, no dedicated procedure for the usability management of SAP projects was available, neither for consultants nor for decision makers. Nevertheless, enterprises take topics, such as user productivity, total cost of ownership of an SAP system, as well as occupational health and safety, seriously. Therefore, in the course of a perennial project, a procedural model and a qualification program for SAP consultants and company decision makers were developed, which cover the practice of usability management of SAP projects. In the book, you will find ways to enhance system productivity by letting users participate in the system design, and to react to user requirements in a professional manner. (The book includes a chapter written by SAP User Experience colleagues Ulrich Kreichgauer and Gerd Waloszek.)
(From publisher's site, translated and adapted)

Petra Abele, Jörn Hurtienne, & Jochen Prümper (2007). Usability Management bei SAP-Projekten. Grundlagen – Vorgehen – Methoden. Vieweg. ISBN: 383480244

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Robert Spence: Information Visualization (2nd Edition)

Cover of Information Visualization (2nd edition)

This is a fully revised textbook on the rapidly growing field of information visualization. Its emphasis is on real-world examples and applications of computer-generated and interactive visualization. Information visualization deals with representing concepts and data in a meaningful way. Depending on the medium used, information can be visualized in either static (e.g. a graph on a printed page) or dynamic forms. This book is appropriate for courses in information visualization, human-computer interaction, interaction design, and computer graphics.
(From amazon.com, adapted)

Robert Spence (2007). Information Visualization (2nd Edition). Prentice-Hall (Pearson). ISBN: 0132065509

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Stephen Few: Information Dashboard Design

Cover of Information Dashboard Design

Dashboards have become popular in recent years as uniquely powerful tools for communicating important information at a glance. Although dashboards are potentially powerful, this potential is rarely realized. The greatest display technology in the world won't solve this if you fail to use effective visual design. And if a dashboard fails to tell you precisely what you need to know in an instant, you'll never use it, even if it's filled with cute gauges, meters, and traffic lights. This book will teach you the visual design skills you need to create dashboards that communicate clearly, rapidly, and compellingly.
(From book cover, adapted)

Stephen Few (2006). Information Dashboard Design. O'Reilly. ISBN: 0596100167

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Jonathan Lazar (Ed.): Universal Usability

Cover of Universal Usability

Universal Usability describes the goal of designing computer interfaces that are easy for all to use. It is a concept which many decry as elusive, impossible or impractical, but this book, which addresses usability issues for a number of diverse user groups, proves that there is no challenge in interface design that cannot be addressed. The book examines innovative and groundbreaking research and practice, and provides a practical overview of a number of successful projects which have addressed a need for specific user populations.
(From book cover, adapted)

Jonathan Lazar (2007). Universal Usability. John Wiley & Sons. ISBN: 0470027274

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Sarah Horton: Access by Design – A Guide to Universal Usability for Web Designers

Cover of Access by Design

In Access by Design: A Guide to Universal Usability for Web Designers, Sarah Horton describes a design methodology  that addresses accessibility requirements but then goes beyond. As a result, designers learn how to optimize page designs to work more effectively for more users, disabled or not. Working through each of the main functional features of Web sites, she provides clear principles for using HTML and CSS to deal with elements such as text, forms, images, and tables, illustrating each with an example drawn from the real world. Through these guidelines, Sarah makes a convincing case that good design principles benefit all users of the Web.
(From book description, adapted)

Sarah Horton (2005). Access by Design. New Riders Press. ISBN: 032131140X

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Josef Köble: Developing Accessible Applications with SAP NetWeaver (Entwicklung barrierefreier Software mit SAP NetWeaver)

Cover of Entwicklung barrierefreier Software mit SAP NetWeaver

This book, put together by SAP User Experience colleagues, is a complete reference for developing accessible software applications with SAP NetWeaver. It describes the requirements for accessible business software and explains the concepts and development based on tools, such as the ABAP Workbench and NW Developer Studio. The authors cover the development with classical Dynpros as well as with Web Dynpro (ABAP und Java) and with SAP Interactive Forms by Adobe. In addition, the book explains how applications can be tested and describes their configuration on the frontend as well as the backend side. All in all, readers obtain a complete overview of all existing controls and their usage. QA-Managers also get valuable hints on how the developed applications can be tested for accessible functionality.
(From Website, translated and adapted)

