Psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi's famous investigations of "optimal experience" have revealed that what makes an experience genuinely satisfying is a state of consciousness called flow. Durin...
Psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi's famous investigations of "optimal experience" have revealed that what makes an experience genuinely satisfying is a state of consciousness called flow. During flow, people typically experience deep enjoyment, creativity, and a total involvement with life. In this new edition of his groundbreaking classic work, Csikszentmihalyi demonstrates the ways this positive state can be controlled, not just left to chance. Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience teaches how, by ordering the information that enters our consciousness, we can discover true happiness and greatly improve the quality of our lives.
The field of user experience design is so encompassing that there is a near infinite amount of knowledge to be drawn from other domains. Whilst UX as a discipline is very young it's founded on principles and research from psychology, design and social sciences that give it a definite foot up when it comes to feeling confident in the work we do.
The one area in which I've decided to spend more professional reading time is psychology, particularly as it relates to emotion, intention and other elements related to the experiences people have with products, applications and web sites. This is a list of books I intend to take a look at.
This is a collection of books that I've read and consulted as part of my training in graphic and industrial design and work in user experience and emotional design.
Behind every abstraction that we call a user is an individual and a community, a history and a biological heritage, a culture and the keys to making a successful interface. Understanding any audience requires an understanding of people, and these books have been critical to the way I design for humans.
