The second book we'll be looking at is Indi Young's ”Mental Models: Aligning Design Strategy with Human Behavior”.

There is no single methodology for creating the perfect product—but you can increase your odds. One of the best ways is to understand users' reasons for doing things. Mental Models gives you the tools to help you grasp, and design for, those reasons. Adaptive Path co-founder Indi Young has written a roll-up-your-sleeves book for designers, managers, and anyone else interested in making design strategic, and successful.

“Indi Young’s mental models are the perfect way for your team to integrate your user’s perspective into your design. Indi has written a comprehensive guide for anyone who wants to make use of this power design technique. I’ll be giving this book out to all of our important clients and insisting they make it part of their process.” —Jared Spool, CEO & Founding Principal, User Interface Engineering

Indi has created a practical guide to researching, analysing, creating and working with mental models. This book is a must for the shelves of User Experience professionals.

Full reference: Mental Models: Aligning Design Strategy with Human Behavior, Indi Young. Published by Rosenfeld Media in August, 2008. 299 pages. ISBN: 978-1933820064

To get you going, here's a YouTube video (1hr 03min) in which Indi presented Digging Beyond User Preferences - a Google Tech Talk on Mental Models.

Lou Rosenfeld of Rosenfeld Media (publishers of Indi's book) has been nice enough to send me a digital copy of the book which to distribute to anyone who plans to attend. Lou only asks that if you find it useful, you purchase the hard copy of Mental Models, and tell your friends.

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