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Ask HN: What's the best book on modern UI/UX?

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Re: Ask HN: What's the best book on modern UI/UX?

#141

Post by stanmancan »

keithnz wrote: post #46
1023bytes wrote: post #37

This seems like guerilla marketing for refactoringui.com

seems quite suspicious that a book that just came out is getting quite a few reccomendations when no one currently would have used it as the basis to build anything. looking at the twitter stream of tips from 2017, there's some good stuff there ( https://twitter.com/i/moments/994601867987619840 ) not sure that translates well to the book or not, and it seems quite pricey, especially if you only end up making use of a…

I bought the book and read it the same day. Lots of tips that can be used moving forward. I personally think it’s worth the money; I know it will save me money when I can handle some UI issues myself that I would have hired a for designer before.

Re: Ask HN: What's the best book on modern UI/UX?

#142

Post by dang »

adamwathan wrote: post #131
1023bytes wrote: post #37

This seems like guerilla marketing for refactoringui.com

Author of that book here, I swear to god had nothing to do with this thread, just stumbled upon it myself perusing HN. Wish I could prove it somehow :(

I believe you. I looked in the logs and saw no evidence of manipulation.

Most likely this submission was inspired by the thread yesterday (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18655224). The OP commented three times in that one.

Re: Ask HN: What's the best book on modern UI/UX?

#143

Post by [deleted] »

pcmaffey wrote: post #122
rpedela wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm going to offer a contrarian contrarian viewpoint. I certainly agree that engineers should not be shut out of the process, by default. There are some engineers who are good at UI design, like you and me, and their deep technical knowledge helps them invent unique solutions. However most engineers aren't and I wouldn't expect them to be either. I went out of my way to learn UI design and psychology, but most engine…

Super contrarian view - information architecture is the most fundamental aspect of product design. And a database "backend" represents the atomic model for a product's IA (with API being the next layer). Perhaps the engineer was contributing something crucial to the product design, you just couldn't grok it. Product design is so much more than UI/UX, fwiw.

[deleted]

Re: Ask HN: What's the best book on modern UI/UX?

#144

Post by sweetdreamerit »

I recently created an awesome ux project at github. There, you can find a list of the classic books in UX, interaction design, information architecture and usability [0]. If you wish to add any resource, feel free to comment this issue [1] or to create a new one.

UXTools.com just relased the results of the 2018 Design Tools Survey [2].

In november, Jeff Sauro published "the methods ux professionals use" post [3]. There, you can find an exaustive coverage of the most important methods and deliverables in the field.

[0] https://github.com/bussolon/awesome-ux/blob/master/books.md [1] https://github.com/bussolon/awesome-ux/issues/3 [2] http://uxtools.co/survey-2018 [3] https://measuringu.com/ux-methods-2018/

Re: Ask HN: What's the best book on modern UI/UX?

#145

Post by nathan_f77 »

michaelmrose wrote: post #74
nathan_f77 wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Haha I actually opened this thread intending to post it. It looks really good so I'm thinking about buying it.

Beginning a post with haha is off putting and awkward. Can you imagine starting a response in real life by randomly inserting laughter?

Yes, I often laugh in real life when something is funny. It's quite normal to start a reply with "Haha" on the internet, so I won't apologize for that, and I'm going to keep doing it in the future.

Re: Ask HN: What's the best book on modern UI/UX?

#146

Post by pbowyer »

jwdunne wrote: post #79
moeamaya wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's more of a reference book so you continue earning back that investment over time. You can get a lot of his tips for free here in this curated Twitter Moment: https://twitter.com/i/moments/880688233641848832

I'd happily pay $79 for original content _in print_ that delves into why each of those tips works the way they do (you can connect each of those tips to fundamental principles of design, for example). But for a compilation of tweets in a PDF? There are renowned books that go for less than that. I got 3 hard back volumes of Knuth's The Art of Computer Programming for around £70. Is this book of that caliber?

And, what do other design professionals say about it? From a quick perusal of their material, accessibility seems missing from it (e.g. contrasts, designing to work with assistive technology etc)

I am interested because I find design books to be too theoretical, and at the end I'm left thinking "Yes and..?". I need practical examples. I think I would get $79 of value, but it would also last for 12 months before the content dates.

Re: Ask HN: What's the best book on modern UI/UX?

#147

Post by Finnucane »

fermienrico wrote: post #93
Finnucane wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oy, guy advising on UI/UX ends discussion by pointing to 99-slide-long powerpoint deck that appears to be lots of bullet lists and clip art. Well, [expletive deleted].

I think the slides are providing conceptual framework about UX/UI and not aesthetic. I do think that it is pretty useless without the author speaking to it.

Sure, I just think it’s funny that he chooses one of the worst user experiences ever invented to do it.

Re: Ask HN: What's the best book on modern UI/UX?

#148

Post by babahoyo »

1wu wrote: post #136
babahoyo wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Weird question, but why is there so much bad UI out there? Do you feel like you've failed as a field when commonly used applications like Gmail and adobe reader have such bad user experiences?

I think Gmail has great UI, but I recognize that assessment is partially a matter of taste and partially a function of how I think. Better UI/UX doesn't always lead to better business outcomes.. Sad, but true. It's (arguably) a young[er] field, relative to software or hardware engineering. Maybe things will get better :)

Yeah i guess the UI isnt that bad. Performance > UI in many cases for me though. Hopefully responsiveness times are something people consider more in designing an interface.

Re: Ask HN: What's the best book on modern UI/UX?

#149

Post by jcomis »

speedplane wrote: post #139
jcomis wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Basically, "UX Design" has become "Product Design" because almost no one wants to spend the time to evaluate what makes a good UX Designer. It's much easier to judge the visual aesthetic than to understand the process that made something comprehensible and an individuals skill at implementing and molding that process to get to that outcome. So they became lumped together. SF and "tech" companies need to scale and fas…

> Basically, "UX Design" has become "Product Design" ... They are getting closer, but not quite. Consider two analogies: 1. Craigslist v. AirBnB to get a short term rental apartment. Both are arguably the same "product", the differentiation is that AirBnB has a much better UX experience. 2. eBay v. Sothebys to put goods on auction. Here, it's not really UX that differentiates them, it's product-market fit. In the sec…

Despite the differentiation you are pointing out, the actuality of the roles in most companies doesn't match it.
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