As designers we often try designing ways to do things faster and making things easier for the rest of us. We hope to leave behind something that makes the world a better place. But what is the actual value of the designs we create? How much time is being saved? More importantly, what could humanity do with the extra time?

That’s what we want to find out with you. And along the way you can win an awesome prize. As inspiration Andrew Mayfield (CEO of Optimal Workshop) created a very interesting and interactive infographic exploring how to quantify the value of UX design and how it’s making the world a better place.

The contest

We know what the most important thing of a contest is: meeting new friends. No, just kidding. You want to know what you can win. Well, we’ve got an awesome prize for you. The winner of the contest gets The Optimal Designer’s Toolkit from Optimal Workshop.- the absolutely best set of tools, training and inspiration ever bundled together for World Usability Day 2012.

How to win

Tweet your best ideas on how you would help people save time with a good UX design. You must also follow @johnnyholland and add the hashtag #uxsavestime to the tweet. At the end of the contest period (which ends on November 10th) we will decide what tweet was the most original. You can tweet as often as you want, just make sure it is very creative, smart and good.

Example: “Delete form fields that are not needed for the proces #uxsavestime”

Competition closes November 10th 2012.

Have fun.

This month we review books about ubiquitous computing design and content strategy.

Smart Things: Ubiquitous Computing User Experience Design

Type: practical
Publisher: Morgan Kaufmann
ISBN: 978-0123748997
Details: 336 pages, paperback

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For years people have talked about ubiquitous computing and how it will change our lives. It has taken time for this technology to move from the academic and experimental phase of development to being part of our everyday experience. Now that the revolution has started, designers should observe and understand how to design for ubiquitous computing. To fill this need, Mike Kuniavsky has written a book called “Smart Things: Ubiquitous Computing User Experience Design.”

Eighty percent of the user experience books I own start with the history of our field and the definition of user experience. So does this book, but this is the first time in years that I actually read these chapters. Here Kuniavsky provides a clear explanation of the position that ubiquitous computing holds in this history. After this he gives his definition of and differences between identity, interface, industrial, interaction, information and service design. And while I heard about most of these before, understanding his view on this was helpful.

In the book, Kuniavsky takes us on a ride through many different ubiquitous computing projects. He explains each project in detail and gives us insights into technology, design choices, marketing decisions and reasons behind the success or failure. This approach really helps you understand what ubiquitous computing exactly is, which is important since it can be so much and so little at once. Writing in this way helps the reader to get a good understanding, but I also thought it missed some details. People with lots of experience in interaction design will probably get inspired by this, but will not learn a lot of new information.

Clout: The Art and Science of Influential Web Content

Type: practical
Publisher: New Riders Press
ISBN: 978-0321733016
Details: 240 pages, paperback

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In Clout, the author Colleen Jones concisely outlines the methods and techniques that will aid the development of a successful content strategy. There are numerous real-world examples that support the core principles of context, rhetoric and psychology. She advises content creators to turn off their “fire hose” of information and provides effective and proven techniques to reach people.

Not only does Clout suggest organizations change the way they think before they begin to solve customer engagement issues; it may also require some readers that they change the way they think before they read it. Jones delicately introduces elements of psychology and sociology to explain the science of influence. The best SEO or A/B testing tools will not heal a company’s reputation or convince customers to trust your content’s voice. Investing in a new psychology will.

I like Clout because it teaches how and why to create influential content. I also love the fact that Colleen Jones takes the time to review the principles of rhetoric and psychology, principles at the heart of influential content, before mapping it all out and discussing practical tactics to develop influential content.

There is so much valuable information in Jones’ book that I want to summarize it all in this review, but I won’t. She has written a beautiful and good overview of what it takes to apply a good content strategy, without making things too complicated. This book can be used by web designers and content strategists, but is also a great gift for clients.

This month we’ve reviewed books on many different topics. We move from sustainable design to undercover UX and iPhone design.

Undercover User Experience Design

Type: practical
Edited by: James Box / Cennydd Bowles
Publishers: New Riders
ISBN: 978-0321719904
Details: 192 pages, paperback

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According to it’s cover this book will learn you ‘how to do great UX work with tiny budgets, no time and limited support’. In about 180 pages it will introduce you to the world of UX design and tries to can help you create better products in a company that has never even heard of the term UX.

