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Book Review: Designing Interactions

Book | Author | Review

By Gerd Waloszek, SAP User Experience, SAP AG – 03/22/2007

This review is a personal review of Bill Moggridge's book Designing Interactions.

Book

Cover of Designing Interactions     

Bill Moggridge
Designing Interactions
MIT Press (2006)
ISBN: 9780262134743

General, Design

 

 

Author

Bill MoggridgeBill Moggridge is a cofounder of IDEO, a firm that helps companies innovate through the design of products, services, environments, and digital experiences. After training in industrial design in London, Bill's first professional experience was in the USA. He returned to London to found his own company, Moggridge Associates, building a product design and development company with clients worldwide, and joining David Kelley and Mike Nuttall to form IDEO in 1991. Bill's first interest is to design products for people to use with satisfaction and enjoyment. In 1980 he designed the first ever laptop computer, the GRiD Compass. During the next few years he pioneered user interface design as a discipline to be an integrated part of product development, and coined the name Interaction Design. He has developed a process for the strategic use of design for innovation, which helps companies to understand and evaluate opportunities for new product development.
(Taken from www.stanford.edu, adapted)

 

Review

When I received Bill Moggridge's book Designing Interactions, a book about interaction design and the evolution of graphical user interfaces, I immediately thought, "Wow! Will I ever manage to get through that book," considering that I had to read quite a few other books as well. Moggridge's book boasts more than 760 pages and at nearly 2300g – according to our kitchen scales – is not really a pocket-sized book to carry with you. So, I plowed my way through the book and, having arrived at page 464 of 735 (pure text), decided to start with the review – to ensure that it would not transcend into never-never land. Since then, I have progressed further and already scanned the remainder of the book. As far as I could see, the remaining pages were certainly very interesting – they take you into the future of interaction design.

Overview

Moggridge's book features more than 40 interviews with people who were influential in the development of modern user interfaces, arranged into ten chapters, or topics. The book is accompanied by a DVD, which contains 2-3 minute video clips showing segments of these interviews. Those interviewed include Doug Engelbart, Stuart Card, Bill Atkinson, Bert Keely, David Liddle, David Kelley, Brenda Laurel, Terry Winograd, Hiroshi Ishii, Anthohy Dunne, and Steve Rogers (who recently gave a presentation at SAP). I have only listed these names because they were familiar to me before I read the book, so, it's definitely an arbitrary selection.

Xerox Alto  
Xerox Star
 
Apple Lisa

Figure 1: Three computer "classics" – the Xerox Alto (top left), the Xerox Star (top right), and the Apple Lisa (bottom) (photos see below)

The book is not just a collection of "typical" question-and-answer interviews. Instead, Moggridge provides a framework for each chapter as well as for the interviews themselves, into which he blends longer quotes from the interviews. This probably makes his book easier to read in the long run and also provides a more consistent picture of the "story."

Let me provide you with a short and incomplete overview of the book's topics and chapters:

