Alan Cooper talks with Dave Rael about interaction design, collaboration, sustainable business success, reading and books, and innovation
Alan Cooper is an American software designer and programmer. Widely recognized as the “Father of Visual Basic," Cooper is also known for his books About Face and The Inmates Are Running the Asylum, both appearing in multiple updated editions over the years. As founder of Cooper, a leading interaction design consultancy, he created the Goal-Directed design methodology and pioneered the use of personas as practical interaction design tools to create high-tech products.
Chapters:
- - Dave introduces the show and Alan Cooper
- - Approaching design from the developer's point of view and writing about it
- - Aesthetic design vs functional design and design tools
- - Paying attention to users - interaction design and "getting out of the building"
- - Alan's definition of value
- - Alan's thoughts on being known as the "Father of Visual Basic"
- - Innovation, collaboration, and Alan's collaboration with Microsoft
- - The things that "light Alan up"
- - Alan as "Software Alchemist"
- - How Alan got started in software
- - Alan's story of getting started with selling packaged software (inventing selling packaged software)
- - Alan on failure and reasons to have misgivings about people without a history of failure
- - Alan's story of failure, the right idea at the wrong time
- - "There's very little that is done by one person."
- - Alan's greatest success story, starting small and achieving a sustainable business; starting a company, defining a practice, and creating a profession
- - How Alan stays current with what he needs to know - "provoking people to be dreamy eyed"
- - Alan's book recommendation
- - The things that have Alan most excited about his present and future
- - Alan's prediction for the future of software
- - Alan's top 3 tips for delivering more value
- - Quotable quote - "The quiet doubters are often the people who are going to pull your nuts out of the fire."
- - Keeping up with Alan
- - Farewell
Resources:
- Alan's Interaction Design Business
- Alan Cooper on Wikipedia
- Alan's Book - About Face: The Essentials of Interaction Design
- Alan's Book - The Inmates Are Running the Asylum: Why High Tech Products Drive Us Crazy and How to Restore the Sanity
- Amazon's Alan Cooper Page
- The Innovators: How a Group of Hackers, Geniuses, and Geeks Created the Digital Revolution - Walter Isaacson
- Revenge of the Nerds
- Josh Nielsen and Zencastr on Developer On Fire
- Don't Make Me Think, Revisited: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability - Steve Krug
- Alan's Blog - Infrequent posts about books
- Fad Surfing In The Boardroom: Managing In The Age Of Instant Answers - Eileen C. Shapiro (Alan does not recommend the book, but likes the title)
- The Dunning–Kruger Effect
Alan's book recommendations:
- Notes on the Synthesis of Form - Christopher Alexander
- Systemantics: How Systems Work and Especially How They Fail - John Gall
- The Mythical Man-Month: Essays on Software Engineering, Anniversary Edition (2nd Edition) - Frederick P. Brooks Jr.
- The Death and Life of Great American Cities - Jane Jacobs
- The Design of Everyday Things: Revised and Expanded Edition - Don Norman
- Management: Tasks, Responsibilities, Practices - Peter Drucker
- The Innovator's Dilemma: The Revolutionary Book That Will Change the Way You Do Business - Clayton Christensen
Alan's top 3 tips for deliving more value:
- Slow is smooth and smooth is fast
- You are not your user (and you must observe your user rather than ask them)
- Worship Dunning-Kruger