Insites: The Book

by Elliot Jay Stocks, Keir Whitaker

Insites: The Book features 20 informal conversations with 21 of the web and tech industries’ leading figures, delving into their stories, big wins, and lessons learned, along with the kind of tales you never hear on a conference stage. No code snippets, no design tips; just a fascinating behind-the-scenes look into the names and brands forwarding our industry.

Genres: Design, Nonfiction

250 pages, Paperback

First published September 18, 2012

Reviews

[Rudi Landmann · Rating 1 out of 5]

I found this book profoundly disappointing. I had hoped that the designers interviewed in these pages would talk about their insights, their inspirations, and their lessons learned. Instead, the interviewers are content just to extract really basic biographies from them, which (apologies to the subjects!) are really not that different from each other or, well, interesting.

It turns out that most of these folks had some early interest in computers, went to college, spent a few years in crappy jobs or failed startups, maybe got unemployed for a while, kept at their craft, and finally got a gig that’s worth bragging about. It’s not a fascinating story to begin with; and you really don’t need to read it more than once.

I read a few interviews, skimmed a few more, and then gave up, unwilling to invest another minute here.

[Greg Mathews · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting seeing the background of a lot of big designers!

[puyol5 · Rating 3 out of 5]

Rating: 6/10