DC130 Interview: Giles Colborne, Author of Simple and Usable 2nd Edition

Author Giles Colborne returns to Design Critique to talk with Tim Keirnan about the new second edition of Simple and Usable: Web, Mobile, and Interaction Design.

Simple and Usable is one of the best books on UX we've owned in our careers. The contents are simple and usable just as the title promises, and this is one book that both practitioners and stakeholders will benefit from reading.

Giles and Tim talk for 40 minutes about various topics including

• Giles' career having progressed along with the UX profession across the decades, moving from basic website design to service design to organizational design.
• The physical design of the book reflects the theme, and the publisher did not stray from the successful book design of the first edition.
• How "get out of the office" is still of prime importance today and the crucial importance of field research with our users.
• Types of users Giles has observed in his career: experts, willing adopters, mainstreamers.
• The seductive danger of relying on expert users in our designs.
• How Alan Cooper's method of Personas has been undermined by some practitioners' use of person-less personas when they haven't even talked with or observed actual users. How this risks the integrity of the design profession as much as a user-less usability test would.
• Working with stakeholders on design projects. Being teacher or facilitator as opposed to "persuader".
• Don't rush into design. Understanding what's core takes time.

Simple and Usable can be found at its entry on publisher Pearson/NewRiders site.