Mobile User Experience: Patterns to Make Sense of it All (2014)

Preface

A long time ago (I am talking more than 15 years here), I had the opportunity to meet the architect Wes Jones at a book signing for his second book, Instrumental Form, in Santa Monica, California. Among the buzz and giddiness of the architects in the room, I had an opportunity to talk with him in person. Unlike everyone else who asked him what his favorite building was or why his buildings looked funny, I asked him this one question: “What was the most memorable thing about writing your book?” He took a moment to think about this question. His thoughtful response was this: “After several months of collecting drawings and writing … after all this hard work. When all was said and done, this entire book and drawings fit in a tiny tape backup that could fit in the palm of my hand … this was the most amazing and memorable thing about writing this book.”

This book was written on an iPad, two MacBooks, and an iPhone. It was written at my office, on a plane, at home, and in several libraries. For me there was no tape to hold in my hand to marvel at the compactness of it all. In fact, there was no CD-ROM, USB key, or portable hard drive. This entire endeavor was saved on cloud storage and shared to reviewers by email and file sharing. From here, I could open, edit, and save files virtually. By the time you read this book you probably will have downloaded it directly to your Kindle or iPad and waited only a few seconds for it to be copied over. This is the new memorable moment of this book. A book about mobile experience, created and read on a mobile device.