November 14, 2008: Resolution for 2009: UX Book Salon tour


Even though the Christmas decorations are just starting to appear here in
Brooklyn, it's not too soon to make a New Year's Resolution.

When I started Rosenfeld Media <http://www.rosenfeldmedia.com/>, I set up a
few brown bag lunches with groups of designers and researchers from a few
local UX firms. I was looking to learn more about what our target audience
liked and didn't like about the design of the books they used for their
work. I asked them to bring their own books to the discussion. The
resulting show and tell discussions were fantastically useful, and had a
significant impact on the designs of both our digital and paperback
editions. (Notes on these discussions
here<http://www.rosenfeldmedia.com/announcements/2006/03/more_on_what_makes_for_\
a_good_1.php>
.)

Just as important, these discussions provided an outlet for some intense,
passionate discussions about UX books, their designs, and their topics. UX
pros' pent-up feelings clearly needed to be expressed, and it was
enlightening for everyone involved.

Unfortunately, once Rosenfeld Media started actually producing
books<http://www.rosenfeldmedia.com/books/>,
I got side-tracked by details of promoting, selling, and distributing them.
Bad, Lou, bad. A publisher should always be meeting with and talking with
his community. And a UX publisher? Only more so, obviously.

So, starting next year, *I resolve to organize informal UX Book Salons on a
monthly basis.* The goal of these meetings will be to raise consciousness
about the books we use as UX professionals. Books are products—information
systems, really—that we rarely look at critically. We shouldn't take their
design—or their topics—for granted. So this will be your opportunity to
sound off about what works for you and what doesn't, what topics you'd like
to know more about, and what authors really matter. I'll even give away
some Rosenfeld Media books at each salon to sweeten the deal.

These salons will take place in two venues: the conferences I'll be
attending (see the "Where I'll Be" list on my blog's main
page<http://louisrosenfeld.com/>)
and, during the months I get to stay home, at various New York City UX
firms. For the latter, I'll plan these in advance and if they're open to
the public, I'll announce them here on Bloug and on the Rosenfeld
Media site<http://www.rosenfeldmedia.com/>
.

At conferences, I'll be organizing the salons in a somewhat impromptu way,
using guerrilla techniques like Twitter to get the word out. (This worked
extremely well earlier this year when we wanted to get a
conversation<http://louisrosenfeld.com/home/bloug_archive/2008/04/im_grateful.ht\
ml>going
about
*Kevin Cheng's* book topic <http://www.rosenfeldmedia.com/books/comics/>.)
Follow me in Twitter (louisrosenfeld) to find out when and where.

I really think that this is the right thing to do. It'll certainly help me
as a publisher, but more importantly, it might help make us all better, more
critical consumers of the books that help us do our work.

I hope you'll join me in one of these discussions next year if you're in the
neighborhood. Happy new year!


PERMALINK

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