The Ten Faces of Innovation: IDEO's Strategies for Defeating the Devil's Advocate and Driving Creativity Throughout Your Organization


Tom Kelley - 2005
     The role of the devil's advocate is nearly universal in business today. It allows individuals to step outside themselves and raise questions and concerns that effectively kill new projects and ideas, while claiming no personal responsibility. Nothing is more potent in stifling innovation. Drawing on nearly 20 years of experience managing IDEO, Kelley identifies ten roles people can play in an organization to foster innovation and new ideas while offering an effective counter to naysayers. Among these approaches are the Anthropologist—the person who goes into the field to see how customers use and respond to products, to come up with new innovations; the Cross-pollinator who mixes and matches ideas, people, and technology to create new ideas that can drive growth; and the Hurdler, who instantly looks for ways to overcome the limits and challenges to any situation. Filled with engaging stories of how companies like Kraft, Procter and Gamble, Cargill and Samsung have incorporated IDEO's thinking to transform the customer experience, THE TEN FACES OF INNOVATION is an extraordinary guide to nurturing and sustaining a culture of continuous innovation and renewal.

Tricks of the Trade: How to Think about Your Research While You're Doing It


Howard S. Becker - 1998
    Tricks of the Trade will help students learn how to think about research projects. Assisted by Becker's sage advice, students can make better sense of their research and simultaneously generate fresh ideas on where to look next for new data. The tricks cover four broad areas of social science: the creation of the "imagery" to guide research; methods of "sampling" to generate maximum variety in the data; the development of "concepts" to organize findings; and the use of "logical" methods to explore systematically the implications of what is found. Becker's advice ranges from simple tricks such as changing an interview question from "Why?" to "How?" (as a way of getting people to talk without asking for a justification) to more technical tricks such as how to manipulate truth tables. Becker has extracted these tricks from a variety of fields such as art history, anthropology, sociology, literature, and philosophy; and his dazzling variety of references ranges from James Agee to Ludwig Wittgenstein. Becker finds the common principles that lie behind good social science work, principles that apply to both quantitative and qualitative research. He offers practical advice, ideas students can apply to their data with the confidence that they will return with something they hadn't thought of before. Like Writing for Social Scientists, Tricks of the Trade will bring aid and comfort to generations of students. Written in the informal, accessible style for which Becker is known, this book will be an essential resource for students in a wide variety of fields."An instant classic. . . . Becker's stories and reflections make a great book, one that will find its way into the hands of a great many social scientists, and as with everything he writes, it is lively and accessible, a joy to read."—Charles Ragin, Northwestern University

Squaddie: A Soldier's Story


Steven McLaughlin - 2006
    It exposes the grim reality of everyday soldiering for the 'grunts on the ground'. After the tragic death of his brother, and in the dark days following 9/11, McLaughlin felt compelled to fulfil his lifelong ambition to serve in the army. He followed his late brother into the elite Royal Green Jackets and passed the arduous Combat Infantryman's Course at the age of 31. Thereafter, McLaughlin found himself submerged in a world of casual violence. Squaddie is a snapshot of infantry soldiering in the twenty-first century. It takes us into the heart of an ancient institution that is struggling to retain its tough traditions in a rapidly changing world. All of the fears and anxieties that the modern soldier carries as his burden are laid bare, as well as the occasional joys and triumphs that can make him feel like he is doing the best job in the world. This is an account of army life by someone who has been there and done it.

Designing Interactions


Bill Moggridge - 2006
    Designers of digital technology products no longer regard their job as designing a physical object--beautiful or utilitarian--but as designing our interactions with it. In Designing Interactions, award-winning designer Bill Moggridge introduces us to forty influential designers who have shaped our interaction with technology. Moggridge, designer of the first laptop computer (the GRiD Compass, 1981) and a founder of the design firm IDEO, tells us these stories from an industry insider's viewpoint, tracing the evolution of ideas from inspiration to outcome. The innovators he interviews--including Will Wright, creator of The Sims, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, the founders of Google, and Doug Engelbart, Bill Atkinson, and others involved in the invention and development of the mouse and the desktop--have been instrumental in making a difference in the design of interactions. Their stories chart the history of entrepreneurial design development for technology.Moggridge and his interviewees discuss such questions as why a personal computer has a window in a desktop, what made Palm's handheld organizers so successful, what turns a game into a hobby, why Google is the search engine of choice, and why 30 million people in Japan choose the i-mode service for their cell phones. And Moggridge tells the story of his own design process and explains the focus on people and prototypes that has been successful at IDEO--how the needs and desires of people can inspire innovative designs and how prototyping methods are evolving for the design of digital technology.Designing Interactions is illustrated with more than 700 images, with color throughout. Accompanying the book is a DVD that contains segments from all the interviews intercut with examples of the interactions under discussion.Interviews with: Bill Atkinson - Durrell Bishop - Brendan Boyle - Dennis Boyle - Paul Bradley - Duane Bray - Sergey Brin - Stu Card - Gillian Crampton Smith - Chris Downs- Tony Dunne - John Ellenby - Doug Englebart - Jane Fulton Suri - Bill Gaver - Bing Gordon - Rob Haitani - Jeff Hawkins - Matt Hunter - Hiroshi Ishii - Bert Keely - David Kelley - Rikako Kojima - Brenda Laurel - David Liddle - Lavrans L?vlie - John Maeda - Paul Mercer - Tim Mott - Joy Mountford - Takeshi Natsuno - Larry Page - Mark Podlaseck - Fiona Raby - Cordell Ratzlaff - Ben Reason - Jun Rekimoto - Steve Rogers - Fran Samalionis - Larry Tesler - Bill Verplank - Terry Winograd - Will Wright

