Customer Reviews

The Art of Interactive Design: A Euphonious and Illuminating Guide to Building Successful Software

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Crawford is one of those intellectual gems who is often overlooked by the swirling tumult of art-star-authors and lexicon-twisting new media theorists. His work is outstanding; and this book is no exception. I originally bought this book when it was marketed as "Understanding Interactivity" - the facelift is quite nice, but the invaluable information is still, well, invaluable.

This book has the unique capability of crystalizing the key elements of interactivity (from a real-world standpoint) so that first year students are able to understand the overarching concepts (I use the book in my Interactive Multimedia classes). But, like any great book, it accomodates and grows along with the experience and knowledge of the reader. There is much to gain from Crawford's lucid, intriguing and well thought out text - and I recommend it to anyone interested in exploring the creation of artwork that incorporates or addresses interactivity.

Ah the philosophical musings of Chris Crawford...

If you're looking for a Interaction cookbook- see Alan Cooper's about face 2.0 (isbn 0764526413), because this isn't that. Far from it. This is a book that seeks to stick an idea in your face and then get you to think about it rather than just spoon feeding you, like a good little pleb. Sure there's lashings of righteous indignation and condemnation aplenty (and given the state of some software it's not undeserved!) Again, provocation to think and construct mental arguments (or vocal if you're that way inclined) is not a bad thing. It's a very good thing: active learning is far more rewarding than passive acceptance.

So Chris Crawford relates his thoughts, ideas, feelings, hates and a thousand other things in a rather amorphous form in this book. While it is not tightly structured (very waffling in parts), I don't think that is suffers too much from that- indeed the lack of totally rigid form often enhances rather than debilitates (flexibility!). Though he can struggle to fully chase the tail of an idea: perhaps that is deliberate, leaving it up to us to do that. And sometimes his thoughts seem misguided, incomplete or just plain wrong or couched in language that makes it largely inaccessible to some (odd coming from somebody trying to engage reader that they would choose such a tactic that prevents engagement). And yes, at times, you do get the impression that you are being ranted at or this guy is trying to talk down to you (a thesaurus doesn't make you literate- the ability to 'speak' to your audience and have them understand is far more of a yardstick (oops, I should say 'metric' to be up on the vernacular) in that regard).

Content wise: there is a lot here that is of considerable importance. I particular like the chapter on 'Play', because as an educator (book he cites is Homo ludens: A study of the play element of a culture, Johan Huizinga), I agree whole heartedly with that and see that revealed in the mess some of my colleagues make of educating others by taking all of the fun/play out of it (I teach Mathematics and Physics). I also liked the simplicity yet depth of the 'speak-think-listen' notion. Too much nowadays it's all speak, little thought and no listen. And when that happens, we just MEGO (my eyes glaze over).

At times he struggles to idea of how he tries to pull this unwieldy construct he has built into a cohesive pile (it's a concept like a slippery pig- grab it just so and you're okay, change your hold just a little and it's off...). Some of it is unneccessary: the clock chapter, dedicated devices, history of interactivity, why learn programming. Some of it is belabored: particularly behaviors, linkmeshes, linguistics, erasmus. Yet, ironically enough, they still make the book a richer experience because they provide context. And this is important. So while is writing style may not be perfect, his approach has much merit. And I think the book works. It seeks to not only open your eyes to interactivity, but provide some philosophical underpinnings for adopting a proactive approach when trying to incorporate that into design mindset. In other words, it seeks to put interactivity at the center of the things you do, not as an add on.

And I think Chris Crawford does manage to get that message across (if a little self-importantly and in a stilted manner). I think, while his love of language is fairly obvious, his choices in this regard can be a little poor at times and self-aggrandizing, which can place barriers on your acceptance of his work. Just bear that in mind and factor some of the language and tone out, because if you do, I think you can get a lot from this book.

Having just finished Jef Raskin's disappointing "The Humane Interface", I looked forward to reading this one. After all, Chris Crawford is a legendary game designer, whose Balance Of Power I played to death in the Eighties. Here was someone who should be able to (a) engage me and (b) show me some novel ways to think about software design in general and interactivity in particular.

Sad to say, I was wrong. The book starts promisingly with CC talking about interactivity as conversation (listen, think, speak), but from there he meanders off on a host of barely related topics, talking at length about each one while rarely giving concrete examples (problems, solutions, issues, etc.). I know it's not supposed to be a cookbook of UI methods, but there has to be *something* to grab onto once in a while.

It's all hand waving, and it gets old fast. I forced myself to read to the end, to see if it improved, but it didn't. The only thing he's terse about is his own work (software for interactive storytelling), a potentially fascinating topic that he glosses over in 2 pages.

I read UI books with a highlighter, marking key ideas or examples that I want to return to later and think about. Usually this means a highlight every 10 pages or so. This book ended up with 3 marks in the first 50 pages, and nothing after that.

For me, at least, 99% of this book was a waste of time.

This book definitely has a drum to beat, and it's around the value of interactivity over just pure featuritis. However, it goes on and on, littered with what feel like pseudo-scientific statements. It would've been nice to see a few studies of real people, research citations, or even just opinions of somebody other than the author. It felt like he was rewriting the evolution of software over time from his own frame of reference, and then extrapolating about where he thought it was going.

Still, there was at least one point I agreed with; interactivity (and, in general, providing value to the user) is more important than additional hanger-on features.

