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| Books -------------------- Internet/Web
From Amazon.com: You may be only six degrees away from Kevin Bacon, but would he let you borrow his car? It depends on the structures within the network that links you. When the power goes out, when we find that a stranger knows someone we know, when dot-com stocks soar in price, networks are evident. In Six Degrees, sociologist Duncan Watts examines networks like these: what they are, how they're being studied, and what we can use them for. To illustrate the often complicated mathematics that describe such structures, Watts uses plenty of examples from life, without which this book would quickly move beyond a general science readership. Small chapters make each thought-provoking conclusion easy to swallow, though some are hard to digest. For instance, in a short bit on "coercive externalities," Watts sums up sociological research showing that:
"Conversations concerning politics displayed a consistent pattern .... On election day, the strongest predictor of electoral success was not which party an individual privately supported but which party he or she expected would win."
Internet/Web
From Amazon.com: For advanced users, it's an excellent reference to extend existing markup knowledge in different creative and technical directions. This book recommends standards-based markup practices to achieve various results within different contexts, from simple padding and floating to Fahrner Image Replacement. Much of the content is rehashed and rearranged from the Simplequiz feature of his website, which is a great way to contrast current presentational "tag soup" conventions with proper structural markup. So far it's all been stuff that I already know and use in my day-to-day design, but I'm seeing a few things in later chapters which should pose both unique solutions to as-yet-unmet CSS design challenges.
Don't start with this if you want a starter's XHTML/CSS manual or a comprehensive syntax guide. If CSS isn't like a second language to you yet, you'll probably want to read Web Standards Solutions with a couple of cheat sheets close by. And of course, the easiest way to learn is to do: fire up a text editor and a [real] browser and hammer out that code as you read about it. The sooner you're out of the tag soup, the better.
Design/Development
From Amazon.com: The authors present 40 guidelines that cover different aspects of defensive design, or contingency design as they call it. Some are pretty basic, such as "Always identify errors the same way". Others require a bit more thought in the coding of the site, such as "Assist form dropouts by saving information". But instead of just stating the guideline and moving on, they take it a step further. Using familiar and popular web sites, they provide "thumbs up" and "thumbs down" examples of each guideline. By seeing the guidelines actually applied in real-life, you are much more likely to understand the problems associated with it. I know if my site was used as a "thumbs down" example, I'd be motivated to get it fixed post haste.
At the end of the book, there is a contingency test you can apply to your site. You start by taking the test yourself as a baseline. After you think you've cleaned up the site, then have some real visitors use the site and take the test. If you can do well in both these scenarios, then your site is better off than most others out there. You're probably also seeing a high rate of repeat traffic.
The book is easy to read, but you'll most likely return to the guidelines over and over. This is a book that is going to be no more than an arms-length away.
Learning/Knowledge
This book should be of some interest to those in the education field who are struggling with the transition to technology. A 3rd Edition says something ...
EPSS/PCD
by Gary J. Dickelman (Editor)
EPSS Revisited is an essential reader for students and practitioners of performance-centered design (PCD). Its chapters support each element of the performance-centered systems development lifecycle. From job aids and "bolt on" EPSS to ground-up enterprise performance-centered systems, the reader will find gems in terms of methodology, industry trends, and a plethora of real-world examples of PCD. Practitioners of the constituent disciplines - cognitive science, instructional systems development, user-centered design, total quality management, and software engineering - will discover where their practices merge and overlap with PCD.
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