Life is grand

Airport bookshops are notoriously terrible. So it was with the fear of God in me that I entered one last month after finishing another book earlier than expected. With a 12 hour flight ahead of me I had to have something to read. Tai-Pan by James Clavell seemed the best of a bad bunch and I bought it.

I have to admit it isn’t half bad. Yes, the characters are unreal and the events unbelievable but like a good Hollywood blockbuster it is entertaining, exciting and an easy read. I almost want to get the next in the series.

A movie about the making of a movie on The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy which is laugh out loud funny. Though very much in a British way, so if dry humour doesn’t float your boat, avoid. I genuinely came to dislike the main character, which is intentional and very well done.

User Interface Design for Programmers by Joel Spolsky is a worthwhile read though there are better books on the subject out there (e.g. Don’t Make Me Think by Steve Krug (which Joel recommends too.)) The information is good though I find Joel’s tone to be grating. This is the same Joel of Joel on Software fame and as I have said before the man has good things to say but says them in the most awful ways. Arrogant is the main word that comes to mind. Steve Krug in comparison respects users and avoids calling them morons at every turn.

What Joel has to say on the program model vs. the user model is very helpful though. If that is all you get from the book then you are doing well.

So if you have an hour or two free (the book is short) and have read the other books on the subject give Joel’s a shot.

I don’t often read technical books but thought the thin, interesting and good looking Don’t Make Me Think by Steve Krug would be a good read. A few hours later all the good reviews were proven right. This is an excellent book for everybody involved in user interface design, especially for websites. It is short and too the point with a very friendly tone that is not patronising. It covers a lot of common sense and a lot of usability you may have already read by the likes of Jakob Nielsen and others. But it does it in a thorough and consistent fashion that is well worth reading again.

It also goes a bit into usability testing. Getting people to sit down and test your products. What I really found interesting was how Steve pushed the idea of testing early and often. This reminds me of agile programming and even seems to complement it. Get people in to do usability testing of your product on a regular basis and without the usual usability testing overhead. Not too serious but still useful is the tone he advises. It got me thinking that we could easily fit it into our two-week iteration development cycle and use it for feedback and priority setting.

Hopefully after a few months I’ll be able to report back on how that goes.

Do give the book a read. It is quick and easy but imparts a lot of good information.