By means of thought experiments and case studies (Gauss, Einstein etc) Wertheimer puts forward a view of creativity that preceded, but is strikingly similar to, Thomas Kuhn's model of scientific revolutions. For Kuhn, a scientific revolution starts with an anomaly, a problem: some fact or part of the theory that does not fit and needs further explanation or work. Working on this problem area can necessitate a rethink of the whole theoretical body of knowledge, and the generation of a new 'paradigm'. This new meaning of the word paradigm is entirely due to Kuhn: previously, a paradigm was an 'exemplar', almost a template for how something could be done well.

In Wertheimer, productive thinking typically started with a problem situation (S1) which, like anomolies in Kuhn's model, generated thought and action to restructure and reconsider the problem, eventually ending up at reworked and satisfactory situation (S2). This could involve a 'gestalt switch' as fundamental assumptions are overturned in an effort to solve the problem, and the whole situation is seen in a new and more satisfactory light.

Wertheimers model can therefore be sybolically represented as

S1 --> S2

Or more generally, located in a wider context,

. . . S1 --> S2 . . .

This book is one of the classics of the creative process literature, which classically consists of Wertheimer's Productive Thinking (this book) and Wallas's Stage Model (Art of Thought)

I found this to be a waste of my time and money. I had to choose a book on usability in order to make a presentation on for a usability course I am taking at Ohio University. For the course we are reading Jakob Neileon's "Designing Web Usability." This book is a good book on usability.

I found "Usability: The Site Speaks for Itself" to be very uniteresting. The author's are constantly comparing themselves to Neilsen and tearing his books down. While I agree with the authors that there is no "one size fits all" approach to designing on the web and that different things work for different sites, Nielsen does as well. It seems to me that the authors should have worked on providing more useful content and a better layout (the book is laid out very poorly) than trying to bring Nielsen's views down.

I highly suggest that you don't purchase this book, but if you have money to throw away, send me an email, I have some real estate in Flordia I want to sell you too.

I got this book unexpectedly. I wrote to Glasshaus expressing the difficulty in purchasing their titles in India and Bruce Lawson, their Brand Visionary, promptly responded with details and followed it up by sending me a complimentary copy of this book. I was quite surprised, to say the least. It will be tempting to dismiss this as a mere publicity gimmick, but Glasshaus does have a unique way of going about their publishing business. Take a look at their site. I wonder how many other big names in publishing maintain an interesting and useful blog, to mention just one.

Coming to the book itself. I have copies of Jakob Nielsen's books, "Home Page Usability" and "Designing Web Usability". I also have Steve Krug's "Don't make me think" among other books on usability in my personal collection. This Glasshaus title is as different as can be from all those books. For the first time, one gets to hear first person accounts of the how and why of usability decisions made on major, major web sites. I mean, when you are talking about Economist.com, BBC, eBay, evolt, MetaFilter etc, you are talking about some of the most powerful and influential web sites today. The personal narrative form of exposition is another refreshing change; you feel each author is talking directly to you and sharing his/her experiences in making the kind of usability decisions they did for their websites. Each account, when read carefully, can help a web professional connect the excellent groundwork of experts like Nielsen to the practical compulsions behind real-life usability decisions.

Another excellent aspect of the book is the range of web sites that are represented, right from the publishing might of the Economist to the media powerhouse that is the BBC to the ecommerce success of eBay to powerful online communities such as MetaFilter and Evolt. To round all this off, there is a personal ecommerce venture (SynFonts) that is an excellent showpiece for how the Web allows one man to compete with many. In other words, a terrrific amount of thought has gone into developing this book and Glasshaus cannot be commended enough for putting together such a fine team to share its views. I felt that non-profit and church/spiritual (beliefnet would have been a great example) sites were perhaps the only major categories to have been left out. Perhaps a second edition of this book will address that lacuna.

And, refreshingly for a book on Usability, there is almost no Nielsen-bashing in its pages, except a few words from Molly Holzschlag in the editorial, I think. But, then, Molly is always known to be a little irreverent:-)

The only other book of this genre that I can think of is "Web Site Usability: A Designer's Guide" by Jared M. Spool's User Interface Engineering (uie.com). But, I don't have a copy so can't really comment. If you are looking for practical examples of usability decision making, this book is a great title to have. Perhaps this review will serve as quid pro quo for Glasshaus' excellent gesture in sending me a complimentary copy that has given me so much learning.

Usability: The Site Speaks For Itself has been bedside reading for a couple months. This book has been a great downtime inspiration. This book, unlike the Guru usability books, teaches you how to approach Web interface design and development with the user in mind. The hard fast rules some experts espouse do not always work well with our own users. This book does a wonderful job teaching us how to think through the process. The book provides examples of six varied sites and their developer's approaches to creating usable sites for their audiences. This books is a joy to look at as well as read. There are many nuggets tucked in the pages that make it worth the price. When building Web sites it is best to remember the one constnt is it all depends and we need to know how to think through these situations.