Human-Computer Interaction Books

The Inmates Are Running the Asylum: Why High Tech Products Drive Us Crazy and How to Restore the Sanity

Alan Cooper

Amazon Price: $12.89 List Price: $18.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Sams - Pearson Education Amazon Marketplace: 48 new & used starting at $10.00

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Computers & Internet -> Business & Culture -> Culture
Subjects -> Computers & Internet -> Web Development -> Website Architecture & Usability
Subjects -> Computers & Internet -> General

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 134 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

The recurring metaphor in The Inmates are Running the Asylum is that of the dancing bear--the circus bear that shuffles clumsily for the amusement of the audience. Such bears, says author Alan Cooper, don't dance well, as everyone at the circus can see. What amazes the crowd is that the bear dances at all. Cooper argues that technology (videocassette recorders, car alarms, most software applications for personal computers) consists largely of dancing bears--pieces that work, but not at all well. He goes on to say that this is more often than not the fault of poorly designed user interfaces, and he makes a good argument that way too many devices (perhaps as a result of the designers' subconscious wish to bully the people who tormented them as children) ask too much of their users. Too many systems (like the famous unprogrammable VCR) make their users feel stupid when they can't get the job done.

Cooper, who designed Visual Basic (the programming environment Microsoft promotes for the purpose of creating good user interfaces), indulges in too much name-dropping and self-congratulation (Cooper attributes the quote, "How did you do that?" to Microsoft chairman Bill Gates, upon looking at one of Cooper's creations)--but this appears to be de rigueur in books about the software industry. But those asides are minor. More valuable is the discourse about software design and implementation ("[O]bject orientation divides the 1000-brick tower into 10 100-brick towers."). Read this book for an idea of what's wrong with UI design. --David Wall

Topics covered: User interfaces--good ones and bad ones--and where they come from. Also, how to improve the ones you create.

Contextual Design : A Customer-Centered Approach to Systems Designs (Interactive Technologies)

Hugh Beyer, Karen Holtzblatt

Amazon Price: $67.45 List Price: $74.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Morgan Kaufmann Amazon Marketplace: 32 new & used starting at $52.95

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Arts & Photography -> Design & Decorative Arts -> Graphic Design
Subjects -> Computers & Internet -> Programming -> Graphics & Multimedia
Subjects -> Computers & Internet -> Programming -> Software Design, Testing & Engineering -> Software Development

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 12 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

There's certainly no shortage of software design methods: most demand total allegiance, and many claim to be the only true way to delivering useful and maintainable software systems in a timely manner. Contextual Design describes another worthwhile software engineering method, one that places the user (or customer) at the forefront of the software design process from beginning to end. This method seems to be a particularly worthwhile addition to the literature.

Contextual Design begins with contextual inquiry, where software developers interview users and attempt to understand the way they work. Such "customer empathy" is central to the Contextual Design process and a total understanding of "work" within organizations is the mantra here. The book describes how, later in the process, software developers step back from the user data and do an "affinity," which is an overall analysis of hundreds (or even thousands) of individual facts. Contextual Design then explains the additional steps required to build systems using this method, including building models for flow, sequence, and artifacts, and establishing the cultural and the physical environments for a system. After getting an overview, developers consolidate these initial models, get more user input, and then design user interfaces.

This book, written in a clear, informal style without excessive jargon, reads very much like a book on business motivation. Various practitioners of Contextual Design offer short testimonials on the software design method.

Interaction Design

Jenny Preece, Yvonne Rogers, Helen Sharp

Amazon Price: $77.17 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Wiley Amazon Marketplace: 47 new & used starting at $5.00

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Computers & Internet -> Networking
Subjects -> Computers & Internet -> Computer Science -> Artificial Intelligence -> General
Subjects -> Computers & Internet -> Computer Science -> Artificial Intelligence -> Theory of Computing

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 18 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

Accomplished authors, Preece, Rogers and Sharp, have written a key new textbook on this core subject area. Interaction Design deals with a broad scope of issues, topics and paradigms that has traditionally been the scope of Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) and Interaction Design (ID). The book covers psychological and social aspects of users, interaction styles, user requirements, design approaches, usability and evaluation, traditional and future interface paradigms and the role of theory in informing design. The topics will be grounded in the design process and the aim is to present relevant issues in an integrated and coherent way, rather than assembling a collection of chapters on individual HCI topics.

