Ambient Findability

Had the chance to borrow a great book from a coworker recently, called “Ambient Findability“. It’s a great look at the way people find information in the modern world, with an emphasis on how the internet has changed findability, and how a constant connection to the web will further expand and change the way we retrieve information in the future.

As a developer, I always find it helpful to temper the skills we gain from technical manuals covering topics like javascript and css with books that examine not just how we can do things, but also why. A front-end web developer can be a master of DOM scripting, but if they ignore semantics or information architecture, they’re only getting half the job done.

So if you’re interested, take a look at Ambient Findability: you’ll learn what areas of your layout can be thought of as push vs. pull, as well as why those crazy colored lines on the floor of a library are so terribly helpful.