I asked Alan Cooper (over a rather echoing connection) why he is outraged by bad software, and how he developed the concept of 'personas'. I was interested to hear the 'father of Visual Basic' say 'What I need is a computer that doesn't make me feel bad and a cellphone that doesn't make me feel stupid'. Alan's company is <a href="http://www.cooper.com">Cooper Consulting</a> (www.cooper.com) The two books of his that I mentioned are: <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0672326140/informdesign">The Inmates Are Running the Asylum: Why High Tech Products Drive Us Crazy and How to Restore the Sanity</a> (www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0672326140/informdesign) <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0764526413/informdesign">About Face 2.0: The Essentials of Interaction Design</a> (www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0764526413/informdesign) This episode is 19 minutes 44 seconds in duration. File size is 11.3MB.

UXpod - User Experience Podcast

Personas and Outrageous Software - an Interview with Alan Cooper

A free-ranging set of discussions on matters of interest to people involved in user experience design, website design, and usability in general.