UX IRL: Ep. 47: Summer Reading Updates (Season 3 Premiere!)
Hello! Here are our show notes for episode 47 of Summer Reading Update. We hit the highlights in this article, but get the full context by listening to the episode:
It’s Season 3! We’re excited about the new season and are kicking it off with an update on our summer reading. What books did we read? We talk about reading essentials and books for fun. Do you have recommendations? Talk to us on the zeroheight Slack community! (zeroheight.com/slack), comment below or reply on Twitter @uxinreallife or Instagram @ux.inreallife.
Quick recap
When we ended Season 2, we set out to read a few books during our “break.” (It really wasn’t a break — Mary Fran planned her wedding. She’s getting married the day after this episode airs! And Michelle traveled a lot for work and fun. We also wanted some time to refresh between seasons so we could be energized!)
Mary Fran’s list:
- Crucial Conversations: Tools for Talking When Stakes are High by K. Patterson, J. Granny, et al.
- Algorithms of Oppression: How Search Engines Reinforce Racism by Safiya Umoja Noble
- Writing is Designing: Words and the User Experience by Michael J. Metts and Andy Welfie
Michelle’s list:
- Ruined by Design: How Designers Destroyed the World, and What We Can Do to Fix It — Mike Monteiro
- The Leaders Journey: Transforming Your Leadership to Achieve the Extraordinary — Donna Lichaw
- Future Ethics — Cennydd Bowles
Mary Fran’s Summer Reads Update
Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow
So life happens, and we didn’t exactly get to reading the books we intended to. Mary Fran was busy with work and wedding prep, so keeping up with her reading routine was hard. Also, she was unexpectedly laid off from work, which was pretty terrible! So, reading design/work-related books wasn’t high on her priority list. However, she did read for pleasure.
She recommends Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin. While bookshopping with a friend, Mary Fran spotted the cover and was drawn to it. After reading the insert, she had to get it!
The book is about a friendship between two eventual game designers over 30 years. She became very engrossed in the book and came to care about the characters very quickly. The author does an impressive job of jumping around quite a bit without making the narrative feel jarring. In the book, you start to see their obstacles, but we won’t go into any spoilers.
Overall, it hits a good theme about the importance of communication. Even though two friends are so close, misunderstandings can happen when there’s a lack of communication. It touches a lot on what we talk about, like leading with empathy and assuming the best intentions before jumping to conclusions.
She also enjoyed the many video game references. Even without the breadth of gaming knowledge, you could read the book without feeling alienated from the story. The author gives a light description of the game, and even if you didn’t fully understand the references, you know why it was significant.
About three-fourths of the way in, you learn the significance of the book’s title. Mary Fran didn’t want to spoil it, but she says it’s a good payoff when you reach that part. She says it ties in nicely with video games’ magic–the sense of renewal and how you can always try again.
You’ll Never Believe What Happened to Lacey, Crazy Stories about Racism
Mary Fran also read You’ll Never Believe What Happened to Lacey, Crazy Stories about Racism by comedian and talk show host Amber Ruff and her sister Lacey Lamar. She says it’s equal parts uncomfortable and humorous.
The book is conversational, and it feels like you’re sitting and having lunch with them and talking about everything from the “shake my head” moments to the laughing at the stupidity of people to the shocking and upsetting things.
Michelle’s Summer Reads Update
Ruined by Design
Michelle thought committing to a small list would keep her focused. But instead, she only read one of the books she listed and then many others she didn’t list. (She has a relatively long list and a tall tower).
She read Ruined By Design: How Designers Destroyed the World, and What We Can Do to Fix It by Mike Monteiro, which took her some time to read. She powered through since she’s doing a talk later this year and wanted to consider some of what Mike wrote.
Initially, she bought a physical copy to keep in her library but had so much trouble getting through it. She purchased the ebook version, which helped accelerate her reading and made highlighting parts easy. With the paperback, she was taking photos of pages to remember, which was getting messy.
She struggled to get into this book because she’d get chills every time she read the stories and anecdotes. The impact of these poor design decisions was too intense and hit home. Even though the end talks about how to fix it, it was still too much to get through. She committed, though, and eventually made it to the end, which spoilers — it’s worth it.
