resource center: books
Edited by Dave Rogers
Interaction Design
Emerging from software development, interaction design is a critical component of UX. If it doesn't work, the experience doesn't either!
Carolyn Snyder. A whole book on paper prototyping? You bet—and it's a winner. Don't be misled; this book is a great guide to usability testing in general, written clearly by a top specialist. You'll learn everything from how to build paper prototypes to how to be a test facilitator, how to take notes and how to write a report. It's one of my favorites.
Douglas K. Van Duyne, James A. Landay, Jason I. Hong. Hands down, this is the most-thumbed-through book on my UX shelf. The authors are all associated with UC Berkeley's Group for User Interface Research—and in this book they distill the characteristics of excellent and usable Web sites. Resist the temptation to copy ideas right out of the book; instead, use them as a foundation and inspiration for your own design. This is a must-buy.
Jeff Raskin. This book is a mixed bag. The opening chapters introduce the basics of interface design, cognetics and the quantification of interfaces. But it seems to wander in the latter half as the late Raskin proposes a new interface for computers.
(2004) Alan Cooper. If you're a programmer, you may not like this book—but it is required reading for everyone in the software and Web design business. Legendary programmer Cooper shows how the gap between software designers and software users results in products that "don't work" for most people. Provocative, well-written and a classic.
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