Media: Ubiquity heralds Shneiderman's New Computing

The ACM's Ubiquity carries an interview with Ben Shneiderman, who describes the background and main themes of his new book: "Leonardo's Laptop: Human Needs and the New Computing Technology". (See below for a chance to hear him talk about the book in London.)

Ben Shneiderman, Professor at the University of Maryland and 2001 recipient of the ACM Computer Human Interaction Lifetime Achievement Award, widens his brief from the parameters of HCI to regard the whole of computing and its design. But he doesn't lose his user-focused perspective: 'I think every designer would like to envision a future that is graceful, elegant, comfortable, satisfying, comprehensible, predictable and controllable. Those are the adjectives that we'd like to attach to the interfaces and systems that we use. The book calls for a new renaissance and fresh thinking about user needs - elevating the expectations of users and the responsibilities of designers.'

His catchphrase, if that is the right word for it, is: The old computing is about what computers can do; the new computing is about what people can do.

And Leonardo? 'Leonardo was concerned about commerce, security, education, medicine and urban design. He was very eclectic in his thoughts and he was also very practical. He wanted to see real things get built. He also was concerned about aesthetics. The intellectual heart of the book is a new understanding of human needs defined by the relationships people have and the activities they carry out. Instead of trying to apply the latest new technology, we start by asking what is it that people want to do in their lives?'


* Talk: Leonardo's Laptop: Human needs and the new computing (see Ben Shneiderman on 'Leonardo's Laptop' for further details). Ben Shneiderman is in conversation with Nico Macdonald, Usability News advisor.

Associated Link: ACM's Ubiquity: The New Computing

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