Dust or Magic provides a simple, consistent and convincing paradigm for satisfying and successful creative work. Drawing together a wealth of knowledge and experience Dust or Magic reveals the key to designing accomplished interactive computer-based media. It will show you how to: * ask the crucial questions at the start of a project * increase the productivity, effectiveness and enjoyment of your work * create and manage small teams * understand the history of the medium and your place within it.
Book Description
Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com Review
Dust or Magic is both an anecdotal history book and an inspirational guide. It is difficult to categorize--it is about multimedia, whether your definition of that is a CD-ROM, a Web site, or an interactive video project. But it is also about the founders of the industry, the pioneers that stretched the boundaries and were able to bring to market products that didn't have a specific audience and yet were hugely successful.
Apple's HyperCard, and its developer Bill Atkinson, serve as a prime example for much of the information cited throughout the book. The focus, though, avoids the invention of the HyperCard in lieu of the difficulties Atkinson faced trying to define his product for consumers, tracing it from conception to approval to delivery.
Dust or Magic introduces the founders of the multimedia industry to many of the young people thinking about entering it; the book sets the record straight for kids who grew up believing Myst spawned the CD-ROM industry, or who envision the Web as the complete manifestation of multimedia.
Bodies that can push pixels we have; project managers of teams we need. Managers that understand where the industry originated so that they can make an educated guess about where it's going can make better decisions during development.
Dust or Magic can put things in perspective if you are new to the business, or refresh your memory if you were around when If Monks Had Macs shipped (1988, in case you're too young.) --Mike Caputo
From the Back Cover
Will your idea turn into Dust or Magic? It's in your hands!
Many creative careers and financial fortunes rest on potentially "breakthrough" digital media projects - which can end in tears, or turn to magic. This innovative book examines, in depth, how to create that magic.
In Dust or Magic, Bob Hughes delves deep beneath the gloss and the hype surrounding multimedia, to reveal the human beings who make the magic, and to show how it happens. The book draws together a wealth of knowledge and experience, with insights from recent science and older creative industries, and reveals the key to designing accomplished interactive computer-based media. It presents a simple, consistent and convincing paradigm for satisfying and successful creative work, and gives practical advice that will save designers from falling into old traps and re-inventing perfectly good wheels.
Dust or Magic is for programmers, writers, artists, animators and interface designers, for the people who teach, lead and hire them, and also for people who simply want to know how human creativity fares in the new, digital age.
If you are embarking on an adventure in multimedia, this great new source book will help you achieve your goals, avoid the pitfalls and meet the challenges you will face.
It will show you how to:
* Ask the crucial questions at the start of your project, making the difference between success and failure
* Harness your time and energy to increase the productivity, effectiveness and enjoyment of your work
* Create and manage small teams with a shared vision founded on trust, respect and self-discipline
* Understand the history of the medium and realize the importance of your place within it
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Changed my life,
By Murkle Vandergorb "Frandbangle" (Brooklyn, NY United States) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Dust or Magic (Paperback)
I am an art director for an ad agency, and I design web sites. I discovered this brilliant book at the perfect time. It has made me a better designer and re-awakened my passion for what I do. This small volume is not simply a great design resource: it delves remarkably deeply into the philosophical, spiritual and even political dimensions of design, showing how and why we must infuse the work we do with heart and soul. And lest I make it sound airy-fairy, it's not; It's rigorous, practical and muscular, with not a wasted sentence. And fun to read, too. Bravo.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Read it in the bath.,
By damien cola (France) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Dust or Magic (Paperback)
I know a bit of the history of interactive media, but the more I learn the more I see I don't know nothing. Well this book is helpful on the historical side, because it is talking about the people who do the things. It is helpful also when the third part of the book talk about the creative process, and how to defend yourself against people like bad managers, annoying customers and other supicious bosses.. By giving you some hints on what to replay, when somebody tells you "what ? you're doing nothing but thinking for about an hour and you still have no idea ! hurry up!" And finally, I liked reading the book, because you don't have to be in front of a computer to test examples or whatever, this book is CD-free and is proper to go on vacation, or to offer a friend or to read in the bath... I forgot, but there are also lots of internet links to deeper informations on every topics discussed in the book, well if you like reading a book in front of your computer, you also can. Like the bible, it is a book that you can read more than once..
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Not just multimedia,
By
This review is from: Dust or Magic (Paperback)
An exceptional book on the creative process in the IT sector, and how to make the process productive.
Despite the title and the editorial here on Amazon, it's much more than design or history of multimedia; it gives an excellent view of the priorities of human/artifact interactions (software or doorknobs), and highlights many ways of getting much more out of IT than most systems achieve. The 'stuffed dog' analogy is one of the most serious criticisms of the current attitude toward human-computer interactions that I've heard.
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