The document discusses how user experience (UX) principles can help publishers better engage readers and authors. It provides examples of how one publisher, Rosenfeld Media, applies UX practices like transparency, empathy, delight, generosity and engaging content to involve customers at different stages of the publishing process. While some efforts like book-in-progress sites had mixed results, the publisher's customer-centric approach generally helped improve products and services. The document concludes by discussing gaps in applying UX and how the publisher may expand its role in brokering UX expertise and services.

1. ! ! User Experience
+ !Publishing
Lou Rosenfeld •" Rosenfeld Media •" rosenfeldmedia.com
BookCamp New York •" 12/4/10

2. UX in one slide
• Problem: Complex problems and services
are hard to design
• Solution: Cross-disciplinary design--lots of
different brains, methods, perspectives
• User Experience: A growing cross-
disciplinary community of designers; the
collection of methods they use to solve
complex problems

3. What does UX mean
for publishers?
• UX goal: engage users with products and
services
• Publishing goal: engage readers with
authors
• So how do we better engage with readers?
with authors?

4. How can we engage with
customers?
• By being transparent
• By cultivating mutual empathy
• By delighting them
• By being generous with them
• By making engaging content

5. Transparency through treating
customer service as dialogue
Customer service
provided by publisher
and dedicated staff (first
hire)
Reward customers for
finding problems
Fix problems even if
they’re not our fault
Fix problems fast and for
good if they’re our fault

6. Empathy by
showing your work
We researched what worked well--and
didn’t--with the books our community
used for work. Result: design checklist.
We then tested a LuLu prototype of our first book
with readers
+ +
Result: books that work well.

7. Empathy by
allowing customers to help
We created ePub versions for our backlist, and asked
customers to evaluate them in return for free books.
5 evaluations
of each title x
1 hour per
evaluation x
7 titles =
35 hours of
+ + incredibly
useful help

8. Delight by
making the books beautiful

9. Delight by
offering major formats (and more)
Five formats
•"4 color paperback
•"ePUB
•"MOBI
• PDF for on-screen
• PDF for printing
...and no DRM

10. Delight through
instant ebook downloading

11. Delight by
being accessible
Death to
exhibition halls!
We take our
UX Bookmobile
to the people
...and we talk
with them there

12. Generosity by
giving (the right) content away
All book
illos
available
via Flickr

13. Generosity by
supporting any club or event
We retweet all
UX book-related
events (our books
or not)
...and sponsor just
about every UX-
related event
(comps + discount
code)

14. Generosity by providing a
free service to UX book fans
UX Zeitgeist: communal library of UX books, articles, and topics; provides ability to create public lists
book
page user’s
list
page

15. Making content engaging
...but strong SEO benefit
Book-in-progress sites
draw in readers, encourage #3
engagement in developing
book content
#5
Mixed results... #6

16. Where we’ve failed
• Velocity: UX practices don’t help
our authors write faster
• Middlemen: Amazon destroys
our ability to engage with
customers

17. What’s next:
Filling gaps in the UX ecosystem
Move from publisher of UX books to
purveyor of UX expertise
Introduce new ways to engage customers
and experts
• engaging with top UX expertise: our authors,
others’ authors, and non-author experts by...
• brokering short consulting engagements
• brokering in-house workshops

18. Thanks!
Rosenfeld Media"
www.rosenfeldmedia.com
457 Third Street, #4R
Brooklyn, NY 11215 USA
info@rosenfeldmedia.com
+1.718.568.9756