[Sigia-l] books/magazines list

[Carsten Holst]

Hi all,

I'm new to this list, so be gentle... :-)

>It's a great read that deals with user centered design in conjunction with

>marketing and business goals. 

I would definitely recommend Information Rules - A Strategic Guide to the
Network Economy by Hal R. Varian and Carl Shapiro
(http://www.inforules.com/Default.htm). It isn't at all oriented towards IA
or interface design, however it explains some very important lessons about
business decisions and network economics, and how to implement them
strategically. Amongst other things, the book describes, what the authors
call, the 7 lock-ins, which are different ways of increasing switching
costs (the cost the customer bears for switching to another provider), how
to use the 7 lock-ins and also how to avoid them as a costumer. Very
interesting and useful stuff.

As a student (e.g. I don't have a lot of experience), I feel that many
books on usability and interface design totally oversees the aspect of
economics and profitability. Could this be because that it isn't really
part of an IA or interface designer job description to worry about these
things? Or how come?
-- 
//Carsten Holst
carsten at stick2it.net