This Year’s UX Book, Same As Last Year’s 09-18-2007
Often I check out what some of the latest UX books have got to offer, always on the lookout to learn more. Unfortunately, recently I’ve noticed a lot of the same. I picked up Robert Hoekman’s Designing the Obvious and while well written and containing an abundance of relevant examples, I found that, like many other books on the shelves today, it seemed to be a regurgitation of everyone else’s books.
I can only take so much of half page pull quotes from the likes of Alan Cooper, Don Norman, Jakob Nielsen, and Steve Krug. They’ve all had very insightful things to say, and that is the issue; I’ve already read their books. Where am I took to indulge my learning desire?
Looking for Inspiration
The bookshelves seem to be a little too much about The Now or more appropriately, The Yesterday. I won’t lie, I miss the days of doing research and reading about ideas in their infancy–at the time questioning their relevance. That is why I was happy to come across a little feature in iTunes called, iTunes U. It is an area in iTunes dedicated solely for universities and the content they want to share with their students and, in my case, the curious public.
Most interestingly are Stanford and MIT’s offerings. Video lectures on topics ranging from HCI to Brain Structure and its Origins. Best of all, they’re cheaper and more accessible than any book.