Human-Computer Interaction Books

Thank you very much for sending me the book. It has turned out to be very helpful. The develiery time was also quick and the qulaity of the book was very good.

(Disclosure: I, the review-poster, am the author of the book. I clipped this review from the HCI International News, because it seems fair and helpful. However, the author of the review [who is only identified as "AM", but who is probably Abbas Moallem, the editor of HCII] did not 'rate' the book, and Amazon won't allow one to post a review without a rating. So, the 5 stars are from me, not the author of the following review. I think it deserves that many, or I wouldn't have written it, but I am not impartial. Here's the review...)

This book is an excellent resource for anyone who is interested in voice interaction design. The author, in a very descriptive and practical way, provides not only background knowledge about voice interaction design but also extensive and valuable guidelines for creating and designing voice interaction. After providing an ample description of several concepts, such as speech (chapter 2), sound and meaning (chapter 3), and language usage ("Doing Things with Words," chapter 4), the author extensively covers the principles of voice interaction design and provides guidelines-from building dialogues to evaluating techniques of voice interaction. A variety of case studies along with multiple examples makes the book very attractive to interaction designers. Occasional long, philosophical discussions and difficult vocabulary might frustrate some readers who are in a hurry to get to the author's point, but with patience they will discover the usefulness of the lengthy discussions. The book provides an extensive related bibliography and an excellent glossary of terms, especially useful for the novice reader in this field.
AM

The collaborative work of Joyce Magnotto Neff and Carl Whithuas, "Writing Across Distances & Disciplines: Research And Pedagogy In Distributed Learning" addresses questions that arise from the onsite, hybrid, and distributed learning environments, including places of higher education and the workplace; and between 'distance education' and 'composition pedagogy'. A slender (186-page) volume, "Writing Across Distances & Disciplines" informatively raises critical issues, clarifies key terms, reviews relevant history and theory, analyzes current research, reconsiders pedagogy, explores specific applications of WAC and WID in distributed environments, and considers what business and education might teach one another about writing and learning. "Writing Across Distances & Disciplines" is a seminal work that, while especially recommended to educators and administrators with respect to written communications, will prove of interest to non-specialist general readers, scholars, students, and professional writers with an interest in the technological future of writing and learning in higher education.

As a parent, technology teacher in an elementary school and as a college professor, I found this book to be an excellent resource for people wanting to use developmentally appropriate software with children. The authors make you think about what is important when choosing quality software to use with children. It is an easy to read book, with real-life examples of technology struggles and triumphs. The book includes a software evaluation system and many software reviews to help people choose quality software for children. It is filled with resources and ideas for those people interetsed in having technology play an integral part of children's learning experiences. My graduate students are required to read this book and they all agree- it is a wonderful book!

or you can buy it after your hurting - either way, you'll find the most comprehensive, most complete, well-planned, friendly book on this subject you will likely find.I work just about 8 hours a day in two workstations and then I go home at night and waste more time at the keyboard - just like the rest of you reading this. When my back and arms and hands and neck and shoulders hurt - now I know why and what to do about it - or not. It's amazing to me that these aren't bundled in with every computer sold. Illustrations are good, too - and the layout is very enjoyable. Why are you waiting?

I don't know that I would classify Clark as a creator of great fiction; as mentioned in other reviews, the "human equation" in his works is largely missing. Clark excels and creating vivid descriptions of technology and alien grandeur, but his books are a bit lifeless at they have almost no character developement or interesting dialog.

I've read most of his books, and find he is a great alternative in those times I would find myself reaching for an atlas or a National Geographic. Honestly, I think AC Clarke is one of those sacred cow authors--praised by those who think it raises their intellectual profile, and read mainly when bored by those who can see that the emperor, while not entirely naked, could do with more than a loincloth.

It is hard to believe that it has been forty years since 2001, the book and the film, was released. In 1968 it was a strange, mind bending, fascinating vision of the future. It is a worthy monument to the vision of Arthur C. Clarke, bard of the space age.

**Some Spoilers!***

Love how Clarke uses factual science like the most obvious crater on the moon to house the monolith, the tycho crater, as well as the very strange Saturn moon that has an all white side, Iapetus. How more obious can an alien make it for us to make first contact by keeping monoliths in the center of these obvious places? Besides the changes from jupiter orbit to the Saturn moon as staging grounds for the stargate I found the book to be similar to the movie/ book "Contact" by Carl Sagan. Not sure if you've seen or read, but i think Carl has read 2001. His story involved his character going through a wormhole to end up in a familiar earth environment (the beach) as well so as to be comfortable. Very similar here although in 2001 it is a hotel room, from that point however the stories change. A signal from deep space was sent to earth in Contact and from the moon monolith to deep space in 2001.

