Francis Books

The correspondence between this work and that of Alan Cooper (The Inmates Are Running the Asylum: Why High Tech Products Drive Us Crazy and How to Restore the Sanity and About Face 3: The Essentials of Interaction Design) are staggering. Dr. Endsley and her co-writers rail about how a technology focus leads to poor user interfaces, and recommend a user-centered design approach including "Goal-directed Task Analysis." Alan Cooper rails about how a technology focus leads to poor user interfaces and recommends a user-focused approach he calls "Goal-Directed Design." The difference between this book and Cooper's books is the wealth of dramatic examples and underlying research in Designing for Situation Awareness.

Situation Awareness refers to the OO of the OODA loop - getting input from the environment - Observing - and understanding the significance of that input now and in the future - Orienting. It is a concept used widely in aviation, medicine, and the military - areas where life and death decisions are routinely made based on situation awareness.

One study cited in this book identifies flawed situation awareness as the root cause of 88% of aircraft crashes due to human error. In the remaining 12% the wrong decision was made or there was a problem with execution. With these sobering figures, this book lays out design guidelines to enhance situation awareness.

A formal situation awareness design approach would involve realistic prototyping and rigorous testing as you'd expect for anything related to aviation or medicine. This book provides 50 concrete design principles in six different areas to assist this formal design cycle, but as the book says: "These principles can be applied to a wide range of systems from a variety of domains where achieving and maintaining SA [Situation Awareness] is challenging."

Anyone designing interfaces to support situation awareness or quick comprehension - like performance dashboards - can learn from this book. Unlike software design examples, the examples in this book contain flight numbers and phrases like "killing all aboard" that underscore how very critical situation awareness is, and how driven the authors are to help raise the standards of design.

The only minor criticism I can level is a feeling that this book was rushed together; but with the critical importance of the topic I can see why. I look forward to the recently announced second edition.

This is a Should Read for anyone involved with the design of information technology to support complex problem-solving and decision-making in any setting. It's a Must Read for anyone working with highly dynamic situations or critical situation management, including emergency and disaster response. Dr. Endsley and her co-authors not only lay out a very thorough explanation of the design challenges imposed by human cognitive behaviors and limitations, but also review in depth the research that reveals these behaviors and limitations. They then present a very comprehensive set of guidelines for addressing these challenges in design.

Chapter 4 should be required reading for all user interface design practitioners and students. In this chapter, Dr. Endsley (who comes from the human factors and ergonomics field) and her colleagues lay out a much better description of the process of designing and developing user interface software than any I have seen anywhere in the human-computer interaction or software engineering literature.

This book is the result of years of exhaustive research that sets a gold standard for use-inspired basic research. It is useful to researchers as well as practitioners. I am in awe of the quality of the work and the quality of the results.

I'm researching systems-development related topics at the moment and this book is one of the few I've encountered that gives an abundant amount of carefully considered information. Most books, it seems, can be summarized in a sentence or two. Dillon's work, on the other hand, is one of the most detailed--and purposeful--I've seen. I'd recommend this book not only to text designers but anyone interested in user-centered design. Its implications for users (who are often scanners, not readers!) are broad and significant, encompassing motivations (why people read, or why they visit websites and what they expect to get out of their experience) and navigation and wayfinding issues. Another useful component of the book is its discussion of using models and frameworks as a tool to faciliate structured research and development. Many thanks to Dillon for providing a first rate book on a pervasive, yet largely ignored topic. I look forward to seeing more of his work in the future.

This is by far the best analysis of reading of electronic text that I have seen. He provides an excellent insight as to what is, what might be, and what is not important for on-screen reading.

He does not limit text to just fiction/non-fiction categories, but instead discusses: WHY it is read professional/personal reasons, to learn or not, out of interest/need, etc. WHAT type of information it contains technical or non-technical, subject matter, general or specific, textual or graphic, etc. HOW it is read serially or non-serially, once or repeatedly, browsed or studied in depth, etc.

His book suggests to me that text should alter its format to the meet the users - Why, What, and How. Possible examples: switch to all caps when searching for words or phrases, turn off hyperlink indicators for linear reading, ...

He points out that there have been many studies on editing text, but few on reading text. A good fraction of the book deals with on-screen reading.

Screen reading was better with: high resolution characters, increased space between lines (leading), proportional font, limiting the number of characters on a line, and not splitting a sentence across a page boundary.

He indicates that users preferred on-screen reading over paper reading for some tasks when the screens had enough improvements.

Screen reading might be improved with: landmarks/navigation, serif fonts, full left/right justification, ...

Screen reading was no different than paper reading for: orientation of the media, flicker rate, screen dynamics, and visual angles (< 36 degrees).

An excellent source for construction details related to acoustics, noise control, etc

As an acoustics consultant, I frequently use this well organised, to-the-point book as a reference.Lots of construction details, technical drawings and test results allow you to grab the essence of the subject very quickly. Sometimes, I bring my copy to workshops and manufacturers to discuss details. The graphical language of the authors makes my life easier during those discussions.

