Welcome to the UX Book Club Perth

The Perth UX Book Club formed in November 2009.

We're a diverse group comprising ux and interaction designers, web designers, web developers, software developers, web writers and strategists.

New members are welcome.

We aim to promote and strengthen the practice of ux design (in all its permutations) in Perth. We study together, share our skills, knowledge and ideas so we can all do our work better.

If you have an interest in UX we'd love to meet you.

You're welcome to just turn up to the next meeting. You can also join the google group to keep up to date.

If you're travelling to Perth and a member of a UX Book Club (or are thinking about forming a local book club), we'd love to welcome you at one of our meetings. Give Rachel a call on +61 (0) 414 582 868, email Rachel or Gary on +61 (0) 412 423 727, email Gary or introduce yourself on twitter.

• Robert Hoekman, Jr and Jared Spool Web Anatomy: Interaction Design Frameworks That Work
• Peter Morville and Jeffery Callender Search Patterns
• Robert M. Emerson en al Writing Ethnographic Fieldnotes
• Jon Kolko Thoughts on Interaction Design
• Whitney Quesenbery, Kevin Brooks Storytelling for User Experience
• Dan Ariely Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions
• Tim Brown Change by Design
• Ezio Manzini, Politecnico di Milano, and Stefan Holmlid Designing Services with Innovative Methods
• Nate Bolt & Tony Tulathimutte Remote Research
• Roger Coleman, Design for Inclusivity: A Practical Guide to Accessible, Innovative and User-centred Design
• Tom Kelley, The Art of Innovation
• Donna Spencer, Card Sorting
• Mike Kuniavsky, Observing the User Experience
• Todd Zaki Warfel, Prototyping
• Bill Scott, Designing Web Interfaces
• Steven Pinker, How the Mind Works
• Peter Merholz, Subject to Change: Creating Great Products and Services for an Uncertain World
• Tom Brinck, Usability for the Web: Designing Web Sites That Work
• Peter Morville, Ambient Findability
• Dan Brown, Communicating Design: Developing Web Site Documentation for Design and Planning
• Alan Cooper, Robert Reimann, David Cronin About Face 3: The Essentials of Interaction Design
• Dan Roam, The Back of the Napkin: Solving Problems and Selling Ideas with Pictures
• Steve Krug, Rocket Surgery Made Easy
• Christian Crumlish, Designing Social Interfaces
• Robert Hoekman, Designing the Moment: Web Interface Design Concepts in Action
• Indi Young, Mental Models
• Thomas Tullis, William Albert, Measuring User Experience
• Don Norman, The Design of Everyday Things
• Nicholas Carr, The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains

Please feel free to add your suggestions. We will choose our reading material for future meetings from this list.

• October 2010 - Jeffrey Rubin, Dana Chisnell Handbook of Usability Testing
• September 2010 - Donna Spencer, A Practical Guide to Information Architecture
• August 2010 - Dan Saffer, Designing for Interaction: Creating Innovative Applications and Devices
• July 2010 - Alan Cooper, The Inmates are Running the Asylum
• June 2010 - Kelly Goto, Emily Cotler Web Redesign 2.0: Workflow That Works
• May 2010 - Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience
• April 2010 - Matthew Frederick, 101 Things I Learned in Architecture School
• March 2010 - Luke Wroblewski, Web Form Design
• February 2010 - Russ Unger and Carolyn Chandler, A Project Guide to UX Design
• December 2009 - Steve Krug, Don't Make Me Think

Meetings take place on the first second Monday of each month. Join us currently atEduka, Suite 80, City West Centre, Plaistowe Mews, West Perth Map or other nearby venues at 6:30pm for 7:00pm. Signup for the google group for up to the minute details.

Meeting Calendar

Download the meeting calendar as an ical (ics) file.

Reading Policy

To get the most out of ux book club meetings, please do take the time to read the month's book. You don't need to read the whole thing before the meeting (although it's great if you can!) but a minimum of 10 pages will generally mean you'll have something to contribute.

