100 things every designer needs to know about people & Neuro Web Design - What makes them click?

Hi,

in the last month I read two great books by Susan Weinschenk:

• Neuro Web Design: What makes them click? (2009)
• 100 Things every designer needs to know about people (2011)

She has a Ph.D. in Psychology and is working in the field of user experience for 30 years.

Both books draw their attention to the things that are going on in people unconsciously - how do they perceive information? How are they focusing their attention and what motivates them? How are they deciding?

But the books are not only high-level and theoretical, they also bring concrete examples for designers - like the perception of different font types or sizes.

Both books are worth reading, but if you want to have the one with more content, more pictures and more colors try the "100 things" book.

Br, Claudia

Book Review: Web Form Design > Filling in the blanks

Hi,

The cover

in the last weeks I tried to read the book Web Form Design - Filling in the Blanks by Luke Wroblewski because I'm very interested in the topic.

The content of the book in general is very interesting but I don't know why the book wasn't able to get my full attention (and I tried it several times).

I wasn't very happy with the layouting and the structure of the content. A lot of prosa text for things that can be said in a few bullet points - so in my opinion a lot of unnecesary words. The examples used to visualize the different topics were ok, but sometimes it was not so easy to match the correct explanation to an example.

Good examples but not the perfect structure.

Perhaps I was a little bit influenced by the last book I read about this topic - "Forms that work" by Caroline Jarrett and Gerry Gaffney (my short review). It was perfectly structured with great examples and explanations that were easy to understand ...

Only for clarification... I think the book by Luke Wroblewski is good but not as fascinating as the book by Caroline Jarrett and Gerry Gaffney.

Br, Claudia

Book Review "Forms that Work"

The book "Forms that Work - Designing Web Forms for Usability" by Caroline Jarrett and Gerry Gaffney is a must read for all usability experts dealing with business applications and online forms. I would also recommend it for developers interested in these topics.

Like the books by Steve Krug ("Don't make me think" and "Rocket surgery made easy") this book is filled with a lot of great examples and the focus of the content is on the relevant topics.The chapters are dealing with Persuading people to answer or making questions easy to answer to choosing the forms controls and making a form look easy.



A lot of examples with good explanations



More information about this topic and the book can be found on the Forms that Work website.

Have a nice day,
Claudia

Review: A project guide to UX design

Hi,

last weekend I read the book "A project guide to UX design - For user experience designers in the field or in the making" by Russ Unger (Twitter) and Carolyn Chandler (Twitter).

I found this book because Robert Hoekman, Jr. mentioned it in his Userability Podcast as one of the top 3 books he would recommend.

In general the book is nice and fast to read, the content is very basic and is a good introduction if you want to start in the field of User experience (for me a little bit to low-level). The book focuses a lot on the topics that are relevant for a UX consultant and cover topics like the project ecosystem, proposals for consultants and freelancers, project objectives and approach and Business Requirements.

More interesting chapters for me were about user research, personas, Transition: from defining to designing, Site Maps and Task Flows, Wireframes and Annotations and Prototyping.

Especially the chapter "Prototyping" was interesting because a few weeks ago I discussed with a colleague and he put the need of prototyping into question. Here are some of the key facts from the book...

"... Remember that prototyping is a process and not an artifact. [...] The outcome of the prototyping process is actionable feedback from concepts that can be used to enhance and improve the design."

And Todd Zaki Warfel, president of Messagefirst said the following regarding the goals of Prototyping:

"Prototypes are a way to achieve one or more of the following goals:

• Work your way through a design
• Create a common communication platform
• Sell your design ideas internally (e.g., to your boss, other designers, etc.)
• Test technical feasibility
• Test design concepts with end users/customers"

So in my point of view there are a lot of good reasons for prototyping, because the best or most useable design can only be created in an evolutionary process with a lot of feedback from users, customers and stakeholders.

Br, Claudia

@ TechTalkers: If you are interested in the book I can borrow it to you.

Designing Interfaces (Jenifer Tidwell)

Hi,

last weekend I read the next book - Jenifer Tidwells "Designing Interfaces". In the post about Design Patterns I already mentioned the related website.

For me the book doesn't contain new information. It's a nice compendium of the main patterns and I think the book could be helpful if you want to find a solution for a specific problem.

If you don't know much about the design patterns than you should read the book. The various patterns are really well explained and visualized with good examples.

Br Claudia

PS: @Techtalker - This book is available at the foyer.

The back of the napkin

Hi,

today I want recommend you a book about solving problems and selling ideas with pictures. "The Back of the Napkin" by Dan Roam describes a new way of thinking - the visual thinking. On the one hand the book concentrates on possible methods to solve problems with visual thinking on the other hand the book also describes how the solutions can be presented to the audience.
(@Techtalker: The book is available in the foyer @ TTV)

At the MIX 08 conference Dan Roam talked about it and the video is available online. The basics of the book are covered in this workshop.

The visualization of the tools/methods provided in the book are also available on the website.

If somebody used this techniques to solve or present a problem it would be nice to hear something about your experiences.

Br, Claudia

How do you design? - A Compendium of Models

Hi all,

today i want to share with you a link to a book which is written by Hugh Dubberly. He also writes articles for the magazine "Interactions".

The new book is called "How do you design" and is a compendium of design models. For the book Dubberly has collected over 100 descriptions of design and development processes.

The book (PDF) is available online > here.

Regards Claudia