Review: A Book Apart, Designing for Emotion by Aarron Walter

Designing for Emotion by Aarron Walter

by ryanb on November 25, 2011

With so much emphasis placed on the technical side of creating web sites, it’s quite easy to forget about the human aspect. Psychology plays a critical role in how people react to a site’s design and should be considered thoughtfully during the design process.

In Designing for Emotion, the fifth book in the A List Apart series, Aaron Walter (MailChimp user experience design lead) explores the psychology of designing for emotion and illustrates its importance with several relevant mini-case studies (MailChimp, Flickr, Photojojo, and Mint, among others). Aaron identifies the commonalities among these sites:

  • they are functional;
  • they are reliable;
  • they are usable;
  • they provide a pleasurable experience

Attractive things make people feel good, which in turn makes them think more creatively. How does that make something easier to use? Simple, by making it easier for people to find solutions to the problems they encounter.

The bottom line in this book is that humans inherently desire a human touch. We want to feel as though we are interacting with a human being and not a machine. To achieve this, we as designers must better understand the psychological factors that come in to play when making human connections in order to bring about pleasurable human experiences. Accomplish this, and you’ll be well on your way to reaching your goals.

This book stands out from the others in the series because it focuses on the human or psychological (as opposed to technical, philosophical) side of web design. I have always enjoyed psychology and found this to be an intriguing and quick read. If for no other reason than to read the mini-case studies, I think this book is worth picking up.

Table of Contents

  1. Emotional Design
  2. Designing for Humans
  3. Personality
  4. Emotional Engagement
  5. Overcoming Obstacles
  6. Forgiveness
  7. Risk & Reward

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Review: A Book Apart, Mobile First by Luke Wroblewski

Mobile First by Luke Wroblewski

by ryanb on November 21, 2011

The sixth book in the rapidly expanding A Book Apart series explores the methodology of designing for mobile first. With more internet users projected to access the web via mobile devices than through PCs by 2015 (source); mobile devices introducing new native capabilities and constraints to the mix, Luke surmises that “starting with the desktop may be an increasingly backward way of thinking about a web product.”

The book is broken down into two parts, each part being subdivided into chapters:

Part 1: Why Mobile First?

  1. Growth
  2. Constraints
  3. Capabilities

Part 2: How to go Mobile

  1. Organization
  2. Actions
  3. Inputs
  4. Layout

I found Luke’s writing to be insightful, thoughtful and concise. After finishing this book, I immediately thought to myself that it makes a great companion to another book in the series, Responsive Web Design. In fact, I suggest reading this book before the aforementioned Responsive Web Design to get a broader understanding of the mobile experience, its inherent limitations and new capabilities.

Buy it now!

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Review: A Book Apart, Responsive Web Design by Ethan Marcotte

Responsive Web Design by Ethan Marcotte

by ryanb on November 17, 2011

A Book Apart’s fourth release in the series addresses one of the largest challenges facing web designers today: how to accommodate users on an ever increasing number of different devices and browsers. With mobile web browsing expected to outpace desktop browsing by multiples over the next few years, having a mobile-friendly site will soon be seen as absolutely critical and less as a luxury (some might argue that we’ve already reached that point).

Working in a non-profit environment, much of what I do is needs-based and up until recently designing for mobile devices has frankly, just not been much of a priority. I don’t anticipate this being the case for much longer as we continue to add new functionality to existing web sites and create new ones to meet the needs of our members.

Having a mobile-friendly version of our primary web site is probably overdue, but I had not anticipated adressing it until the next overall site redesign. If it becomes a more immediate concern, I’ll likely take advantage of the jQuery Mobile framework to serve as a stop-gap until a redesign is undertaken.