If you're looking for a book with over-abstracted filler written by an author with ulterior agendas and a need to use his thesaurus and high school history books to prove his intellectual capacity, this is the book for you. If you're looking for a book that can be more readily applied to interactive design, look elsewhere.

Granted, a few of the chapters provide insight into smart design principles and distilling down what is essential to pleasing the end users, but books comprised of a few chapters don't sell very well in today's market of thicker-is-better tech books. Another annoying deception is the copyright date which shows 2003, yet the book is chock full of obviously outdated references such as the lack of web users with broadband and being able to watch full-motion video on your home computer "in the near future".

Accessibly written by experienced game developer and lecturer Chris Crawford, The Art Of Interactive Design is a superbly presented software designer's guide to crafting more practical and functional interactive software. Individual chapters aptly focus on methods and metaphors for creating algorithms, language design, practical and innovative advice for adaptable anthropomorphization, advice for avoiding common mistakes, and a great deal more. The Art Of Interactive Design is an excellent instructional guide, an informative overview, and a "must-have" supplement for personal and professional interactive computer programming reference shelves.

The Art of Interactive Design was the sleeper of the year for me. I'm surprised it hasn't created more of a splash. Perhaps it's because it's published by a lesser known publisher and it doesn't fit the standard format of most usability or GUI books. It doesn't, for instance, include any code examples. It's purely about concepts and approaches.

What Chris Crawford does that is so effective is to approach design issues from such an oblique angle that I found myself looking at very familiar situations with new eyes. The text bursts with the outraged language of a frustrated user. Consider his description of the old documentation issue:

"I hold in special contempt those designers who dismiss users' fears with RTFM (Read The Manual); I'd love to lock them in a dark room at four in the morning with a 400-page manual explaining how to turn on the lights."

That kind of robust language, and some very useful technical information from his experience as a games programmer, makes this book an easy five star recommendation.

This book is a very diffcult read. Touching on a whole lot of subjects, alternating between abstract, complicated theory and abundant, confusing detail, and displaying Crawford's usual Thesaurus-o-holic writing style, it is sure to leave you scratching your head in bewilderment a couple of times.

Still, I must heartily reccomend it to anyone who is willing to make the effort. This book is very far from an intellectual "do it yourself" kit, though it does have many useful practical suggestions. It also has very little that would satisfy the criteria of academic research. What it does have, however, is an abundance of sheer, brilliant inspiration.

The pages are laden with powerful, abstract concepts that, upon reading and re-reading them, slowly seep into your mind and enrich your thinking on the subject immensely. It is for this important reason, and for this reason alone, that I consider this book priceless. Mental enrichment is a far rarer commodity than either practical know-whats or academic knowledge.

Mr. Crawford is a charming, albeit disorderly, writer (whether he's on topic or not), and this book must be his most amusing and wittiest creation. Readers who are acquinted with Mr. Crawford's other books will notice with approval that this volume contains comparatively little that can be found in his other books or on his website, although, of course, ideas as well as specific paragraphs are qouted from himself due to his iredeemably conversational writing style.

Computerized interactivity is the next great landmark in Western civilization after the invention of the printing press. With its deep understanding of the concepts underlying interactivity, this book is a must not only for those who work in interactivity design, but also for anyone interested in understanding the revolution that the world is going through.

Get this book for an extremely rewarding mental challenge!

An amusing book. Perhaps Crawford's most striking suggestion is that a project should be headed by a designer who has an arts background and who is also able to program. To him, this is an ideal, which may take the field decades to achieve.

I am dubious as to how necessary this is, in the first place. He claims that it is easier to find someone from the arts and have her learn the rudiments of programming, than vice versa. But in a specialised environment, like engineering, science or education, it may be better for her to hail from that field, so that she can better know what users might want. Granted, though, for a mass market audience, a more general background might be better.

When it comes to specific suggestions regarding the design of a program, he has good ideas. Like using progress bars if a task takes longer than ten seconds. Or using first or second person active voice, rather than a third person passive. These do increase the interactivity.

The book is somewhat verbose. He writes at length to illustrate his points. But a little brevity may have been possible, without losing any clarity.

This book was copyrighted in 2003. Most of the principles and concepts in the book are relevant today; however, many of the examples and screen shots are dated and seem older than 2003.

There are four sections in the book: 1) Fundamentals, 2) Design Advice, 3) Theory, and 4) Social and Artistic Issues. I only read and will review the first section. This was enough for me to get a feel for the book and to pick up some of the basic concepts of interactive design. For an interactive designer, the other sections look like they would provide some interesting reading.

The only drawback in the book is the fair amount of profanity the author uses. My guess is that it was an attempt to make the book more edgy, but for me it made the book less professional.

There were two parts that enlightened me more than any other. The first is that the interactivity of the software should be separated into three separate functions: speak, think, and listen. When a user is interacting with the software it should make it very clear what function it is performing. For example, there will be problems if the user thinks the computer is listening when in fact it is thinking or trying to speak. The second enlightening part for me was the concept of using metaphors to help the users anticipate what is going to happen. The better the metaphor, the better the user experience.

An update to this book would be useful because this book was written right at the time that voice recognition was showing a lot of promise. The author spends a decent amount of time describing how voice recognition will be the answer to many of the listening issues found in computer software. Since voice recognition is still impractical and appears to be so in the foreseeable future, some rewriting would be beneficial.