Reading Recommendation

I'm reading Sketching User Experiences by Bill Buxton for Deb Satterfield's 595X Human Interaction Design class this summer. While I don't intend this blog post to be a book review, I want to express how much I can't put this book down.

First, a little back story about me: I received my BS in Visual Communication from Ohio University in 2001. Since then I've been primarily designing websites and legal animations, as well as print marketing for small companies in Chicago, IL.

As an undergrad I took a few classes in experience and usability, however, those terms were buried in the over-all encompassing Design Class. In my 'real world' experiences UX and UI is the elephant in the room. No one wants to address it, but they want a top-rate product. For the past few years I've been reinventing the process of how I approach design to better incorporate for future-use and usability. These concepts have always interested me and are the primary reasons that I am getting my MS in HCI.

Getting back to the book - I've been reading a lot of books on the subject, but probably would have overlooked this gem (because of the title) if not for Deb's class. The author addresses many topics that interest me (work environment issues with the 'design' process / the actual process / wireframing / prototyping) and many that I wasn't aware of (video environment) or that I took in to consideration as part of the process (play).

If you are interested in Practices in Human Computer Interaction (which I hope you are since you are in Mike's class this summer) I recommend picking up a copy of Sketching User Experiences - it is a quick read, highly informative and a book that I will most certainly go back to reference.

[Image used without permission from: http://www.amazon.com/Sketching-User-Experiences-Interactive-Technologies/dp/0123740371]