Experience Design (Paperback)

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Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

This book's layout is itself an experience in experience 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, e.g., 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 www.kvetch.com; the garden-like bounty of Nokia cell 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 both online and offline examples (e.g., 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 faves--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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Product Details

• Paperback: 304 pages
• Publisher: Waite Group Press (April 18, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0735710783
• ISBN-13: 978-0735710788
• Product Dimensions: 10 x 8 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.9 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #612,432 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

25 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Eye Candy and Buzzwords for the Tragically Hip, August 31, 2001

By	Aviva Rosenstein "avivarosenstein" (Oakland, CA United States) - See all my reviews

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.

14 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Get This Breakthrough Book If You Are Into Design, May 20, 2001

By	"bhollyman" (Ridgefield, CT USA) - See all my reviews

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.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars experience isnt formulaic, January 23, 2003

By	peggy head (Pacifica, CA, United States) - See all my reviews

shedroff doesnt spell out formulas. he provides inspiration.

in a world where there isn't a lot of fresh thinking going on (let's consider the referential work of insecure writers who "quotily" hang on the coat-tails of popular authors) shedroff is willing to say what he believes. he is ambitious and draws from a wide range of subjects, presenting a massive spread of ideas that demand his readers concentrate and consider. and as with any experience, the book isnt a separated set of logic, but a smear, which considers all things together, as one. its a generalized approach to thinking, not particulate. this means its about art, not logic.

in the end, shedroff has written an excellent book that provides doors to new ideas. if you want to be told how to think and what to do, look elsewhere. if you want a book that gives you options, Experience Design does it.