The moment you open the book you get all sorts of practical tips and methods to create better products. There are a total of seven chapters: ‘exploring the problem’, ‘generating ideas’, ‘making it real’, ‘refining your solution’, ‘working with’ and ‘where next’. Each chapter shortly introduces the theme and gives you mainly hands-on advice on how to do stuff. This ranges from the creation of low cost personas to making good sketches and doing simple usability testing. The explanations are very clear and to-the-point, don’t expect extensive explanations, variations and cases to dive into a subject.

All this is really interesting for people who are new to the field or who want to introduce UX into their organization. All the information in the book isn’t new, it has been collected and written in a very accessible way. The thing I found most interesting was the ‘generating ideas’ chapter and the explanation on how you should deal with different disciplines in a company. In that part of the book you can feel the true experience of the writers, where they show that you shouldnt just work from your UX point of view, but should also understand where the other people (programmers, designers, CEOs, marketers, etc) come from and how you could best work with thim.

As a conclusion I would say this is a very interesting read for people who are new to the field. It gives a short and simple explanation on every step of the process and great tips on how to do your job. For experienced UX designers there shouldn’t be any surprises in the book.

Product Design in the Sustainable Era

Type: case studies
Edited by: Dalcacio Reis / Julius Wiedemann
Publishers: Taschen
ISBN: 978-3-8365-2093-5
Details: 440 pages, flexicover

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Over the past years sustainable design has been a hot topic. As designers we want to have to have the feeling we design for the good of the planet. In this book Taschen has tried to create a good overview of the different products and initiatives worldwide to create a more environmentally friendly world. This has resulted in a beautifully designed book full of cases ranging from cradle-to-cradle shoes to new ways of generating energy.

I found it a very inspiring book, but at the same time it shows the hype around sustainable design. There are many great examples that would inspire every designer, but the book also contains several examples that have nothing to do with the core beliefs behind sustainable design. In any case it’s a good overview of the current status of sustainable design.

The Internet Case Study Book

Type: case studies
Edited by: Rob Ford / Julius Wiedemann
Publishers: Taschen
ISBN: 978-3-8365-1895-6
Details: 384 pages, hardcover

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Usually I’m not a big fan of books that show collections of websites. Most of the times the examples are already outdated a week before the book goes to print. But for some reason I kept turning pages in this one. In total ‘The Internet Case Study Book’ has 60 different cases in four different categories: campaigns, e-commerce, promotional, social media and corporate. Each case has four short paragraphs describing the brief, the challenge, the solution and finally the result. This simple approach really helps to get a quick overview of the project and to get inspired for your own projects. I must admit that sometimes I felt the descriptions were a bit short (and personally I always want to know what went wrong), but still it’s a great overview with inspiring examples. If you want to buy the book do so within half a year, otherwise the cases are too old.

Designing the iPhone User Experience

Type: practical
Edited by: Suzanne Ginsburgy
Publishers: Addison-Wesley
ISBN: 978-0321699435
Details: 336 pages, paperback

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In the book ‘Designing the iPhone User Experience’ Suzanne Ginsburg explains in an easy way how to design intuitive, easy, powerful and useful apps for the IPhone. The purpose of this book is to provide a clear foundation to interaction and visual designers when starting to design iPhone apps. But also for developers the book is interesting to get an understanding of user needs, planning, visualization and usability-testing skills.

Suzanne describes a user-centered approach to sketching and prototyping. The following subjects are treated; overview of the iPhone hardware and iOS application styles, step-by-step advice on how to conduct upfront user research, tips for analyzing user research and evaluating the competition and an explanation how to develop and refine your app concept.

The book is clearly written and provides many interesting examples and case studies – interviews with superb iPhone designers and developers, providing first-hand insights into the thought processes behind their apps.

It is a pity that the parts about user research, generating ideas, prototyping and usability testing are very general. As almost everybody that will this book, has already been in design processes, the principles explained are most probably already known to them. What is interesting though, is what aspects differentiate this topic for the iPhone app in specific. This interesting, relatively ‘new’, context of the iPhone could be elaborated more. Moreover, the summaries at the end of each chapter are not very substantial. So reading the summary, doesn’t provide you the knowledge of the chapter.

