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22nd out of 44 books
—
37 voters
Mental Models: Aligning Design Strategy with Human Behavior
by
Indi Young
There is no single methodology for creating the perfect product--buy you can increase your odds. One of the best ways is to understand users' reasons for doing things. Mental Models gives you the tools to help you grasp, and design for, those reasons. Adaptive Path co-founder Indi Young has written a roll-up-your-sleeves book for designers, managers, and anyone else intere...more
Paperback, 299 pages
Published
August 15th 2008
by Rosenfeld Media
(first published August 2008)
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This book is unique in that it is focused on a singular goal and follows the topic through until the reader is fully competent. The singular goal of Mental Models is to teach the reader when-to, and how-to create and use Mental Models for documenting how users think about a problem space (for example: going to the movies).
Mental models are affinity diagrams with purpose.
While I have done a lot of affinity diagramming. I felt that stopping at clusters was and is an underutilization of the time a...more
Mental models are affinity diagrams with purpose.
While I have done a lot of affinity diagramming. I felt that stopping at clusters was and is an underutilization of the time a...more
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 th...more
Oct 29, 2011
Roy Kenagy
marked it as to-read
Publisher's description: http://rosenfeldmedia.com/books/menta...
"There is no single methodology for creating the perfect product—but you can increase your odds. One of the best ways is to understand users' reasons for doing things. Mental Models gives you the tools to help you grasp, and design for, those reasons. Adaptive Path co-founder Indi Young has written a roll-up-your-sleeves book for designers, managers, and anyone else interested in making design strategic, and successful."
I'm getting...more
"There is no single methodology for creating the perfect product—but you can increase your odds. One of the best ways is to understand users' reasons for doing things. Mental Models gives you the tools to help you grasp, and design for, those reasons. Adaptive Path co-founder Indi Young has written a roll-up-your-sleeves book for designers, managers, and anyone else interested in making design strategic, and successful."
I'm getting...more
This book is a really thorough discussion of using Mental Models as a user-centric design technique. The book is very dense with a lot of information, so it would be helpful to read this multiple times, especially while doing the different portions described.
I would recommend this book for anyone that has the luxury of designing or planning on a team. Having 2-3 people working on this design technique makes a world of difference compared to having only one. That being said, I think that there is...more
I would recommend this book for anyone that has the luxury of designing or planning on a team. Having 2-3 people working on this design technique makes a world of difference compared to having only one. That being said, I think that there is...more
Aug 13, 2010
Dave Emmett
rated it
4 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
user experience designers, user researchers, information architects
This book wasn't at all what I expected it would be. But in a good way.
My understanding of mental models came from Don Norman's The Design of Everyday Things, where he talks about a mental model being the concept someone has about how a product works. When a user's mental model for how something works doesn't match the model the people who made a product use, you end up with things that are really difficult to use, frustrating end users.
But this book is about a methodology for user research that...more
My understanding of mental models came from Don Norman's The Design of Everyday Things, where he talks about a mental model being the concept someone has about how a product works. When a user's mental model for how something works doesn't match the model the people who made a product use, you end up with things that are really difficult to use, frustrating end users.
But this book is about a methodology for user research that...more
This is an amazing look at mental models and how they impact design strategy. There are some wonderful techniques and processes included. My only concern that that most of us involved in corporate user experience don't have the time to implement all of the suggestions.
Well written and terrific.
Well written and terrific.
Fantastic. Carried this book around for ages and referred back to it again and again. Indi's mental models are relevant for any user experience professional as she gives us a tool to extract user needs that are valid for the long run. This is the stuff personas should be based on.
Describes all details about getting your [potential] customer preferences. About making interview, extracting patterns, understading user needs, etc. Btw, it's more a reference book, or step-by-step guide, and it nothing without a practice.
I liked the concept, but I think this book and the story telling should have been meshed together. I've put this on my revisit list.
Really helpful for Design strategy and especially user research planning.
Finding interesting alignment with Jeff Patton's work on Story Mapping.
Yes, interesting concept.
No, a one concept book.
No, a one concept book.
I was convinced to read this book to figure out what my Mental Model Konigi Omnigraffle template was for and their website suggested this book.
I think this is a really awesome way to do user personas and finding ways to match the design with the user's needs. The book is oddly detailed in some points explaining exactly how to use a particular program or save a file in a particular format. But overall it is a good step-by-step explanation.
I hope that I will be able to integrate at least some of t...more
I think this is a really awesome way to do user personas and finding ways to match the design with the user's needs. The book is oddly detailed in some points explaining exactly how to use a particular program or save a file in a particular format. But overall it is a good step-by-step explanation.
I hope that I will be able to integrate at least some of t...more
Surprisingly shallow and empty book.
useless.
Jeff recommends it - and learning about good design is a must for any website architect.
This book is an excellent, comprehensive, and in-depth look at mental models.
May 20, 2013
Felipe
marked it as to-read
May 15, 2013
Ashoomi Dholakia
marked it as to-read
May 14, 2013
Kristi Grassi
marked it as to-read
May 13, 2013
Sarah Brodwall
added it
May 13, 2013
Hertzel Karbasi
added it
May 10, 2013
Liz
marked it as to-read
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