Product Description

Designing Interactive Systems: People, Activities, Contexts, Technologies is an exciting, new, forward-looking textbook in Human Computer Interaction (HCI).

 

Authoritative in its coverage, this innovative book takes a top-down approach, starting with what is familiar to students and working down to theory/abstract underpinnings.  This makes it suitable for beginners with a less technical background as well as advanced students of HCI and can be used at all stages of the curriculum for courses in this dynamic field.

 

The book focuses on and explores this emerging discipline by bringing together the best practice and experience from HCI and interaction design (ID). The approach takes traditional human-centred concepts from HCI, but recognizes that we have gone beyond computers and are concerned with designing engaging interactions between people and a wide range of devices, products and systems.  New areas explored include information appliances, supported cooperation and ubiquitous computing and systems.

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Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #80943 in Books
• Published on: 2004-11-05
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 832 pages

From the Back Cover

Designing Interactive Systems: People, Activities, Contexts, Technologies is an exciting, forward-looking textbook in Human Computer Interaction (HCI). It is suitable for beginners as well as advanced students of HCI and can be used at all stages of the curriculum.

Authoritative in its coverage, the book draws on the authors’ extensive experience in research and teaching. A self-contained introduction to the area is followed by a systematic discussion of the influence of human psychology on the design of interactive systems, illustrated by many real-world examples. Next, a practical, scenario-based design method and techniques are presented. Later sections treat hot topics such as affective computing, social navigation and computer-supported cooperative work. A range of current methods, including contextual design and the latest thinking in evaluation, are treated in detail. These more advanced, research-led chapters encourage the reader to reflect critically on the domain as a whole.

The book explores this continually developing discipline by bringing together the most useful aspects of established practice with newer perspectives. The approach recognizes that we have gone beyond computers in the workplace and are concerned with designing engaging interactions between people and a wide range of devices, products and systems.

FEATURES

• Broad coverage to take students of HCI through their entire degree programme.
• Appropriate for students of all levels as well as professionals working in industry.
• Running case-studies (a home information system and a VR training environment) bring to life the complex real-world nature of HCI problems and demonstrate how they can be resolved.
• Full-colour text with a variety of engaging pedagogical features such as challenge questions and real-world examples to help students in their learning and understanding and encourage them to think for themselves.

This book is highly suitable for those studying HCI as part of a course in Software Engineering, Computer Science or similar subjects, and ideal for Human Computer Interaction students and professionals needing to know more about this field.

 

About the Authors

David Benyon is Professor of Human-Computer Systems at Napier University, Edinburgh.

Phil Turner is Senior Lecturer in Computing at Napier University, Edinburgh.

Susan Turner is Lecturer in Computing at Napier University, Edinburgh. 

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Customer Reviews

The best introduction to ID currently available.
I have read an inspection copy of this book, among others, in preparation for the new semester's teaching and have decided to adopt this for my teaching of HCI and Interaction Design. The main reasons are it is extremely up to date and I don't just mean year of publication but in terms of concepts, research domains and issues. I don't mean bleeding edge necessarily but at least it seems to have caught up with certain issues and theoretical frameworks that other books lack. For example there is a full section on CSCW while most intros to HCI-ID have a few paragraphs at most and there is even a few pages on Activity Theory. 2) The discussion of cognition and perception is the most thorough I have seen in an intro book and the best in terms of linking the psychology with actual UI design. There is also a separate chapter on sound, hearing and haptics.

However, with Embodied Interaction, I was expecting something on context-aware computing and phenomenological perspectives on user experience but instead we get ergonomics, avatars in CVEs and affordances. Not irrelevant, but just a starting point. Psychology appear in two sections. Firstly in a introduction to cog psych chapter which is quite brief, and secondly as a section on Psychological foundations for Interactive systems which is quite thorough. Not sure if the first, introduction to cog psych in entirely necessary. While in there, there's not a lot on web-specific issues or ubiquitous computing which is very current.

Anyway, enough. I still give it five because, while not perfect from my perspective, it is very thorough and better than the others I have seen.