(review Designing the iPhone User Experience by Rose-Anne Dottinga)

In this round-up of book reviews we are moving from usability testing to business ideas and children. We reviewed Steve Krug’s ‘Rocket Surgery Made Easy’, a collection of essays called ‘Mobile Technology for Children’, 37Signals’ ‘Rework’ and Donna Spencer’s newest book ‘A Practical Guide to Information Architecture.’

Rocket Surgery Made Easy

Type: theory & practical

Authors: Steve Krug

Publishers: New Riders

ISBN: 978-0321657299

Details: 161 pages, paperback

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Need to convince your boss or a client that they need to do more usability testing? This book does the trick.

This book is Steve Krug’s follow up to the very successful ‘Don’t Make Me Think’. In the first book Krug told (and showed) us in an easy way what web usability is all about, while the purpose of this book is to get people to actually start user testing. The audience for the book isn’t usability professionals, but everybody involved in creating new websites that don’t do any testing right now. It is written in the same style as ‘Don’t Make Me Think’, which is very amusing to read and enthusing to pick up what he recommends.

In the book Krug explains that usability testing isn’t as complicated and scary as it looks. He explains not just why you should do test, but also when and how. The book isn’t trying to downgrade professional usability testing, but it is explaining that the more you test the better. It’s better to do multiple small tests with three users during the development of a website in contrast to doing one big-scale usability test at the end of a project.

This book isn’t for people who know what the power of usability testing is. But if you’ve never done a usability test before: buy this book. It will surely make you a believer. I do believe the book is also a perfect gift for clients at the start of a project. It shows them the power of testing and makes them less scared to invest in this.

Mobile Technology for Children: Designing for Interaction and Learning

Type: theory

Edited by: Allison Druin

Publishers: Morgan Kaufman

ISBN: 978-0-12-374900-0

Details: 353 pages, paperback

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The book consists of a collection of essays from various experts providing insights on how children use mobile technologies and how these technologies can support children’s learning and development. There is no doubt that children use technology very differently than adults; especially the youngest generation, which grow up using all kind of technologies as part of their normal daily life.

However the use of mobile technologies to support children’s learning started only a few years ago and it is still a topic of debate among parents, teachers and educational systems. Very often when children step into the classroom they have to leave their cell phone, mp3 player, portable gaming device, etc. aside as educational systems have not found a way to cope with the potential of these technologies. There is no clear answer on how to design and really take advantage of them, yet.

Among the benefits of using mobile technologies is that they have the potential to reach children in isolated or economically disadvantaged communities, this could provide them with a way to access information cheap and without the use of traditional computing devices. As a consequence learning and development opportunities can be equal for all children.

The book is clearly written and provides many interesting examples and case studies. But the down side of being a compilation of essays is that some basic information about mobile technologies repeats it self several times, which is a shame. At the end you don’t have a set of tools to work with, it’s clearly a theoretical approach.

Rework

Type: management

Authors: Jason Fried & David Heinemeier Hansson

Publishers: Crown Business

ISBN: 978-0307463746

Details: 288 pages, hardcover

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A short, but inspiring book about starting your own software business.

In this book Jason Fried and David Hansson of 37signals share their thoughts and learnings on creating a successful business. It’s a typical business book in which you see dozens of taglines on how to do business differently. But I have to admit that the message they try to bring across does sound interesting. And why not? They are the ones who’ve set up a highly successful company.

The book is a compilation of dozens of short (two page) columns. These columns are grouped in about twelve themes, ranging from hiring people to the culture of your company, but also damage control, competition and productivity. In each theme you see columns that are obvious, but also ones that contradict everything you learned at school. The theme I liked most is ‘Productivity’. Here the writers claim that you should not be a hero; if something can’t be fixed in a defined time, ignore it. Another point they try to make is that you have to make tiny decisions and good enough is fine.

Some other great insights I’ve gained by reading this book (I will only share five, otherwise I am copying the book):

• Underdo your competition: focus all your efforts on the core of your product, don’t make it a Coldwar game with the competition;
• Why grow? If companies are successful they want to grow. Why? A small company is very flexible and capable of responding to market change;
• Hire great writers: if you don’t know who to hire, hire the best writer. These are people who know how to think clearly and how to structure;
• Focus on what won’t change: a lot of companies and designers focus on the next big thing, but the core of your business should be built around things that don’t change. Make the core better;
• Let customers outgrow you: “When you let customers outgrow you, you’ll most likely wind up with a product that’s basic [...] There’s an endless supply of customers who need exactly that.”

