Visual language

What Hacker News says

1. everythingabiliOct 2024
   I came here to say the same thing exactly. Tufte books are very visual (and expensive - see if you can find a copy of any of his books, changed my life). You can just dip in.

   Norman is ace. Although his books turned me into a usability weirdo unable to switch off my usability sensors... be careful! :-)

   As is Raskin - whose interface "notation" (click-drag-click etc) I think isn't talked about enough.

   Can I also throw in these...

   Don't Make Me Think: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Dont-Make-Me-Think-Usability/dp/032... - I found this a REALLY useful book, and great to share with people too.

   A Pattern Language https://www.amazon.co.uk/Pattern-Language-Buildings-Construc... - OK, this is a bit esoteric, but it's so valuable and lots of geeks/UX-ers kind of aim to create their own pattern language as opposed to a UX-dogma.

   Information Architecture https://www.amazon.co.uk/Information-Architecture-Beyond-Lou...

   Visual Language https://www.amazon.co.uk/Visual-Language-Global-Communicatio... - a kind of fundamental - hard to find.

   --

   There are dozens of methodologies to learn, and put into practice. I would put it that you don't really learn UX, you do it, and revise - in order to solve problems and make things better. Once you've digested some of the ideas you need to start trying the methodologies out. This is harder than it sounds. Even companies that claim to support UX, sort of bugger things up.... in that UX can't "fix" crap... it needs to be in at the beginning.

   My favourite activities / methodologies, that produced REAL results were

   * Ethnography - kinda just hanging out and observing what actually goes on. One client used to print off every page to proof read their changes cos the font sizes were designed by 21 year olds and they were 60+. The applause I got for raising the font size would never have been found any other way than sitting in the corner. * Card sorting - often collaboratively with armfuls of post its to decide on categories/navigation * Wireframing - I had less success with paper prototyping, but still ... * Personas + Use Cases

   ...and Eye Tracking - which tbh was SO VALUABLE, not because of the insights it provided, but for the EVIDENCE (video and heatmaps) that you could use to persuade the big wigs.

   So find a way to start getting yourself into trying out various methodologies, to fix problems. Doing UX when things are "kind of OK" can be quite hard imo, especially at the beginning.

   Your background will be so useful, again imo and experience, you will be able to use UX to provide guidance and ideas and then MAKE THE BLOODY THING which lots of UX-ers can't do. I liked the cross-over - I code a bit and sometimes found it easier to make what I wanted, rather than specifying it or creating "designs".

   Good luck!

   Tom

   Show morethread
2. mistrial9Dec 2021
   the book nearby for a quick reference here is:

       Visual Language: Global Communication for the 21st Century, Robert Horn 
   

   slightly sad to see his Stanford affiliation and personal website summarily 404 just now, but a wayback machine visit might help with that.
   thread
3. NateOct 2007
   There's a professor at Stanford, Robert Horn, who wrote a book called "Visual Language" which seems interesting.

   You can view sample pages here:

   http://www.macrovu.com/VLBkExmplPgsMenu.html

   thread