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Reviews: Book Reviews

UXmatters has published 68 articles on the topic Book Reviews.

Top 3 Trending Articles on Book Reviews

  1. Book Review: Weapons of Math Destruction

    May 18, 2020

    Cover: Weapons of Math DestructionSome have said that we are living in the age of algorithms. Netflix uses an algorithm to recommend videos. Facebook has an algorithm that displays the posts and advertisements you’re most likely to interact with. Google’s algorithm serves different search results to different people, based on prior Web traffic. Amazon’s algorithm makes recommendations for things you might want to buy. Match’s algorithm identifies people with whom you are likely to be romantically compatible. We have smart thermostats that use algorithms to learn user’s climate-control preferences. My 11-year-old son uses an algorithm to solve Rubik’s cubes in under a minute.

    An algorithm is really nothing more than a mathematical model or formula that accepts inputs, applies calculations, and provides output. Cathy O’Neil, the author of Weapons of Math Destruction: How Big Data Increases Inequality and Threatens Democracy, introduces the idea of an algorithm as being similar to making a family dinner, taking into account the various likes, dislikes, and quantities her family needs. Algorithms can be extremely useful in automating and understanding large, complex sets of information—for example, searching for a document on your hard disk. But they can also be harmful, as several articles about YouTube have noted, describing how their algorithm tends to lead viewers down rabbit holes of conspiracy theories, propaganda, and salacious content. Read More

  2. Books That Have Influenced Our UX Careers, Part 1: Design

    Ask UXmatters

    Get expert answers

    A column by Janet M. Six
    February 20, 2017

    This is the 100th edition of Ask UXmatters! I’d like to thank you for the opportunity to discuss many interesting topics—ranging from my inaugural column “Choosing the Language for a User Interface,” in November 2008, to “Fundamental Principles of Great UX Design,” to “Making the World a Better Place Through User Experience.” It is an honor to work with our esteemed expert panelists and bring this column to you. We look forward to collaborating on many more great columns!

    For this centennial edition of Ask UXmatters, I asked our expert panel to tell me about some books that have influenced their career—whether UX books or inspiring books on other topics. Our experts have shared 65 different influential books and stories about how they affected their evolving career. Since they shared so many books, I have decided to break this column into three parts. In Part 1, we’ll cover design books, then in Part 2, we’ll discuss books on UX research—including both user research and usability testing. Finally, in Part 3, we’ll look at books that, while not about UX topics, have had great influence on our experts.

    AnnouncementUXmatters will soon launch a new Books section on our Web site, providing a helpful information resource to our readers about the best books on User Experience and other topics of interest to UX professionals. We’ll continually add more books—both new books and classics. Plus, because UXmatters is now an Amazon Associate, you can support UXmatters by starting your shopping trips to Amazon from our site. In fact, you can start supporting UXmatters now by clicking a book link in this column and buying the book on Amazon! Just by purchasing books and other products on Amazon, you can—at no additional cost to you—help us cover the magazine’s operating expenses and fund our ongoing Web-development efforts—including the high cost of completely rebuilding our site to implement our responsive design, which launched in mid-2016. Please support UXmatters and help us to continue delivering great, free content to you—our readers. Thank you! Read More

  3. Book Review: Designing Interfaces

    November 6, 2006
    Designing Interfaces cover
    Author: Jenifer Tidwell

    Publisher: O’Reilly Media

    Publication date: November 2005

    Format: Paperback; 9.7 x 7.9 x 0.7 inches; 331 pages

    ISBN: 0596008031

    List price: $49.95

    Overview

    I must admit that I am not a fan of pattern books in general—especially in the field of design. I’ve always felt they are excellent sources of inspiration if you’re crafting a quilt or stenciling a wainscot for your living room, but for more involved design activities, I’ve concluded they are too simplistic—perhaps even limiting. I suspect this opinion was informed by my architecture professor’s intensely negative reaction to Christopher Alexander’s A Pattern Language and A Timeless Way of Building when they were first published. Years later, when I learned that software engineers were enamored of Alexander’s books, and the emergence of software patterns had its basis in Alexander’s notion of design patterns, I was bemused and skeptical. Read More

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