Customer Reviews

HCI Remixed: Reflections on Works That Have Influenced the HCI Community

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This is a wonderful book that is also a very quick read. At the same time, it's also highly rewarding to read. Erickson & McDonald did a great job of obtaining short essays from a collection of HCI researchers (including those who have helped to define the field, those who are shaping the field, and those who are just beginning). In these essays, each author reflects on one work that is 10 years or older that deeply influenced her/his own research. Even though I've read about many of the referenced projects, though these essays, I developed a completely new found understanding of their significance. As I think back to those original projects, I am able to better appreciate them and the research progress that has been made over the years (and the work that remains).

I would love to see a second volume of this book. There's just so many more researchers out there to whom the question of "what influenced your work" could be asked!

HCI Remixed provides an interesting history of the young field of human-computer interaction (HCI) through reflections on high-impact papers in the field. Each chapter is a brief 4-6 page essay by a single current researcher or practitioner in the field of HCI, reflecting on a paper that they found important. The book's 51 divided into seven loosely-defined sections. The two editors provide a brief introduction to each of the seven sections.

I'd read many of the original papers before, but this book provided the opportunity to see how the papers impacted active researchers in the field--often in surprising and deeply personal ways. And for papers I hadn't read, the essay provided a great introduction to a topic. I've used this for multiple groups of undergrad researchers and I've recommended chapters to grad students and other researchers. It seems to work best for people who have (or want) an understanding of the history of HCI from some of the top people in the field. It's not necessarily a great first book for the field, but it provides a great and highly personal reflection of some influential ideas in HCI.