Category Archives: Read

Apple Watch and some caveats

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The Nielsen Norman Group published a fairly good article about the usefulness of the Apple Watch UI, with some good hints on how to design a useful UI for those SmartWatches and not to do an app because you think you have to, because everybody does it right now.

“History repeats itself:

  • The lesson of the 1990s was that a website was not a glossy brochure, nor a TV show.
  • The lesson of the 2010s was that a mobile phone is not just a smaller computer.
  • Maybe the third time will be the charm — say it out loud: a watch is not a smaller phone.”

It’s also about content design and the flaws of a small screen. Nice read and helpful to see this new gadget in a more human relevant way.

Getting real

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One of my all-time-fave books is available for download for free – maybe for some time now. Anyway a nice read.

What a pity that 37signals isn’t and more … ;-( only basecamp is available. The other books of these guys are really also very recommendable – even if you have to pay for them. Worth every penny.

Lean UX

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leanuxJust bought the book “Lean UK” from Jeff Gothelf (O’Reilley). The basic idea behind it is to apply the principles of lean startups to defining better user experience. There are also good internet posts about this topic in the internet, e.g. on User Experience Engineering.

I will post updates on viable info.

PS: this is my very first eBook. I’m curious to see the advantages and disadvantages of this format while reading on my iPad.

SCRUM

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A new book in the shelf, which is not so easy to understand without using its knowhow. But it would fit perfectly in my future working setup. Something just for the brain and maybe later for real work: “Agile Product Management with Scrum: Creating Products That Customers Love”.

The Unplugged

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Ein Buch über die Möglichkeiten auch ohne Computer Graphical User Interfaces zu entwerfen.
Ein Probekapitel gibt es als PDF-Leseprobe unter http://www.guimags.com/unplugged/

Das erste Kapitel liest sich recht gut. Prägnant und verständlich geschrieben. Der erste Eindruck: es handelt sich beim Unpluggen um eine Art SCRUM-Projektmanagement. Aber da liege ich vermutliuch nicht ganz richtig. Diesbezüglich kann aber das erste Kapitel nicht gänzlich Aufklärung leisten.
Inhaltlich ist es eine gute verpackte Zusammenfassung von Bekanntem: “a development process is a long series of changes” und z.T. auch  “Binsenweisheiten”: “CHANGES THAT ARE MADE EARLY IN THE PROCESS COST LESS THAN CHANGES MADE LATER ON”.
Aber auch Folgerungen, die gut verständlich dargelegt werden: “LATE CHANGES CAUSE MANY MORE LATE CHANGES”.
Das erste Kapitel macht auf jeden Fall Lust auf mehr. Die Auflösung wie denn nun die “early changes” realisierbar sind bleibt spannend. Muss ich wohl das gesamte Buch lesen: “Now it’s time to get practical.”

PS: die Videos sind sehenswert. ;-)