Customer Reviews

Communication of Complex Information: User Goals and Information Needs for Dynamic Web Information

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Yes, this book has unfortunate typos, but you should not let that distract you from its importance.

First, I address the typos. Typically, in a peer reviewed environment authors submit books that are blind reviewed by three scholars. The authors rewrite the entire book based on those reviews. Often there is a great deal of shifting texts from one segment (even chapter) to another. In this period, largely because turn around times are so quick, there are tremendous opportunities to create "computos" (errors made because of cut and pasting or deleating segments of text) -- worse, few authors can see all of their own errors; that's why there are copy editors.

After final submission, the authors will typically see the book one more time where they will respond to the questions and comments generated by the copy editors. This is a dangerous time, because if the authors assume the copy editors have found all of the errors, they might not carefully check the rest of the text. This appears to be an example of such a problem.

There is, however, a different path to errors such as these. I have had publishers publish my penultimate draft, missing all of the corrections made in the final draft.

Now about the book and its author.
If you recognize that complex information systems in digital media represent the future of digital communication and want to see where it will probably go, there is nowhere one else to look. I research this topic and own every book I know of (I know of five). Three of them are authored, co-authored, or co-edited by Michael Albers. He sets the curve in research for both theoretical and practical applications in this area. This one is both most complete and most accessible of the books on this topic that I know of. It is my go-to book when I want to prepare a class on complex information systems or springboard into a research project.

If you are among those who worry more about grammar than content, this book is not for you. If you are among those who need to come to grips with complex information systems, there is none better. My hope is the publisher will produce a new edition with the errors repaired, but with or without the repairs, this is a book that IT professionals and technical communicators need when looking into the future of the profession.

Although the author seems to have some good ideas, I have trouble taking the book seriously because of all the errors in writing. Didn't this guy have an editor? There are many examples, but here's just one, "Thus far in this chapter, it may should like I'm very negative....My negative feels are not against software...(p.161)" May should? Negative feels?