We've got some passionate beliefs and a burning desire to try new approaches. We know that the user experience book market will be underserved unless a new kind of publishing company takes it on. And we know that UX books could be so much better in so many ways. Here are the ideas that are driving Rosenfeld Media:
Short and practical books.
Thankfully, most web professionals no longer have to struggle to define and make the case for good design. We don't need more 500-page tomes that explain the what and why of user experience, because just about everybody gets it. What we need now are short, practical books that tell us how. Rosenfeld Media books will be practical enough to prepare you for your next client meeting or usability test—and short enough to read on the plane ride there.
Believing in many gods.
It doesn't matter whether you call it user experience, experience design, or something else. What matters is the growing recognition that many different types of perspectives are required to design complex products and systems. Any field that deals with information and its use has something to offer the design world in terms of methods, experience, and wisdom. That's why the people involved in creating Rosenfeld Media books are an interdisciplinary group.
Eating our own dog food.
A company that publishes books on user experience design methods ought to practice what it preaches. So we'll use UX methods to inform, test, and validate our own design decisions. That means our "users"—web design professionals—will have a say in the design of Rosenfeld Media books, their topics, our web site, and the whole Rosenfeld Media experience.
Supporting dialogue is as important as publishing books.
In the age of the internet, books are only one way to capture information on a topic. They're just one part of an evolving discussion that happens in different media and at different times. We're designing Rosenfeld Media books to function in broader information ecologies; for each topic, we'll offer a rich, complementary mix of digital and print content, both for free and for a fee.
Defining by doing.
There are already too many definitions of user experience, and we won't confuse things further by offering our own. After all, some things can never be defined, but they certainly can be practiced. So we'll try to help shape and speed the evolution of UX by developing practical content for use by its practitioners.
The sum will be greater than the parts.
If we're successful, Rosenfeld Media will be the obvious place to look for good books on UX topics. You'll know that we've identified the best authors from many different UX-related disciplines, helped them develop exceptional books, and packaged their works as a consistent and indispensible collection of UX wisdom.
A new publishing model.
Why would anyone want to enter an industry as unhealthy as publishing? Because starting from scratch means that we can take advantage of fantastic new technologies and innovative ways of doing business that are unavailable to traditional publishers. In fact, a clean slate is really a requirement to adequately address the niche of UX and its practitioners. We'll be applying some new design and marketing approaches to develop, sell, and improve our books, and we look forward to sharing our experiences with you.