I did know that Bowman became something more from watching the sequel 2010 but not from 2001. Wonder why Kubrik left all that out.

Because Arthur C. Clarke recently died I decided to reread his classic novel, 2001: A Space Odyssey. Some people say that the major knock against science fiction is that it's necessarily dated soon after written because of the progress of society and technology. While this may be true of many stories, 2001 is timeless. It's hopeful, it's beautiful and it's filled with themes that speak to what we are as humanity.

Evolution is probably the most important element of the story. From the beginning when primitive man finds a black obelisk and it teaches the concept of tool use and subtly changes these creature's minds the idea that our improbable evolution was guided by alien intervention. Then, just as humanity gained the power to destroy its own planet those same aliens had planned to help the descendants of those early creatures jump to the next step, as equal in advancement as using stones for tools were to starving primitives. The message I took from the story was that we are limited in how forward we can think and until we break through another evolutionary barrier we'll be butting our heads against an invisible barrier on creativity. It's profound and humbling to consider the possibility that there are beings who look at our restrictions as simplistic as we view the idea of making a fire for survival.

Invariably this novel gets compared with the Stanley Kubrick film and rightly so. Unlike any pair I've encountered, both the novel and screenplay were developed simultaneously and in conjunction. With slight differences the stories are complementary and equally brilliant. What makes me favor the book more than the movie is the ending, which is explained better revealing the true scope of the evolutionary step man is about to make.

- CV Rick, April 2008

Goodbye! Your legend will endure as long as their is a mankind alive to read your words.

One of the great sci-fi books. Does anyone need to say more?

Designing Interfaces catalogs UI design patterns in use and provides guidance in using them, with plenty of examples. It takes a consistent approach to describing each pattern: What it is, when to use it, why to use it and how to use it. The book is both a good overview and a reference. If UI design is an area of interest to you, then read through this book and then keep it available as a reference.

For many years now, I have been coding web sites and applications. Through all that time, nothing has ever been as tough for me as coming up with a design that I am truly happy with. Attempting to create an optimized and stable algorithm or coming up with the answer to a problem that requires non-conventional coding practices; these are always challenges, but ones that are most often eventually solved. Creating that mythical eye catching never-been-done-before layout is something that I have attempted and, sadly to say, usually fell short on. I suppose you'd consider this a case of a programmer wanting an application to not look like a programmer designed it. This was my reason for picking up the Designing Interfaces book.

The first chapter talks about how users think. However, as I finished the chapter introduction, I realized that the author and I are definitely coming from two very different places. In my experience, I get very little hands-on with the user base, or the client that the application is being built for. Even if I do talk to the client directly, instead of going through the levels of proper channels, they usually have a set design in mind, limiting my choices. That's not to say, however, that a good designer couldn't be creative given these design constraints. On the other hand, the author mentions that building a user profile is something that eats up a lot of time though it is always worth it, and while I agree whole-heartedly, sometimes a deadline approaches too quickly or it's just not in the budget to give this the time it truly needs. Past this quibble and reading on, the patterns of human behavior in the first chapter give an almost checklist of things to keep in mind when designing, and even though you read and probably think, "common sense", it is very helpful to have in one place.

As the chapters passed one by one, I found the same patterns in my reading emerge. Read the introduction to the chapters the first time you pick up the book to get an idea behind why that particular chapter is important, or, at the very least, for posterity. After that, just skip to the section in each chapter marked as "Patterns" when you need them. These patterns are where the book really shines. Each of these patterns are laid out in a similar way letting you quickly see what it is, when you would use it, why it is used (as in why it is beneficial to your user), how you create the pattern, and then some examples of its use. Considering that there are nine chapters, each with about ten different patterns, this book contains a wealth of information.

I was originally hoping for more of a design lesson; color theory, placement with a hint of golden ratios, maybe a small college art class packed into 331 pages. Though I did not get much of that, at least until the last chapter or two, I definitely found an excellent reference to keep by my side. For example, if I'm building a layout, I'll open the book right up to chapter 4 to see what the common options are; for showing hierarchical data, I'm opening up to chapter 6 to see when and for what reason I might want to go with a tree map over a normal tree. I couldn't recommend it more to someone wanting a helpful component pocket guide of sorts for interfaces, but if you are looking for theory, I'd go with something more geared in that direction.

