Reader tested, doggo approved
Hello, friends! Our book is live and starting to arrive to readers around the world. It’s thrilling for us to see those bright, pencilly covers all over the place.
Here are a few of our favorite photos:
Speaking of the cover — Michael was recently visiting San Francisco with his family and we had a big book launch party at Adobe (where Andy works). Before the event, Andy asked Sara Wachter-Boettcher (who wrote the foreword for the book) if she had any tips for a successful book launch, being a successful author herself. Sara said, “whatever you do, get a cake with the book cover on it.”
So we took her advice! This is the cover on a enormous full-sheet cake that we served at the party. It’s one thing to see the cover physically printed on paper, but yet another to see it on sugar.
Thank you to the 100+ people who came to the event! And if you missed out on this book launch, don’t worry — you’ll be able to see Michael talk at the Chicago Content Strategy meetup on Feb 20, or Andy at the Seattle Content Strategy meetup in March (we’ll share a link in the next edition of this newsletter, closer to the event).
By the way, if you’ve read our book, we’d be so grateful if you leave a review on Amazon. You can post a review even if you didn’t purchase it there, and it really helps us get the word out.
What we’re reading
From Andy:
Pencils You Should Know →
My friend and world-famous pencil purveyor extraordinaire, just finished her second book about pencils! This time, it’s a beautifully photographed collection of pencils across history, and little stories about them. It’s beautiful to look at, and interesting to read.
From Michael:
The Team that Managed Itself →
Throughout my career, I’ve seen how healthy team dynamics can make or break the product a team creates. Designing a good way to work together is just as important as designing the software.
Christina Wodtke is a genius, and her latest book takes on this topic with a different approach from what we usually see in design books. It’s a fictional story about folks working in a tech company, centering on a leader who is learning how to help her team work together. It’s a powerful way to show, rather than explain, important concepts about building, and being part of, a team.
User Friendly: How the Hidden Rules of Design Are Changing the Way We Live, Work, and Play →
I heard about this book via Rachel Grossman’s twitter, a great person to follow in the world of UX.
It was refreshing to read about what I do for a living, not as a how-to, but from a journalists perspective. Kuang covers a lot of ground, and I learned some historical lessons about the birth of modern design that were enlightening and thought-provoking. I also appreciate the Kuang covers difficult topics and doesn’t hold back when interviewing folks in the field.
What we’re up to
Feb 20: Michael’s speaking at the Chicago Content Strategy meetup
March 17: Andy’s speaking at the Content Strategy Seattle meetup (check back in a few weeks for a day and time!)
May 17: Andy and Michael are holding a workshop at Confab 2020 in Minneapolis
We were recently guests on The Power of Ten podcast with Andy Polaine, talking about the role words plan in designing experiences
We were also thrilled to join Patrick Stafford on the podcast Writers of Silicon Valley
Pencil of the month: Palomino HB
From Andy:
When I started blogging about wooden pencils back in 2007, one of the very first “nice” pencils I tried was a Palomino HB, by California Republic Stationers. This was one of the first pencils ever produced by California Cedar Products (CalCedar), whose primary business is manufacturing cedar planks that they sell to other pencil companies.
This pencil is notable, a) not only because of how smooth it writes and how beautifully lacquered it is, but also b) it’s the precursor to the more famous Palomino Blackwing that you can find in nice stationery and gift shops (the brand eventually took on the name “Palomino”).
This pencil isn’t being made anymore, but you can find one at the going-out-of-business PencilThings.com site for a steal — 80¢ each — in multiple grades. I recommend the classic HB: it’s remarkably darker and smoother than most HB grades out there.
They’re selling out, and once they’re gone, they’re going to be really hard to find.
Here’s where you can get your own.
This is a newsletter by Michael J. Metts and Andy Welfle, the authors of “Writing is Designing: Words and the User Experience”.