Josef Köble (2007). Developing Accessible Applications with SAP NetWeaver. Galileo Press. ISBN: 1592291120, ISBN: 978-1592292424 (e-book)
German Version: Josef Köble (2007). Entwicklung barrierefreier Software mit SAP NetWeaver. Galileo Press. ISBN: 3898428621

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Jonathan Arnowitz, Michael Arent, & Nevin Berger: Effective Prototyping for Software Makers

Cover of Effective Prototyping

SAP UX colleagues Jonathan Arnowitz and Michael Arent, together with Nevin Berger from Ziff Davis Media, published Effective Prototyping for Software Makers, a book that will help software makers, developers, designers, and architects build effective prototypes every time: prototypes that convey enough information about the product at the appropriate time and thus set expectations appropriately. According to the authors, this practical, informative book will help anyone, whether or not one has artistic talent, access to special tools, or programming ability to use good prototyping style, methods, and tools to build prototypes and manage for effective prototyping.
(From book cover, adapted)

Jonathan Arnowitz, Michael Arent, & Nevin Berger (2007). Effective Prototyping for Software Makers. Morgan Kaufmann. ISBN: 978-0120885688

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Bill Moggridge: Designing Interactions

Cover of Designing Interactions

Digital technology has changed the way we interact with everything from the games we play to the tools we use at work. Designers of digital technology products no longer regard their job as designing a physical object – beautiful or utilitarian – but as designing our interactions with it. In Designing Interactions, designer Bill Moggridge introduces us to more than forty influential designers who have shaped our interaction with technology.
(From book cover, adapted)

Bill Moggridge (2006). Designing Interactions. MIT Press. ISBN: 978-0262134743

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George Stiny: Shape – Talking about Seeing and Doing

Cover of Shape

In Shape, George Stiny argues that seeing shapes – with all their changeability and ambiguity – is an inexhaustible source of creative ideas. Understanding shapes, he says, is a useful way to understand what is possible in design. Shapes are devices for visual expression just as symbols are devices for verbal expression. Stiny develops a unified scheme that includes both visual expression with shapes and verbal expression with signs. Design uses shapes while business, engineering, law, mathematics, and philosophy turn mainly to symbols. Designing, Stiny argues, is calculating with shapes, calculating without equations and numbers but still according to rules. Stiny takes the idea of design as calculation from mere heuristic or metaphor to a rigorous relationship in which design and calculation each inform and enhance the other.
(From book cover, adapted)

George Stiny (2006). Shape – Talking about Seeing and Doing. MIT Press. ISBN: 0262195313

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Paul A. Fishwick (Ed.): Aesthetic Computing

Cover of Aesthetic Computing

In Aesthetic Computing, key scholars and practitioners from art, design, computer science, and mathematics lay the foundations for a discipline that applies the theory and practice of art to computing. Aesthetic computing explores the way art and aesthetics can play a role in different areas of computer science. One of its goals is to modify computer science by the application of the wide range of definitions and categories normally associated with making art. For example, structures in computing might be represented using the style of Gaudi or the Bauhaus school. The contributors to this book discuss the broader spectrum of aesthetics – from abstract qualities of symmetry and form to ideas of creative expression and pleasure – in the context of computer science. The assumption behind aesthetic computing is that the field of computing will be enriched if it embraces all of aesthetics. Human-computer interaction will benefit – "usability," for example, could refer to improving a user's emotional state – and new models of learning will emerge.
(From book cover, adapted)

Paul A. Fishwick (Ed.) (2006). Aesthetic Computing. The MIT Press. ISBN: 026206250

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John Maeda: The Laws of Simplicity

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Finally, we are learning that simplicity equals sanity. In The Laws of Simplicity, John Maeda offers ten laws for balancing simplicity and complexity in business, technology, and design – guidelines for needing less and actually getting more.
(From book cover, adapted)

John Maeda (2006). The Laws of Simplicity: Design, Technology, Business, Life. The MIT Press. ISBN: 0262134721

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Cyrus D. Khazaeli: Systemisches Design

Cover of Systemisches Design

Instead of restricting the user to certain navigation paths, designers more and more think in terms of band widths, within which modular design elements may recombine over and over in new ways. For being able to do so, they need to be compatible, and rules are needed that govern how they can be combined. This way, static design evolves into systemic design, which allows to keep application functions and information contexts transparent.
(From book page, adapted and translated)

Cyrus D. Khazaeli (2005). Systemisches Design. Rowohlt. ISBN: 3499600781 (in German)

