5 Books to Learn About the Technology Industry

My Robot Gets Me: How Social Design Can Make New Products More Human – by Carla Diana

“In a word, design—and more specifically, social design. In this fascinating and instructive book, leading product design expert Carla Diana describes how new technology is allowing designers to humanize consumer products in delightfully subtle ways. Showcasing vivid examples of social design principles such as “product presence,” “object expression,” and “interaction intelligence,” we see how inventive uses of light, sound, and movement can evoke human responses to even the most mundane products. Diana offers clear guidelines and takeaways for conceptualizing, building, and optimizing products using such methods as bodystorming, scenario storyboarding, video prototyping, behavior charting, and more.

My Robot Gets Me provides keen insights and practical advice to anyone interested or involved in the burgeoning smart marketplace, from product designers and developers to managers and venture capitalists.” (Courtesy: Amazon) 

User Friendly: How the Hidden Rules of Design Are Changing the Way We Live, Work, and Play – by Cliff Kuang and Robert Fabricant

“In User Friendly, Cliff Kuang and Robert Fabricant reveal the untold story of a paradigm that quietly rules our modern lives: the assumption that machines should anticipate what we need. Spanning over a century of sweeping changes, from women’s rights to the Great Depression to World War II to the rise of the digital era, this book unpacks the ways in which the world has been–and continues to be–remade according to the principles of the once-obscure discipline of user-experience design. In this essential text, Kuang and Fabricant map the hidden rules of the designed world and shed light on how those rules have caused our world to change–an underappreciated but essential history that’s pieced together for the first time. Combining the expertise and insight of a leading journalist and a pioneering designer, User Friendly provides a definitive, thoughtful, and practical perspective on a topic that has rapidly gone from arcane to urgent to inescapable. In User Friendly, Kuang and Fabricant tell the whole story for the first time–and you’ll never interact with technology the same way again.” (Courtesy: Goodreads) 

Reality Check: How Immersive Technologies Can Transform Your Business – by Jeremy Dalton

“Augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) are part of a new wave of immersive technologies that offer huge opportunities for businesses, across industries and regardless of their size. Most people think of AR or VR as a new development in video gaming like Pokemon GO, or an expensive marketing campaign by the Nikes of the world. The truth is, businesses of any size can put these new technologies to immediate use in areas that include training and development, customer experience and design, as well as data and information management. Reality Check dispels the common misconceptions of AR and VR, such as them being too expensive or not easily scalable, and details how business leaders can integrate them into their business to deliver more efficient, cost-sensitive, and exciting business solutions. The up and coming voice of AR and VR for businesses, Jeremy Dalton, will use exclusive case studies from organizations like Lloyds Banking Group, the UK Courts, Honeywell, and IKEA to showcase the practical uses of immersive technologies.” (Courtesy: Goodreads) 

The Second Machine Age – by Andrew McAfee and Erik Brynjolfsson

“In recent years, Google’s autonomous cars have logged thousands of miles on American highways and IBM’s Watson trounced the best human Jeopardy! players. Digital technologies―with hardware, software, and networks at their core―will in the near future diagnose diseases more accurately than doctors can, apply enormous data sets to transform retailing, and accomplish many tasks once considered uniquely human. In The Second Machine Age MIT’s Erik Brynjolfsson and Andrew McAfee―two thinkers at the forefront of their field―reveal the forces driving the reinvention of our lives and our economy. As the full impact of digital technologies is felt, we will realize immense bounty in the form of dazzling personal technology, advanced infrastructure, and near-boundless access to the cultural items that enrich our lives.” (Courtesy: Amazon) 

Technology in Action, Complete: Pearson New International Edition – by Alan Evans, Kendall Martin, and Mary Anne Poatsy

Explore, discover, and experience technology with the interactive and adaptive Technology in Action―the book that uses technology to teach technology! This book offers a learning system that pushes the envelope of what is possible in technology, and what is helpful in teaching. Although students are more comfortable with the digital environment than ever, their knowledge of the devices they use every day is still limited. The authors focus on tasks that students can accomplish with their devices, and skills they can apply immediately in the workplace, the classroom, and at home. This book fits the way students are learning today.”(Courtesy: Amazon)