Call for Crowdsourcing

April 4, 2011 in community, observations, people, research

I was all set to add another weekly pick to the library over at Service Design Books but it looks like someone beat me to it. The newest pick is Jon Kolko’s Exposing the Magic of Design. I haven’t read it but I’m familiar with Thoughts on Interaction Design and his other writing so I’ve added those links instead.

That’s the way Service Design Books is supposed to work. The initiative depends on a confluence of voices from many different perspectives. If you have a moment, head over and rate one book from the library. It should take less than 30 seconds. If you’re feeling ambitious, leave a comment, make a recommendation or add a tag. But the rating aspect is quick and easy and helps separate the wheat from the chaff.

Here’s a handful of books that I think are important but could use some crowdsourcing love: This is Service Design Thinking edited by Marc Stickdorn and Jakob Schneider, Back of the Napkin by Dan Roam, Managing as Designing edited by Richard Boland and Fred Collopy, and Sketching User Experiences by Bill Buxton.

The collection is organized by both rating and popularity. The books with lots of 5-star ratings become the “must reads” of the community. But without that consensus it’s hard to tell the difference between niche reads and the books we should move heaven and earth to add to our collective bookshelves.