Convert!


Benjamin Hunt - 2011
    But when his team more than doubled the conversion rates for a wide range of sites, they identified simple yet powerful solutions involving design, copy, appropriate analysis, classic optimization techniques, and targeted testing. You'll find the fixes easy to implement, and they're all right here.Understand the essentials - your market, your proposition, and your delivery.Create a site that is seen by the right people, provides a compelling experience, and generates the desired action.Learn how to use testing to improve your site's conversion rate.Discover the holistic nature of web site optimization and why multiplicity matters.Examine dozens of simple techniques for building traffic, engaging your audience, and crafting effective calls to action. Combine creativity with analysis for the best possible results. Ben Hunt is Principal Consultant for Scratchmedia Ltd. He operates webdesignfromscratch.com, which provides tutorials and advice to over 120,000 web developers each month. Ben has been designing, coding, and producing web sites for clients worldwide for more than 15 years, and is considered a leader in the web usability industry.Forewords by Ken McCarthy, founder of the System Seminar, and Drayton Bird, Drayton Bird Associates.

802.11 Wireless Networks: The Definitive Guide


Matthew S. Gast - 2002
    Foremost on that list is mobility, since going wireless frees you from the tether of an Ethernet cable at a desk. But that's just the tip of the cable-free iceberg. Wireless networks are also more flexible, faster and easier for you to use, and more affordable to deploy and maintain.The de facto standard for wireless networking is the 802.11 protocol, which includes Wi-Fi (the wireless standard known as 802.11b) and its faster cousin, 802.11g. With easy-to-install 802.11 network hardware available everywhere you turn, the choice seems simple, and many people dive into wireless computing with less thought and planning than they'd give to a wired network. But it's wise to be familiar with both the capabilities and risks associated with the 802.11 protocols. And 802.11 Wireless Networks: The Definitive Guide, 2nd Edition is the perfect place to start.This updated edition covers everything you'll ever need to know about wireless technology. Designed with the system administrator or serious home user in mind, it's a no-nonsense guide for setting up 802.11 on Windows and Linux. Among the wide range of topics covered are discussions on:deployment considerationsnetwork monitoring and performance tuningwireless security issueshow to use and select access pointsnetwork monitoring essentialswireless card configurationsecurity issues unique to wireless networksWith wireless technology, the advantages to its users are indeed plentiful. Companies no longer have to deal with the hassle and expense of wiring buildings, and households with several computers can avoid fights over who's online. And now, with 802.11 Wireless Networks: The Definitive Guide, 2nd Edition, you can integrate wireless technology into your current infrastructure with the utmost confidence.

Introducing HTML5


Bruce Lawson - 2010
    Some of its new features are already being implemented by existing browsers, and much more is around the corner. Written by developers who have been using the new language for the past year in their work, this book shows you how to start adapting the language now to realize its benefits on today's browsers. Rather than being just an academic investigation, it concentrates on the practical--the problems HTML5 can solve for you right away. By following the book's hands-on HTML5 code examples you'll learn: new semantics and structures to help your site become richer and more accessiblehow to apply the most important JavaScript APIs that are already implementedthe uses of native multimedia for video and audiotechniques for drawing lines, fills, gradients, images and text with canvas how to build more intelligent web formsimplementation of new storage options and web databaseshow geolocation works with HTML5 in both web and mobile applicationsAll the code from this book (and more) is available at www.introducinghtml5.com. ********There appear to be intermittent problems with the first printing of Introducing HTML5. If you have one of these copies, please email us at ask@peachpit.com with a copy of your receipt (from any reseller), and we'll either provide access to the eBook or send you another copy of the print book -- whichever you prefer. If you'd like the eBook we can add that to your Peachpit.com account. You can set up a free account at www.peachpit.com/join http: //www.peachpit.com/join>. Thanks so much for your understanding!

