Comments on: Taking the UX Book Club to the edge

By: MJ Broadbent

MJ Broadbent — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 16:37:54 +0000

Great write-up Anders! You were fairly impassioned yourself, you know. It was all good. I totally agree about looking to relevant texts from outside the discipline and look forward to the arc of the coming months’ books…

By: UX Book Club Blog » Blog Archive » Feedback on UX Book Club events - out-takes

Wed, 18 Feb 2009 11:46:31 +0000

[...] hurt either: Roz Duffy a.k.a. StellarGirl: my current muse: UX Book Club Anders Ramsay: Taking UX Book Club to the edge And the flickr photos: flickr.com/uxbookclub And if you didn’t see it, here’s what I [...]

By: Jeremy Yuille

Jeremy Yuille — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 06:50:17 +0000

I’ve been thinking of putting some fiction into the mix too – like reading Neuromancer by Gibson, or accelerando by Stross as a way to mix things up..

We have our first meetup tonight (in about 10 minutes) so I’ll see how it flies.. :)

By: Jenny Williams

Jenny Williams — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 01:05:55 +0000

This book might be a bit farther removed from the edge of UX, but proposes some very interesting influences and inspirations for design: Biomimicry: Innovation Inspired by Nature - Janine Benyus

By: Peter March

Peter March — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 15:42:15 +0000

Excellent idea Anders. I would like to suggest two books from the film world: How to Write a Movie in 21 Days Film Directing: Shot by Shot

By: Anders

Anders — Sun, 18 Jan 2009 18:14:57 +0000

Andrew – yes, I think the stepping-outside-the-echo-chamber issue needs to be stated far and wide in UX Book Club circles. Tho’ I’m wondering if the statement currently on the UX Book Club site, in regard to what type of books are read in UX Book Club gatherings, that

[t]he book would be within the practice of user experience…

seems inconsistent with that idea. Perhaps edit that to reflect an openness to a broader array of books?

By: Anders

Anders — Sun, 18 Jan 2009 18:05:03 +0000

Hi Gabby – the Twyla Tharp book looks like a great choice – a dancer/choreographer’s perspective – definitely UX thinking from the edge!

By: Andrew Boyd

Andrew Boyd — Sat, 17 Jan 2009 21:31:35 +0000

Hey Anders,

great article :) It sounds like NY was a model UX Book Club session – people were excited :)

And the point about stepping outside the echo chamber is an important one – this thought occurred to other people in the past (but we didn’t write it down and talk about it, so it wasn’t shared).

For myself, reading Cockburn’s use case book changed my life when I first read it years ago – I should read what he has written since (apart from anything else, I’d like to be able to point people toward “Agile-done-properly”).

PS Gabby: well done on getting the Chicago group up and running :) One of the things that a few people are working on at the moment is a way of sharing what happens after the meetings – how to share author notes and book reviews. We probably need a mailing list or blog or something to discuss it in a way that is collaborative yet hits people’s email inboxes.

Best regards, Andrew

By: Gabby Hon

Gabby Hon — Sat, 17 Jan 2009 17:40:24 +0000

Anders, you’re spot on. My goal for the Chicago UX Book Club is to branch out beyond the usual suspects reading list. Though we kicked it off with ‘The Design of Everyday Things’ for January, in February we’ll be reading Twyla Tharp’s incredible “The Creative Habit: Learn It and Use It for Life”.

Our work is reliant on context and I think we need exposure to variable contexts in order to kick ass in our work.