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Dave Shea & Molly E. Holzschlag: The Zen of CSS Design

Cover of The Zen of CSS Design

Proving once and for all that standards-compliant design does not equal dull design, this inspiring tome uses examples from the landmark CSS Zen Garden site as the foundation for discussions on how to create beautiful, progressive CSS-based Web sites. By using the Zen Garden sites as examples of how CSS design techniques and approaches can be applied to specific Web challenges, authors Dave Shea and Molly Holzschlag provide an eye-opening look at the range of design methods made possible by CSS (Cascading Style Sheets).
(From book cover, adapted)

Dave Shea & Molly E. Holzschlag (2005). The Zen of CSS Design: Visual Enlightenment for the Web (Voices That Matter). Addison Wesley. ISBN: 0321303474

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Anthony Dunne: Hertzian Tales – Electronic Products, Aesthetic Experience, and Critical Design

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The cultural speculations and conceptual design proposals in Anthony Dunne's book Hertzian Tales are not utopian visions or blueprints; instead, they embody a critique of present-day practices, "mixing criticism with optimism". Very little has changed in the world of design since Hertzian Tales was first published by the Royal College of Art in 1999, writes Dunne in his preface to this MIT Press edition: "Design is not engaging with the social, cultural, and ethical implications of the technologies it makes so sexy and consumable." His project and proposals challenge it to do so.
(From book cover, adapted)

Anthony Dunne (2005). Hertzian Tales: Electronic Products, Aesthetic Experience, and Critical Design. MIT Press. ISBN: 0262042320

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Jörg Beringer & Karen Holtzblatt: Designing Composite Applications

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Beringer & Holtzblatt's book Designing Composite Applications helps developers hit the ground running by providing a highly detailed and comprehensive introduction to modern application design, using the SAP Enterprise Services Architecture (ESA) toolset and the methodology of Contextual Design. Readers will benefit immediately from exclusive insights on design processes based on SAPs Business Process Platform and learn valuable tricks and techniques that can drastically improve user productivity.
(From amazon.com, adapted)

Jörg Beringer & Karen Holtzblatt (2006). Designing Composite Applications. Galileo Press (SAP PRESS). ISBN: 159229-0655

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Debbie Stone, Caroline Jarrett, Mark Woodroffe, & Shailey Minocha: User Interface Design and Evaluation

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Based on a course from the Open University, UK which has been taught to over a thousand professionals and students, the book User Interface Design and Evaluation presents an overview of the field. It illustrates the benefits of a user-centered approach to the design of software, computer systems, and Websites, and provides a clear and practical discussion of requirements gathering; developing interaction design from user requirements; and user interface evaluation.
(From amazon.com, adapted)

Debbie Stone, Caroline Jarrett, Mark Woodroffe, & Shailey Minocha (2005). User Interface Design and Evaluation. Morgan Kaufmann. ISBN: 0120884364

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Bruce Sterling: Shaping Things

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"This book (Shaping Things) is about created objects and the environment, which is to say, it's about everything," starts Bruce Sterling his book and adds, "Seen from sufficient distance, this is a small topic."

The vision of Shaping Things is given material form by the intricate design of Lorraine Wild. Shaping Things is for designers and thinkers, engineers and scientists, entrepreneurs and financiers – and anyone who wants to understand and be part of the process of technosocial transformation.
(From book description, adapted)

Bruce Sterling (2005). Shaping Things. MIT Press. ISBN: 0262693267 or 026219533X

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Jenifer Tidwell: Designing Interfaces

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Designing Interfaces captures best practices that UI designers have refined over the years as design patterns – solutions to common design problems, tailored to the situation at hand. Each pattern contains practical advice that readers can put to use immediately, plus a variety of examples illustrated in full color. Readers will get recommendations, design alternatives, and warnings on when not to use them.