KEY FEATURES:
* This truly integrated approach to HCI provides students with background information from psychology, sociology, anthropology, information systems and computer science
* Provides principles and skills for designing any technology through the use of many interesting and state of the art examples
* The author supported, highly interactive Web Site provides resources that allow students to collaborate on experiments, participate in design competitions, collaborate on design, find resources and communicate with others
* The accompanying Web Site also features examples, step-by-step exercises and templates for questionnaires

CONTENTS:
Preface
1. What is interaction design?
Interview with Gitta Saloman
2. Understanding and conceptualizing interaction
Interview with Terry Winograd
3. Understanding users
4. Understanding and designing for collaboration and communication
Interview with Abigail Sellen
5. Understanding how interfaces affect users
6. The process of interaction design
Interview with Gillian Crampton Smith
7. Identifying needs and establishing requirements
Interview with Suzanne Robertson
8. Design, prototyping and construction
9. User-centered approaches to interaction design
Interview with Karen Holtzblatt
10. Introducing evaluation
11. A framework for evaluation
12. Observing users
Interview with Sara Bly
13. Asking users and experts
Interview with Jakob Nielsen
14. Testing and modeling users
Interview with Ben Shneiderman
15. Doing design and evaluation in the real world: communicators and advisory systems
Epilogue
Glossary

User-Centered Web Site Development: A Human-Computer Interaction Approach

Daniel D. McCracken, Rosalee J. Wolfe, Jared M. Spool

Amazon Price: $58.14 List Price: $64.60 Usually ships in 8 to 14 days By: Prentice Hall Amazon Marketplace: 17 new & used starting at $40.00

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Computers & Internet -> Web Development -> Website Architecture & Usability
Subjects -> Computers & Internet -> Graphic Design -> General
Subjects -> Computers & Internet -> General

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 4 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Only instructors will get the full value of this book 4 out of 5 stars.
6 of 6 people found this review helpful.

Until it was finally in my hands, I wondered why this book had not received much reviewer attention, given its solid content and authorship. Keys to understanding that at once became obvious:

1) The book is much more expensive than books with similar content.

2) The eloquent Jared Spool, listed as an author, provided only a short preface.

3) The book was designed as a college textbook. Who loves or hates a textbook enough to bother to review it?

As a classroom aid, the book is superb. Usability principles are presented from foundations to applications clearly and without padding. Unlike many usability texts, statements are backed with ample references. The color illustrations lighten the book sufficiently to soften any textbooky stigma.

Each chapter ended with review questions and exercises. Some of them were very interesting and creative, but if you are not in a classroom with an instructor who has access to the password-protected answers, you are on your own.

So the Web professional attracted to the material and learning on his own will inevitably feel a bit cheated out of the full value of the book.

Human-Computer Interaction: Developing Effective Organizational Information Systems

Dov Te'eni, Jane M. Carey, Ping Zhang

Amazon Price: $85.40 Usually ships in 7 to 10 days By: Wiley Amazon Marketplace: 22 new & used starting at $50.00

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Business & Investing -> Industries & Professions -> MIS
Subjects -> Computers & Internet -> General
Subjects -> Computers & Internet -> Computer Science -> Human-Computer Interaction

Editorial Review:

Foreword by Izak Benbasat, Professor and CanadaResearch Chair in Information Technology Management, University of British Columbia A Balanced Look at HCI in Business

Written specifically for Information Systems students, Te'eni, Carey, and Zhang's Human-Computer Interaction: Developing Effective Organizational Information Systems is the first of its kind. It offers a balanced coverage of the multidisciplinary nature of HCI. It takes a balanced view of the physical, cognitive, and affective aspects of HCI design, and then integrates these aspects in the organizational and business context.

