resource center: books
Edited by Dave Rogers
Feasts for the Mind
User experience isn't just about interaction design, information architecture and wireframing. It's a discipline that spans multiple fields. These books will help you develop a sound foundation of knowledge and skills to inform your design efforts.
Daniel Pink. If you're tuned into the world of user experience, you're aware of the seismic but silent shift Pink addresses. This is a marvelous, brilliant exploration of what it means today and what it will mean for the future. After exploring the forces that drive this shift, Pink presents six abilities that we'll need to flourish in the future. Very highly recommended.
Gerald Zaltman. You'll find this one on the Marketing shelves, but it's a thriller. Zaltman takes the latest findings of neuroscience and proposes a new paradigm of marketing. He explores the power of story, metaphor, memory and the interplay of unconscious and conscious thinking. Fascinating reading that will have you thinking differently about your users.
Michael Schrage. I highly recommended this book when I teach seminars on UX and IA. Schrage brilliantly shows how a culture of prototyping creates "shared spaces" where others gather and spark innovation. Powerful stuff for IAs—whose work is steeped in teamwork and prototyping.
Robin Williams. I can't draw a straight line without holding the Shift key down—and my last art class was in eighth grade. That's why I just love this terrific little book that demystifies so much of what you more-artistically-gifted people do. If you're not an artist but you create wireframes, read this book.
Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art
Scott
McCloud. A book about comics? What does that have to do with user experience?
Plenty. This amazing book—completely done in comic form—will transform the way
you think about the presentation of information on page or screen. Will you
find direct application to Web page design? Perhaps. But reading this
book will profoundly affect how you approach Web design. Highly recommended.
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