User Experience Infiltration Tactics
Posted on March 17th, 2006 in Usability | 6 Comments »
Back in early February I stated that I was writing a book. In the middle of February I posted a sample chapter (User Experience Business Judo: Using Project Momentum to Your Advantage). Right now I’m over thirty pages, which translates to 10 chapters out of the 40 that I’ve mapped out.
What’s the book about?
Here’s a little snippet from the first chapter:
“This book will tell you exactly how to get [user experience] into an organization. I wouldn’t be writing this book if it was easy to get this done. It is a difficult, uphill battle.”
What’s it going to be called?
Good question! Here’s the working title:
UXIT: User Experience Infiltration Tactics
What is the structure of the book?
It is pretty straightforward, really. I believe in short, easy to read chapters. I’ll give you a summary of the chapter and then supporting material. Each chapter will have examples or little cases studies. Despite the fact that I’m going to give you tons of help and advice, you should be able to read this book in just a few hours. You can chow it down on a plane ride from New York City to Los Angeles.
Why does this book matter? Why should you care?
1. It is a practical mix of business and UX. It is sneaky, tricky, and just plain valuable. Fly under the radar in your quest to bake UX into your organization.
2. There are no books on this exact topic. This will redefine how to UX fits into a company and how people think about UX in organizations. It is your bridge between UX and business. It is good material for consultants, practitioners, managers, designers, and developers. Narrow focus, wide appeal. Swoosh!
3. This is the first book from John S. Rhodes of WebWord. He has a built in audience, strong blog support from WebWord readers, and strong author credentials. He has a solid track record of writing innovative and thought provoking articles, and his first book shall be cast from the same unique mold. It’s gotta be good or it’ll be his first and last book.
4. People die because there isn’t enough usability in the world.
What Next?
Well, I need your help. I need your feedback and advice. Here are some questions:
1. Are you interested in this book and this topic? Why or why not?
2. Should I publish the rough drafts of the chapters on WebWord? If I did that would you still buy the book?
3. Assuming the book is about 120-140 pages, would you prefer to get it in PDF format, nicely formatted for printing and reading, or would you rather buy the dead tree version?
4. If this was not published by a traditional publisher, would you still buy it? To put it another way, if I self published and the formatting was reasonable, would you buy it?
5. How much should this kind of book cost? Here are some arbitrary options: $9, $14, $19 or $24. Do any price points make sense to you?
I’ll have more questions based on your feedback. Please comment!
Thanks,
- John S. Rhodes (john dot rhodes at gmail dot com)
6 Responses
alrighty.
1. Yes. Definitely interested. I agree there’s not enough written on the topic, and I particularly like the focus on making businesses more focussed on user experience, rather than simply user-centric practices/rationale.
2. Yes, I think you should post rough drafts. I think that if you give something to the people (rough drafts) they’ll give something back to you (feedback and v. cheap copy editing!). I can only speak for myself re: would I buy the book after I’d ready the rough drafts and my answer is… I’m not sure. Probably depends how good the book is :)
3. I’m undecided on this one too. Recently I bought the 37 Signals ebook (Getting Real) which was a nicely designed PDF. I downloaded it, printed it, read it. I really liked that experience. Would I want all my books that way? No. (Sorry… I’m not sure this is a v useful answer.. my gut reaction to this question is that I’d prefer to buy an electronic version of this book rather than a dead tree version).
4. Are we talking about dead tree version here? I don’t really care so much about who publishes a book. More who wrote it, the style of writing and whether it covers a topic I’m interested in and want to read about.
5. Again, are we talking dead tree version or e-version? I think e-Version should be less expensive because I have to bear the cost of printing (and reprinting), and you save so much money re: production/distribution etc. Having said that… my gut feel is that towards the higher end of the $$ you’ve suggested might be about right.
I hope that’s helpful :)
1. Maybe, I’m not sure the level is right for me since I’ve read quite some books on the topic already.
2. Yes, but not too lengthy stuff, so the amount of feedback you will get is considerable :)
3. Both would be my type of useless answer. Maybe you should try some of those print services as an experiment and just see what happens.
4. I’ve never bought a book on the pulishers title. Although an O’Reilly anomal on the cover does make the purchase decision a bit easier.
5. Between $15 and $20 depending on reviews of the book. I easily pay 50-60$ for books when they’re good anmd in dead-tree verson. “Don’t make me think” could be a good reference point I think, that’s about hte same size I would guess and costs about 20 bucks right?
(BTW, I’m Dutch so you better make it digital or shippable to Europe ;))
1. Yes, this topic has been an interest of mine for a while, it would be great to see your take on it.
2. I would publish rough drafts of a select set of chapters – one that set direction and give you a good idea of the interest out there. An appetizer-sized portion, but leave the whole meal for the final.
3. The environmentalist in me wishes I were better about just buying ebooks. The reality is, though, I’d rather get the dead tree version. Why? Because printouts pile up and eventually get thrown away or filed in boxes to languish, but my books get a prominent place on my office bookshelf and I know just where they are when I want to reference them or pass them on. If it’s more pamphlet-sized I could see a PDF but it’s a fine line (for example, I wish I had gotten The Elements of User Experience as a PDF, but I’m glad I have Don’t Make Me Think as a book).
4. Definitely – since I know you as a source, the publisher doesn’t make a difference to me. Just pick a good binding ‘cuz there’s nothing worse than a book that falls apart on you!
5. As stated above, this depends on length, depth, and your dead-tree-vs-PDF decision. For what you describe above I think $19 works.
Good luck!
1. Yes – tips for embedding usability thinking into the development process is always useful ;) Suggest it would be interesting to look at how usability can thrive in a less than perfect environment. For example, how do you get people interested and excited about positive product user experiences? What if you dont have buy in from management?
2. Yes and will still buy the book
3. Both – How about a podcast on key sections with opportunity to talk to the author?
4. Yes
5. $19-$24
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