"User-friendly function has been the sine qua non of HCI for a long time. Unfortunately, though, it's been difficult to find a reader-friendly textbook, one accessible to readers who have not majored in computer science and are most interested in interactive systems in real-world settings. This book focuses on the organizational and managerial contexts of interactive systems, fulfilling, at long last, the HCI community's duty to provide a genuinely reader-friendly HCI textbook. Essential reading for anyone interested in how HCI fits into their work, their relationships, or their life generally."
-- Jimwoo Kim, Professor of HCI, Yonsei University

"Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) is not just for Computer Science anymore! It is re-inventing itself as the kernel of the new proto-discipline of Information. It's wonderful to see the concepts and techniques of HCI brought to life in the context of decision support, project management, enterprise resource planning, and other business applications."
-- John M. Carroll, Edward M. Frymoyer Chair Professor of Information Sciences and Technology, Pennsylvania State University

"Given the huge increase in the use of business systems, there is unprecedented need to focus on the interface to boost productivity and customer satisfaction. This book provides a business-oriented approach to HCI that has been lacking in our curricula. It is not a 'watered-down' approach to HCI, as are some technological adaptations to business. On the contrary, it tightly anchors the principles and methods of HCI design in theories especially appropriate for the organizational context. Pedagogically, the material is organized with simple frameworks that are useful and sensible, tying together the complex topics with ease. This is a book I will use."
-- Dennis Galletta, Professor of Business Administration, University of Pittsburgh

"As a multidisciplinary field, HCI has been crying out for a text that integrates the business, computer science, and psychology aspects of the field. This volume is long overdue for the business school market. I applaud the authors for writing the first of many more editions of this text."
-- Jane Webster, Professor of Management Information Systems, Queen's University

The Humane Interface: New Directions for Designing Interactive Systems (ACM Press)

Jef Raskin

Amazon Price: $36.80 List Price: $44.99 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Addison-Wesley Professional Amazon Marketplace: 56 new & used starting at $4.50

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Computers & Internet -> Web Development -> Website Architecture & Usability
Subjects -> Computers & Internet -> Computer Science -> Systems Analysis & Design
Subjects -> Computers & Internet -> Computer Science -> Human-Computer Interaction

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 54 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

"The book that explains why you really hate computers."

I've admired Jef Raskin for years. For those who don't know, he is the "Father of the Macintosh," one of the original geniuses who guided the Mac in the early days. But, more than a computer scientist, Raskin is a cognitive psychologist. He studies how the brain works with special emphasis on how that relates to us using computers. His magnum opus was the Canon Cat, which was an excellent and well-thought-out little computer.

In The Humane Interface, Raskin goes into detail describing how computers can be made easier to understand and use. Ever want to know why you really don't like Windows? The answer is in this book. In fact, there's so much in this book that makes sense, I really want to send a copy to every employee at Microsoft.

I loved reading this book and nodding my head in rabid agreement. Raskin states, "There has never been any technical reason for a computer to take more than a few seconds to begin operation when it is turned on." So why then does Windows (or Linux!) take so darn long to start up? The PalmPilot is on instantly, as is your cell phone. But for some reason, we tolerate the computer taking a few eons to start. (And until consumers complain about it, things won't change.)

Computers can be easy to use, and the people who design them and design software need to read this book. Do you ever get the impression that the person who designed a piece of software must have come from the same company that designed the front panel on your VCR? Why should you have to double-click anything? What does Ctrl+D mean one thing in one program and a completely different thing in another? And what's the point of the Yes/No confirmation if the user is in the habit of clicking Yes without thinking about it? Raskin neatly probes all these areas.