It’s a very interesting read for people working in a business. If you are an avid reader of the 37signals blog ‘Signals vs Noise’ you’ll probably learn nothing new. But in any case it’s a nice collection of small insights.

A Practical Guide to Information Architecture

Type: practical

Authors: Donna Spencer

Publishers: Five Simple Steps

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An introduction to information architecture.

If there is one thing that can be said about Donna Spencer’s new books, it’s that it is very practical. This book is a great primer for anyone just getting started with Information Architecture, or someone who is looking to get a refresh on the guiding principles of the field. One of the best aspects of the Donna’s book is the tone in which she writes, it’s playful but very instructional. This allows for the reader to become truly engaged with the content, and makes for a wonderful learning experience.

The specific role of Information Architecture and Information Architects is a bit hazy. Donna breaks it all down very nicely though. She describes what skills are most needed by an Information Architect, and also how the role of IA applies to projects that live off of the web. Readers also are able to gain a sense of how best to collaborate with other roles when designing out an information architecture, for teams where the specific activities cross role responsibilities.

Another fine gem of the book is the overview of Information Architecture Patterns.  Patterns for hierarchies, databases, hypertext, linear, catalog, and more are displayed along with real world examples.  While this just scratches the surface of this topic, it exposes the overall depth patterns and how they can be applied.

If there is one area of the book that I wanted to see more of was recommendations on how long some of the described activities take. This type of information is vital for someone just getting started in the field, or trying to introduce an information architecture process to their organization.  Providing realistic estimates are always a challenge, but essential for planning projects accordingly and creating organizational buy-in.

Overall, Donna’s book was an engaging and educational read. It should be a staple for any UX Bookshelf, and required reading for junior information architects. It’s filled with bit of humor, and contains many real world examples to back up the lessons she is providing.

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Love reading books? Especially for you we made a bookstore full of the best books in our field. Check out our UX Book store. The above book reviews were written by: Anahi Bagu, Brad Nunnally and Jeroen van Geel

There are so many interesting UX books coming out that it’s hard to know which ones are worth your money. So from now on we will try and be your guide. Each month we will share with you our opinion on the newest UX books. And as a bonus we will add a classic you must have.

This month we review Card Sorting, Designing Social Interfaces, Thoughts on Interaction Design, and revisit The Inmates Are Running The Asylum.

Card Sorting

Type: practical
Authors: Donna Spencer
Publishers: Rosenfeld Media
Details: 160 pages, paperback

With this book you can learn card sorting in a few days.

Card sorting is a method for finding patterns about how people categorise content and functionality on a website. In Spencer’s book she sets out to explain how you can successfully apply this inexpensive research method. And she did a good job at this. The book is a handy guide for anybody who wants to do card sorting, ranging from beginners to people who want to do it the proper way.

Spencer splits up card sorting into two variations: open and closed card sorting. In open card sorting participants are given cards which they have to group any way they think best. This version is very useful for creating structures for new and existing websites. Closed card sorting means participants are given cards which they have to sort in pre-defined groups. This version is useful when working with new content in an existing structure. In the book she takes you through every step to make both types of card sorting work.

If I had to name one thing I would have liked to see different in this book, it would have been the focus. Right now it presents itself as the definitive guide to card sorting, but all the examples, cases, and text focus on websites and intranets. It would have been more interesting to see how card sorting can be applied in a wider UX context.

But what I like about the book is that it’s honest and practical. Card sorting isn’t presented as the holy grail in user research, but as an interesting and useful part of it. Spencer notes that if you want to do proper research you have to also use other techniques alongside this one.

Designing Social Interfaces

Type: practical
Authors: Christian Crumlish & Erin Malone
Publishers: O’Reilly
Details: 478 pages, paperback

A practical guide for anybody who is working on social interfaces.

Are you currently working on a social media project? O’Reilly have once again published a trustworthy book full of principles, patterns and best practices. You can save yourself a lot of time on coming up with ways to make it a social environment that works, as long as you are willing to follow the patterns.

