I can't believe a quick Ctrl-F didn't find him already mentioned, but look up Jakob Nielsen and his ten usability heuristics. If there's one thing doing some postgrad work in HCI taught me, it's to remember those absolutely. Always, always evaluate what you're making against them.
Ask HN: Where to look to learn UX/Design
41–50 of 64 posts
Re: Ask HN: Where to look to learn UX/Design
#42I have to say of all 37Signalers, I enjoy listening to Ryan Singer the most. He seems to have a genuine interest in teaching and not in a "controversial for the sake of marketing" kind of way. He has a bunch of videos on Vimeo. He talks more about user experience and interaction, not graphic design, that as someone else mentioned, you can find tutorials on the tuts plus network.
This talk of Ryan's from Windy City Rails 2009 is excellent: http://2009.windycityrails.org/videos#4
He's really an excellent speaker.
Re: Ask HN: Where to look to learn UX/Design
#43Re: Ask HN: Where to look to learn UX/Design
#44Earlier quoted context omitted.
Can you recommend any books on "human factors"?
This is an excellent book that discusses human factors at a lot of levels from city planning, to the design of a simple device. It is kind of like a mash up between "Powers of Ten" and a Malcom Gladwell book. Not web centric, but a really good read and intro to HFE.
sounds fascinating, but there's no book title in your post!
Re: Ask HN: Where to look to learn UX/Design
#45I recommend 'The Non-Designer's Design Book' by Robin Williams http://amzn.to/aMd1kR
Re: Ask HN: Where to look to learn UX/Design
#46Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is an excellent book that discusses human factors at a lot of levels from city planning, to the design of a simple device. It is kind of like a mash up between "Powers of Ten" and a Malcom Gladwell book. Not web centric, but a really good read and intro to HFE.
sounds fascinating, but there's no book title in your post!
He is probably talking about the handbook of human factors and ergonomics. It has been updated since I purchased it, and is more information systems focused now. It is like the bible of usability but it is an expensive text, that is why I did not recommend it.
I guess I should have and put a disclaimer on it. When I bought it, it was around $275. If you have to buy one book and you can spare the change, this is the one. But some of the others will get you going faster.
It depends on what you want to do, This book is deeply focused and considered an academic text, many teach from it. Once the subject matter in this book is mastered you will be a HF professional for sure, but some of the other books can get you up and running faster.
At some point you should consider this book for your bookshelf but it is not a beginners book that is another reason I was hesitant to recommend it.
Re: Ask HN: Where to look to learn UX/Design
#47This is an answer to your request for "good places to look" rather than learning user interfaces: I've been curating a list of "clean sites I like the look of" since '06:
Re: Ask HN: Where to look to learn UX/Design
#48[deleted]
Re: Ask HN: Where to look to learn UX/Design
#49Here's a list of books I've put together for classes:
http://hci4.me/static/16-475-references.pdf
MIT's OCW class on UI - http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/electrical-engineering-and-comput...
Also, look at RISD, Stanford, CMU, Berkeley, Cornell (in no particular order).
If you can, anything by Doug Engelbart is amazingly motivational (inventor of the mouse) and insightful.
If you contact me, I'd be happy to send you my slides from lectures I've done on interaction and answer any questions.
Re: Ask HN: Where to look to learn UX/Design
#50tl;dr: Take a course!
Don't know about all these books recs. All good books, but reading books wont make you a better designer. Reading books about fine art wont make you a better painter; and reading books about soccer wont make you a better soccer player. You'll learn the rules, sure, but at the end of the day you need to develop the skills by training/being coached (if I can run with the metaphor), so I suggest taking a short course on graphic design fundamentals and learn by doing.
Getting drilled on the fundamentals will stay with you much longer than anything you read in a book about ux/design.