I did have the opportunity to create a web-friendly version of our annual conference’s online program in the spring of this year. Having already tinkered around with the jQuery Mobile framework while it was undergoing development, I decided it would be the easiest route. You can take a look at the end result here. I think it turned out pretty well for a first attempt and the response from attendees was overwhelmingly positive. There were some minor cross-platform inconsistencies, which was anticipated with the framework still being in its infancy. It worked great for our needs and has since expanded support for additional platforms and is close to final release status. It impressed me enough to want to continue using it for situations where I need to create a mobile-friendly version of an existing web application.

Looking ahead, as I develop new web sites for our various meetings, groups, and miscellaneous projects, I believe I can incorporate responsive design into the fold. It will take a little time to adjust to the additional step/consideration during the design process, but will become routine once I’ve done it a few times. It will certainly be a more efficient way of going about the process instead of designing one site for desktop use and another for mobile.  I digress…

In this book, Ethan takes you through the process of taking a rigid design and creating its responsive equivalent. With the use of a fluid grid, flexible images, and media queries (and in some cases a few “hacks”), one can take a responsive approach to the design process and create a more consistent (but flexible!) experience for the user.

I think this is a book that I’ll reference many times in the days ahead and is a must have for any web designer.

Check out the table of contents:

  1. Our Responsive Web
  2. The Flexible Grid
  3. Flexible Images (Read an excerpt from this chapter!)
  4. Media Queries
  5. Becoming Responsive

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Review: The Smashing Book #2

The Smashing Book #2

by ryanb on July 21, 2011

Last year, I read and reviewed Smashing Magazine’s first book, The Smashing Book. I was so impressed with their first effort that I didn’t hesitate to pre-order the follow-up (The Smashing Book #2) when the announcement was made. To clear up any confusion, the latest book is not simply an updated version of the first. Rather, it is an entirely new book consisting of original material on different subject matter.

From their web site:

“Both books cover best practices in Web design and Web development, and  they have similarities, but on a broad scale they cover different areas  of design. Book 1 presents coding and layout techniques, color theory  und UI design, while Book 2 covers psychology, designing for mobile devices, graphic design, wireframing and book production.”

 The book is broken down into the following chapters:

  • The Principles of Great Graphic Design
  • Visible vs. Invisible Design
  • Designing Mobile User Experiences
  • Sketching, Wireframing and Prototyping
  • Red Flags in Web Development
  • The Future of Web Typography
  • Game Design Techniques Applied to UX Design
  • When They Click: Psychology of Web Design
  • Design Patterns on E-Commerce Websites (A Study)
  • How to Make a Book (Like This One)

It is 40 pages longer than its predecessor, includes custom illustrations by Yiying Lu (ala Twitter “Fail Whale” fame), and is bound in a hardcover. If you purchase the book, you can also download an additional 140 pages of content that didn’t get included (free). As they have done previously, Smashing Magazine was generous enough to post an entire chapter online for free to give you an idea of what you’ll get when you purchase the book.

I highly recommend this book to anyone involved or interested in web design and development regardless of experience level. While not all of the book may seem relevant and/or of interest to you, it covers a diverse range of important topics and it complements the first book very well. No word (that I know of) on Smashing Book #3 , but when there is you can be sure I’ll be pre-ordering that one as well.

Grab yourself a copy!

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Review: A Book Apart, The Elements of Content Strategy by Erin Kissane

The Elements of Content Strategy by Erin Kissane

by ryanb on July 21, 2011

I recently finished reading The Elements of Content Strategy by Erin Kissane, the third book in the
A Book Apart series.  As with the previous two, this book does a great job at covering the subject in a broad but thorough manner.

The book is broken down into three major pieces:

Kissane’s writing style makes reading the book both fun, informative and a breeze to finish. It’s a great read (and nice addition to your bookshelf) for anyone interested in exploring the discipline as a potential career path, anyone involved in web publishing, and even makes for a great reference for people such as myself (e.g. web designers/developers) who aren’t as regularly involved in the actual planning of content creation for clients.

So far, the A Book Apart series has been a smash and I’m already itching to get into the fourth book, Responsive Web Design by Ethan Marcotte. Review forthcoming!

In the meantime, go check out The Elements of Content Strategy!

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