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So, I’m entering into the world of usability (UX) and design, and for now it seems the best way to do so is to read a bunch of good books about the subject. Based on this post on Slashdot, I identified four:

• The Inmates Are Running the Asulum by Alan Cooper. This seems more meta, meaning why so many of our product’s design suck, and integrating good design practices in for-profit corporations.
• The Humane Interface by Jef Raskin, who had a great influence in the Macintosh in the 80s.
• Don’t Make Me Think by Steve Krug. This book is more focused on web site usability and their economics.
• Designing Interfaces by Jenifer Tidwel. This is a more pragmatic book that presents many (usability) design patterns.

All of these are available as e-books except for Raskin’s book. Luckilly, through work I have full access to Safari Books Online, and it just so happens that all of those four books are there, including Rsaskin’s book. I even had enough “credits” to download them as (heavily watermarked) PDF or Kindle (“mobi”). By the way, Safari Books is such an amazing service I wouldn’t mind paying the $500 / year fee.

Finally, archived recordings of Stanford Human-Computer Interaction seminars are available exclusively on iTunes U, for example the Winter 2010 seminars. Maybe instead I should start with the Spring 2012 one and work backwards from there. Either way it’s completely free.

With all that, I should be set for the next few months. After that, I may have to expand to educational psychology...

Published on September 16, 2012 at 21:26 EDT

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