November’s Book Club Selection: Zingerman’s Guide to Giving Great Service by Ari Weinzweig

510WZvVTkZL._SX302_BO1,204,203,200_Join us for our next News Nerd Book Club hangout on Wednesday, November 18th at 1pm ET.

This month we'll be reading Zingerman's Guide to Giving Great Service by Ari Weinzweig.
.

From Amazon's description of the book:

Booming business and loyal customers are proof enough that the Zingerman's team knows a thing or two about customer service. Now in Zingerman's Guide to Giving Great Service, co-founder Ari Weinzweig shares the unique Zingerman method of treating customers, giving the reader step-by-step instructions on what to teach staff, how to train them, how to implement the training, how to measure their success, and finally, how to reward performance.

Here's the event invitation and hangout link if you'd like to RSVP.

Hope to see you on November 18th. Happy reading!

October’s Book Club Selection: Microinteractions by Dan Saffer

cover_color_lrgWe hope you'll join us for our next News Nerd Book Club hangout on Wednesday, October 14th at 1pm ET.

This month we'll be reading Microinteractions: Designing with Details by Dan Saffer.

From the book's website:

The difference between a good product and a great one are its details: the microinteractions that make up the small moments inside and around features. How do you turn mute on? How do you know you have a new email message? How can you change a setting? All these little moments—which are typically not on any feature list and often ignored—can change a product from one that is tolerated to one that’s beloved.

This book provides a new way of thinking about designing digital products: as a series of microinteractions that are essential to bringing personality and delight to applications and devices.

Here's the event invitation and hangout link if you'd like to RSVP.

Hope to see you on October 14th. Happy reading!

News Nerd Book Club August Recap

coverThis month we read and discussed Invisibles: The Unsung Heroes of the Workplace by David Zweig.

We were lucky enough to have Zweig join us during the hangout and learn more about the behind-the-scenes idea-generation work and research.

One of Zweig’s major points that he investigates in the book is understanding what drives us as workers. For the “Invisibles” that he profiled, it was very much less about receiving any kind of recognition for their excellent work and more about the thrill of the challenge and enjoying the responsibility entrusted to them. In today’s culture of constant validation and self-promotion, he argues, we could all learn a thing or two from the Invisibles’ way of approaching work.

Read our more detailed discussion notes here.

Next Month

book-coverOur next discussion will take place on September 9 at 1pm ET to talk about Designing for Performance by Lara Callender Hogan.

You can have a look at our reading list if you want to add titles you would like us to consider for future meetings.

Be sure to follow @newsnerdbooks for reminders throughout the month!

August’s Book Club Selection is Invisibles: Celebrating the Unsung Heroes of the Workplace

This month, we're reading "Invisibles: Celebrating the Unsung Heroes of the Workplace" by David Zweig, in which the author interviews top experts in unusual fields to reveal the quiet workers behind public successes (think fact-checkers, anesthesiologists, U.N. interpreters, and structural engineers).

We’re very happy to announce that Zweig will be joining us for our Google Hangout discussion on Wednesday, August 12, at 1:00 p.m. Eastern time. RSVP or jump straight to the hangout.

We’re compiling our questions and notes on the discussion Hackpad. Feel free to add your own, or tweet at @newsnerdbooks.

Here’s more info about the book from the advertising copy:

What do fact-checkers, anesthesiologists, U.N. interpreters, and structural engineers have in common? For most of us, the better we perform the more attention we receive. Yet for many "Invisibles"-skilled professionals whose role is critical to whatever enterprise they're a part of-it's the opposite: the better they do their jobs the more they disappear. In fact, often it's only when something goes wrong that they are noticed at all. Millions of Invisibles are hidden in every industry. And despite our culture's increasing celebration of fame in our era of superstar CEOs and assorted varieties of "genius," they're fine with remaining anonymous. David Zweig interviews top experts in unusual fields to reveal the quiet workers behind public successes. Combining in-depth profiles with insights from psychology, sociology, and business, Zweig uncovers how these hidden professionals reap deep fulfillment by relishing the challenges their work presents.

More info about David Zweig, from his website:

David Zweig is a writer, lecturer and musician based in Brooklyn, New York. Invisibles (Penguin, June 2014), his first nonfiction book, is an expansion of his acclaimed Atlantic article “What Do Fact-Checkers and Anesthesiologists Have in Common?” Invisibles has generated press around the world, with coverage in the States, Canada, Italy, France, Australia, South Korea, Ireland, the UK, Peru, Israel, Brazil, and Ukraine, among other countries. Translation rights have been sold in territories in Asia, Europe, and South America.

Hope to see you in a few weeks. Happy reading!

July News Nerd Book Club Recap

July's chosen book was A Technique for Producing Ideas by James Webb Young. It's a very short book, but contained some useful ideas about how to come up with new ideas.

Ideation is simply the act of combining old ideas to create new ideas, writes Young. This requires the ability to see relationships between different existing ideas, and Young lays out five steps for improved ideation:

  1. Read all you can, in every field. You must have 'intimate' subject-matter knowledge, but general knowledge is extraordinarily useful.
  2. Ruminate over your knowledge. Write down any and every idea that comes to mind, however irrelevant it is.
  3. Stop thinking about the problem. Do something else, and let your subconscious work on the problem.
  4. At some point, a flash of inspiration will hit. Write it down.
  5. Shape, revise, refine, iterate, edit, and otherwise massage the idea until it is fit for use.