Each chapter's introduction describes key design concepts that are often misunderstood, such as affordances, visual hierarchy, navigational distance, and the use of color. These give readers a deeper understanding of why the patterns work, and how to apply them with more insight.
(From book description, adapted)

Jenifer Tidwell (2005). Designing Interfaces. O'Reilly Media. ISBN: 0596008031

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Alistair Cockburn: Writing Effective Use Cases

Cover of Effective Use Cases

In Writing Effective Use Cases, object technology expert Alistair Cockburn presents an up-to-date, practical guide to use case writing. The author borrows from his extensive experience in this realm, and expands on the classic treatments of use cases to provide software developers with a "nuts-and-bolts" tutorial for writing use cases. The book thoroughly covers introductory, intermediate, and advanced concepts, and is therefore appropriate for all knowledge levels. Illustrative examples of both good and bad uses cases as well as helpful learning exercises round out the book.
(From book cover, adapted)

Alistair Cockburn (2001). Writing Effective Use Cases. Addison-Wesley. ISBN: 0201702258

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Tom Kelley & Jonathan Littman: The Ten Faces of Innovation

Cover of The Ten Faces of Innovation

The role of the devil's advocate is nearly universal in business today. It allows individuals to step outside themselves and raise questions and concerns that effectively kill new projects and ideas, while claiming no personal responsibility. Nothing is more potent in stifling innovation as Tom Kelley points out in The Ten Faces of Innovation.

Over the years, Kelley has observed a number of roles that people can play in an organization to foster innovation and new ideas while offering an effective counter to naysayers. Among these approaches are the Anthropologist, the person who goes into the field to see how customers use and respond to products, to come up with new innovations; the Cross-Pollinator, who mixes and matches ideas, widely disparate people, and technologies to create new ideas that can drive growth; and the Hurdler, who instantly looks for ways to overcome the limits and challenges to any situation.
(From book description, adapted)

Tom Kelley & Jonathan Littmann (2005). The Ten Faces of Innovation. Currency. ISBN: 0385512074

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Clifford Nass & Scott Brave: Wired for Speech – How Voice Activates and Advances the Human-Computer Relationship

Cover of Wired for Speech

Interfaces that talk and listen are populating computers, cars, call centers, and even home appliances and toys, but voice interfaces invariably frustrate rather than help. In Wired for Speech, Clifford Nass and Scott Brave reveal how interactive voice technologies can readily and effectively tap into the automatic responses all speech - whether from human or machine evokes. Wired for Speech demonstrates that people are "voice-activated": we respond to voice technologies as we respond to actual people and behave as we would in any social situation. By leveraging this powerful finding, voice interfaces can truly emerge as the next frontier for efficient, user-friendly technology.
(From book description, adapted)

Clifford Nass & Scott Brave (2005). Wired for Speech: How Voice Activates and Advances the Human-Computer Relationship. The MIT Press. ISBN: 0262140926

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Daniel H. Pink: A Whole New Mind – Moving from the Information Age to the Conceptual Age

Cover of A Whole New Mind

In the tradition of Emotional Intelligence and Now, Discover Your Strengths, Daniel H. Pink offers a fresh look at what it takes to excel. A Whole New Mind reveals the six essential aptitudes on which professional success and personal fulfillment now depend, and includes a series of hands-on exercises culled from experts around the world to help readers sharpen the necessary abilities. This book is directed to everyone who wants to stay ahead of the next wave.
(From book cover, adapted)

Daniel H. Pink (2005). A Whole New Mind: Moving from the Information Age to the Conceptual Age. Riverhead. ISBN: 1573223085

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Catherine Courage & Kathy Baxter: Understanding Your Users – A Practical Guide to User Requirements Methods, Tools, and Techniques

Cover of Understanding Your Users

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.
(From book cover)

Catherine Courage & Kathy Baxter (2004). Understanding Your Users – A Practical Guide to User Requirements Methods, Tools, and Techniques. Morgan Kaufmann. ISBN: 1558609350

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John Thackara: In the Bubble – Designing in a Complex World

Cover of In the Bubble

We're filling up the world with technology and devices, but we've lost sight of an important question: What is this stuff for? What value does it add to our lives? So asks author John Thackara in his new book, In the Bubble: Designing for a Complex World.
(From book cover)

John Thackara (2005). In the Bubble – Designing in a Complex World. The MIT Press. ISBN: 0262201577

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Clarisse Sieckenius de Souza: The Semiotic Engineering of Human-Computer Interaction

Cover of Semiotic Engineering

In The Semiotic Engineering of Human-Computer Interaction, Clarisse Sieckenius de Souza proposes an account of HCI that draws on concepts from semiotics and computer science to investigate the relationship between user and designer. Semiotics is the study of signs, and the essence of semiotic engineering is the communication between designers and users at interaction time; designers must somehow be present in the interface to tell users how to use the signs that make up a system or program. This approach, which builds on – but goes further than – the currently dominant user-centered approach, allows designers to communicate their overall vision and therefore helps users understand designs – rather than simply which icon to click.
(From book cover)