While I admire everything Raskin has to say, the book is pretty heavy on the psychology end. Myself, I enjoy cognitive psychology (especially books by Raskin's cohort Donald Norman), though some may find that part of the book boring. Even so, Raskin builds and backs his argument in a most eloquent and scientific manner. Especially if you design software or need to teach or train people to use computers, this book deserves a spot on your shelf. --Dan Gookin

A Practical Guide to Usability Testing

Joseph S. Dumas, Janice C. Redish

Amazon Price: $31.50 List Price: $35.00 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Intellect Ltd Amazon Marketplace: 24 new & used starting at $27.95

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Science -> Technology -> General & Reference
Subjects -> Professional & Technical -> Professional Science -> Mathematics
Subjects -> Computers & Internet -> General

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 7 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

necessary reading 5 out of 5 stars.
17 of 17 people found this review helpful.

This is required reading for usability professionals. It's a detailed look at testing, covering everything from test plans and lab construction to data analysis and how to handle unqualified testers who slip through the screening process. It covers lower-budget tests in addition to full-scale ones. It's clear that Dumas and Redish have loads of experience, and they're not shy about sharing it.

The most useful idea I came away with is that testing needs a specific purpose. You can't just test a system's usability; you test, for example, the navigation system or a membership form.

The only flaws here are a couple of omissions. There's no mention of testing web applications, though the principles covered here can be extrapolated to other purposes. And there is no mention of the ultra-cheap guerilla testing tactics. I doubt Dumas and Redish would approve of them, but it would have been very helpful to read about where these alternative methods were effective and not.

This book is a keeper. While my organization will not likely be doing full-blown usability testing for awhile, I'm now more able to evaluate and communicate with third-party testing facilities. And this book will influence all of our other evaluation and assessment testing methods.

Editorial Review:

In this volume, the authors begin by defining usability, advocating and explaining the methods of usability engineering and reviewing many techniques for assessing and assuring usability throughout the development process. They then follow all the steps in planning and conducting a usability test, analyzing data, and using the results to improve both products and processes.
This book is simply written and filled with examples from many types of products and tests. It discusses the full range of testing options from quick studies with a few subjects to more formal tests with carefully designed controls. The authors discuss the place of usability laboratories in testing as well as the skills needed to conduct a test.
Included are forms to use or modify to conduct a usability test, as well as layouts of existing labs that will help the reader build his or her own.

Love and Sex with Robots: The Evolution of Human-Robot Relationships

David Levy

Amazon Price: $16.47 List Price: $24.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Harper Amazon Marketplace: 46 new & used starting at $11.65

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Computers & Internet -> Computer Science -> Artificial Intelligence -> General
Subjects -> Computers & Internet -> Computer Science -> Artificial Intelligence -> Robotics
Subjects -> Computers & Internet -> Computer Science -> Human-Computer Interaction

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 9 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

Love, marriage, and sex with robots? Not in a million years? Maybe a whole lot sooner.From a leading expert in artificial intelligence comes an eye-opening, superbly argued book that explores a new level of human intimacy and relationships—with robots.

From Pygmalion falling for his chiseled Galatea to Dr. Frankenstein marveling at his "modern Prometheus" to the man-meets-machine fiction of Philip K. Dick and Michael Crichton, humans have been enthralled by the possibilities of emotional relationships with their technological creations. Synthesizing cutting-edge research in robotics with the cultural history and psychology of artificial intelligence, Love and Sex with Robots explores this fascination and its far-reaching implications.

Using examples drawn from around the world, David Levy shows how automata have evolved from the mechanical marvels of centuries past to the electronic androids of the modern age, and how human interactions with technology have changed over the years. Along the way, Levy explores many aspects of human relationships—the reasons we fall in love, why we form emotional attachments to animals and to virtual pets such as the Tamagotchi, and why these same attachments could extend to love for robots. He also examines the needs we seek to fulfill through sexual relationships, tracking the development of life-sized dolls, machines, and other sexual devices, and demonstrating how society's ideas about what constitutes normal sex have changed—and will continue to change—as sexual technology becomes increasingly sophisticated.