This book is so well written, and to get a sense of the tone and gravity, Michelle read from the back cover:
So the world is working exactly as designed and it’s not working very well, which means we need to do a better job of designing it.
Design is a craft with an amazing amount of power. The power to choose the power to influence. As designers, we need to see ourselves as gatekeepers of what we are bringing into the world and what we choose not to bring into the world. Design is a craft with responsibility, the responsibility to help create a better world for all.
It’s a serious topic, but it’s a critical one that we understand and think about. This book is not just for product or UX designers. It’s for anyone deciding on product, app, or process aspects that affect users. He talks about how we can make these consequential design decisions with intention or not that can exclude or harm and often not suffer any consequences. He talks about unethical design decisions at companies like Twitter, Uber, and Facebook, many of which we’re very familiar with. And it’s a little mind-blowing how these horrible decisions can be made with very little consequence to the designer.
He talks a lot about doctors who take an oath that prevents them from acting unethically, or if they do, they are held accountable for their actions. He suggests that designers should consider something like that.
It might not seem like it, but you have a big responsibility as a designer. We can take this for granted because you could be “just designing a flow for the user to add stuff to their shopping cart; not a big deal.” However, the app can recommend things to add to the cart in that flow. This is where ethics are challenged. How do those recommendations get made? Should the designer be responsible for defying that? Is this feature encouraging people to spend more than they can afford? Are you profiling users in unethical ways to surface recommendations?
And even if you consider those things, sometimes we cave to the demands of the Head of Product or other stakeholders. We might not even think twice about this or the possible implications and consequences that come along with it.
In the book, Mike discusses the implications of poor decisions or lack of decisions or considerations. It’s all very eye-opening. His writing is very down to earth, yet critical, and is very well written. It’s not like an academic book that takes itself too seriously about ethics. He even makes jokes, which is good — you need those light-hearted moments to balance out the intensity.
In the book’s second half, he talks about how you do your part and do better as a designer. It includes being brave, speaking out, making good choices, and building community so you’re not alone.
Since designers don’t have a code of ethics, Mike also started an open-source version for us to read, iterate, and share. You can read and contribute to a version on GitHub.
Michelle encourages everyone to read this book and reflect on how our designs will impact people, not just the bottom line of business goals.
Nothing to Envy, the Ordinary Lives in North Korea
Michelle’s manager recommended Nothing to Envy, the Ordinary Lives in North Korea, by Barbara Demmick. It’s a collection of stories about life in North Korea by people who defected and moved to South Korea. Michelle has a strange fascination with North Korea because of how it is cut off from the world. So even when she was tired, and her executive function was low, she was still motivated to read it.
The whole book is so fascinating, and the recounts from the defectors are so wild. They talk about the dire famine in the late 90s, which is mindblowing. Michelle and Mary Fran were kids doing silly things and watching Saved by the Bell. But this famine was going on, and people were dying; it wasn’t during wartimes when life was always shitty and hard.
It’s also unbelievable how bad the distrust was for people because you never knew who was spying on you or would report you. It also talks about how class-based North Korea was based on your upbringing, where you came from, etc.
She highly recommends this book to learn more about North Korea.
Reading advice
Even though we didn’t get through our reading lists, we had a good time reading what we did. We think it’s essential to find a balance and find something that brings you joy–especially if you’re going through a lot. We could have regimented ourselves to reading these books for our follow-up episode, but it wouldn’t have been fun or healthy. So, we recommend going at a pace that feels good for you.
If you have the mental capacity and the interest, it might be worth trying to fit in some work-related reading while at work. Even if you spend 15 minutes a day, it can add up to 2.5 hours in a two-week sprint. And reading for work contributes to you doing your job better. Reading could even be a treat to getting through something challenging or just getting stuff done.
UX IRL Takeaway: Find a balance with reading. You’re not in school anymore, so there’s no need to cram. Enjoy what you read!
We’d love to hear from you!
Do you have any books UX-related or for fun to recommend? We’d love to hear your favorite books and how your summer’s gone.
