Browse Books

Reviewer: James H. Bradford

The authors begin with a charming and very human anecdote describing how an interface design error caused them to lose the first draft of the book's introduction—with the publisher's deadline only a week away. This is the first textbook I have read that begins like a novel, and I recommend the approach to other authors. Many software systems have long since reached levels of complexity that challenge users. In recent years, designing systems to be highly usable has become critical in the software industry. This book provides an overview of the field of human-computer interaction (HCI). The material is divided into three main sections. Section 1 presents the basics. The authors devote a chapter to the human aspects of computer use, popularly called “human factors,” another to the computer side of the equation, and a third to the interaction between the two. The second section, “Design Practice,” consisting of nine chapters, is the core of the book. The major topics covered in this section are interaction usability; the design process for user interfaces; user models; task analysis; dialogue design; models of system behavior; tools for implementing user inter faces; evaluation of the usability of systems; and creation of help subsystems as well as user documentation. As a developer and academic with nearly 15 years of experience in the design of user interfaces, I could find no fault with this section. The breadth of coverage is more than adequate, and in many areas the depth of coverage is well beyond the minimum required for an introductory course. The book concludes with four chapters that focus on application areas. Topics covered are groupware; computer-supported collaborative work (and the consequent social issues); multimodule interfaces; interfaces based on nontraditional interaction styles (such as speech recognition); and multimedia, hypertext, and the Web. I particularly liked the material on social issues. This is a good, solid text for students of HCI and user interface design. It has no major flaws, and the few faults I found are little more than quibbles. (For instance, I wish the authors had spent a little more time describing the major open problems in the field, and I would have liked to see a little more coverage of the social issues inherent in computer-supported collaborative work.) Nevertheless, I recommend the book, without hesitation, to both instructors and practitioners of HCI.