InfoD: Bookwatch (36)

       * InfoDesign Bookwatch *   (36)

         In this message:
         1) Taming HAL: designing interfaces beyond 2001
            (Asaf Degani)
	 2) Emotional design: why we love (or hate) everyday
            things (Donald Norman)
         3) Understanding healthcare (Richard Saul Wurman)
	 4) Design for new media: interaction design for
            multimedia and the web (Lon Barfield)

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1)   TITLE: Taming HAL: designing interfaces beyond 2001

    AUTHOR: Asaf Degani

   WEBSITE: http://www.palgrave-usa.com/catalog/product.aspx?isbn=031229574X
            http://www.booksmatter.com/b031229574X.htm

   DETAILS: Price: USD 35.00 / ISBN: 0-312-29574-X /
            Published: January 2004 / 320 Pages /
            Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan

   SUMMARY: Machines dominate our lives, from alarm clocks that
            wake us up in the morning to radios that lull us to
            sleep. Most of our interactions with automated
            machines and computers are problem-free, but more
            often than we would like, they can be irritating and
            confusing. This is frequently harmless, such as a VCR
            recording the wrong show, but when it involves a
            critical system like an autopilot or medical device
            it can be a matter of life or death. Taming HAL seeks
            to explain these miscommunications between humans and
            machines by exploring user interfaces. Degani examines
            twenty-five different systems for human use, including
            watches, Internet applications, automobiles, medical
            equipment, and autopilots onboard commercial
            airplanes. Readers will discover why interfaces
            between people and machines all too often do not work
            and what needs to be done to avoid potential
            tragedies.

CONTENTS:

Part A:
Humans and machines: the meeting of the opposites
- Introduction
- Machines and their behavior: the internals of the ceiling fan
- Users and their perspectives: driving with the automated
  climate control system
- User interaction made complicated: one push-button, two
  different outcomes
- The crash Korean Air Lines Boeing 747 over the Sea of Japan

Part B:
Human interaction with modern devices: tales of two perspectives
- Why doesn't it vent the room? The story of the "simple"
  air-conditioner
- Light switches and phones
- Videos and digital clocks
- The grounding of the cruise ship Royal Majesty near
  Nantucket Island on June 10th, 1995
- Surfing the internet and getting wiped-out
- When radiation-therapy kills: the Therac-25 system
- The confusing cruise-control and the faulty blood-pressure
  machine
- The crash of Airbus A-330 Aircraft near Toulouse, France

Part C:
Interactions Made Better
- A new look at human-automation interaction
- Identifying design errors before they manifest
- Designing better systems for human use: Make'm simple,
  succinct, and safe
- The End

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2)   TITLE: Emotional design: why we love (or hate) everyday
            things.

    AUTHOR: Donald Norman

   WEBSITE: 
http://www.perseusbooksgroup.com/perseus-cgi-bin/display/0-465-05135-9
            http://jnd.org/books.html
            http://www.acm.org/ubiquity/views/v4i45_norman.html

   DETAILS: Price: USD 26.00 / ISBN: 0-465-05135-9 /
            Published: December 2003 / 272 Pages /
            Publisher: Basic Books

   SUMMARY: New research on emotion and cognition has shown that
            attractive things really do work better. In recent
            years, the design community has focused on making
            products easier to use. But as Norman  demonstrates
            in this book, design experts have vastly
            underestimated the role of emotion on our experience
            of everyday objects. 'Emotional Design' analyzes the
            influence of this idea, from our willingness to spend
            thousands of dollars on Gucci bags and Rolex watches
            to the impact of emotion on the everyday objects of
            tomorrow.


CONTENTS:

Prologue: three teapots

I. The meaning of things
1. Attractive things work better
2. The multiple faces of emotion & design

II. Design in practice
3. Three levels of design: visceral, behavioral and reflective
4. Fun & games
5. People, places and things
6. Emotional machines
7. The future of robots

Epilogue: We are all designers

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3)   TITLE: Understanding healthcare

    AUTHOR: Richard Saul Wurman

   WEBSITE: http://www.wurman.com/uhc.html
            http://www.understandinghealthcare.com/

   DETAILS: Price: USD 25.00 / ISBN: 0970368496 /
            Published: January 2004 / 336 Pages /
            Publisher: T O P

   SUMMARY: Understanding Healthcare answers 100s of key questions
            and contains links to websites and other resources.
            Understanding Healthcare is a visual encyclopedia --
            each spread making the complex clear.  The book takes
            the powerful tools of information architecture to
            create a roadmap for each reader. Understanding
            Healthcare empowers each of us to constructively
            navigate through our own patterns of health
            information as well as those for whom we care.


CONTENTS:
1. Understanding yourself
2. Understanding them
3. Making it happen

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4)   TITLE: Design for new media: interaction design for
            multimedia and the web

    AUTHOR: Lon Barfield

   WEBSITE: 
http://www.aw-bc.com/catalog/academic/product/0,4096,0201596091,00.html

   DETAILS: Price: USD 40.00 / ISBN: 0-201-59609-1 /
            Published: November 2003 / 352 Pages /
            Publisher: Addison-Wesley

   SUMMARY: The book provides a unified approach to the different
            skills and media of new media design. The book is
            divided into four sections. The first section
            considers some of the issues that can arise from
            designing with new and developing technology. The
            author then moves on to look at the 'building blocks'
            of new media (sound, color, and animation), and their
            role in the design of a new media product. The third
            section covers interaction design and elements
            connected with the use and understanding of a new
            media product. Finally, the fourth section presents
            the process of design itself in a practical way.


CONTENTS:
Preface

SECTION ONE: SETTING THE SCENE
1. Introduction: new-media and interaction design
2. Digital media

SECTION TWO: THE ELEMENTS
3.  Text
4.  Layout
5.  Icons
6.  Controls
7.  Sound
8.  Colour
9.  Video and animation
10.  Change

SECTION THREE: INTERACTION
11.  Goals audience scope (Gas)
12.  Context
13.  User models
14.  Feedback
15.  Structure
16.  Narrative
17.  Navigation
18.  House Style
19.  Associated documents

SECTION FOUR - DESIGNING IT
20. Generating ideas
21. Top down design
22. Underlying system model
23. Tasks
24. Metaphors
25. Interaction specifications
26. Prototypes and demos
27. Designing to build
Design and build process
Appendix 1 - Pointers for exercises
Appendix 2 - Rules and guidelines
Introduction
Rules
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InfoDesign Bookwatch is compiled and edited by Piet Westendorp
and Karel van der Waarde. Suggestions for titles are welcome,
and may be sent to: [email protected]
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