Information Appliances and Beyond (Interactive Technologies) (Paperback)

by Eric Bergman (Author) "It's not helped by the fact that as more and more people use computers, the more you have to take any new software and make..." (more)
Key Phrases: netsmart technologies, squeeze aborts, squeezing sensors, Color Plate, New York, Microsoft Windows (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review
As computing expands beyond the Beige Box, multidisciplinary product teams are beginning to explore new ways of thinking about content delivery and user interfaces. Sun Microsystems interface expert Eric Bergman has done abundant pontificating and research on post-PC systems, and he (in concert with an eminent group of experts) shares it eloquently in Information Appliances and Beyond.

More practical than other books about the so-called post-PC era, Bergman explores the various manifestations of real-life, nontraditional computing devices (mobile phones, personal assistants, set-top boxes, animated toys, etc.). He displays and critiques various creations, detailing the tradeoffs designers make to accommodate both physical requirements (batteries and screen size, among others) and general human ideas about efficiency and pleasantness in a user interface. A section of full-color plates drives home the effect colors have on users' perceptions of interfaces.

One particular highlight surfaces during a protracted interview with Rob Haitani. Now with Handspring, Haitani was the project manager of the original PalmPilot, and he made numerous design decisions while developing the Palm OS. At one point in the wide-ranging interview, Haitani says, "[I]f you only read one book to understand handheld user interfaces, it should be Strunk and White's The Elements of Style." That's the kind of thinking that defines this book, and that's why it belongs on the reading list of everyone interested in the near future of computing and communications. --David Wall

Topics covered: Information appliances--including mobile phones, palmtop computers, Internet appliances, and on-board navigation devices for automobiles--and the way people use them. Specific products analyzed include the Netpliance i-opener, the Nokia 7110 mobile phone and 9110 keyboard-equipped communicator, and three operating systems: Palm OS, Microsoft Windows CE, and EPOC.

Review
This book is both visionary and practical: future consumer electronics, toys, and games need great usability or customers will abandon them. "My new cell-phone is so complicated that I need a two-week training class. Not!--Jakob Nielsen Usability Guru, Nielsen Norman Group

An important book. Anyone involved in either interaction design or the development of information appliances will find food for thought, and everyone in the industry should read Rob Haitani's observations about designing the PalmPilot.--Alan Cooper, Cooper Interaction Design -- Review

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Product Details

• Paperback: 384 pages
• Publisher: Morgan Kaufmann; 1st edition (February 1, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1558606009
• ISBN-13: 978-1558606005
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 7.2 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,397,011 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great book on a important topic, April 16, 2000

By A Customer

Well written and interesting to read, Information Appliances & Beyond is the lone book (at least that I've come across) that helps product designers create Information Appliances. The Interview with the creator of the Palm Pilot is excellent, as are the examples of the Nokia 7110 mobile phone, and the i-opener. Highly recommended to anyone with an interest in the future of consumer computing.

9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A superb book, May 13, 2000

By	Jonathan Koomey (Oakland, CA USA) - See all my reviews

Many information technology designers forget that the purpose of product design is not to display technical virtuosity, it is to help their users solve problems in the real world. This book, alone among those I've read, confronts this issue in a compelling and useful way. It's a "must read" for anyone thinking seriously about how to design information products.

8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent book, especially for designers, April 20, 2000

By	Matthew G. Belge (Lincoln, MA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

In this book, Eric Bergman surveys some of the most influential and thoughtful people in the user interface design world - Don Norman, Chuck Clanton, David Haitani (designer of the Palm Pilot) and more. Their comments are insightful, practical, and visionary at the same time. I particularly liked the chapters by David Haitani and the one by Chuck Clanton on computer game design. This book will be helpful to anyone who has designed software user interfaces for desktop machines or web sites and is now wondering what the brave new world of wireless devices might look like.

I find that I like read the chapters in order of what interests me, not necessarily in the order they are bound together in the book. And that is a strength of the book - it acts more like a reference than like a novel. In this way, it reminds me of Brenda Laurel's excellent book "The Art of Human Computer Interaction."