Imagine, at a terrifyingly aggressive rate, everything you regularly use is being equipped with computer technology. Think about your phone, cameras, cars - everything - being automated and prog...
Imagine, at a terrifyingly aggressive rate, everything you regularly use is being equipped with computer technology. Think about your phone, cameras, cars - everything - being automated and programmed by people who in their rush to accept the many benefits of the silicon chip, have abdicated their responsibility to make these products easy to use.
The Inmates are Running the Asylum argues that, despite appearances, business executives are simply not the ones in control of the high-tech industry. They have inadvertently put programmers and engineers in charge, leading to products and processes that waste money, squander customer loyalty, and erode competitive advantage. Business executives have let the inmates run the asylum!
In his book The Inmates Are Running the Asylum Alan Cooper calls for revolution - we need technology to work in the same way average people think - we need to restore the sanity. He offers a provocative, insightful and entertaining explanation of how talented people continuously design bad software-based products. More importantly, he uses his own work with companies big and small to show how to harness those talents to create products that will both thrill their users and grow the bottom line.
If you create digital products, you have a responsibility to make them easy to use. It’s mostly common sense; it’s just not common practice! These books are what I consider the must-haves for any user experience designer. They'll teach you how to design products that are useful, usable and desirable.
Are you working with someone who just doesn't "get it"? Here's a short list of books, any of which can really drive home why design is an important part of creating anything.
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.
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.
