A blizzard of books (2)

I hadn’t checked the Peachpit Press web site for months, but I’ve found more titles to tempt me. So, not just the new titles by Robin Williams, but new books too by Steve Krug and by Jakob Nielsen and Kara Pernice of the Nielsen Norman Group.

Steve’s book, a “do-it-yourself guide to finding and fixing usability problems”, is called Rocket Surgery Made Easy. To give you an idea of Steve’s approach, Chapter 1 is called “You don’t see any elephants around here, do you?” and Chapter 2 “I will now saw my [lovely] assistant in half”. Steve doesn’t teach you how to saw people in half, but he

spells out an approach to usability testing that anyone can easily apply to their own web site, application, or other product.

Kara and Jakob’s book is called Eyetracking Web Usability – the “does what it says on the can” approach to book titling. According to the blurb,

Their findings will help designers, software developers, writers, editors, product managers, and advertisers understand what people see or don’t see, when they look, and why.

I’ve attended – and greatly enjoyed – Kara’s usability workshops, and have read – and greatly enjoyed – Steve’s Don’t Make Me Think. So I reckon these new titles will be worth reading – a treat for 2010.

If you read either of these books in the meantime, I’d love to hear your views – let me know in the comments.

By Marian Dougan

Published by Marian Dougan

Marian is a translator and editor (specialising in web content) currently based in Glasgow, Scotland. Marian previously lived in Italy for over 20 years, working as a language teacher, translator and policy analyst with the British Embassy in Rome. A qualified member of the Institute of Translation and Interpreting (ITI) and its Italian-language and ITI Scotnet networks, she is currently Scotnet's Convenor and Deputy Webmaster. From 2003 to 2006 Marian taught translation skills at the Italian Department of Glasgow University and now gives Master Classes as part of the new Masters in Translation Studies course. She also conducts web-writing and usability workshops to help people improve their websites and communicate more effectively with their readers, users and customers. In September 2014 Marian obtained User Experience Certification, with specialisation in Web Design, from the Nielsen Norman Group. She loves language, especially English, and is convinced that learning languages opens up people’s minds and horizons (and increases their brainpower!). To share her enthusiasm, she advises schools and educational authorities on language skills and enterprise. She gives talks to pupils on how to combine language studies with other subjects and so enhance their potential and increase their career options. Marian is an active member of organisations such as: Scottish Council Development and Industry (SCDI); Association of Scottish Businesswomen; Dunbartonshire Chamber of Commerce and the Italian Chamber of Commerce in Scotland. She also loves architecture, design, fashion (British Vogue!), cities and chocolate. She’s a great fan of Twitter and you can also find her on Linkedin.

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