A compelling, user-friendly guidebook to the value of privacy in user experience design.
An expert in digital design makes the case for information privacy in this debut book.
“Globally, companies are tracking your digital exhaust every moment you’re online,” writes Stribley, adding that for many apps and websites, “you are the product.” He begins the book with an impassioned case for the value of privacy, particularly for those who shrug apathetically as they assert, “I’ve got nothing to hide.” This defense of privacy draws on his own personal experiences advocating on behalf of frightened LGBTQIA+ students who attended a private university that monitored their internet access as well as young people with a compromised digital footprint who were fleeing abusive relationships. He also highlights recent examples of dystopian corporate practices, such as a vacuum cleaner with a camera that uploaded photographs from customers’ homes to the manufacturer for AI training, and the automaker Kia’s privacy policy, which authorized the company to collect data related to a customer’s “sex life.” After making a powerful defense of the value of privacy that’s applicable to readers of all backgrounds, the book shifts its focus to interface and product designers, developers, and project managers, offering both an ethical and pragmatic argument for why they should pay closer attention to privacy issues in their work. He notes, for instance, that companies not only have specific civic responsibilities, but that misleading or deliberatively obtuse policies can damage their reputation. With over two decades of experience as a user experience (UX) design professional, and the recent founder of his own UX consulting company, Stribley offers practical advice for designers on how to ethically handle personal data, how to avoid deceptive patterns, and how to maximize transparency and honesty in their language. The book includes a network of research endnotes; full-color, high-resolution photographs, charts, diagrams, and textbox vignettes; and a “Privacy by Design Cheat Sheet” for designers.
A compelling, user-friendly guidebook to the value of privacy in user experience design.Pub Date: Nov. 11, 2025
ISBN: 9781959029663
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Rosenfeld Media
Review Posted Online: Jan. 9, 2026
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A virtuoso performance and an ode to an undervalued medium created by two talented artists.
The veteran actor, comedian, and banjo player teams up with the acclaimed illustrator to create a unique book of cartoons that communicates their personalities.
Martin, also a prolific author, has always been intrigued by the cartoons strewn throughout the pages of the New Yorker. So when he was presented with the opportunity to work with Bliss, who has been a staff cartoonist at the magazine since 1997, he seized the moment. “The idea of a one-panel image with or without a caption mystified me,” he writes. “I felt like, yeah, sometimes I’m funny, but there are these other weird freaks who are actually funny.” Once the duo agreed to work together, they established their creative process, which consisted of working forward and backward: “Forwards was me conceiving of several cartoon images and captions, and Harry would select his favorites; backwards was Harry sending me sketched or fully drawn cartoons for dialogue or banners.” Sometimes, he writes, “the perfect joke occurs two seconds before deadline.” There are several cartoons depicting this method, including a humorous multipanel piece highlighting their first meeting called “They Meet,” in which Martin thinks to himself, “He’ll never be able to translate my delicate and finely honed droll notions.” In the next panel, Bliss thinks, “I’m sure he won’t understand that the comic art form is way more subtle than his blunt-force humor.” The team collaborated for a year and created 150 cartoons featuring an array of topics, “from dogs and cats to outer space and art museums.” A witty creation of a bovine family sitting down to a gourmet meal and one of Dumbo getting his comeuppance highlight the duo’s comedic talent. What also makes this project successful is the team’s keen understanding of human behavior as viewed through their unconventional comedic minds.
A virtuoso performance and an ode to an undervalued medium created by two talented artists.Pub Date: Nov. 17, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-250-26289-9
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Celadon Books
Review Posted Online: Aug. 30, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2020
PERSPECTIVES
A frank and funny but uneven essay collection about neurodiversity.
An experimental, illustrated essay collection that questions neurotypical definitions of what is normal.
From a young age, writer and comedian Myers has been different. In addition to coping with obsessive compulsive disorder and panic attacks, she struggled to read basic social cues. During a round of seven minutes in heaven—a game in which two players spend seven minutes in a closet and are expected to kiss—Myers misread the romantic advances of her best friend and longtime crush, Marley. In Paris, she accidentally invited a sex worker to join her friends for “board games and beer,” thinking he was simply a random stranger who happened to be hitting on her. In community college, a stranger’s request for a pen spiraled her into a panic attack but resulted in a tentative friendship. When the author moved to Australia, she began taking notes on her colleagues in an effort to know them better. As the author says to her co-worker, Tabitha, “there are unspoken social contracts within a workplace that—by some miracle—everyone else already understands, and I don’t….When things Go Without Saying, they Never Get Said, and sometimes people need you to Say Those Things So They Understand What The Hell Is Going On.” At its best, Myers’ prose is vulnerable and humorous, capturing characterization in small but consequential life moments, and her illustrations beautifully complement the text. Unfortunately, the author’s tendency toward unnecessary capitalization and experimental forms is often unsuccessful, breaking the book’s otherwise steady rhythm.
A frank and funny but uneven essay collection about neurodiversity.Pub Date: Oct. 28, 2025
ISBN: 9780063381308
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Morrow/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Sept. 12, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2025
© Copyright 2026 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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