  1. The mouse and the desktop
    The first chapter retuns to the very early days of graphical user interfaces. It revisits Xerox PARC and explains how Doug Engelbart invented the mouse and created the NLS system. You learn how Tim Mott invented the desktop metaphor, how Stuart Card introduced methodology to HCI (or how "he invented a supporting science for the design of human-computer interaction"), and how Larry Tesler brought participatory design and usability testing to Xerox PARC. You will also encounter the legendary Xerox Alto and Star computers.
  2. My PC
    The second chapter looks at two more legendary computers, Apple's Lisa and Macintosh. It discusses Bill Atkinson's contributions to the Mac and HyperCard and tells the stories of the Apple and Microsoft mice (the latter was developed by Paul Bradley). Then the chapters jumps ahead in time and interviews Cordell Ratzlaff about his contributions to Mac OS X. In the middle of the chapter, Bill Verplank presents his view of interaction design.
  3. From the desk to the Palm
    Portable computers are the topic of the third chapter. First, Alan Kay and his visionary Dynabook are introduced. John Ellenby's GRiD Compass computer follows, which was more or less the first "real" laptop computer (compared to the "sewing machine design" of the Osborne computer or the Tandy 4p, which I once owned). Bert Keely and the Tablet PC are introduced, and finally, palm computing is addressed: You will read about Jeff Hawkins, Rob Haitani, and Dennis Boyle, as well as the accompanying stories of the PalmPilot and Handspring Visor palmtop computers.
  4. Adopting technology
    The next chapter sets off with David Liddle who is known for formulating the three stages of technology adoption. Then Mat Hunter and Rikako Sakai are introduced, who pioneered digital photography. David Kelley from IDEO is interviewed about appliances, and Paul Mercer about the Apple iPod.
  5. Play
    According to Moggridge, "this chapter looks at the attributes that make the design of interactive play succeed." It introduces Brenda Laurel and her work on games for young girls, Bing Gordon who pioneered computer games, Brendan Boyle from IDEO who invented many successful toys and games, and finally Will Wright, the mastermind behind the Sims, a series of simulation games for computers.
  6. Services
    This chapter is devoted to the design of services, such as telephone services. Keiichi Enoki, Mar Matsunga, and Takeshi Natsuno report on the successful Japanese i-mode telephone service. Chris Downs, Ben Reason, and Lavrans Lövlie from Live|Work talk about their view of designing services. Finally, IDEO's Fran Samalionis is interviewed on service innovation.
  7. The Internet
    This chapter does not tell the complete story of the Internet. Instead, it starts just after the dot.com crash. Terry Winograd talks about the difference between the Internet and the Web and about ubiquitous computing. He is a regular consultant for Google, whose founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin were interviewed in 2002 before the breakthrough of the company. Then Steve Rogers follows, who led the team responsible for redesigning the new BBCi homepage. Finally, Mark Podlaseck reports on the design of the Glass Engine, a Website presenting over 60 music works by Philip Glass.
  8. Multisensory and multimedia
    Chapter eight "explores the opportunities for interaction design to become multisensory and to take advantage of multimedia. Hiroshi Ishii from the Tangible Media Group at MIT Media Lab, who introduced the concept of "tangible bits," is interviewed. Durrel Bishop, the designer of the Tea Diving game, and Joy Mountford, who talks about QuickTime and QuickTime VR, follow. The chapter closes with an interview with Bill Gaver who started with designing sounds and now "explores the possibilities of technology in a context of aesthetic and cultural consequences."
  9. Futures and alternatives now
    First, Anthony Dunne and Fiona Raby present their "alternatives now" approach, which is closer to art than to pragmatic UI design. Then, Moggridge talks with John Maeda about his "simplicity" initiative, the essence of which is summarized in Maeda's ten laws of simplicity. Finally, Jun Rekimoto who "is working on the interface of the future" talks about ubiquitous computing as an alternative to today's GUIs.
  10. People and prototypes
    In the last chapter, Bill Moggridge provides an overview of his own approach to interaction design. He focuses on involving people and using prototypes.

The book closes with notes for the different chapters, including interview dates.

Comments

When I showed Moggridge's book to a young colleague, telling her that the book comprises "all the stories from the beginning of graphical user interfaces until today" she did not share my enthusiasm about the book. Maybe, it's the difference in generations that accounted for the discrepancy. I have to admit that my "computer career" started long before the Xerox Star. In a way, the days of the first personal computers were somewhat like my adolescence with computers. There is no questioning that I like to look back and recall how all that started, learn about the people who were involved. Some of the names and faces were already familiar to me, others were new. I still remember the crowds around the Apple booth at the Hanover fair, when they demonstrated the new Lisa. "Lisa? Never heard of it" is the usual reaction of younger colleagues when I talk about this revolutionary computer. But this is not the place for complaining. In general, the history of computers may be or more interest to those people who took part in the evolution of computers or at least greater parts of it. But I would have been wrong if I had concluded that my above-mentioned colleague was not interested in the book. She was, however, much more attracted by the chapters on design, probably because she has as an education in design.

Doug Engelbart   Stuart Card   Tim Mott   Larry Tesler

Figure 2: Four pioneers of the GUI – Doug Engelbart, Stuart Card, Tim Mott, Larry Tesler (from left to right; from book Website)

A few words on the DVD. While I was skeptical in the beginning, I found the DVD, which shows short snippets from the interviews, very exciting. As the interviews date back up to 2001 – with the most of them taken between 2003 and 2004, you may find that some of the interviewees may still have black hair in the interviews, but are gray now.

Final Word

This is definitely not a book to lend to other people – you will never get it back. Firstly, because it is so voluminous – it will take most people years to finish reading it. Secondly, as it is such a wonderful book, with all the pictures of old devices, their creators, and the videos, most people would probably prefer to keep it. So, you better rush out and get your own copy to dig into the history, as well as into the present and future trends of your own professional field – and probably your obsession, too.

By the way, by the end of March, Bill Moggridge and a few of his interviewees will appear in Potsdam, Germany, at the "Innovationsforum Interaktionsdesign" (innovation forum for interaction design). I am eagerly awaiting to see them live and "in person" and to listen to their presentations. In addition, as I already mentioned, I recently was able to attend a presentation by Steve Rogers at SAP in Walldorf, Germany.

 

References

Photos

 

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