Introductory Resources
on the Practice of Interaction Design
While everyone will find their own path into the practice of Interaction Design, a few helpful resources can help the journey be more efficient, informative and enjoyable. With that in mind, I’ve compiled a list of the best introductory resources today for anyone getting into this ever-evolving practice. Enjoy!
Publications
A List Apart —explores the design, development, and meaning of web content, with a special focus on web standards and best practices.
O’Riley Media —spreads knowledge through technology books, online services, magazines, research, and tech conferences.
Rosenfeld Media — started with books, expanded to teaching and consulting, and continue to explore new ways to get you the best UX expertise.
Offscreen — A Print Magazine about the People behind Bits and Pixels.
UX Overview Books
About Face: The Essentials of Interaction Design by Allen Cooper
Don’t Make Me Think, Revisited: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability by Steven Krug
A Project Guide to UX Design: For user experience designers in the field or in the making by Russ Unger and Carolyn Chandler
News/Interviews
Verge/Tech — In-depth reporting and long-form feature stories, breaking news coverage, product information, and community content.
UXMag — for people and companies looking to understand the value of experience-orientation, and to learn the tactics and strategies behind successful user and customer experiences.
Sidebar — a list of the 5 best design links of the day. But unlike a regular linkblog, it’s collaborative and manually curated by a couple great editors.
Design Guidance/Best Practices
PsEtiquette — A Guide to Discernible Web Design in Photoshop.
Little Big Details — Your daily dose of (UI) design inspiration.
Smashing Magazine — a blog for professional web designers and developers, with a focus on useful techniques, best practices and resources.
Video Archives
All You Can Learn by UIE — A library of 180 seminars by experts in all things UX design.
O’Riley Media —Training videos from Experts.
Conferences
A very short list of the many great conferences available:
MWUX14 —A regional 3-day conference founded on inter-disciplinary talks and workshops built around supporting and inspiring the growing Midwest design community.
Interaction15 — An international conference covering three days of talks, workshops and activities exploring the past, present and future of interaction design.
IA Summit — A regional gathering of of information architects, user experience designers, content strategists, to promote discourse and offer practical advice.
Competitions
Opportunities to get good work recognized:
IxDA Student Design Challenge — Envisioning the wearable city, submissions close Nov. 30, 2014 at Interaction 15
Previous IxDA Student Design Challenge competition at Interaction 14
UX Groups local to Grand Rapids, MI
Get out and get involved to learn what is happening in the industry and meet those practicing.
IxDA Grand Rapids
Most IxDA GR Meetings are Thursdays, on the 3rd Thursday of the month
at GR Makers from 5:30 pm-7:30pm The event details and sign-up is on Meet-up or follow them on Twitter @IxDAGR
AIGA West Michigan the professional association for design.
uniting a group of professionals and students with diverse backgrounds but a common interest in design. There are also the national resources at AIGA the professional association for design.
- Creative Mornings Grand Rapids — Typically Fridays 8:30am-10:00am check event listing for location
- Design for Good supports events throughout West Michigan and inspire an army of more than 300 designers to become social change agents
The Factory/coLearning —Hosting events to connect aspiring technologists, designers and entrepreneurs with experienced Creators
GiveCamp is a weekend-long event where technology professionals – from designers, developers and database administrators to marketers and web strategists – donate their time to provide solutions for non-profit organizations.
Come visit again and plan for updates as new and better resources become available. Likewise, if anyone has any suggestions, feel free to send me a tweet.
