A dash of agile, a dash of peer review: How we evaluate book proposals
We’ve been hunting for a book on the intersection of agile development methods and UX design for quite some time. While we’ve not quite nabbed our quarry yet, I recently realized that we’re already taking something of an agile approach when it comes to developing and evaluating book proposals. We start with two people (the author and me) iterating for a few weeks on a concept until it’s a proposal. Then we move to a formal, traditional peer review phase. We hope this balanced process will help authors hit the ground running and write the best possible books. Here’s how we do it:
Most prospective authors feel that they can’t approach a publisher without a formal, complete proposal. Well, we do need one, folks, and we even require completing a fairly traditional book proposal template. But I know first-hand how off-putting the proposal process can be, and I’m sure it filters out the good along with the not-so-good.
Instead, I remind prospective authors that a book is a snapshot of a dialogue that the author is having with a large collection of colleagues. And, in Rosenfeld Media’s case, that dialogue starts with me (I wear a lot of hats, including serving as Chief Acquisitions Editor). I ask the author to send me a simple paragraph or two elevator pitch, and perhaps a very basic top-level outline. If it’s within our editorial sweet spot, I’ll review it and provide feedback. We’ll bounce it back and forth a few times, tuning and improving it with each iteration, until we achieve something that looks like a formal proposal and one that we both feel good about. It usually takes 3-4 weeks. That’s the part that’s at least agile-ish, if not formally agile.
Next we expand the dialogue: I pitch the proposal to Rosenfeld Media’s editorial board, and pay them to review it and provide comments. Though I’m calling it peer review, “expert review” might be a better choice, based on the board’s composition. The board can and often does reject proposals, but at minimum the prospective author walks away with excellent feedback from a panel of distinguished colleagues. If the proposal does get accepted, then the dialogue expands again—this time to include you, our potential readers, via our “book-in-progress” sites.
I think it’s interesting that we’ve organically developed a process that combines traditional, structured and new-fangled, fluid aspects. But what’s important are the results; as our first book nears completion, we’ll soon see what the market has to say. In the meantime, we’d love to hear your thoughts on the process—and your book ideas.
User experience and the analysts
As part of our ongoing research of the UX environment, we recently took a closer look at the six major analyst firms (Aberdeen, AMR, Forrester, Gartner, IDC, and Yankee). We were hoping to determine if the analysts were paying much attention to user experience, so we searched a variety of UX-related terms (21, to be precise) on their respective web sites. We then looked at which firms paid attention to which UX topics, how these firms stacked up against each other, and how they compared to the web’s overall UX consciousness.
Nathan Shedroff joins Rosenfeld Media editorial board
Nathan Shedroff is the newest addition to Rosenfeld Media’s distinguished editorial advisory board. Nathan is a user experience pioneer; after years of collaboration with Richard Saul Wurman, Nathan founded the seminal experience design firm Vivid Studios, where he served as Chief Creative Officer. His many writing credits include Experience Design 1 and contributing to Wurman’s Information Anxiety 2. His latest book, Making Meaning, explores the creation of meaningful experiences for people. Nathan also has extensive ties to academia, most recently as a visiting professor at Interaction Design Institute IVREA and as the founder of the soon-to-launch MBA in Design Strategy program at California College of the Arts in San Francisco.
As impressive as Nathan’s experience and accomplishments are, no one can match his positive energy. We’re absolutely delighted to have him participate in our editorial process.
RSS feed for Indi Young’s book has changed
We’ve changed the feed address for Indi Young’s book on mental models. If you’ve been tracking Indi’s progress, please change your feed subscription to this address:
We’ve begun production on Indi’s manuscript, and it’s looking great; a perfect choice for Rosenfeld Media’s first book!
Testing the design of the book
How would you test the design of a book?
Not the content, but the quality of a book as a functioning information system?
It’s a strange question—the book, after all, has been around for centuries, and its design is fairly stable. Conventions exist to guide what goes on the covers, the spine, the pages, and so on. Readers expect tables of contents, an index, chapters, sections, and pagination.
