in light of the marketplace’s
rapid shift from desktop
to mobile computing.
His proposal—a “designerly”
orientation to mobile HCI
design that foregrounds
complementary development
of both artifacts and
enriched understandings of
the context(s) surrounding
those artifacts—draws on
Christopher Alexander’s
framing of design as an
enterprise of matching form
to context. While variations
on this idea have long been
present within the ubiquitous
computing research
community, Kjeldskov’s
argument that the traditional
cyclical design process may
not be the best fit for highly
contextually dependent
design work has been
useful for thinking about
different ways to organize
the efforts of students in
my research group and for
supporting both generative
(built/designed) exploration
and reflective thinking
(analysis) in the context of
messy, information-rich
environments.
Advanced Avionics Handbook
By Federal Aviation
Administration (2009)
Despite a busy schedule on
Sketching User Experiences:
Getting the Design Right
and the Right Design By Bill
Buxton (2007) Sketching
User Experiences:
The Workbook By Saul
Greenberg, Sheelagh
Carpendale, Nicolai
Marquardt, and Bill Buxton
(2011) Prototyping: A
Practitioner’s Guide By
particularly enjoyable to
remix the content of both
books with contemporary
ubicomp readings to
create weekly sketching
assignments aimed at
pushing students to
effectively communicate
visions about how emerging
mobile and wearable systems
could be designed to address
real-world problems.
Many of the informatics
students enrolled at IU’s
Indianapolis campus also
work as full-time UX
professionals here in the
city. I’ve been working
through several of Rosenfeld
Media’s professional
UX books, including
Prototyping and Storytelling
for User Experience, with
the aim of integrating
more practitioner-oriented
content into my courses. I’ve
found these well-designed,
topically focused softcovers
to be a great match for these
students’ needs, since they
include a variety of step-by-step tutorials, surveys of
software tools commonly
used for sketching and pre-visualization, checklists, and
relatable case studies.
Mobile Interactions in
Context: A Designerly Way
Toward Digital Ecology
By Jesper Kjeldskov (2014)
This book is a recent addition
to my library, prompted
by a flurry of interest from
colleagues shortly after its
(recent) publication. In it,
Kjeldskov argues the need for
re-examining the established
user-centered design model
Todd Zaki Warfel (2009)
Storytelling for User
Experience: Crafting Stories
for Better Design By Whitney
Quesenbery and Kevin
Brooks (2010)
Buxton’s book, Sketching
User Experiences, presents
an accessible and engaging
case for the fundamental
importance of design
thinking throughout the
research and development
pipeline. As I continue to
develop a combination of
undergraduate and graduate
courses in prototyping
interactive systems, I find
myself regularly revisiting
his book and incorporating
his colorful case studies into
my lectures. I also frequently
use the companion
workbook, developed by
my former colleagues at
the University of Calgary,
as a primary textbook—a
primer on visual
communication—
for these
courses. I’ve
found it
Steve Voida
Specs
Focus: Design
and evaluation of
novel interaction
techniques to help
minimize information
overload
Base: Indiana
University,
Indianapolis, U.S.
WHAT
ARE YOU
READING?