We will be meeting to discuss at Wilde Roast Cafe in Minneapolis.

WHERE TO BUY
Rosenfeld:
Paperback + screen-optimized PDF + ePub + MOBI, $39
Print-optimized PDF + Screen-optimized PDF + ePub + MOBI, $22

Amazon.com
Paperback, $39

MEETUP DETAILS
Date & Time
Monday, May 9
6 – 8 PM

Location
Wilde Roast Cafe
518 East Hennepin Avenue
Minneapolis, MN 55414

For reference or to learn more about the titles of UX Book Club check out the Reading List for 2011.

On the book:
We discussed several useful aspects of the book. In general the consensus was that it would be a book we would keep on a nearby shelf for reference. It has lots of good reminders and several pieces of advice that could be boiled down to useful checklists. The details were popular, things like forms are very relevant to a designers daily life and Hoekman has some solid and thoughtful advice, especially his advice on making the forms more friendly and human. The simple things we forget when in the middle of a project are listed in black and white. People also remarked on the usability of the book and how that contributed to the likelihood it would be kept handy. You could find information based on the book design. It had easily identifiable chapter cover pages with large lettering. It also included a great index and clear chapter titles. The size and form factor were easy to physically manage and allowed for quick access to content.

On our discussions
Other than the book, we got into a discussion about wireframes. An ongoing dilemma for the UX designer, we discussed the appropriate level of detail for a wireframe. I recommended a post by Will Evans of SemanticFoundry that talks about them as Thinking Device.

Resources
We shared some additional resources:

Yahoo Stencils for Visio and Omnigraffle
EightShapes Unify Design System
Userability Design Frameworks podcast with Robert J. Hoekman Jr. (our book author) and Jared Spool

We discussed Hoekman and Jared Spool’s thoughts around design frameworks and systems in general. We also talked about prototyping. In the end it all gets very specific and contextual. We then discussed next steps for deciding a June book. I have two thoughts. Since wireframes came up and we spent some time there, Communicating Design by Dan Brown seems like a nice next book. The second thought, Seth Godin came up several times because 1) Hoekman references him frequently and 2) he is the keynote speaker at the 2009 MIMA Summit. So his new book, Tribes, is also a good one for the group this year.

Maybe we do both in that order. Let me know your thoughts in the comments on this page.

Big Thanks!
A big thanks goes out to Ivan Stegic of Ten Seven Interactive, maker of Periscope Gadget – the first ever app to integrate multiple Basecamp and Highrise account into your homepage, directly in Gmail and on your Windows Desktop using Google Gadgets. Jennifer Bohmbach was the very lucky winner of the Wilde Roast gift card.

For additional optional reading, check out these sites:

Here are additional details about the venue and logistics:

Can’t wait to see you there!

One of the oldest and most relevant user interfaces is the book. Books generally include page numbers, blocks of text and if you’re lucky, a built-in book marker. Generally you navigate a book in a consecutive manor via chapters or sections. What’s not to love about books?

Enter the dictionary

Webster and friends seem to have this notion that words need no relevance to a given subject. Your average book usually associate and gather paragraphs into a given chapter or section. It puts the sentences and words in a specific context. A sentence talking about love in one chapter may not have the same meaning when used in a different chapter.

In the case of dictionaries, contextualizing a word would benefit its usability and overall usage. If I had a dollar for every time I used a word out of context, I could be a venture capitalist. Grouping words that share a given context could benefit their use in speaking and writing. Our literature would be cleaner, concise and smart. Our verbal communication would make more sense and help communicate meaning effectively.

If it ain’t broke

I know, I know. Why fix the dictionary? So I ask, when was the last time you enjoyed readaing the dictionary? As far as usability for the dictionary, the process of actually reading it as both reference and literature is painful, if not unbearable. Also, the thesaurus is not much help in this regard. Words with the same meaning have equal chance of being used out of context.

The dictionary would be enjoyable if I could find words based on context and or subject. These subjects/contexts could include subject-matters, social situations, greetings, etc. Instead of it being a pile of word puke, it could be a tool that evolves with verbal and written communication. When someone uses the word “suck”, what is it communicating in a given context such as when someone fails a test or vacuuming a floor.