Please don't be shy. You're welcome to attend and just listen if that works for you, but we won't bite if you speak up.

This month we're reading a new Information Architecture book by local IA guru Donna Spencer - A Practical Guide to Information Architecture . This book is available in e-edition or a dead tree version from Five Simple Steps.

We have a special 25% discount for this book. Details of the special code will be on the mailing list.

For this meeting Donna has agreed to skype in and chat about her book as well.

The September meeting at this stage will be held at Eduka, Suite 80, City West Centre, Plaistowe Mews, West Perth. Or you can skype in, our skype account is uxbookclubperth.

Thanks Eduka for supporting the Perth UX Book Club.

NOTE Due to the conferences OZ-IA and Web Directions South that are on from the 8th to the 15th the UX Book Club moves back a week for this month only.

For October we are reading a main stay for usability testing Handbook of Usability Testing by Jeffrey Rubin and Dana Chisnell, best prices via Booko. You might consider this a pricey book, however it is one of those core Usability books.

The October meeting at this stage will be held at Eduka, Suite 80, City West Centre, Plaistowe Mews, West Perth. Or you can skype in, our skype account is uxbookclubperth.

Thanks Eduka for supporting the Perth UX Book Club.

The book for August was Designing for Interaction: Creating Innovative Applications and Devices by Dan Saffer.

There is a sample chapter over a Peachpit, where you can also get it as a DRMed eBook.

The August meeting was held again at Eduka

We were reading another UX classic The Inmates are Running the Asylum by Alan Cooper. As usual Booko tells us that Book Depository is the cheapest place to grab the book.

This meeting was held at the Oxford Hotel in Leederville.

Reading Web Redesign 2.0: Workflow That Works by Kelly Goto and Emily Cotler. As usual Booko tells us that Book Depository is the cheapest place to grab the book.

The book has its own web site too, as you do.

Reading Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. As usual Book Depository is the cheapest place to grab the book.

Reading: 101 Things I Learned in Architecture School by Matthew Frederick.

Also take a look at http://www.ixd101.com/ for some commentary on interaction design inspired by 101 Things I Learned in Architecture School.

Reading: This month's book is Luke Wroblewski's Web Form Design: Filling in the Blanks. The book is published by Rosenfeld Media and you can also look at Luke's blog for more information.

Bulk Order: The bulk order has closed. If you were a part of it, you should have received your copy of the book by now. Yell out if you haven't.

As of this month we will have a roster system to make a presentation to the group. David Morris will be making the first presentation. He codes 'c' based Win32 software adequately, but isn't quite so comfortable talking about himself in the third person.

UX isn't just about the web. David ( @davidlmorris on twitter) is in the process of writing some common controls for a windows application, and has asked for some input on these at this meeting. He will give a short explanation, and then be thrown to the wolves. A sample application showing these controls and some notes can be found at http://www.netwiz.com.au/mtcontrolux.html

Our book for Monday 1 February 2010 will be A Project Guide to UX Design by Russ Unger and Carolyn Chandler. Details about the book

The cheapest place to get the book from is The Book Depository. Postage is free and there won't be a bulk order this month.

There will not be a meeting in January 2010. Have a wonderful festive season and we'll see you in February.

Our book for December 7 2009 will be Steve Krug's Don't Make Me Think. If you don't have a copy of the book and would like to be in on the group order, please post on the google group. Alternatively a friendly member may be able to lend you their copy (note: this is a book that deserves to be in everyone's library).

The cheapest place to order Don't Make Me Think appears to be The Book Depository in the UK. It will take up to 2 weeks for your book to arrive so we need to know NOW if you'd like to order a copy. Alternatively for a few more coins we can order from Bookware who will get it to us in a matter of days.

There is no reading for our first meeting. Please come along and tell us how you'd like the book club to work.

If you'd like more information about the Perth UX Book Club give Rachel a call on 0414 582 868, send an email or introduce yourself on twitter.

You're also welcome to have a chat or email with Gary instead.