Quarantine Book Club — Jon Yablonski

Hello internet friends,

We’re trapped at home and you are also probably most likely trapped at home as well. So let's all get together, from the comfort of our own bunkers, and talk about something else for an hour. We invite an author in to talk about their work and answer questions from you, the audience.

About the author: Jon Yablonski is an award-winning digital designer and a senior product designer working on the next generation of in-vehicle interactive experiences at General Motors. His passion lies at the intersection of interaction design and development. Jon writes about his design experiences for publications including A List Apart, Smashing Magazine, and CSS Tricks.

About the book: An understanding of psychology--specifically the psychology behind how users behave and interact with digital interfaces--is perhaps the single most valuable nondesign skill a designer can have. The most elegant design can fail if it forces users to conform to the design rather than working within the "blueprint" of how humans perceive and process the world around them. This practical guide explains how you can apply key principles in psychology to build products and experiences that are more intuitive and human-centered. Author Jon Yablonski deconstructs familiar apps and experiences to provide clear examples of how UX designers can build experiences that adapt to how users perceive and process digital interfaces.

You'll learn:

1. How aesthetically pleasing design creates positive responses
2. The principles from psychology most useful for designers
3. How these psychology principles relate to UX heuristics
4. Predictive models including Fitts's law, Jakob's law, and Hick's law
5. Ethical implications of using psychology in design
6. A framework for applying these principles

BUY THE BOOK!

Ticket price: $5. Cheap. And the guest gets a cut. We used to do events in person that required all of us to get in a car or plane. Now the planet is better off and you can participate from wherever you are. We guarantee you'll get more than $5 value out of it, and charging admission makes it more likely that the people who sign up plan to show up. We know these are uncertain times to say the least, so no one is turned away! Use code: BOOKFRIENDJON for a free ticket if you need to.

How does it work? We use the conferencing system Zoom. After you sign up you'll get an email with the Zoom access code. You don’t have to join with video, but it’s nice to see faces.

What if it totally sucks? You'll get your $5 back and we'll all have learned something.