Clarisse Sieckenius de Souza (2005). The Semiotic Engineering of Human-Computer Interaction. The MIT Press. ISBN: 0262042207

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Jonas Löwgren & Erik Stolterman: Thoughtful Interaction Design

Cover of Throughtful Interation Design

The authors of Thoughtful Interaction Design go beyond the usual technical concerns of usability and usefulness to consider interaction design from a design perspective. The shaping of digital artifacts is a design process that influences the form and functions of workplaces, schools, communication, and culture; the successful interaction designer must use both ethical and aesthetic judgment to create designs that are appropriate to a given environment. This book is not a how-to manual, but a collection of tools for thought about interaction design.
(From product description)

Jonas Löwgren & Erik Stolterman (2004). Thoughtful Interaction Design. The MIT Press. ISBN: 0262122715

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Karen Holtzblatt, Jessamy Burns Wendell, & Shelley Wood: Rapid Contextual Design

Cover of Rapid CD

This handbook introduces Rapid CD, a fast-paced, adaptive form of Contextual Design. Rapid CD is a hands-on guide for anyone who needs practical guidance on how to use the Contextual Design process and adapt it to tactical projects with tight timelines and resources.
Rapid Contextual Design provides detailed suggestions on structuring the project and customer interviews, conducting interviews, and running interpretation sessions. The handbook walks you step-by-step through organizing the data so you can see your key issues, along with visioning new solutions, storyboarding to work out the details, and paper prototype interviewing to iterate the designall with as little as a two-person team with only a few weeks to spare!
(From product description)

Karen Holtzblatt, Jessamy Burns Wendell, & Shelley Wood (2004). Rapid Contextual Design. Morgan Kaufmann. ISBN: 0123540518

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Keld Bødker, Finn Kensing, & Jesper Simonsen: Participatory IT Design

Cover of Participatory IT Design

The goal of participatory IT design is to set sensible, general, and workable guidelines for the introduction of new information technology systems into an organization. Reflecting the latest systems-development research, this book encourages a business-oriented and socially sensitive approach that takes into consideration the specific organizational context as well as first-hand knowledge of users' work practices and allows all stakeholders – users, management, and staff – to participate in the process. Participatory IT Design is a guide to the theory and practice of this process that can be used as a reference work by IT professionals and as a textbook for classes in information technology at introductory through advanced levels.
(From back cover)

Keld Bødker, Finn Kensing, & Jesper Simonsen (2004). Participatory IT Design. The MIT Press. ISBN: 026202568X

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John McCarthy, & Peter Wright: Technology as Experience

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In Technology as Experience, John McCarthy and Peter Wright argue that any account of what is often called the user experience must take into consideration the emotional, intellectual, and sensual aspects of our interactions with technology. We don't just use technology, they point out; we live with it. They offer a new approach to understanding human-computer interaction through examining the felt experience of technology. Drawing on the pragmatism of such philosophers as John Dewey and Mikhail Bakhtin, they provide a framework for a clearer analysis of technology as experience. The authors illustrate their theoretical framework with real-world examples that range from online shopping to ambulance dispatch.
(From back cover, adapted)

John McCarthy, & Peter Wright (2004). Technology as Experience. The MIT Press. ISBN: 0262134470

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Susan Fowler & Victor Stanwick: Web Application Design Handbook – Best Practices for Web-Based Software

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The Web Application Design Handbook: Best Practices for Web-Based Software was written for teams who are trying to write new web-based applications or port existing applications to the Internet. “Writing for the web” is hardly a straightforward issue, not just because a good collection of development tools isn’t yet available, but also because it means at least three different things:

  • Putting a complete, working application on a web page.
  • Displaying only the results of a process that is actually running on a network server elsewhere.
  • Automatically updating a desktop application by downloading code over the Internet.
The Web Application Design Handbook addresses all three definitions, but it also shows how being on the web can add magic to an application.
(From the preface of the book, adapted)

Susan Fowler & Victor Stanwick (2004). Web Application Design Handbook: Best Practices for Web-Based Software. Morgan Kaufmann. ISBN: 1558607528

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Etienne Wenger, Richard McDermott, William M. Snyder, & Richard MacDermott: Cultivating Communities of Practice

