- Paperback: 304 pages
- Publisher: New Riders; 1 edition (18 April 2001)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0735710783
- ISBN-13: 978-0735710788
- Product Dimensions: 25.4 x 20.3 x 2 cm
- Average Customer Review: 2.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
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Amazon Bestsellers Rank:
881,649 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #44 in Books > Art, Architecture & Photography > Design Studies > Multimedia
- #62 in Books > Art, Architecture & Photography > Design Studies > Industrial Design
- See Complete Table of Contents
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Product Description
Amazon.co.uk Review
Experience Design's layout is itself an experience in design. With its dynamic typography and visually elusive chapter divisions, it is definitely not a how-to manual or even a primer on software. It's more like a visual and textual think-piece: a personal gallery of intriguing user experiences, eg: online shopping or offline dinner parties--even human-to-human conversation. (You can get an idea of this at the book's companion Web site: www.experiencedesignbooks.com.)
Every spread is filled with images (in some cases, the very typography is like an image) that illustrate specific issues in experience design. Examples range from Web sites to traffic signs to restaurants. Whether discussing a young woman's online diary (www.moments.org); the seating arrangements at Emeril's Delmonico restaurant in New Orleans; the complaint community at Kvetch.com; the garden-like bounty of Nokia mobile phone covers; or the "simpler" experiences of matches, tarot cards or Bang & Olufsen home media products, author Shedroff invites readers to figure out what the attraction is, what keeps the user engaged and how the experience gets resolved. Among the general topics explored are navigation in information design, usability in interface design and narrative structure in interaction design. All come with online and offline examples (eg: the Louvre for "offline" navigation and www.thehungersite.com for online usability).
Shedroff is an experience strategist and has designed experiences in a variety of media, especially interactive and information design and branding. His client list includes Herman Miller, Nike, Bell Atlantic, Swissbank and Microsoft. In 1995 I.D. named him one of the 40 most important designers in the country. Here his analyses, like the form of the book, are open and flowing. Whether he's discussing wayfinding, personal meaning or the use of metaphoric devices, Shedroff raises important questions for anyone involved in design today. In many ways, this book is like a list of author's favourites--albeit a list in which each item illuminates some kernel of contemporary design wisdom. --Angelynn Grant
Review
"A stunning book that would be equally at home in the art or IT sections of the bookshop."Freelance Informer, Aug 2001 "It provides a visually eclectic assortment of sources."WEBSPACE, Aug 2001
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This book offers a difficult experience, literally. It flops uncomfortably in your hands. Don't try reading this on an airplane or train. Some text disappears into the spine and some is set in white against a grey and white background. Not very friendly. While the linear experience of a book is largely ignored - it's basically a set of narrated web links in book form. All of which wouldn't matter so much, if the author wasn't very consciously trying to "walk the talk" and make the book be an experience, as well as be about designing experiences.
Move past the form, and into the function of the book, and you find a tour de horizon of a fascinating subject. If you are a novice to this area, it will help open your mind to the possibilities of constructing experiential environments, giving you lots of space and examples for the succinct messages to sink-in. If you are not a novice, you'll find a fluff of high level messages without detailed analysis and an over concentration on the visual and the novel, and no recognition of global cultural issues in designing world-wide accessible experiences.
I wanted more from this book, but can see that for some it would a useful place to start their journey.
0 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
OK, there's the occasional snippet of useful or thought-provoking info here, but mostly it's an extended example of style over substance. Self-consciouly hip and largely meaningless, I'd advise you to save your money for anything by Edward R Tufte instead.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
18 reviews
27 of 29 people found the following review helpful
Eye Candy and Buzzwords for the Tragically Hip
31 Aug 2001
Format:Paperback
Nathan Shedroff has a distinguished, long (in web years) design career behind him. Despite this, his current book does not contribute enough innovation or depth to make it a valuable addition to the designer's library,although it does succeed somewhat as a coffee table volume. Experience Design 1 is filled with the kind of angry-fruit-salad eye-candy that many twenty-something designers find irresistible, but which frequently presents obstacles to actual use. Shedroff imposes no overriding organization scheme that might help the reader navigate the contents, except for the three-dimensional taxonomy node map on the cover. The format lends itself to idle skimming, with seemingly disconnected topics, germane to the concept of designing experience, dominating each pair of facing pages.
According to the author, the book balances online experiences with so-called "real-world" experiences (although to me, some of the contrasts within these dichotomies are somewhat questionable -- for example, is a print magazine somehow more "real" than an online magazine? Is the Apple Desktop more "offline" than a web site when both are computer interfaces?) The text is mostly reverse printed over the book's arresting graphics, which are bleed-printed in full color on glossy stock. Poor binding, which obscures some of the printed text, flaws the overall presentation. Still, the collection of images and ideas may well be inspiring to a tired artist looking for new design approaches.
The book surfs lightly over the surfaces of experience design, never achieving genuine insight in any topic area. The point of view and voice of the book meanders as well: sometimes Shedroff conveys his perspective in an authentically personal voice, while at other times, he lectures the reader ex-cathedra. It's not clear whether the quick switches of positioning are intentionally postmodern or are simply the result of poor craftsmanship, but the end result is a bit bewildering for the reader.
Shedroff is at his best when he lets his images speak for him, especially those that evoke offline experiences -- such as dining in a restaurant, visiting the Louvre, or attending a Burmese tea party. The text with which he decorates his images, however, is derivative and somewhat awkward, with only a few insightful gems (mostly quotes) scattered throughout. Worst of all, lacking real structure or any attempt at a conclusion, the book fails to practice or integrate the messages that are manifested within it.
