The Media Equation: How People Treat Computers, Television, and New Media like Real People and Places [Paperback]

The media equation is a good enough predictor of user behavior, at least for telephone-based spoken dialog systems of the form my company builds, that it has informed our designs from top to bottom. Our applications apologize if they make a mistake. Callers respond well to this. Sure, the callers know they're talking to a machine, but this doesn't stop them from saying "thank you" when it's done or "please" before a query or feeling bad (or angry) if the computer can't understand them. Another strategy recommended by Nass and Reeves that we follow is trying to draw the caller in to work as a team with the computer; again, Nass and Reeves support this with several clever experiments. There is also a useful section on flattery, looking at the result of the computer flattering itself and its users; it turns out that we rate computers that flatter themselves more highly than ones that are neutral.

Among other interesting explanations you get in this book are why we're more tolerant of bad pictures than bad sound, why we focus on moving objects, speaking rate equilibrium, what we can do to make someone remember an event in a video, and the role of gender.

This book is very quick and easy to read. I read it in two days while on vacation it was so fascinating. In contrast to the classical yet dry social science format of hypothesis, experimental methodology, results, and essentially a summary of the results as a conclusion, Nass and Reeves only vaguely summarize their experimental methodology and take a no-holds-barred approach to drawing conclusions. This may annoy social scientists, most of whom expect their own kind to be far more circumspect.

This book is an absolute must-read for anyone designing mediated interfaces. For those who don't believe the results, I'd suggest running some experiments; our company did, and it made us believers.

Except for the authors' pro-manipulation bias, this media=reality "equation" is nothing new - Steven Pinker talked about new media and old brains in several of his books. Ted Nelson said that users automatically interact with computers "naturally" in work he published in the 1970's. Even Arthur C. Clarke mentioned the phenomenon in "3010."

The authors have replicated and repackaged previously done research with a popular, marketing spin. In the process, they have extended the theory to ludicrous levels - as evidenced by the (non) success of Microsoft's "Bob," which the authors consulted on, and which they still seem to think is a claim to fame.

Academics working in the social or cognitive sciences will find nothing new here. Dot-commers, were there any left, might find it worthwhile to explore this esoteric branch of UI design, but would be better served by spending their attention on basics like Tognazini and Nielson. The authors' tunnel vision and extraordinarily self-important outlook detract from any further value the work might have.

I do not disagree with their findings, but I really disagree with their conclusions, especially the eagerness and determination with which they jump to them. However I notice their ideas seem pretty convincing, and here lies my real worry with this book. So if you decide to read it anyway keep asking yourself if the conclusions Reeves and Nass jump to are really as worthwhile as they make them appear.