Reader reviews

A genuinely enjoyable read that also taught me a great deal.

I have been working with user experience for a few years now and I still found plenty here that was new to me. The author clearly knows the subject deeply and has thought hard about how to teach it. The index and cross-references are surprisingly good, which matters for a book I will come back to. The author avoids over-explaining, which keeps the pace up but means you need to pay attention. An easy five stars from me. I look forward to whatever the author writes next.

Solid and well-organised. A couple of chapters dragged a little.

I read this over a couple of weekends alongside a small side project, which turned out to be the ideal way to approach it. The early chapters move quickly through material I already knew, but the later sections were genuinely new to me. The explanations are careful without being condescending, which is a difficult balance to strike. The author avoids over-explaining, which keeps the pace up but means you need to pay attention. Recommended, with the caveat that it is not a gentle introduction.

The clearest explanation of javascript I have come across.

I had been on the fence about this one for a while, and I should have bought it sooner. Some of the material is available elsewhere, but rarely presented this clearly. The explanations are careful without being condescending, which is a difficult balance to strike. There is a section near the end that ties several earlier ideas together in a way I had not seen before. One of those books that pays for itself within the first few chapters. Highly recommended.

Useful in parts. Fine as a reference, less so as a cover-to-cover read.

I picked this up after getting stuck on a project and it turned out to be exactly the right book at the right time. I particularly liked the way the author builds up from simple cases before introducing the harder material. The exercises at the end of each chapter are worth doing — they caught a few misconceptions I did not know I had. Useful as a reference, less so as a straight read from cover to cover.

Solid and well-organised. A couple of chapters dragged a little.

I picked this up after getting stuck on a project and it turned out to be exactly the right book at the right time. The balance between theory and practice is well judged; neither side dominates. The progression from chapter to chapter is well thought out; nothing feels out of order. The exercises at the end of each chapter are worth doing — they caught a few misconceptions I did not know I had. Solid, and I would buy another book from this author without hesitation.

Good book. The writing is direct and the author is honest about limits.

I had been on the fence about this one for a while, and I should have bought it sooner. The early chapters move quickly through material I already knew, but the later sections were genuinely new to me. Some terminology is introduced without much ceremony; I had to look a few things up along the way. Four stars, and I suspect a second edition could easily push it to five.