Jony Ive: The Genius Behind Apple's Greatest Products


Leander Kahney - 2013
    Doing something that’s genuinely better is very hard.” —Jony IveIn 1997, Steve Jobs returned to Apple as CEO with the unenviable task of turning around the company he had founded. One night, Jobs discovered a scruffy British designer toiling away at Apple’s corporate headquarters, surrounded by hundreds of sketches and prototypes. It was then that Jobs realized he had found a talent who could reverse the company’s long decline.That young designer was Jony Ive. Jony Ive’s collaboration with Jobs would produce some of the world’s most iconic technology products, including the iMac, iPod, iPad, and iPhone. The designs have not only made Apple a hugely valuable company, they’ve overturned entire industries, built a loyal fan base, and created a globally powerful brand. Along the way, Jony Ive has become the world’s leading technology innovator, won countless design awards, earned a place on the 2013 Time 100 list, and was even knighted for his “services to design and enterprise.”Yet despite his triumphs, little is known about the shy and soft-spoken whiz whom Jobs referred to as his “spiritual partner” at Apple. Jony Ive reveals the true story of Apple’s real innovator-in-chief.Leander Kahney, the bestselling author of Inside Steve’s Brain, offers a detailed portrait of a creative genius. He shows us how Jony Ive went from an English art school student with dyslexia to the man whose immense insights have altered the pattern of our lives. From his early interest in industrial design, fostered by his designer father, through his education at Newcastle Polytechnic and meteoric rise at Apple, we discover the principles and practices that he developed to become the designer of his generation.Based on interviews with Jony Ive’s former colleagues and Kahney’s own familiarity with the world of Apple, this book gives insight into how Jony Ive (now senior vice president of design) has redefined the ways in which we work, entertain, and communicate with one another.

Measuring the User Experience: Collecting, Analyzing, and Presenting Usability Metrics


Thomas Tullis - 2008
    They explore each metric, considering best methods for collecting, analyzing, and presenting the data. They provide step-by-step guidance for measuring the usability of any type of product using any type of technology.This book is recommended for usability professionals, developers, programmers, information architects, interaction designers, market researchers, and students in an HCI or HFE program.

A Web for Everyone: Designing Accessible User Experiences


Sarah Horton - 2013
    Rooted in universal design principles, this book provides solutions: practical advice and examples of how to create sites that everyone can use.

Network Security: Private Communication in a Public World


Charlie Kaufman - 1995
    In the second edition of Network Security, this most distinguished of author teams draws on hard-won experience to explain every facet of information security, from the basics to advanced cryptography and authentication; secure Web and email services; and emerging security standards. Highlights of the book's extensive new coverage include Advanced Encryption Standard (AES), IPsec, SSL, PKI Standards, and Web security.

Computers as Theatre


Brenda Laurel - 1991
    It shows how similar principles can help students understand what people experience when interacting with computers. The book also describes how the user's enjoyment of a computer system should be the biggest design consideration.

The Mindset


Ace Bowers - 2019
    He was forced to choose which path he was going to take: continue the cycle of family poverty or break it. The Mindset is an inspirational memoir of Ace Bowers’ personal transformation from janitor to millionaire. Bowers began his journey uneducated, overweight, addicted to cigarettes, in debt, and depressed. Revealing the skeletons in his closet for the first time set the scene for how he got to the point of cleaning a motel for $6 an hour. Bowers’ detailed accounts of his turbulent and traumatizing childhood illustrated what it is like growing up in a poor, alcoholic, and abusive family. The metamorphosis began as soon as he changed his mindset. Within five years, Bowers was able to completely turn his life around, going from trash to technology. This memoir illuminates step by step his unconventional path to wealth, health, and happiness.

Boy 11963: An Irish Industrial School Childhood and an Extraordinary Search for Home


John Cameron - 2021
    

How to Speak So People Really Listen: The Straight-Talking Guide to Communicating with Influence and Impact


Paul McGee - 2016
    The big lesson Steve Jobs learnt when an advertising exec threw something at him... and how it will help how you communicate. 2. Seven ways to manage your nerves (surprisingly, you don’t want to eliminate them). 3. Why our obsession with body language is totally wrong, and what to focus on instead. 4. Why you must think about a beachball before you next speak. Believe me, it’s essential. 5. A question your audience is always thinking, and how to ensure you provide the answer. 6. The most common mistake experienced presenters make that nervous ones never do. 7. Why so many presentations cure insomnia, and how to make sure you’re serving an extra strong double espresso instead. 8. The number one thing most presenters forget to bring when they’re speaking to others. 9. Discover the most underprepared part of your presentation, and how to avoid making the same mistake. 10. What women’s magazines and TV soap operas have to teach us about audience engagement. 11. What I learnt from a guy with one of the most powerful memories on the planet, and how it can transform your communication. 12. Discover Tony Blair’s biggest fear when Prime Minister, and how you can tackle the same issue with confidence. 13. Why you don’t have to be funny to use humour in your presentation, and three easy ways to do it.