Customer Reviews

Mental Models: Aligning Design Strategy with Human Behavior

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I'm not sure I like the way Young uses the term mental model. To me, a mental model is first and foremost the way that an individual thinks a system or a part of the world works. An example from Don Norman that rang true for me: My understanding of how my home AC unit works. I set it/use it based on that model, even it it's completely wrong. I developed my model of how it works based on a variety of things, which may not include any actual basis in how it truly works. As a designer, it is helpful to understand a person's mental model for something so that you can map to it as appropriate to help people understand how to use your product.

What Young approaches in this book is something much broader: She provides a start-to-finish approach to documenting the way a whole group of people relate to your product space - their needs, tasks, and perspectives. She provides great detail in how to proceed, including literal instructions for your spreadsheet, etc. This then leads to larger insights about product (or product line) strategy, which is useful (but seems off the mark of mental models, to me).

I found this book a bit heavy on quotations and task instructions, a little light on Young's personal insights. This might have held up better as a chapter in a book on user research methods (i.e., Kuniavsky's book).

I've been waiting for this book for the past year. AFter attending Indi Young's excellent workshop in mental models/alignment diagrams last year at the IA Summit, I knew that a practical, hands-on book would enhance that training. I'm not disappointed.

Indeed, this book provides great how-to approaches to finding the mental models that users bring to an experience. First she goes into the what, when, how, and why of mental models. Think of this area as the theory section. Next she takes you from the definition through development of the work, including information & tips on recruiting and interviewing. Her verb-oriented approach helps me understand just how to take work I've done before, techniques I'm versed in, and create the alignment diagrams that evince mental models. Finally, Young details how to apply the results of your research.

Practical, effective, and insightful, "Mental Models: Aligning design strategy with human behavior" answers a hands-on need for information architects, interface designers, business analysts, and anyone who wants to create user-centered, successful experiences. Oh--and she's a great writer too, so you'll find it fun to read.

I found this book to be 5% insight, 15% common sense and 80% filler ("In order to get your file into PDF format, you will need Adobe Acrobat Professional." p.257). It is unfortunate, because the book describes an interesting and valuable methodology that can be used to solve problems in many different fields that seemingly have little to do with web or product design. Like another reviewer before me, I think the term "mental models" is confusing; perhaps something like "task mapping" would've been more straightforward.

I have been using this type of research in my user experience design/information architecture practice. It's nice to have everything written down in one place from the person who perfected the method.

This research method is a great way to qualitatively understand users and customers and how they go about using products or completing tasks. The book provides a thorough and in-depth process which can be easily followed. It is also helpful to know that there are ways to abbreviate some of the steps if they've already been done in your organization or if your budget is limited.

The other great thing about the book is how it is published. Rosenfeld Media is taking a new approach to publishing, combining what is good about traditional books with helpful aspects of web publishing. I know there is a pdf version of the book available (don't see it on Amazon, but I know its available from the publisher). The paperback book includes content that one might associate with web sites or digital help systems - there are Frequently Asked Questions, and brief instructions about how the book can be used. And, of course, there is a killer index in the back of the book. The best of both publishing worlds!

The book chapters cover the different steps to go through in order to create a mental model, but there are also chapters devoted to understanding when a mental model is the most appropriate method of user research to do. This is very helpful when needing to justify to those who control budgets in the organization! The ending chapters include how a mental model can be applied -- combined with a content audit it can be an invaluable tool for surveying what content should be created or archived for your web site. It can also drive decisions about product development.

The only thing missing from this book might be an accompanying teaching guide or online tutorial with extensive exercises. The consolation prize is that the web site that accompanies the book offers templates, examples, scripts and advice on how to do a mental model successfully. Pretty cool!

I highly recommend this book for its content and its publishing style.

Indi's mental model process is the best for creating a solid information architecture that: 1. Reflects the audiences' approach 2. Is streamlined 3. Is designed for future needs/opportunity. It's a great tool to help drive the creation of appropriate features and content that map to the real interests of users/consumers. And, it also helps identify the stuff you can get rid of (ROT). It is an EXCELLENT tool for selling through ideas internally - you will have a strong model based on research that is hard to debate.

I've used this method many times, not only for web design, but also for organizational change recommendations and product design.

While it's a bit of an investment up front, it's well worth it! You will save money and time down the line if you invest in this process up front, and you will have a stronger product as a result.

The book is well written and organized for those interested in approaching design this way! I'd highly recommend!

Creating mental models has been at the core of my design practice for some time. I was really excited to hear that Indi Young was actually writing a book about this great technique. After thumbing my way through the book it looks awesome. It has a great balance of information with a strong focus on the doing.

The overall production of the book really shines. Amazingly enough there is a logical flow to the book, which other books in this realm sometimes seem to be lacking. There are ample examples and even exercises to get you into the right mind set. If you are looking for an extremely effective method to evaluate user research I would definitely add this book to your shelf. Kudos to both the author and the publisher!

Our team at work has using bits and pieces of Indi's mental modeling ideas for the past couple of years. Needless to say, I was very excited when her new book arrived in the mail last week. It hasn't disappointed.

The book is detailed and clear about mental modeling methods and practices, and strikes a nice balance between the thinking and doing aspects of creating a mental model. In particular, that research strategy sections are excellent and have already give our team some great new perspectives on how to approach our work.

There are no weak spots in this book. It covers everything you need to know and covers it well. Highly recommended for anyone in the information architecture, experience design or customer research fields who are looking to more effectively mesh the needs of businesses and consumers to drive creative output.

I read this book as soon as I received it earlier this year - after hearing about Indi's technique, I was very much looking forward to reading it.
I expected to read about the process used to create a mental model diagram - identifying user tasks, creating task groups & mental spaces and assigning content to them. I knew I'd be able to use this approach for my content-heavy information architecture projects.
What a great surprise to find that the book is much more. This is a hugely solid user research book. It covers almost anything you could want to know about starting user research, identifying goals, figuring out who to talk to and talking to them. Then it covers the entire process of figuring out what you have learned from all that data.
And it's full of very practical, very real tips.
I've recommended highly in my information architecture workshops and have loaned it to many friends (then wrangled it back so they can buy their own!)

While the subject is important for any UI designer, the book seriously lacks usability: the amount of text to useful facts|frameworks|thoughts is very low per total amount of words. Technically, the book is short article grown to "fit for bookbinding" size. Basically, any serious designer should read this book, since a single useful fact is totally worth bucks spent - still, amount of water is just overhelming, making reading not that interesting or useful. This very book could benefit greatly from short (couple of pages) checklist, listing all the important stuff without remaining sea of words.

I never really enjoy using only one process to understand a situation, but rather I believe that using a bunch of different techniques to try to gain insight from a variety of perspectives. This book focuses on one very specific way to build a "mental model," and goes into extreme detail into how to do this. I read this book, and I know for sure that I can walk off and do this, but I also wish that rather than going into mind numbing depth in certain areas ("here's how to build a spread sheet that does this") and instead went into more depth of the "why" of the methods used. I would definitely use this book to think of a new way to process and address interviews, but I also think that this model takes into account mainly behavior, and can't really address the needs of products in complete breakout categories that address totally unaddressed needs of consumers.