If a new edition would have been released, I would buy this one too. - Turker Talayman

This was the last sunfire book I read but one of the best. It is so very romantic. It is about a rich American girl who must choose between the rich french man, David and the poor trailsmen, John who is about to leave with the Lewis and Clark expidition. Will she have the strength to follow her heart and dreams?

Diana is the daughter of wealthy Americans living in New Orleans in the early 1800s. Most of their neighbors are French Creoles. When the United States buys the Louisiana Purchase, New Orleans becomes an American City. Many of Diana's Creole neighbors are angry. But Diana has her own trouble. She must chosse between the two men that love her: a rich Creole and a young man in the Louis and Clark Expedition.

Wonderful piece of work, a standard in its field, but a time thief: bet you can't look up just one ...

Both informative and fun to read, the Dictionary contains both definitions and word history for ALL levels of colloquial English. Unlike other dictionaries of the sort, it includes even words that were colloquial or slang once.

Before I read it I didn't realise that history of words could be so entertaining. E. Partridge has presented a hoard of entertaining information in an entertaining way.

Even if you know all the English there is to know, the Dictionary is full of word stories you might still like to read. Do you know how the organ representing human courage over the centuries went all the way from heart to pluck, down to guts and below?

I haven't checked the facts for a few years, but it still may be the largest collection of slang and colloquial terms for ANY slanguage

The book of Barba is an essential help for acting students, because it explains in easy ways difficult topics.

This is a great book for actors, dancers, choreographers, directors, teachers and all kinds of performing artists. Its texts reveal a way of perceiving the art of performers in scenic situations considering the physical qualities and possibilities of their bodies, but also of not so obviously visible paradigms such as energy, presence, balance, dilation and so on. Its photographs and illustrations are clearly demonstrative of the topics approached. After studying this book, I can watch performers in action (and in still pictures as well) with a totally new point of view, being able to analyse the subtleties that make their presence/images effective in their communication, artistry and vitality. I am also able to activate the theatre anthropology concepts in my own practice, reaching for new boundaries of self-perception and expressivity.

This is the best in the differential diagnosis genre. It assesses the whole body, making CNS and Head and Neck comprising almost half of the book. Organ systems are evaluated, with lesions classified by location, configuration, density, calcification and enhancement pattern among others. The format does follow the classic tome written by Dr. Eisenberg.
The ultrasound differential diagnosis textbook in this series is also highly recommended. The MRI differential book is not up to par of its brethen, however.
This book should be available near all CT reading monitor.

Excelent for a quick review with a lot of images and essential text. A "must have" in your radiology room.

Since Mri has a variety in Pathiology i strongly recommend this book to any radiologist who wants to have a full view in this sector.

This is a really great book for MRI. It's clinically oriented and very practical to use. Most of the text is in chart form and is packed with facts. They also gives you tips on interpreting subtle and difficult cases. The images are excellent. I bought one for each of my offices locations.

This is an early work of Fromm's, written when he was still a strict Freudian. His views changed later, but this is still a good book that has some other short essays. The title has an evangelical sound to it, but a better title would have probably been "the politics of christ". Basically the book describes how the emperor cult of Rome failed and the oppressed poor began to express their hate for the rich and powerful to the level of religious fantasy. To quote from the book, "An illusion shared by everyone becomes a reality. The oldest of these collective fantasy satisfactions is religion." One reviewer calls this book the beginning of "psychohistory".

Erich Fromm has written another chef-d'oeuvre !
He has demonstrated in his book "The Dogma Of Christ" his mastery in analyzing religion as it pertains to the human condition.
Mr. Fromm's essays in "The Dogma of Christ" are thought provoking, spiritually transcending, and emotionally rejuvenating.....

A wonderful wonderful book.Although the book was written some 150 year ago, Mary Eliza Rogers takes you into the intimacies of daily life in Palestine in the 1850's as if it was occurring today. She writes from her heart with honesty,integrity and a clear mind. And although written at a time of Victorian prejudicies and colonialism she writes without bias or judgement. From her beautiful and colourful descriptions one can envisage the Holy Land as it was before undergoing the process of modernisation and change. For anyone who has any attachment to this land it is a truly wonderful and personal experience to read this book.

A wonderful wonderful book.Although the book was written some 150 year ago, Mary Eliza Rogers takes you into the intimacies of daily life in Palestine in the 1850's as if it was occurring today. She writes from her heart with honesty,integrity and a clear mind. And although written at a time of Victorian prejudicies and colonialism she writes without bias or judgement. From her beautiful and colourful descriptions one can envisage the Holy Land as it was before undergoing the process of modernisation and change. For anyone who has any attachment to this land it is a truly wonderful and personal experience to read this book.