Two Books for Summer Shelves

Two books have jumped out at me so far this year as thought-provoking. Neither is about usability and both will stimulate a better appreciation of the world into which usability fits.

The first is a new classic. "The New Media Reader", edited by Noah Wardrip-Fruin and Nick Montfort, is winning fans from those who glance at its contents list. If you don't know who Theodor H. Nelson is and the significance of "A File Structure for the Complex, the Changing and the Indeterminate"; if you are not familiar with the contributions to computing of Bush, Turing, Wiener and Licklider, then this book is even more essential to you, than for the people who just want the keystones of network history all in one place. I've never seen a book so perfectly compiled to save teachers and students illegal photocopying. (Many texts here are now quite hard to find elsewhere.)

Delightfully, it also deals with the other disciplines that have fed the development of new media: Laurel, and Boal on theatre; Borges and "The Garden of Forking Paths"; Haraway, McLuhan, Turkle, and Winograd and Flores theorising about how people use media; Suchman on situated action; Bolter on writing; etc, etc... It's like a party full of your best old friends.

There is also a website with promising support features for the book, linked below.

The other book is entirely different but just as broad in its disciplinary reach. Harvey Molotch has brought a unifying vision to product design and the many elements that come to together to form stuff. "Where Stuff Comes From: How Toasters, Toilets, Cars, Computers and Many Other Things Come to Be As They Are" (which does not come accompanied by a useful website, but does have good onboard illustrations), provides an overview of factors and detailed specifics in a readable mix.

Talking of a toaster, Molotch comments that: 'It does not just sear bread, but presupposes a pricing mechanism for home amperage, government standards for electric devices, producers and shopkeepers who smell a profit, and people's various sentiments about the safety of electrical current and what a breakfast, nutritionally and socially, ought to be. Any particular toaster also contains the trends in fine and popular art that give it a particular look and texture of operation, including - in many models - a human satisfaction in the sound and sight of the pop-up moment. There are merchandise critics, trade associations, advertising media as well as the prior range of goods within which it must fit - wall outlets for its plugs, bread slicers calibrated to a certain width, and jams that need a crusty base. There is a global system that yields a toaster's raw materials, governments that protect its patents, a labor force to work at the right price, and a dump ready to absorb it in the end.' And that is just the start of an odyssey.

Launching the book last month in London, Molotch (pictured) demonstrated a modified easy-to-clean garlic crusher and described how it came to be made in metal not plastic. He also showed the new stuff - plastic but with moving parts - that had come as a prototype out of a stuff-maker, a tool that interprets a program of an item into the thing itself.

Books, then, that show the future by way of the past...

Associated Link: New Media Reader website

Why 'The 10 Commandments of Web Design' are Complete Baloney
Source: SitePoint, 5 July 2008
 
Further to our earlier discussion...

Local Council Websites: Good, but no Cigar
Source: Webcredible, 4 July 2008
 
The 'Local Council Websites: Good, But No Cigar' report evaluates the top 20 Socitm council websites against 20 best practice usability guidelines.

Why does the OK Button say OK?
Source: Gerry McGovern, 3 July 2008
 
Most times I come across the OK button, something not-OK has happened.

The 10 Commandments of Web Design
Source: Business Week, 2 July 2008
 
To try and make sense of it all, BusinessWeek.com canvassed a broad range of Internet luminaries to discover the design rules they live by right now.

Bill Gates' email rant at the Usability Team
Source: Crunch Gear, 1 July 2008
 
The Seattle P-I has tracked down an old e-mail from 2003 that Bill Gates sent out to members of the Windows Usability team.

Can a better User Experience also be a Greener Experience?
Source: Catalyst Resources, 30 June 2008
 
By improving the user experience of its web collaboration software, Catalyst made it easier for clients to work in productive teams without travelling the globe.

The Spread of Telepresence Technology
Source: Tech News World, 28 June 2008
 
Rising energy costs and green concerns are fuelling a huge increase in demand for videoconferencing, collaborative software and virtual telepresence technology.

UK Usability market worth more than £200 million by end of 2008
Source: eConsultancy, 27 June 2008
 
The UK Usability market will grow by an estimated 20% in 2008 to a value of £214 million, according to research published this week by e-consultancy.

Research suggests growing importance of Usability to UK Businesses
Source: Business Strata, 26 June 2008
 
Integrated software for lead generation and marketing is valuable, but only as long as it's usable.

Web 2.0: Too Smart by a Half?
Source: Computer Technology Review, 25 June 2008
 
Will the Web 2.0 generation’s epitaph be, “They died with their options open?”