Cover of Cultivating Communities of Practice

Building on the 1998 book Communities of Practice by Wenger that framed the theory for an academic audience, Cultivating Communities of Practice targets practitioners with pragmatic advice based on the accumulating track records of firms such as the World Bank, Shell Oil, and McKinsey & Company. Starting with a detailed explanation of what these groups really are and why they can prove so useful in managing knowledge within an organization, the authors discuss development from initial design through subsequent evolution. They also address the potential "dark side" – arrogance, cliquishness, rigidity, and fragmentation among participants, for example – as well as measurement issues and the challenges inherent in initiating these groups company-wide.
(Howard Rothman on Amazon.com, adapted)

Etienne Wenger, Richard McDermott, William M. Snyder, & Richard MacDermott (2002). Cultivating Communities of Practice. Harvard Business School Press. ISBN: 1578513308

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Malcolm McCullouch: Digital Ground – Architecture, Pervasive Computing, and Environmental Knowing

Cover of Digital Ground

Digital Ground is an architect's response to the design challenge posed by pervasive computing. One century into the electronic age, people have become accustomed to interacting indirectly, mediated through networks. But now as digital technology becomes invisibly embedded in everyday things, even more activities become mediated, and networks extend rather than replace architecture. The young field of interaction design reflects not only how people deal with machine interfaces but also how people deal with each other in situations where interactivity has become ambient. It shifts previously utilitarian digital design concerns to a cultural level, adding notions of premise, appropriateness, and appreciation. Malcolm McCullough offers an account of the intersections of architecture and interaction design, arguing that the ubiquitous technology does not obviate the human need for place.
(From book description, adapted)

Malcolm McCullough (2004). Digital Ground: Architecture, Pervasive Computing, and Environmental Knowing. MIT Press. ISBN: 0262134357

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Donald A. Norman: Emotional Design – Why We Love (Or Hate) Everyday Things

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Written by Don Norman, the author of The Design of Everyday Things, this is the first book to make the connection between our emotions and how we relate to ordinary objects – from juicers to Jaguars. In recent years, the design community has focused on making products easier to use. But as Norman amply demonstrates in his book, design experts have vastly underestimated the role of emotion on our experience of everyday objects. Emotional Design analyzes the profound influence of this deceptively simple idea, from our willingness to spend thousands of dollars on Gucci bags and Rolex watches to the impact of emotion on the everyday objects of tomorrow.
(From book description, adapted)

Donald A. Norman (2003). Emotional Design: Why We Love (Or Hate) Everyday Things. Basic Books. ISBN: 0465051359

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Brenda Laurel (Ed.): Design Research – Methods and Perspectives

Cover of Design Research
The tools of design research, writes Brenda Laurel, will allow designers "to claim and direct the power of their profession." The goal of the book is to introduce designers to the many research tools that can be used to inform design as well as to ideas about how and when to deploy them effectively. Often neglected in the various curricula of design schools, the new models of design research described in this book help designers to investigate people, form, and process in ways that can make their work more potent and more delightful.
(From book cover, adapted)

Brenda Laurel (Ed.) (2003). Design Research: Methods and Perspectives. MIT Press. ISBN: 0262122634

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Jay David Bolter & Diane Gromala: Windows and Mirrors – Interaction Design, Digital Art, and the Myth of Transparency

Cover of Windows and Mirrors
In Windows and Mirrors: Interaction Design, Digital Art, and the Myth of Transparency, the authors argue that, contrary to Donald Norman's famous dictum, we do not always want our computers to be invisible "information appliances." They say that a computer does not feel like a toaster or a vacuum cleaner; it feels like a medium that is now taking its place beside other media like printing, film, radio, and television. The computer as medium creates new forms and genres for artists and designers; the authors want to show what digital art has to offer to Web designers, education technologists, graphic artists, interface designers, HCI experts, and, for that matter, anyone interested in the cultural implications of the digital revolution.
(From book description, adapted)

Jay David Bolter & Diane Gromala (2003). Windows and Mirrors : Interaction Design, Digital Art, and the Myth of Transparency . MIT Press. ISBN: 0262025450

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JoAnn Hackos: Content Management for Dynamic Web Delivery

Cover of Content Management for Dynamic Web Delivery
JoAnn Hackos' latest book is written for information-development managers who want to move their departments into the 21st century. It discusses establishing a content strategy to determine what content your users need, in which media it should be delivered, and what types of content should be singled out for sales and marketing, customer support, training, and reference.
(From book info, adapted)