Conclusion

All in all dictionaries are nothing but tolerable. Words based on context would evolve our literature into something that all can understand and learn quickly. I’m not demoting the dictionary as relevant tool in and of itself, but its usefulness could be increased simply by grouping words into contexts. You’ll find that a lot of words overlap contexts. I’ll go as far as saying that the english syntax would be more succinct if it were all based on contexts. Viva la revolution for the dictionary!

www.cva.edu/gallery/gallery_shows_coming.htm

Coinciding with that will be the AIGA Annual Design Exhibition at the CVA Gallery thru November 24, with the opening reception on November 2. (anyone know the gallery hours?)

The family headed out to their favorite place the other night…B&N. I usually hang out in the kids section where the Thomas the Train set is while the missus does her thing.

Which is just fine, as any graphic designer knows that the ‘cool’ books are all in the kids section.

A few new ones that caught my eye the other day:

Star Wars: A Pop-Up Guide to the Galaxy

My 6 year old is now getting into the whole Star Wars thing (the ORIGINAL trilogy, mind you…not that crappy thing that came out a few years ago). As such, this book caught both of our eyes. This is perhaps the most complex pop-up book I’ve ever seen. Each page consists of an elaborate, highly engineered pop-up, along with 5 mini-pop-ups of equal complexity. A bonus is the lightsabers…they actually light up! A fun book for a Star Wars fan and a must-have for anyone fascinated by the ‘paper arts’.

Artist to Artist: 23 Major Illustrators Talk to Children about Their Art

This is a great book for any graphic designer/artist to have on their shelf. It’s an anthology of 23 children’s book illustrators (such as Eric Carle and Maurice Sendak) with each artist describing why and how they became an artist along with sample of their work throughout their career (including from when they were kids). The book is aimed at the readers of these books…both kids and the parents alike.

Barista Strategy Game

Not for the kids, but this was just outside the kids section and looked like a fun game. It’s ‘Magic The Gathering’ for all of us that just can’t quite relate to the trolls and ogres and feel a bit more at home at the Coffee Shop.

If you’ve spent any time near the DDR, or seen Good Bye, Lenin, you’ll know the odd, cheap, kitschy feel that’s both comforting and some how very, very wrong.

In his most recent post, Scott talks about his experience with a workshop at the eTech conference called “Creating Passionate Users,” given by Kathy Sierra. This workshop, he says, is very hard to summarize. But some of the salient points he picks out have broadened my perspective of user experience.

For example, Sierra talked about the idea that “users want to kick ass” at something. They want to feel like they are continually learning and gaining expertise. This is (part of) what creates passionate users.

This reminds me of the conversation I had with Karl Fast last Saturday at the IA/UX Meetup. He was talking about how his research right now is around how the actual interactions people have with systems can affect their cognition and learning of the knowledge domain. To me, designing a user experience that ellicits passion seems like a *very* effective way of improving the stickiness of learning. When people are excited about things, they think about them and keep them fresh in their memory.

I’m not sure what actual bearing this will have on the kind of work that I typically do, but this will definitely be floating around my mind for quite a while. I imagine that it may inspire an added BANG! factor somewhere down the line for some otherwise uninspiring campaign site… We’ll see!

(I nearly forgot to mention… “Creating Passionate Users” will be a book sometime in 2006… look for it!)

Spirit United Interfaith Church, 3204 Como Ave. S.E.
on September 26th from 6-9pm.

More info here: BDFlyer.pdf

The book to be charted: Presence: Human Purpose and the Field of the Future by Peter Senge

He pulls together points from McLuhan to Nietzsche that it’s simply not true. Couched in a therory he calls the ‘Sleeper Curve’ he explores a very involved and persuasive treatise that we are smarter because of all these forms of media that we have to interact with and that these interactions actually make us more engaged than ever before. The technology is participatory, you have to engage your brain. With that thought on the table how can it possibly be void or base the way that it very often gets villified.

I commend Steven Johnson for making me challenge myself and my thinking about the changes that are occurring by putting forth these arguments. His books make people think and this new one continues that tradition.

It’s a worthy read and definitely made me think about my work as an Information Architect and how it will be necessary to actually make products that are more complex to appropriately challenge engaged users while ensuring that it doesn’t become so difficult that it creates frustration.

This book is an especially valuable read for anyone concerned about our youth. It puts forth samples and thoughts about the fact that these activities that seem at the outset negative and detrimental are really positive and teach tangible skills to help us navigate our increasingly complex reality.