Jenifer Tidwell's pattern based approach is amazingly good! She carefully organizes and enumerates a wide variety of effective user interface options for both small screen (ie: Blackberry, cell phones) and larger screen forms. I am not an expert in UI design by any means (I have read Donald Norman, Tagnazzini, Shneiderman and Mayhew but I have no background in graphic design), but I do project reviews and this book has given me some insight into problems and potential fixes in a few areas. I was also able to pick up on a couple of "hidden" features in some of the software tools that I do use and to label and critique several "features" that weren't working well.

The style is easy to read. Tidwell explains, illustrates and covers the merits of each user interface. The research is solid. For example she notes that the Fisheye menu, while slightly favored by programmers and experienced users is considered confusing by and less effective for casual users and recommends a hierarchical approach.

I recommend this book for corporate libraries and as a reference for individuals and groups working on what might become overly complicated design.

the book covers all the major issues of its title.
it does not however gives you solutions for unique cases - those you have to think of by yourself. very "to the point" writing.
a bit puzzling the choice to write some of the examples as if the general user is a woman.
all in all , a much recommended title.

While I don't own a physical copy of this book, I had used an electronic form of it in the course of my studies.

I will first forewarn those who are interested in Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) that this text does not heavily focus on the science of Psychological principles such as Gestalt Perception, nor does it concern itself with techniques/methodologies such as Threading and Model-View-Controller (MVC) to improve the performance of programs. The focus of this text falls strictly on the layout and/or graphical design in regards to interfaces and web pages.

As well, each principle has certain uses depending on the medium used, which the text does a good job of elaborating (for example, cell phone programs would not be designed the same as a full Windows Application).

A word to the wise though: Requirements must come before Design. There are certain design principles outlined in this text that cannot be realized if the very requirements of the program do not allow for it - For example, Microsoft Office 2007 has in many ways disregarded the principle of habituation/familiarity (as it looks much different from typical Windows Applications in general). One will still need the skill of compromise in order to apply the information presented here effectively in the real world.

If you are a designer who has to explain to developers what they are doing wrong, get this book (or maybe the next edition, out soon). I loved this book for how well it explained every bad interface design blooper I had ever seen at that point & helped me understand why developers created many of these problems. It helped me explain to developers why there were better solutions & how to design them. It also contains an excellent introduction to user-centered design. It's a very well organized and valuable reference for interface designers & a great gift for any open-minded developer interested in good UI design. I'm looking forward to his next edition.

This was my first book on user interface design, and it was a great choice. It gives good information on principles and also provides specific usable information for how to use controls, etc. I found the organization of the book easy to use and enjoyed reading it.

Don't buy this book, it refers to applications written in early '90. Today it is completely a different story.

The author of this book does a very good job of describing and illustrating common GUI design mistakes. He has categorized the problems in broad topics such as "GUI Component Bloopers" and "Interaction Bloopers", then gives concrete examples of the bloopers that occur within each broad topic. The individual bloopers are well illustrated, and examples of better approaches are given.

Even though the applications used in the book are from the nineties, they are still very applicable, since the advice given frequently transcends the tools used to build the screens. It is applicable to web applications as well.

I read through this book once, and now use it as a reference.

I am a professor of computer science who offers a two-semester, senior capstone project experience in GUI programming. I have taught this course using a variety of languages and tools, and I have always found that the programming gets in the way of the principles. I have long sought a book that focuses just on the principles and around which I could sequence my lectures. GUI Bloopers fits that requirement like a glove. I use this as the primary text in my classes and supplement it with various books that supply the information needed to implement actual programs in Java and Swing. (We look at .NET, too, but the main programming environment at this time is Java.)

Contrary to some other reviewers, I find GUI Bloopers very enjoyable to read. In addition, I find that it is not at all too elementary for my students, even the first few chapters. It's amazing how many senior computer science majors don't really understand, for example, the difference between radio buttons and checkboxes, even though they use them all the time. One can't take such understanding for granted. Familiarity with a component is not the same as true knowledge of how that component is intended to be used and what users expect to happen when they interact with it. Johnson's constant reminders to test user interfaces on real users, and his discussion of the various levels of usability testing in simple terms, are invaluable lessons. The illustrations and tales from the author's consulting practice bring the principles down to earth and drive home their points effectively.

