UX/UI Books'n'Beer: The Inmates Are Running the Asylum

📚🍻 Our UX/UI Books'n'Beer is back to local! We are looking forward to enjoy a drink or two together with you!

📖 Our Book of Choice:
"The Inmates Are Running the Asylum: Why High Tech Products Drive Us Crazy and How to Restore the Sanity" by Alan Cooper

📆 When?
Thursday, 14 April 2022
6.00pm

🌍 Where?
"Die Scherbe"
Stockergasse 2, Graz (near Lendplatz)

📖 What?
Join us for a beer (or any other drink) and a nice discussion at our next UX/UI book club. This time we are talking about “The Inmates Are Running the Asylum: Why High Tech Products Drive Us Crazy and How to Restore the Sanity” by Alan Cooper.

In this book about the darker side of technology's impact on our lives, Alan Cooper begins by explaining that unlike other devices throughout history, computers have a "meta function": an unwanted, unforeseen option that users may accidentally invoke with what they thought was a normal keystroke. Cooper details many of these meta functions to explain his central thesis: programmers need to seriously re-evaluate the many user-hostile concepts deeply embedded within the software development process.

Rather than provide users with a straightforward set of options, programmers often pile on the bells and whistles and ignore or de-prioritise lingering bugs. For the average user, increased functionality is a great burden, adding to the recurrent chorus that plays: "computers are hard, mysterious, unwieldy things." (An average user, Cooper asserts, who doesn't think that way or who has memorised all the esoteric commands and now lords it over others, has simply been desensitised by too many years of badly designed software.)

We will discuss how effectively Cooper tackles the core questions in his book,
Are we making users happier?
Are we improving the process by which they get work done?
Are we making their work hours more effective?
and whether the different internal stakeholders building software (programmers, business executives, and “interaction designers”) are effectively tackling them, and importantly his questioning of their different assumptions and mindsets.

Cooper looks to programmers, business managers and what he calls "interaction designers" to question current assumptions and mindsets.
You can read the book beforehand or just chat with us about the topic and join us for a drink.

🛒 Need to order the book?
https://www.amazon.de/Inmates-are-Running-Asylum-High-tech/dp/0672316498/

💬 Language: English

***
You have book recommendations for our next book club, want to meet the UX Graz Community at your company (host the meetup), or you want to share UX related topics with us?
Feel free to contact us!
✉️ community@uxgraz.at

Du hast Buchvorschläge für unseren nächsten Buchclub, möchtest die UX Graz Community in deiner Firma treffen (das Meetup hosten) oder eigene UX bezogene Themen mit uns teilen?
Melde dich einfach bei uns!
✉️ community@uxgraz.at