Language and Communication: Essential Concepts for User Interface and Documentation Design [Hardcover]

Agnes Kukulska-Hulme (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0195108388 | ISBN-13: 978-0195108385 | Publication Date: April 1, 1999

Computer interfaces and documentation are notoriously difficult for any user, regardless of his or her level of experience. Advances in technology are not making applications more friendly. Introducing concepts from linguistics and language teaching, Language and Communication proposes a new approach to computer interface design. The book explains for the first time why the much hyped user-friendly interface is treated with such derision by the user community. The author argues that software and hardware designers should consider such fundamental language concepts as meaning, context, function, variety, and equivalence. She goes on to show how imagining an interface as a new language can be an invaluable design exercise, calling into question deeply held beliefs and assumptions about what users will or will not understand. Written for a wide range of computer scientists and professionals, and presuming no prior knowledge of language-related terminology, this volume is a key step in the on-going information revolution.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Like many other authors in technical communication and interface design, Agnes Kukulska-Hulme challenges us to know our audience. What she does that is different from other authors is to take this challenge to a higher level. She asks us to think about our audience in terms of the language we use in creating user interfaces and documentation. She wants us to critically review each word that we place on a screen or in a manual and think about how and what that word or group of words communicates to a user. ... In the introduction, Kukulska-Hulme states that this 'book aims to educate and to stimulate reflection, and the reader should soon become persuaded that even small changes, based on a better appreciation of language, can result in an improvement in design' (p. 18). This book is an excellent resource for all communicators and interface designers, and should be a required text for technical communication and interface design curricula."--Technical Communication

"The following readers will find the book especially relevant and helpful: computer professionals, especially application designers and developers, and operating-system user interface designers, usability specialists and human factors specialists, technical authors, information developers, writers of training materials, writers of independent user guides to popular applications, educational software designers, educational technologists, instructional system designers, students following courses in computer science, cognitive science, communication science, human-computer interaction, and artificial intelligence, students of technical writing and professional and business communication, academic, industrial and commercial researchers in the computer and cognitive science communities, technical managers involved in system prototyping and development or in documentation development, Web site designers, both amateur and professional."--Mathematics Abstracts

About the Author

Agnes Kukulska-Hulme is at Open University.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 176 pages
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA (April 1, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0195108388
• ISBN-13: 978-0195108385
• Product Dimensions: 9.7 x 6.3 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.7 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,189,780 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A must-read for all user-centered Web designers, July 17, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Language and Communication: Essential Concepts for User Interface and Documentation Design (Hardcover)

As a content strategist doing Web design everyday, I found this book to have a refreshing point of view, as well as an interesting and unique approach to the subject matter. The author uses specific examples to illustrate higher-level linguistic and, well, even philosophical principles. While the examples were generally taken from relatively "old" (in Web time) interfaces, it was these interfaces that shaped our expectations for what we see on the computer screen. And really, the examples aren't the point. The author makes an excellent case for the predominance of common language over technospeak, and in the process validifies the importance of linguistics in interface design. This book is a must-read for all user-centered Web designers.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Essential reading for Designers., July 31, 2000

By 

s b (worcester, uk) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Language and Communication: Essential Concepts for User Interface and Documentation Design (Hardcover)

Are you baffled by computer jargon? Do you find `Help' facilities meaningless because you don't use the right words? Are you confused by the metaphors used on an interface? If yes, then this book will certainly help you with your design problems. The reader is guided through the maze of interface design by consideration of language. Whether English is your first language, or if you are a non-native speaker hampered by communication difficulties, the hostile vocabulary of computer-screen terminology will be clarified by enhanced meanings and understanding. If every designer of user interfaces read this book, the world would be a better place purely as a result of thinking about other people's awareness and perceptions. People strive to be `computer literate' - but are computers `people literate'? The author here strives to ensure that in the future this will be so. The text uses plenty of examples from differing interfaces as well as giving an historical perspective; thus the reader can see that whilst progress has been made, there is still some way to go in establishing universal user-friendly interfaces. Essential reading which supplies much food for thought concerning interface design.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A fascinating read and a great developer's resource, July 25, 2000

By 

C. Castello - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Language and Communication: Essential Concepts for User Interface and Documentation Design (Hardcover)

Reading "Language and Communication" is like being a golfing amateur being taken round a course you're trying to master by a championship pro - one with a sense of humour, a great stock of anecdotes and an intimate knowledge of the course. Ms Kukulska-Hulme sets-out to describe "a range of language and communication concepts to ... professionals working in other fields" by "describing, explaining and questioning". She succeeds marvellously, inviting us to consider what real people do, think and say, both in the real world and when they use computer applications: she teases-out the problems they might have and then gives a linguistic perspective. In the process, she introduces us to precise and often subtle ideas, but avoids blinding us with linguistic jargon. A central theme of the book is that when a user is trying to master a new user interface s/he is effectively learning a new language - a process that is often complicated because the user interface gives new meanings to words the user already knows. A simple example of the consequences is that any index to the help system is acting as the boundary between the user's existing use of language and that of the application - so the index should be based on the language that the user might use to ask questions about the application, rather than just including the words used in the interface itself. The journey through the book is a stimulating one which leaves you with a deeper and wider general understanding of the issues, and with a very useful set of intellectual handles on the problems - and you can let yourself go with the flow, because each chapter ends with a very helpful bullet-point summary of what's in it. Along the way, the author makes many references to the work of other linguists, and the bibliography is a wonderful catalogue of further reading - as is another appendix on sources such as collections of English texts available on the Internet. These text banks let you to check whether the rest of the English-speaking world really does use words in the same way as you (think they) do! The final chapter is called "Making it Work" and is a grand collection of practical advice, from the philosophical to nitty-gritty detail - again all in bullet-point form, and an ideal set of guidelines in the making. "Language and Communication" is a fascinating read and a great resource to be kept to hand.