But it doesn’t hurt to look for ways of carrying out those conventions more effectively. And maybe there is room for innovation when it comes to book design?
As a fledgling publisher, one focused on user experience design, Rosenfeld Media is trying to answer these questions. Our first manuscript, Indi Young’s book on mental models, is going into production, and we’re hoping to publish it late this summer. We’ve already designed the interiors—both print and PDF versions—for our initial series, based on a fair bit of market research (detailed here, here, and here). Now it’s time to test those designs, and we could really use your help.
We’ve started crafting our test questions (listed below), but have a long way to go. It’s especially unclear how to test for such qualities as readability and credibility. We’re also sure that we’ve left out some important questions. Your suggestions would go a long way toward helping us provide you with better books.
UX Zeitgeist now in alpha
You may have noticed that our site looks a little different. That’s because we’ve added a link to our new service, UX Zeitgeist, to our site-wide navigation system (you’ll see it in the upper right-hand corner).
What on earth is UX Zeitgeist? (Go here for a definition of “zeitgeist”.)
We’re not entirely sure ourselves just yet. But we think it’ll be good.
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Luke Wroblewski to write book on web form design
We’re proud to announce that Luke Wroblewski has begun work on Rosenfeld Media’s newest title, Web Form Design Best Practices. You can visit Luke’s book-in-progress site and subscribe to its RSS feed.
Form design is one of those topics that, at first glance, may seem narrow. But form design is critical to the success of just about any web site. If forms don’t work, then transactions of all types—making a purchase, signing up for a mailing list, applying for a job, completing a personal health profile—won’t be’t completed successfully. Luke’s book will be a valuable tool to help web developers, interaction designers, and others plug this narrow but deep gap in their sites’ user experience.
Luke is an ideal author to tackle this topic. He’s currently Senior Principal of Product Ideation & Design at Yahoo! Inc. and Principal of LukeW Interface Designs. He’s the author of Site-Seeing: A Visual Approach to Web Usability, as well as numerous articles on design methodologies, strategies and applications including those featured in his own online publication, Functioning Form. And Luke’s recent articles and talks on web form design have been extremely well received.
Because we envision our books as dialogues, all Rosenfeld Media books are developed with extensive reader input. Each of our books has a dedicated site where you and the author can share information on (and questions about) the topic. Please visit Luke’s book site, subscribe to its RSS feed, and spread the word.
Todd Zaki Warfel to write book on prototyping
We’re proud to announce that Todd Zaki Warfel has begun work on a book on developing prototypes. A Practitioner’s Guide to Prototyping will help you quickly flesh out your design ideas, test your assumptions, and gather real-time feedback from users. The book will discuss how prototypes are more than just a design tool, demonstrating how they can help you market a product, gain internal buy-in, and test feasibility with your development team.
Todd is a founding partner at Messagefirst, where he focuses on design-research for consumer and B2B products. With over 16 years of industry experience, degrees in English, Creative Writing, and Cognitive Psychology, and a background in Product Design, Todd has been fortunate enough to create over 15 industry first products.
Because we envision our books as dialogues, all Rosenfeld Media books are developed with extensive reader input. Each of our books has a dedicated site where you and the author can share information on (and questions about) the topic. Please visit Todd’s book site and subscribe to its RSS feed. The book’s table of contents and an initial content sample are already available, and we’ll be sharing lots of additional content there as the book’s development progresses.
We’re thrilled to have Todd on board, and appreciate any input you can provide him as he begins work on his book. And we appreciate your spreading the word.
Proudly supporting UXnet
UXnet, the User Experience Network, is a voluntary effort by dozens of UX professionals around the world to build a communal infrastructure for the profession. UXnet’s local ambassadors serve as information hubs for their communities in 29 countries, publicizing local events, groups, and association chapters. And UXnet’s new Organizations Initiative seeks to connect the dots among UX-related professional associations, helping them to collaborate rather than compete. Rosenfeld Media is proud to support UXnet, and we highly encourage you to get involved too.
Design our book covers?
Want to help define a new publisher’s brand, while leaving your mark on the first book series dedicated to user experience? Then consider responding to our cover design RFP, as follows:
