Some UX resources to get started #scs10

After yesterdays UX session at the Startup Camp Switzerland there were a few request to point out some UX resources to get started. So here’s a few:

Books

• Don’t make me think - Steve Krug
  This is the clasic starter book to get into usability, well written, entertaining, including some help how to do your first simple usability test yourself. To me the book’s content feels somewhat outdated, but it gets you into the right mind-set.
• Subject to change -  Peter Merholz
  This is a good entry book for bussiness people, to read what user experience is all about, it shows a few case studies on what was necessary to achieve a great user experience and how improtant it is to integrate user experience into your strategy. But don’t expect concrete steps on what to do.
• Books by Rosenfeld Media
  Rosenfeld Media only publishes UX books of great quality, I recommend Web Form Design by Luke Wrobleski, Donna Spencer’s Card Sorting (helps you with a user centered method to structure your content) and Indy Young’s Mental Models (helps you bild a picture / a model on all the things that are important to the user). These books are very helpful, Donna’s and Indy’s books describe concrete processes on how to use those methods,
  Use the discount code SCS10 to get 20% off anything at Rosenfeld media (Thanks to Lou Rosenfeld).
• Designing for the social web - Joshua Porter
  Gives a good framework to think about the social experience. There’s nothing really new in there, but it structures the problem of designing for the social web quite well.

Podcasts

• UIE (User Interface Engineering) has a really nice podcast with lots of interviews
• User Experience Podcast by Gerry Gafney is a nice resource too.

Tools

• Balsamiq Mockups a great easy to use mockup tool (avaible as plugin to JIRA and Confluence)
• For Mac OS X: Silverback low cost usability-testing software, record the screen and the webcam easily. 

*Blogs / Websites
*There are a lot of great blogs out there, can’t decide on what to put here, so I’ll let other speak for me:
Good UX resources via UXexchange.com

*Where to talk about UX?
*

• Mailing List
  The Interaction Design Association (IxDA) has a great mailing list with a lot of high quality discussions and very helpful people: IxDA Discuss (it’s quite a high volume, so I recommend setting up a filter, so your inbox doesn’t get flooded.
• UX Book Club
  I started a UX book club on Amazee, so every two month we meet and discuss a UX book, everybody is welcome to join.

Thanks to  Mike from Doodle and Dominik from Wuala for you’re valuable feedback on the discussion.
Thanks to Amazee and all the sponsors and organisators for the great startup camp event.