This Section is Called Lukas Mathis is Awesome
A few years back, I was doing research for an upcoming talk about interaction design. I landed on a fantastic article on a personal blog, so I bookmarked it. A few days later, I landed on the site a second time, because someone pointed to another fantastic post about interaction design. When it happened a third time, I assumed maybe this Lukas Mathis guy knew what he was talking about.
By the time I was done gathering research, about 50% of my material pointed back to something written on this one blog, http://www.ignorethecode.net. Where we agreed, Lukas was able to express the concepts better. Where we disagreed, he made me think. Over time I realized his knowledge was much deeper than mine, so I owe him for a lot of my professional growth over the last few years.
I became so enamored with his approach to design that when I was asked to put together a SxSW panel with "interesting people", Lukas was one of the first I invited. The panel never happened, but maybe it will someday. More people need to learn from this guy.
So Lukas has finally written a book. I was honored to be asked to provide early editing and feedback, so I've read the thing cover to cover. It's really good. You should get it.
More About The Book Itself
Here's the review I submitted, which sums it up:
"It's hard to write about usability concepts without sounding overly academic, but that's exactly what Lukas has done. This book is a must-read if you are familiar with basic usability concepts and are ready to learn more".
I was struck by the intellectual rigor in this book. A lot of designers are self-taught, so when they write books, they're heavy on anecdote, opinion, and swagger. That's great for selling yourself and getting on the speaker's circuit, but those books are often a bit ... light.
There are also a lot of books that boil everything down into very strict scientific formulas. These books take a lot of magic out of design, by trying to turn an unpredictable process into something that feels like painting by numbers.
I like that this book gives you a full survey of the field without being dry. There are tons of real-world and entertaining examples and diagrams, so it feels less like like a textbook and more like a guy who loves great design and would like to tell you everything he knows.
I highly recommend it.
How to Get It
Check it out at pragprog.com (where you can buy a PDF version) or on amazon.