All in all, this book comes across as a throwback to Wired Magazine's glory days, when style dominated functionality and substance. This approach falls flat in today's frugal economic atmosphere. The visually inclined might find the book to be a source of inspiration, but those looking for a handle on designing experience (online or off) would be better served by reading Brenda Laurel's Computers as Theater or by spending the day exploring an actual theme park than by reading this book.
According to the author, the book balances online experiences with so-called "real-world" experiences (although to me, some of the contrasts within these dichotomies are somewhat questionable -- for example, is a print magazine somehow more "real" than an online magazine? Is the Apple Desktop more "offline" than a web site when both are computer interfaces?) The text is mostly reverse printed over the book's arresting graphics, which are bleed-printed in full color on glossy stock. Poor binding, which obscures some of the printed text, flaws the overall presentation. Still, the collection of images and ideas may well be inspiring to a tired artist looking for new design approaches.
The book surfs lightly over the surfaces of experience design, never achieving genuine insight in any topic area. The point of view and voice of the book meanders as well: sometimes Shedroff conveys his perspective in an authentically personal voice, while at other times, he lectures the reader ex-cathedra. It's not clear whether the quick switches of positioning are intentionally postmodern or are simply the result of poor craftsmanship, but the end result is a bit bewildering for the reader.
Shedroff is at his best when he lets his images speak for him, especially those that evoke offline experiences -- such as dining in a restaurant, visiting the Louvre, or attending a Burmese tea party. The text with which he decorates his images, however, is derivative and somewhat awkward, with only a few insightful gems (mostly quotes) scattered throughout. Worst of all, lacking real structure or any attempt at a conclusion, the book fails to practice or integrate the messages that are manifested within it.
All in all, this book comes across as a throwback to Wired Magazine's glory days, when style dominated functionality and substance. This approach falls flat in today's frugal economic atmosphere. The visually inclined might find the book to be a source of inspiration, but those looking for a handle on designing experience (online or off) would be better served by reading Brenda Laurel's Computers as Theater or by spending the day exploring an actual theme park than by reading this book.
21 of 26 people found the following review helpful
Good Technical Writing - Bad Examples
1 May 2001
Format:Paperback
Experience Design was exactly what its title says. The book is full of pictures that can be found on the Internet, talks about what the author believes is the right way and wrong way to do a web site and avoids using any graphical demonstration of techniques. The book is a novelette on design pictures. It is all reading and no walk-though examples. The print is small and hard to read because it is placed over busy backgrounds.
While the color pages are beautiful, there is not CD provided for studying or trying out techniques. the $45.00 price tag is a bit steep. There are other books on the market that provide better help for a designer looking for how-tos and suggestion on what to use on the web sites they are creating.
15 of 18 people found the following review helpful
Get This Breakthrough Book If You Are Into Design
20 May 2001
Format:Paperback
I bought this book and love it! This book reminds me alot of the work done by Buckminster Fuller, Paulo Soleri and other visionaries like George Lakoff ("Women, Fire, and Dangerous Things") Rosalind Picard ("Affective Computing") and all of the Edward Tufte's work. This guy is onto something big--a field that is new and getting bigger every day--experience design. Either you get it or you don't. If you are a geek looking for a book on how to handle digital artifacts that you can't feather in Photoshop 6.0 and want techo help, don't buy this book. Go to a hardware store. There are 10,000 titles out there that can help you. This book is unique--it's about experience design.... However, I think alot of nuts and bolts web designers and developers will benefit enormously from reading this book.
When Marshall McCluhan wrote "Understanding Media" most people didn't get it and it seems that the same is true of some of the reviews on this site. By way of background, I am extremely biased and have been a Nathan fan as are a bunch of other people much more notable than me--major design gurus like Clement Mok, Richard Saul Wurman (who once described Nathan as a prodigy) and a host of others. Nathan's web work (as well as his other design work in other media) is legendary in the industry. Remember the cover of one of the early "Wired" magazine issues that spoke glowingly about the "Johnny Mneumonic" web hunt? Guess who invented that? Nathan. That is experience design. The Windows 95 Product Release site where you could download new product and was the heaviest hit site in history the day it went up? Nathan. That's experience design. The interactive "build your own bank" experience at Bank of America in 1995? That's experience design. Nathan. Point made.
As I read it,this book is intended to get at the underlying design principles of an emerging field that Nathan and his colleagues call "experience design." It drives everything. This is an incredible book that lays out the foundation theory of interactive experience design and then provides the reader with an incredible assortment of experiences which are catalogued very systematically for the reader. You have to get off your butt and interact with them, not just read about them in the book--that's the point. For example, if you read "Experience Design" and go see "De La Guarda" -pages 292, you will discover that it is a theatical experience not a web site (as one reviewer claims)! And if you go to "De La Guarda," as I did on Nathan's recommendation, you will have your mind blown and learn new things about how information can be presented in 3 dimensional space with audience interaction. Take "Cirque du Soleil" on pages 128-129. The book lays out a new view of why this works. Try buying a chair... which is described on pp. 76-77. Read why the site works in the book, try the site and then you will know why so many B2C sites have hit the wall and failed but could be great like this one is. But you need to interact. Oh yeah, Nathan helped design the site. This book isn't theory, it is a catalog of interactive experiences with a set of design principles throughout that you can use. Buy this book and keep it near by at all times.
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