After my visit to Microsoft Research, Bill Buxton gave me a manuscript version of the book he was writing for review. The book has now been published at Morgan Kaufmann titled Sketching User Experiences. Getting the Design Right and the Right Design.
The book has been introduced at the CHI Conference and the reactions have been very positive. Rightfully so, because it contains energizing stories from the design practice written with and about great passion. In wonderful spreads (designed by Henry Hong-Yiu Cheung) Bill offers a valuable analysis of the importance of sketching, trying and building your ideas. These sketches can be on paper, in presentation or in simple models or even rough working prototypes. As long as you are willing to throw them away, when a better solution comes along.
In the book, Bill also explains that it is not only the ideas or the designers that are important, but also the culture in which these ideas thrive. The book features very nice examples from the design and research practice at Trek, Bruce Mau Design, Microsoft Research, IDEO, Alias|Wavefront, Imperial College London and many, many more.
Best of all, the book extensively features my research work in one full spread, with a flattering description:.
Finally, due to its simplicity, one of the most elegant solutions that I have seen for sharing both objects and images is something called Cabinet, developed by Ianus Keller
Bill Buxton in Sketching User Experiences
The book also features work by my former colleagues, such as the MP3 prototypes by Caroline Hummels and Aadjan van der Helm and the sketches over photos by Aldo Hoeben. In the acknowledgments both Caroline and I are being mentioned in a list that features many of the people I admire. More photos of the book are available here, but why don’t you just get your copy at of all get your copy at Amazon or your local bookstore?
It seems you can even read it in your car.