JoAnn Hackos (2002). Content Management for Dynamic Web Delivery. John Wiley & Sons. ISBN: 0471085863

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Louis Rosenfeld & Peter Morville: Information Architecture for the World Wide Web, Second Edition

Cover of Information Architecture for the World Wide Web
Information Architecture for the World Wide Web, Second Edition, shows how to use both aesthetics and mechanics to create distinctive, cohesive Websites that work. Most books on Web development concentrate either on the graphics or on the technical issues of a site. This book focuses on the framework that holds the two together.
(From back cover)

Louis Rosenfeld & Peter Morville (2002). Information Architecture for the World Wide Web, Second Edition. O'Reilly. ISBN: 0596000359

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Douglas K. van Duyne, James A. Landay, & Jason I. Hong: The Design of Sites: Patterns, Principles, and Processes for Crafting a Customer-Centered Web Experience

Cover of The Design of Sites

Based on extensive investigation and analysis of more than 100 of the highest-quality Web sites, this book distills the principles and best practices that make sites enjoyable to visit and a huge asset to the organizations they serve. This comprehensive resource features numerous design patterns that offer proven solutions to common Web design problems. These patterns are appropriate to a wide variety of site genres and address every aspect of Web site design, from navigation and content management to e-commerce and site performance. In addition to enhancing the usefulness and quality of your site, the patterns outlined in The Design of Sites will also shorten development cycles and reduce maintenance costs.
(From back cover)

Douglas K. van Duyne, James A. Landay, & Jason I. Hong (2002). The Design of Sites: Patterns, Principles, and Processes for Crafting a Customer-Centered Web Experience. Addison-Wesley. ISBN: 020172149X.

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Clemens Lango: Visuos

Cover of Visuos

visuos is the concept of an operating software for knowledge work. It covers various forms of access to knowledge spaces, including knowledge management, information retrieval, research and refinement, monitoring of knowledge resources, and automation and scheduling of tasks.

The book gives detailed insight into the challenges of knowledgework and hypermedia systems, the status quo of information visualization and interaction concepts and is a detailed documentation of the visuos concept – from conceptual to detail level.
(From the author's Website, adapted)

Clemens Lango (2003). Visuos. Synchron Wissenschaftsverlag der Autoren. ISBN: 3935025467. (not contained in book list)

 

Ian Graham: A Pattern Language for Web Usability

Cover of  A Pattern Language for Web UsabilityDuring the second half of the 1990s software developers were influenced hugely by the work of architectural theorists of the built environment, notably Christopher Alexander and his colleagues. Alexander’s idea of a pattern language for planning, designing and constructing towns and buildings was, among others, taken as the inspiration for catalogs of software design patterns. Recently, some software engineers have gone back to Alexander’s work and realized that pattern catalogs miss the essence of the idea: that the "words" in a language can be combined using its grammar to produce beautiful, useful works.

Current books on Web design are not organized in such a way that they can be accessed quickly as a reference guide to good practice. In addition, many of the principles of good user interface design are only present implicitly in these books. Therefore, this book provides a standard reference pattern language that can be a useful reference and a source of learning on how to design great sites.

There are four aspects of Website design: usability, content, navigation, and aesthetics. The last three all contribute in some way to the first. Therefore the language must address all four issues. The Web usability pattern language presented in this work attempts to meet these requirements.
(From the foreword, adapted)

Ian Graham (2003). A Pattern Language for Web Usability. Addison Wesley. ISBN: 0201788888.

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Ben Schneiderman & Catherine Plaisant: Designing the User Interface (4th Edition)

Cover of Designing the User InterfaceBen Shneiderman's Designing the User Interface is a classic and comprehensive textbook on user interface design that has set standards for many years. For the fourth edition, Shneiderman is joined by Catherine Plaisant from the University of Maryland, his colleague of 15 years. The new edition offers new and revised content on Web interfaces, mobile devices, universal usability, and other current trends. A section on new ideas in HCI covers both technological and ethical issues.