I highly recommend GUI Bloopers as a college text.

The book covers the subject matter very broadly, but lacks in-depth detail and practical applications. It could be more concise in sections (especially about the author)and more in-depth in usage, application, and research.

Dr. Fogg has done a great job of creating an introductory work for Captology. The book is well written and well cited. It's rare to see a technology book that has research cited to back its claims. Often times claims are made based on experience without any real claim to validity. Dr Fogg's writing is more academic and in that sense refreshing. Although, it would certainly be nice to see both aspects, experience and reproducible controlled tests, in a single book.

If you are well versed in both psychology and technology, this book will not enlighten you, but it does provide a great foundation for future research. If you work in user experience, marketing, or any performance based technology field, you can definitely benefit from the material in this book. I take this to be Captology 101 and I would definitely love to see some upper division material coming down the pipeline.

My key take aways are:
- Understanding the basics of Captology
- Getting a well researched foundation for future, real world testing
- Having an accurate psychological lexicon

There is some actionable information scattered throughout the book. For example, in chapter 5, Computers as Persuasive Social Actors, Fogg relates a study he performed that showed changing the error messages on a piece of technology made it "rated...more favorably" and "users reported that [it] gave better information, was more accurate, and was more knowledgeable." This is good research to have if you're a user experience designer especially if you have to justify your work to non-believers. However, this book is not meant to be full of actionable items, so don't expect that of it.

I recommend this book for an academic overview. If you'd like real world examples try Call to Action: Secret Formulas to Improve Online Results, but don't expect to learn why the real world examples work other than a surface level explanation. Though reading both books will give you a pretty good understanding of persuasive technology.

Having spent 8 years in the field of Web Development and after being a part of many Internet and Intranet web projects and applications. There was one question that was constantly bothering me. We as a team, on almost all the occasions tried very hard to make the applications and websites as much user friendly as much as we could so that the users CAN DO it when he is there. The question was if we create something that user-friendly that he CAN DO what he wants to do, does it mean that he WILL DO it?

So, thats where we started, the WILL to do became most important for us. On some of the projects the marketing and presentations helped us in creating the WILL within the user that drove good response. However, when I got my self in the MARCOM team in one of my previous companies and I saw my deliverables changing from just creating user-friendly designs to calculating and delivering ROIs, I thought I needed something more solid to help me get there.

I have gone through the entire Human Factors International Usability course (now trying for CUA exam). Where I found PET (Persuasion, Emotions and Trust) as just a few slides of the course material. I started digging deep into it well before that but I could see the connection of the Captology and any image, web page, micro-site or anything that we as a team create.

I got hooked to this book, read it many times, studied all the possible material available from Dr. B.J Fogg and implemented it to my daily work. The material is so practical and so straight forward that its impact could just not be ignored. Just a small fix on web page, like adding a logo or writing a persuasive copy gave us responses. Though in Chapter 9, Dr. Fogg deals with the Ethics of Persuasion, we tried few non-ethical ways (Manipulation) for few days to observe the results and we had the success.

If you are in the field of marketing and web, look at this book as a tool that you can always keep with yourself and use it when necessary.

My next book is Mobile Persuasion by Dr. B.J Fogg. Thanks Dr. Fogg for handling the international delivery smoothly and answering all my mails.

Dr. BJ Fogg has created a new area of study: captology, the study of computers as persuasive technologies. This book is an excellent introduction to this new field: it outlines the different arenas within the field, expands on its implications, and explores the ethical issues related to the topic.

As a student of Persuasive Technology at Stanford, I found this book to be extremely helpful in my understanding of the topic. It's very easy to read and understand and is not reminiscent of a text book at all. I recommend this book to everyone, whether you are an active researcher in the field or a civilian interested in seeing how technology can and will further change our lives.

I've been interested in the persuasive aspects of technology and design since I was in 4th grade, and online since 1983. While the title is "persuasive technology", the discussion is broader than many of us often think about technology. Professor Fogg lays out a clear framework for considering how the products we use influence us, and how to design products which are more persuasive. I'm currently working with a number of organizations improving the process of civic engagement, and find myself frequently referring to concepts from the book. The book has become an indispensable tool. Thank you Professor Fogg.