Shocking but utterly convincing, Love and Sex with Robots provides insights that are surprisingly relevant to our everyday interactions with technology. This is science brought to life, and Levy makes a compelling and titillating case that the entities we once deemed cold and mechanical will soon become the objects of real companionship and human desire. Anyone reading the book with an open mind will find a wealth of fascinating material on this important new direction of intimate relationships, a direction that, before long, will be regarded as perfectly normal.

Persuasive Technology: Using Computers to Change What We Think and Do (Interactive Technologies)

B.J. Fogg

Amazon Price: $31.65 List Price: $47.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Morgan Kaufmann Amazon Marketplace: 39 new & used starting at $19.12

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Computers & Internet -> Computer Science -> Artificial Intelligence -> General
Subjects -> Computers & Internet -> Computer Science -> Human-Computer Interaction
Subjects -> Computers & Internet -> General

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 32 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

Can computers change what you think and do? Can they motivate you to stop smoking, persuade you to buy insurance, or convince you to join the Army?

"Yes, they can," says Dr. B.J. Fogg, director of the Persuasive Technology Lab at Stanford University. Fogg has coined the phrase "Captology"(an acronym for computers as persuasive technologies) to capture the domain of research, design, and applications of persuasive computers.In this thought-provoking book, based on nine years of research in captology, Dr. Fogg reveals how Web sites, software applications, and mobile devices can be used to change people's attitudes and behavior. Technology designers, marketers, researchers, consumersanyone who wants to leverage or simply understand the persuasive power of interactive technologywill appreciate the compelling insights and illuminating examples found inside.

Persuasive technology can be controversialand it should be. Who will wield this power of digital influence? And to what end? Now is the time to survey the issues and explore the principles of persuasive technology, and B.J. Fogg has written this book to be your guide.

* Filled with key term definitions in persuasive computing
*Provides frameworks for understanding this domain
*Describes real examples of persuasive technologies

About Face 2.0: The Essentials of Interaction Design

Alan Cooper, Robert M. Reimann

List Price: $35.00 By: Wiley Amazon Marketplace: 45 new & used starting at $1.48

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Computers & Internet -> Programming -> Software Design, Testing & Engineering -> Software Development
Subjects -> Computers & Internet -> Programming -> General
Subjects -> Computers & Internet -> Programming -> Languages & Tools -> General

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 39 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

"The following description is for the second edition of About Face. The 3rd Edtion, About Face 3 (ISBN 0470084111), is now available."

First published seven years ago-just before the World Wide Web exploded into dominance in the software world-About Face rapidly became a bestseller. While the ideas and principles in the original book remain as relevant as ever, the examples in About Face 2.0 are updated to reflect the evolution of the Web.

Interaction Design professionals are constantly seeking to ensure that software and software-enabled products are developed with the end-user's goals in mind, that is, to make them more powerful and enjoyable for people who use them. About Face 2.0 ensures that these objectives are met with the utmost ease and efficiency.

Alan Cooper (Palo Alto, CA) has spent a decade making high-tech products easier to use and less expensive to build-a practice known as "Interaction Design." Cooper is now the leader in this growing field. Mr. Cooper is also the author of two bestselling books that are widely considered indispensable texts. About Face: The Essentials of User Interface Design, intro-duced the first comprehensive set of practical design principles. The Inmates Are Running the Asylum explains how talented people and companies continually create aggravating high-tech products that fail to meet customer expectations.

Robert Reimann has spent the past 15 years pushing the boundaries of digital products as a designer, writer, lecturer, and consultant. He has led dozens of interaction design projects in domains including e-commerce, portals, desktop productivity, authoring environments, medical and scientific instrumentation, wireless, and handheld devices for startups and Fortune 500 clients alike. Joining Cooper in 1996, Reimann led the development and refinement of many goal-directed design methods described in About Face 2.0. He has lectured on these methods at major universities and to international industry audiences. He is a member of the advisory board of the UC Berkeley Institute of Design.