The book has been divided into five parts. Each one is a collection of principles, patterns and best practices. These aren’t pre-defined categories, but overlapping themes:

1. What Are Social Patterns?: introduction;
2. I Am Somebody: focusing on the notion of self, my online identity;
3. Objects of My Desire: about the type of activity you want to encourage;
4. A Beautiful Day in the Neighbourhood: focusing on the social network, shared activities and interest;
5. But Wait… There’s More!: creating an open experience.

The format makes it a wonderful resource you can grab when facing a specific challenge. And I am not just saying this because I think so, but because I actually used it. In the past I’ve bought quite a few practical books that never gave me the answers I needed.

Thoughts on Interaction Design

Type: theory
Authors: Jon Kolko
Publishers: Morgan Kaufmann
Details: 2nd edition, 155 pages, paperback

Understand the story behind our profession on an academic level, but with an accessible tone.

In 2007 Jon Kolko self-published ‘Thoughts On Interaction Design’. These 1,000 copies, now known as ‘The Green Books’, have become treasured items. Fortunately Morgan Kaufmann decided to republish the book (with a blue cover) so that every interaction designer has access to this thought provoking material.

In ‘Thoughts on Interaction Design’ Kolko and several other authors explain to the reader what interaction design is all about. They dive into the history of interaction design and its relationship to engineering and design. In an almost academic, but also realistic way they explain what we do (or should do), how and why. Even though there are several books that have attempted this, Thoughts on Interaction Design is the first that explains it in a way that sticks – it not only makes me proud as an interaction designer, but also gives me knowledge to apply in a discussion.

To give you a feeling of the writing style, here is a sample from the book’s website,

Interaction designers are trained to observe humanity and to balance complicated ideas, and are used to thinking in opposites: large and small, conceptual and pragmatic, human and technical. This is not a jack of all trades. Instead, it is a shaper of behaviour. Behaviour is a large idea, and may, at first blush, seem too large to warrant a single profession. But a profession has emerged nonetheless. This professional category includes the complexity of information architecture, the anthropologic desire to understand humanity, the altruistic nature of usability engineering, and the creation of dialogue.

A must have for every interaction designer.

UX Classic: The Inmates Are Running the Asylum

Type: Methods
Authors: Alan Cooper
Publishers: Sams
Details: 288 pages
Published: 1999

See where personas started – and why we needed them in the first place

Love ‘em or hate ‘em, if you’re in interaction design you know about personas. The technique burst onto the scene in Alan Cooper’s 1998 book ‘The Inmates Are Running the Asylum’.

It’s perhaps fitting that a technique that has generated so much debate is found in a equally provocative book. Cooper spends much of  ‘Inmates’ setting up what’s wrong with current products and IT culture, mixed in with a few of his own software exploits for good measure. Luckily he a gift for clear, engaging prose and memorable catchphrases such as “dancing-bearware” (it’s not that it dances/functions well, it’s that it does it at all), “software apologists”, and (my favourite) “programmers act like jocks”. Yes, it can be over-the-top, but you can’t accuse Cooper of lack of passion.

Interesting with a decade of hindsight is Cooper’s horror stories of ’90s Silicon Valley projects. He documents bad products (VCRs, ATMs), Microsoft team battles, and a Job-less Apple scraping by on the power of its brand.

Still, while this is all great, its all a lead-up to Cooper’s tour de force: personas. Developed as “a precise description of our user and what he wishes to accomplish” (p123), Cooper goes through in detail their purpose and how they’re made (for the record, he is emphatic that they’re based on research and they they’re “discovered” rather than “made”). His case study of Sony Trans Com’s P@ssport IFE still holds up today in both demonstrating the process and the final product (the other studies have dated more). How would “Clevis McCloud, crotchety [but spry] septegenarian … slightly embarrassed about the touch of arthritis in his hands” (p126) use your product?

“The Inmates Are Running the Asylum” is worth buying even for the twenty or so pages on personas – it’s not only the first example of it, but still probably the best. Beyond that, it’s a great reminder on what can go wrong in IT. The day all of the examples are irrelevant will be a happy one for interaction designers indeed.

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Welcome to my world. If it’s up to me we’ll call it our world from now on. This place is an open collective talking, sharing and finding answers about the interaction between people and devices, services or systems.

I hope you like it.