Vacation

Taking a break for a week or so, going to fly down south, hang out with my in-laws. Speaking of airports & in-laws, here's a good book to read when you're bored:

"The Design of Everyday Things" is probably the best non-programming book a programmer can read.

As programmers it's our job is to construct systems that make life easier (or just more fun) for someone else. When a user launches our program for the first time, they do so without any knowledge of how it works, or any knowledge of how we expected them to use it. "The Design of Everyday Things" focuses on that moment of initial user interaction, exploring the reasons for a users "success" or "failure" with systems, both foreign and familiar. It mainly boils down to the user interface, and that's what this book is about - building user interfaces that make sense.

Using familiar things like telephones and refrigerators, the author demonstrates how common things, even simple things we have a lot of experience with, can be rendered confusing by an interface that does not convey proper usage to the user. Ever been stopped short by pushing a door that must be pulled? Sometimes stupid mistakes are just stupid mistakes, but sometimes they're actually encouraged by devices that don't naturally convey their proper use.

It's an interesting book that contains lots of useful concepts for anyone who designs anything for other people to use.