Customer Reviews

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

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The following review was published in the October 2003 issue of the Usability Interface, the quarterly newsletter for the Usability SIG of the STC (Society for Technical Communication).

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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

I am running three small internet and software interface venture businesses and avidly read anything anywhere that will in any way help me do a better job. If you put the word "interface" in your work, I will buy it just on the chance it will help me. My businesses are having all sorts of real problems with suppliers and customers and interfaces. We need help. So in that context I bought this book.

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.

Ben Shneiderman has written a wonderful book about computers and what human beings should expect to be able to use them for. He talks about "user centered" computer and how everyone should be able to use computers to do a better job. By everyone he means everyone, no matter who you are, disabled or not.
He goes into great detail about how the computer should be used and how it should be built to suit the user, not the user changing to suit the way the computer is built.
This is the way it should and must be. People should not serve computers, computers should serve the needs of the human population no matter who 0r where they are. He includes a great list of references and his examples of how the new computing should work are outstanding.
He makes his case well with detailed examples and commentaries on the subject. This books is a must buy for all of us!

Leonardo's laptop is not a human factors book per se, but rather a collection of thoughts on the future of our society, and on how technology could be used for the good of all. The writing style is very accessible and the point of views, illustrated by examples of everyday life activities, are definitely engaged and very optimistic.
I had the chance of meeting the author during a presentation of Leonardo's Laptop: the book itself is true to Ben Schneiderman's distinctive friendly and dynamic style as he describes the world he hopes can be ours tomorrow.

Ben Schneiderman's book, Leonardo's Laptop, was a required text in a Cyberspace, Culture and Society course I taught this summer. The course was a combined upper level undergraduate and graduate seminar class that included students from a wide range of academic disciplines: English, sociology, psychology, anthropology, computer science, information systems, philosophy, interdisciplinary studies, Language, Literacy and Culture, and Policy Science. The students overwhelmingly indicated that the book was excellent: readable, inspiring, and thought provoking.

Leonardo's Laptop urges users to promote better design by getting "angry about the poor quality of user interfaces and the underlying infrastructure" and to think big about the ways computers could "support creativity, consensus-seeking and conflict resolution." Shneiderman urges designers to build technology guided by the principle of universal usability to insures that all types of people, young, old, novices, experts, disabled, will be able to use technology to enhance their lives.

Chapters dealing with e-leaning, e-commerce, e-health, and e-government suggest creative ways that technology can support humans as they seek to deal with pressing social issues. This book creatively explores a topic that, all too often, is dealt with in jargon and technical terminology that is not accessible to a wide audience and narrowly frames the discussion of technology and its effects. The book promoted interesting discussion between technical and non-technical students about the effects of technology on societies around the world. The students especially liked the "collect, relate, create, donate framework" that Schneiderman so skillfully uses to illustrate how technology can empower and liberate users.

This book is interesting reading for anyone who is interested in technology, people, and the future.

A uniformly bland book. The author says in 11 chapters what could easily be said in a couple of paragraphs. And then, in the final chapter, he completely loses it and embarks on some sort of ridiculous diatribe against AI research. He displays an amazing degree of animosity towards those involved in this field of research, some of which he names personally. There are many far better books on usability available from Amazon.com, forget this one. What can I say, Leonardo would dismiss him as a fool.

Ben Shneiderman presents a refreshing view of 'the new computing' as an aid to enabling people to develop attributes similar to those he admires in Leonardo da Vinci. The Renaissance genius in painting & sculpture (and the related science of anatomy), engineering, and scientific thinking, is used as an inspiration for promoting more usable computers, universal design, and more useful technology.

The book is easy and refreshing reading. The first 5 chapters are of general interest, providing some historical background and setting the mood. The next five, which can each be read independently, relate to learning, business, health, government, and creativity, respectively. They can be read for education/enjoyment, or used as guidebooks for activists to push for the proper use of computers to help us achieve our goals. In fact, they encourage us all to become activists to help us exploit computers for our good.

There is a good list of references for those interested to pursue these ideas in more detail, and counter arguments from other sources help to present the ideas in a fair and considered manner.

I can recommend this as fine reading for anyone, from the inquisitive computer user, to the academic "expert", and particularly for the potential activist.

It is a sad fact that with the exception of deep academic and professional texts aimed at corporate programmers and computer science researchers, most books on computing have frighteningly short useful lifetimes. All too many of them are little more than glorified how-to guides in the use of specific versions of rapidly evolving commercial packages and ever changing industry standards. A few attempt to cover application areas in more generality, but very few indeed strike at the core of the really big picture while offering substantial value to both computing experts and End Users alike.

Ben Shneiderman's tour-de-force, Leonardo's Laptop, is just such a rare gem. It accomplishes the hat trick of meeting the needs of readers in academia, industry, and the general public by going beyond talk of the "in technologies" of the moment to conceptualizing a New Computing organized around the principle of putting human needs first.

It reminds us that while we may have become accustomed to buggy and brittle software, such bad designs - which cost both lives and dollars - impoverish the human spirit and need not be tolerated. By drawing on our scientific and artistic sides we can restore the balance to make technology use an ennobling experience.

Although the text is addressed to everyday computer users and decision makers whose purchasing patterns ultimately determine what the IT sector will produce, it offers a rich set of endnotes that will guide technically oriented readers to the resources they need to implement its vision. Moreover, researchers and business people will find Leonardo's Laptop to be an invaluable source of ideas for grant writing and business plan development.

This book is a must have that will lead to new insights with each reading.

If you are a High School Teacher or University Faculty Member whose students are looking at the role of computers in society or who aspire to creating the next generation of high tech, you owe it to them to evaluate Leonardo's Laptop for use as a required or recommended reading in your courses!

The hardware and software industries are at several crossroads. This book outlines some of them, and offers suggestions on how to approach making the next jumps. The author pushes consumers/users to demand simplicity and solid design of products and UI. He also pushes engineers to acknowledge consumer/user needs and to focus on the usability aspects of the products they build.

The Leonardo da Vinci tie-in is fairly well done. The parallel feels like a stretch at times, but, is generally quite valid.

Ben Shneiderman's "Leonardo's Laptop" should be as inspirational to readers in the 21st century as Leonardo daVinci was in the l5th and l6th. Renaissance man possessed "virtu"-the spirit of the times reflected by freedom to choose, invent and create. Shneiderman exemplifies this same attribute today, probably termed "existential". One does not remain static but, freely innovative with all tools available. While Leonardo pioneered the arts and sciences which eventually enlightened society, Shneiderman suggests what the user can do with the computer as an application of modern day social science .

This book offers a model, the same process of Leonardo's thought - COLLECT, RELATE, CREATE, DONATE. (CRCD) Clearly, this process has unlimited applications and Shneiderman highlights education, commerce, medicine and of course government, itself, sa varied spectrum of political ramifications. Most computer users master the technical side. Shneiderman reminds us that if we just stop for a moment, in the imaginative Renaissance spirit of "virtue" or his modern model CRCD, this technical tool can benefit various aspects of social living. Leonardo did not have this opportunity yet,because he well understood the human condition, we still positively enjoy his legacy. Shneiderman's model serves this same inspiration in today's world. Since the computer is here to stay, let's use it well!