Product Description

There is no single methodology for creating the perfect product--buy you can increase your odds. One of the best ways is to understand users' reasons for doing things. Mental Models gives you the tools to help you grasp, and design for, those reasons. Adaptive Path co-founder Indi Young has written a roll-up-your-sleeves book for designers, managers, and anyone else interested in making design strategic, and successful.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #65945 in Books
• Published on: 2008-08
• Format: Color
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 299 pages

Customer Reviews

A Practical, Well-Written Book for Any IA's Bookshelf
I've been waiting for this book for the past year. AFter attending Indi Young's excellent workshop in mental models/alignment diagrams last year at the IA Summit, I knew that a practical, hands-on book would enhance that training. I'm not disappointed.

Indeed, this book provides great how-to approaches to finding the mental models that users bring to an experience. First she goes into the what, when, how, and why of mental models. Think of this area as the theory section. Next she takes you from the definition through development of the work, including information & tips on recruiting and interviewing. Her verb-oriented approach helps me understand just how to take work I've done before, techniques I'm versed in, and create the alignment diagrams that evince mental models. Finally, Young details how to apply the results of your research.

Practical, effective, and insightful, "Mental Models: Aligning design strategy with human behavior" answers a hands-on need for information architects, interface designers, business analysts, and anyone who wants to create user-centered, successful experiences. Oh--and she's a great writer too, so you'll find it fun to read.

Already indispensible - a great resource!
Our team at work has using bits and pieces of Indi's mental modeling ideas for the past couple of years. Needless to say, I was very excited when her new book arrived in the mail last week. It hasn't disappointed.

The book is detailed and clear about mental modeling methods and practices, and strikes a nice balance between the thinking and doing aspects of creating a mental model. In particular, that research strategy sections are excellent and have already give our team some great new perspectives on how to approach our work.

There are no weak spots in this book. It covers everything you need to know and covers it well. Highly recommended for anyone in the information architecture, experience design or customer research fields who are looking to more effectively mesh the needs of businesses and consumers to drive creative output.

More about product strategy than design
I'm not sure I like the way Young uses the term mental model. To me, a mental model is first and foremost the way that an individual thinks a system or a part of the world works. An example from Don Norman that rang true for me: My understanding of how my home AC unit works. I set it/use it based on that model, even it it's completely wrong. I developed my model of how it works based on a variety of things, which may not include any actual basis in how it truly works. As a designer, it is helpful to understand a person's mental model for something so that you can map to it as appropriate to help people understand how to use your product.

What Young approaches in this book is something much broader: She provides a start-to-finish approach to documenting the way a whole group of people relate to your product space - their needs, tasks, and perspectives. She provides great detail in how to proceed, including literal instructions for your spreadsheet, etc. This then leads to larger insights about product (or product line) strategy, which is useful (but seems off the mark of mental models, to me).

I found this book a bit heavy on quotations and task instructions, a little light on Young's personal insights. This might have held up better as a chapter in a book on user research methods (i.e., Kuniavsky's book).