Customer Reviews

Designing and Engineering Time: The Psychology of Time Perception in Software

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

 

 

One of the reviewers thought this book was a gem for experienced programmers, I totally disagree. I'm an experienced programmer and I suggested this book for a book club at work. We are all experienced programmers. But I did not find this book that much helpful. I would rather have spent the time it took to read the book doing something else... like reading About Face 3: The Essentials of Interaction Design (again).

I probably found two or three concepts interesting throughout the book. In general I think it already states the obvious, uses too much comparisons and has too much images (just for the sake of it - without adding value). A MSDN article with say, 20 pages, would have been more than enough instead of a 191 p book. I expected to get some examples from real life software and to get more insight in software and how to handle time.

After reading the book I wanted to get the sense of "Hey! We can do even better software, now let's go and do it!" But instead the book left me feeling like I had wasted my time reading it from cover to cover.

When reading Designing and Enginering Time I though that it appears to be a report from a student, like a master thesis report. When discussing the book with a colleague in the book club he said the exact same thing!

The last two chapters was ok but it is still a "Don't like it" from me.

Experienced programmers will find this little book a gem. Seow describes the "time problem" with enough information that developers will make better decisions when dealing with the likes of click response rates, hourglasses and progress indicators.

Why the four stars? IMHO $30 seems expensive for what might've been a great MSDN article.

Once a hidden topic, discussions of how systems utilize users' time are now key to designing a solid web application, and nearly 40 years of human computer interaction research prompts Dr. Steven Seow to present a discussion of best practices for reflecting users' subjective perceptions of time in hardware and software alike. DESIGNING AND ENGINEERING TIME: PSYCHOLOGY OF TIME PERCEPTION IN SOFTWARE PSYCHOLOGY AND SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT is an excellent title for any library strong in software development or psychology.

I just finished reading this. While primarily a developer and software architect by trade, I have a strong interest in design. This book is on my shelf and will be reread. The author has created an insightful, funny, and somewhat thought provoking easy read that everyone, from novice to expert, will find of benefit.

Seow presents an easy to read book about the importance of subjective time passage to a user of a computer program. The discussion includes the establishing of user-centric metrics, which are [or should be] decoupled from the technology.

So naturally, the emphasis is on the user interface. When something is happening inside the program, that takes some time duration long enough to be detected by the user, then the UI might or should have some acknowledgment or feedback in visual form. To assuage the user's perception. The simplest case is of moving graphics, that at least indicates that the program is not frozen. The book explains how, if you can provide more substantive feedback, to do so.

Like perhaps subsuming and not displaying deep technical details about what the program is doing, if this is irrelevant to your typical user. If the program can estimate reasonably accurately the percentage of progress to completion, then the UI should update this as the program churns along.