Ben Shneiderman & Catherine Plaisant (2003). Designing the User Interface (4th Edition). Pearson Addison-Wesley. ISBN: 0321200586 (Hardcover)

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Mike Kuniavsky: Observing the User Experience

Cover of Observing the User ExperienceMike Kuniavsky wrote his book Observing the User Experience because he wants to help user interface designers, developers, and all other people that are engaged in software design "bridge the gap between what they think they know about their users and who they really are." The author sees his book as "a toolbox of techniques that help designers and developers see through the eyes of their users." Part II of the book covers about a dozen different user experience research techniques, such as task analysis, focus groups, usability tests, surveys, log files, and many more. The book concludes with tips on how to communicate the results, and how to create a user-centered corporate culture.

Mike Kuniavsky (2003). Observing the User Experience. Morgan Kaufmann. ISBN 1558609237

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Dan Woods: Packaged Composite Applications

Cover of Packaged Composite ApplicationsDan Woods' book introduces a new breed of software applications, so-called Packaged Composite Applications (PCAs, or xApps in SAP jargon), which offers a new architectural paradigm for integrating and "cutting across the borders" of classical enterprise applications. Although this is not a usability or graphic design book, we present it here because packaged composite applications provide new challenges to user interface designers.

Dan Woods (2003). Packaged Composite Applications. O'Reilly & Associates. ISBN 0596005520. (Not contained in book list)

 

Alan Cooper & Robert M. Reimann: About Face 2.0

Cover of About Face 2.0Eight years after publishing the first version of About Face, Alan Cooper, now together with Robert Reimann, presents an update of his best-selling book on user interface design. According to the authors, they rewrote and reorganized every page to accomodate the recent changes, such as the Web and the new emphasis on visual design. In addition, their new book presents more of Cooper's design solutions as well as details on Cooper's goal-directed design methodology, including personas, goals, and scenarios.

Alan Cooper & Robert M. Reimann (2003). About Face 2.0: The Essentials of Design. John Wiley & Sons. ISBN: 0764526413 (Paperback)

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Benjamin B. Bederson & Ben Shneiderman: The Craft of Information Visualization – Readings and Reflections

Cover of The Craft of Information Visualization

Information visualization is a rapidly growing field that is emerging from research in human-computer interaction, computer science, graphics, visual design, psychology, and business methods.

The book The Craft of Information Visualization: Readings and Reflections, edited by Ben Bederson and Ben Shneiderman, collects nearly 40 of the key papers on information visualization from the University of Maryland's Human-Computer Interaction Lab (HCIL), which is celebrating its 20th anniversary in 2003.

Benjamin B. Bederson & Ben Shneiderman (2003). The Craft of Information Visualization – Readings and Reflections. Morgan Kaufmann. ISBN: 1558609156 (Paperback)

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Carolyn Snyder: Paper Prototyping

Cover of Paper Prototyping

Carolyn Snyder, now an independent usability consultant at Snyder Consulting, was introduced to the method of paper protoyping at Jared Spool's company User Interface Engineering. In her new book Paper Prototyping she compiled all her experience with this approach and shows how paper prototypes can be used as an (cost-)effective tool in the user-centered design process of software applications.

Carolyn Snyder (2003). Paper Prototyping. Morgan Kaufmann. ISBN: 1558608702 (Paperback)

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Ben Shneiderman: Leonardo's Laptop – Human Needs and the New Computing Technologies

Cover of Leonardo's LaptopIn his new book, Ben Shneiderman raises computer users' expectations of what they should get from technology and shifts the focus from what computers can do to what users can do. Using Leonardo da Vinci as inspirational character, Shneiderman explores the computer's potential to support creativity, consensus-seeking, and conflict resolution.

Ben Shneiderman (2002). Leonardo's Laptop – Human Needs and the New Computing Technologies. The MIT Press. ISBN: 0262194767 (Hardcover)
Ben Shneiderman (2003). Leonardo's Laptop – Human Needs and the New Computing Technologies. The MIT Press. ISBN: ISBN: 0262692996 (Paperback)

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Jeff Johnson: Web Bloopers

Cover of Web BloopersJeff Johnson has become known to a wider audience through his book GUI Bloopers, in which he describes common user interface design sins. His new book Web Bloopers continues on this track and offers a list of 60 common Web design mistakes. The author not only illustrates the mistakes through examples – thankfully, the SAP Design Guild has not been on his radar screen – but also gives advice on how to avoid them. We must admit that we added a statement to the SAP Design Guild home page telling what this site is about (Web blooper 1: home page crisis) after taking a first look at his book....

Jeff Johnson (2003). Web Bloopers. Morgan Kaufmann. ISBN: 1558608400 (Paperback)

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