BKINTRFC.RVW 940203 Addison-Wesley Publishing Company, Inc. Heather Rignanesi, Marketing, x340, 73171.657@Compuserve.com P.O. Box 520 26 Prince Andrew Place Don Mills, Ontario M3C 2T8 416-447-5101 fax: 416-443-0948 or Tiffany Moore, Publicity tiffanym@aw.com Bob Donegon bobd@aw.com John Wait, Editor, Corporate and Professional Publishing johnw@aw.com Tom Stone, Editor, Higher Education Division tomsto@aw.com 1 Jacob Way Reading, MA 01867-9984 800-822-6339 617-944-3700 Fax: (617) 944-7273 "The Art of Human-Computer Interface Design", Laurel, 1990, 0-201-51797-3, U$28.95/C$37.95 The Introduction states that the book was originally intended to be a collection of training materials for courses by the Human Interface Group at Apple. Then, it was to be a trade book to give Apple employees a chance to publish some papers. Then, it was to be a general trade, educational and professional book. I'm not sure that they ever settled on a format: there are aspects of all three here. If you take the time to look carefully, just about all of the aspects of human/computer interfacing (formerly known as man/machine interfacing or human factors engineering) are at least introduced. Some of the thought is profound. Little, however, shows evidence of rigorous research and testing. This is primarily primary stuff and the secondary follow-on has been left out. Many of the opinions may be well formed and informed, but they are still just opinions, and nothing obvious distinguishes the good ones from the bad ones. This is a good starting point for discussion and thought, but a very shallow guide for would-be designers. Work has gone into the organization and grouping of the pieces, but the transitions from paper to paper are sometimes jarring. Some of the works are thoughtful and disciplined, others are very self-indulgent. Ultimately the book, itself, has to be seen as indulgent for including these items. The work would have benefitted from some careful cutting. (It would have been a physical benefit at least: the 500 page thickness and stiff binding make it hard to read. The book agrees with me--ten minutes after I started reading it, the spine had split down the centre.) The book is said to be a 50/50 mix of Apple and non-Apple authors. In terms of access cards that may be true, but the material overall sees to show a decidedly Apple mindset. The authors not directly employed by Apple all have strong working connections with the corporation. As only one example, there is no representation from Xerox PARC, and it is hard to take a work seriously which doesn't at least cite the pioneering research there. Read all of it, and it's a good intro. But an intro only. copyright Robert M. Slade, 1994 BKINTRFC.RVW 940203 ====================== DECUS Canada Communications, Desktop, Education and Security group newsletters Editor and/or reviewer ROBERTS@decus.ca, RSlade@sfu.ca, Rob Slade at 1:153/733 DECUS Symposium '95, Toronto, ON, February 13-17, 1995, contact: rulag@decus.ca