We liked some of what was presented in the book, especially the idea that you need to be familiar with broad categories of knowledge in order to find good relationships between ideas. It encourages us to be widely-read.

The idea that one must let ideas percolate in the subconscious was met with some skepticism, but most participants were able to recall a time when ideas had come to them while working on something unrelated.

A desire for advice on what to do with ideas was a common theme among reader feedback. If you know of a book suggesting how to winnow good and useful ideas from the irrelevant, please add it to our list of books to read!

Read more discussion notes in the Hackpad.

Next Month

Our next hangout will be on Wednesday, August 12, at 1:00 p.m. Eastern time.

We'll be reading Invisibles by David Zweig.

We'll announce the hangout link and additional info on the @newsnerdbooks Twitter account as the date grows closer. We hope to see you then!

July’s Book Club selection is A Technique for Producing Ideas

Join us for the July News Nerd Book Club hangout on Wednesday, July 8, 2015 at 1 p.m. ET.

We'll be reading A Technique for Producing Ideas by James Webb Young.

From the book's advertising copy:

James Webb Young is in the tradition of some of our greatest thinkers when he describes the workings of the creative process. The results of many years in advertising have proved to him that the key element in communications success is the production of relevant and dramatic ideas. He not only makes this point vividly for us but shows us the road to that goal.

- Advertising mogul William Bernbach

The meeting this month will be held via Google Hangout, and the invite and link to RSVP are right here.

Happy Reading!

News Nerd Book Club June Recap

For June we read Stephen Hay's Responsive Web Design. The workflow he presents is intended to integrate visual design, content strategy and interaction design and to facilitate the entire team's participation throughout the design process.

A number of the book's suggestions are more widely adopted today than they were when the book was originally published in 2013. Many of the approaches remain valid, such as starting a design with the smallest screen in mind to clarify the hierarchy of important elements and moving from static documents to working in the browser as soon as possible.

We discussed the potential benefits, hurdles and available tools to adopt more web-based approaches to creating mockups and wireframes.

One idea for further consideration is Hay's discussion of designing for breakpoints. His approach honors the imprecise and imperfect nature of the web – different behaviors associated with different browsers and devices.

Our next hangout will be Wednesday, July 8th at 1pm EST. We will be reading James Webb Young's A Technique for Producing Ideas.

You can also have a look at our reading list and add titles you would like us to consider for future meetings.

Follow @newsnerdbooks for news of July's selection.  Hope to see you there!

June’s Book Club selection is Responsive Design Workflow

Join us for the May News Nerd Book Club hangout on Wednesday, June 10, 2015 at 1 p.m. ET.

We'll be reading Responsive Design Workflow by Stephen Hay.

From the book's description:

"Forget fixed-width Photoshop comps, bloated client requirements, and overproduced wireframes. Yesterday's web design deliverables fail to take into account the demands of responsive solutions. Design workflow hasn't really changed, but best practices have. This book shows you how to adapt to the new paradigm and create sites for today's web."

The meeting this month will be held via Google Hangout and the invite and link to RSVP are right here.

Hope to see you in a few weeks. Happy reading!

News Nerd Book Club May Recap

This month, we read and discussed Badass: Making Users Awesome by Kathy Sierra.

INN Nerds May Book Club selection
INN Nerds May Book Club selection

Among the long list of topics covered, we talked about applying the book's formula to the team's projects. One of Sierra's points is that to create badass users we need to guide them to become experts in the larger context of the specific tool or product we provide. According to Sierra, this is essential to creating power users, gaining repeat visitors/readers, loyal customers, etc.

We also talked about applying the book's formula to teaching and learning in general. Sierra's approach encourages teaching in an incremental/progressive manner, working towards the student's personal goals, avoiding extrinsic and favoring intrinsic awards for high performance.

Next Month

Our next Hangout will be Wednesday, June 10th at 1 p.m. ET.

Take this quick survey by the end of the day, Thursday, May 21, and we'll announce the selection on Friday, May 22. You can also have a look at our reading list and add titles you would like us to consider for future meetings.

Follow @newsnerdbooks for the announcement of next month's book next Friday and for details on the hangout. Hope to see you there!

May’s Book Club selection is Sierra’s Badass: Making Users Awesome

lrgJoin us for the May News Nerd Book Club hangout on Wednesday, May 13, 2015 at 1 p.m. ET.

This month we'll be reading Badass: Making Users Awesome by Kathy Sierra.

From the book's description:

"Imagine you’re in a game with one objective: a bestselling product or service. The rules? No marketing budget, no PR stunts, and it must be sustainably successful. No short-term fads.

This is not a game of chance. It is a game of skill and strategy.

And it begins with a single question: given competing products of equal pricing, promotion, and perceived quality, why does one outsell the others?"

The meeting this month will be held via Google Hangout and the invite and link to RSVP are right here.

Hope to see you in a few weeks. Happy reading!