6 ms·

Favorite design books (Irene Au - Google Head of UX)

97 points by thibaut_barrere 16y ago

naner 16y ago
How to Choose the Perfect Blue by HAL 9000
- rudiger 16y ago
  http://stopdesign.com/archive/2009/03/20/goodbye-google.html http://stopdesign.com/archive/2009/03/20/goodbye-google.html
  - mceachen 16y ago
    Nice! For the TL;DR crowd, it's an article from Google's first visual designer, grousing about the Google culture of testing "41 shades of blue" and arguing if 3, 4, or 5 pixels are proper border widths. Note also that the article conspicuously capitalizes the word Design.
    - cpeterso 16y ago
      I would love to see a list of the 40 losing shades of blue!
keiferski 16y ago
Also useful (but not mentioned): Universal Principles of Design.
- juddlyon 16y ago
  Great recommendation. If I could only choose one, it would be this.
deleted 16y ago
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- wmwong 16y ago
  Not sure if she just added it in there, but this book is present in the bag ;)
tastybites 16y ago
I wish my last name were the chemical symbol for a precious metal.
jfeldstein2 16y ago
I'm not sure what Au may or may not have been responsible for, but the Android tablet is the first time I've been wow'd by a Google UX. I'd be more interested in seeing Matias Duarte's picks.
- jmspring 16y ago
  The only UI examples that stand out when I think of google are: - GMail -- more for the rich use of javascript that a stunning UI. Effective, simple, and performant. - The main website -- simple, loads quickly, etc. - Android (Froyo and beyond) -- there are elements I really wish Apple would adopt - widgets, unobtrusive notification system, etc. Beyond those, I really haven't seen a UI/UX example from google worth being wow'd about.
  - panic 16y ago
    Google Maps should be on that list. Can you remember the sort of maps we used to put up with on the web?
    - jmspring 16y ago
      Good call on Maps. I forgot about them. I think I forgot because I mostly use the Maps app on iOs/Android rather than maps.google anymore. A serious minus that comes to mind on their UI/UX experience is the way they handle image search now. I'm still on the fence about "instant search"
- mbesto 16y ago
  I think you meant to say Google UI. There are a lot of instances where people think Google's UI is not polished. UX is more than just the UI you see on Android tablet. Some notable UX achievements of Google: - Search - Google Analytics - Gmail, gmaps, calenders, spreadsheets, etc - Groups UX failures: (and yet had pretty decent UI's) - Buzz - Wave Sidenote - TIL about bagcheck.com, looks pretty cool.
eps 16y ago
Just a quick note on Don't make me think - go to your bookstore and flip through it. There is about two paragraphs worth of an actual material in the book, the rest is a filler. Think - a moderately insightful blog post stretched into a book... it is one of few books that I regret paying for.
- thibaut_barrere 16y ago
  Just to add a different point of view: this was probably the first eyes-opener for me, both on writing and design. I can only personally recommend it :)
deleted 16y ago
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naner 16y ago

How to Choose the Perfect Blue by HAL 9000

rudiger 16y ago
http://stopdesign.com/archive/2009/03/20/goodbye-google.html http://stopdesign.com/archive/2009/03/20/goodbye-google.html
- mceachen 16y ago
  Nice! For the TL;DR crowd, it's an article from Google's first visual designer, grousing about the Google culture of testing "41 shades of blue" and arguing if 3, 4, or 5 pixels are proper border widths. Note also that the article conspicuously capitalizes the word Design.
  - cpeterso 16y ago
    I would love to see a list of the 40 losing shades of blue!

keiferski 16y ago

Also useful (but not mentioned): Universal Principles of Design.

juddlyon 16y ago
Great recommendation. If I could only choose one, it would be this.

deleted 16y ago

[deleted]

wmwong 16y ago
Not sure if she just added it in there, but this book is present in the bag ;)

tastybites 16y ago

I wish my last name were the chemical symbol for a precious metal.

jfeldstein2 16y ago

I'm not sure what Au may or may not have been responsible for, but the Android tablet is the first time I've been wow'd by a Google UX. I'd be more interested in seeing Matias Duarte's picks.

jmspring 16y ago
The only UI examples that stand out when I think of google are: - GMail -- more for the rich use of javascript that a stunning UI. Effective, simple, and performant. - The main website -- simple, loads quickly, etc. - Android (Froyo and beyond) -- there are elements I really wish Apple would adopt - widgets, unobtrusive notification system, etc. Beyond those, I really haven't seen a UI/UX example from google worth being wow'd about.
- panic 16y ago
  Google Maps should be on that list. Can you remember the sort of maps we used to put up with on the web?
  - jmspring 16y ago
    Good call on Maps. I forgot about them. I think I forgot because I mostly use the Maps app on iOs/Android rather than maps.google anymore. A serious minus that comes to mind on their UI/UX experience is the way they handle image search now. I'm still on the fence about "instant search"
mbesto 16y ago
I think you meant to say Google UI. There are a lot of instances where people think Google's UI is not polished. UX is more than just the UI you see on Android tablet. Some notable UX achievements of Google: - Search - Google Analytics - Gmail, gmaps, calenders, spreadsheets, etc - Groups UX failures: (and yet had pretty decent UI's) - Buzz - Wave Sidenote - TIL about bagcheck.com, looks pretty cool.

eps 16y ago

Just a quick note on Don't make me think - go to your bookstore and flip through it. There is about two paragraphs worth of an actual material in the book, the rest is a filler. Think - a moderately insightful blog post stretched into a book... it is one of few books that I regret paying for.

thibaut_barrere 16y ago
Just to add a different point of view: this was probably the first eyes-opener for me, both on writing and design. I can only personally recommend it :)

deleted 16y ago

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