Leonardo's Laptop: Human Needs and the New Computing Technologies [Hardcover]

...

Background

Anyone who knows Ben Shneiderman and the activities of the Human-Computer Interface Lab (HCIL) would expect a book like Leonardo’s Laptop. Twenty years ago as founding director of HCIL, he was in the avant-garde of bringing together experts in computer science, engineering, psychology, and education to develop computers and their interfaces to better serve human needs. Back then computer interfaces had barely advanced from a row of blinking lights to a flickering green monitor.

Why did Shneiderman write Leonardo?
Having long been at the forefront of interface design among design, he sensed a need for something new to advance things to the next level. It’s the involvement of the masses that can push the development and implementation of what is possible with computing and interfaces.

He writes, “Old computing is about what computers can do. New computing is about what people can do.” And one thing people can do is to demand better computer interfaces or “Universal Usability.” In Leonardo, Shneiderman empowers users to demand more by giving real, concrete examples of how computers can better support human activities.

Shneiderman’s approach

For designers he develops a framework for designers to construct technology to support users and their needs — the Activities and Relationships Table (ART). ART is Shneiderman’s approach to relating human activities and relationships. The columns are four activities: collect (information), relate (communicate), create (innovate), and donate (disseminate). The four rows are relationships, each one describing an increasingly large group: self, family and friends, colleagues and neighbors, citizens and markets. Using this framework, human needs are identified first and then technology is developed to meet these needs.

Separate chapters on e-business, e-learning, e-commerce, and e-government use this framework to identify needs specific to these areas and then consider how technology can better support the individual and society. The focus is on how technology supports human relationships, how technology enables individuals and groups to be more productive and more creative, and how technology helps diverse groups collaborate within communities or across continents.

Each chapter concludes with a thoughtful section labeled, “The Skeptics Corner.” There he completes the discussion of each chapter by voicing the concerns of those who would question his ideas or who see problems with his approach. Shneiderman readily admits that real world solutions are not without potential problems or risk. Here he strengthens his theses by contrasting them with the alternatives.

Of particular interest to the Usability Community are chapter subsections on defining universal usability, accommodating diverse users, bridging the gap between what users know and what they need to know, and methods for achieving user-centered design. This book provides a service to the Usability Community by raising public awareness of and knowledge about Usability.

...ISBN 0262194764 hard cover, 0262692996 soft cover

In about an hour it became apparent that this author has stopped thinking many years ago and now is famous enough to just sprinkle power cuties over his audiences instead of doing real work. I became more and more insulted by this author and his editor and publisher. It is one thing to dress up a title and table of contents wording to slant something falsely so it will look like something else and sell well--nearly all editors and publishers do this. However, it is something else to take casual ramblings and rantings of an old man who has not seen a trench much less been in one for a decade or more, it appears. and publish them just because marketing can get enough suckers to pull in some money for retirment.

This book is merely written to make money for its publisher and author and has no sincere intent to enlighten anyone about anything, as far as I can see. Nothing in it pertains to computer interface work in any serious sense. Each chapter expresses rage at some terrible aspect of current software. Rage is something I understand but I have it already and do not need more of it. I need solutions and ideas, preferably with experimental data backing some of them up. This book is just rage and out of date rage at that. I am sorry because this author ten years ago was a true pioneer and his early academic papers helped me a lot. It is sad to see commercial success ruin a good mind.