Technology as Experience
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Review
"This book makes us aware that there is more to using technology, particularly software, than analyzing keystroke protocols or watching people at workand of the creativity and openness with which people use and experience technology."Gerd Waloszek, SAP Design Guild, SAP.com " Technology as Experience expertly explores the emotional and aesthetic dimensions of technological encounters, from the visceral aspects of subjective experience to the cultural embeddedness and meaning surrounding artifacts and our experience of them." Paul Dourish , School of Information and Computer Science, University of California, Irvine " Technology as Experience expertly explores the emotional and aesthetic dimensions of technological encounters, from the visceral aspects of subjective experience to the cultural embeddedness and meaning surrounding artifacts and our experience of them." Paul Dourish , School of Information and Computer Science, University of California, Irvine "*Technology as Experience* expertly explores the emotional and aesthetic dimensions of technological encounters, from the visceral aspects of subjective experience to the cultural embeddedness and meaning surrounding artifacts and our experience of them."--Paul Dourish, School of Information and Computer Science, University of California, Irvine
Product Description
In Technology as Experience, John McCarthy and Peter Wright argue that any account of what is often called the user experience must take into consideration the emotional, intellectual, and sensual aspects of our interactions with technology. We don't just use technology, they point out; we live with it. They offer a new approach to understanding human-computer interaction through examining the felt experience of technology. Drawing on the pragmatism of such philosophers as John Dewey and Mikhail Bakhtin, they provide a framework for a clearer analysis of technology as experience.Just as Dewey, in Art as Experience, argued that art is part of everyday lived experience and not isolated in a museum, McCarthy and Wright show how technology is deeply embedded in everyday life. The "zestful integration" or transcendent nature of the aesthetic experience, they say, is a model of what human experience with technology might become.McCarthy and Wright illustrate their theoretical framework with real-world examples that range from online shopping to ambulance dispatch. Their approach to understanding human computer interaction -- seeing it as creative, open, and relational, part of felt experience -- is a measure of the fullness of technology's potential to be more than merely functional.
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First Sentence
A man who works in a library is having a normal working day: checking books in and out, helping people find the author they were looking for, organizing inter-library loans, and so on. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index
A man who works in a library is having a normal working day: checking books in and out, helping people find the author they were looking for, organizing inter-library loans, and so on. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
Format:Hardcover
This is a book that at first hand is hard to read, but as you go along there is some interesting points presented.
2 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
John McCarthy's and Peter Wright's book is fascinating because they grapple with some of today's major social, economic and interpersonal questions, such as what does technology mean and how can you determine its meaning? The authors move through several philosophical approaches that they find useful in framing these questions, review major thinkers in the field, and discuss case studies and personal experiences before reaching conclusions. The book is difficult, because of their academic bent. They are willing to break with existing practices enough to embrace emotional and subjective reactions to technology, but their writing can be thick and their conceptual apparatus is complex. As a result, the content is useful for futurists, those interested in social trends and change, and anyone working in information technology or marketing. However, getAbstract recommends their prose primarily to the more patient members of those categories.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
2 reviews
5 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Dense and complex treatise on experiencing technology
16 Mar 2009
Format:Hardcover
John McCarthy's and Peter Wright's book is fascinating because they grapple with some of today's major social, economic and interpersonal questions, such as what does technology mean and how can you determine its meaning? The authors move through several philosophical approaches that they find useful in framing these questions, review major thinkers in the field, and discuss case studies and personal experiences before reaching conclusions. The book is difficult, because of their academic bent. They are willing to break with existing practices enough to embrace emotional and subjective reactions to technology, but their writing can be thick and their conceptual apparatus is complex. As a result, the content is useful for futurists, those interested in social trends and change, and anyone working in information technology or marketing. However, getAbstract recommends their prose primarily to the more patient members of those categories.
7 of 12 people found the following review helpful
Obtuse
24 Jan 2009
Format:Paperback
The book looks slim before you open it, but seems too long once you start reading it.
As an interaction designer I was looking for ideas about how I could improve upon the experience of technology products. I was utterly disappointed. Not only does the book not offer any concrete suggestions on how to improve the user experience, between the lines, the book scoffs at others who try. E.g. "Our concern with... user experience in HCI is that business momentum may take a potentially rich idea and reduce it to design implications, methods, or features."
The main proposition of the book is fair enough: "We ought to think of people's experience with technology in terms of `felt life'. Users actively construct their experiences, that each person's experience is rich, sensual, unique and difficult to communicate and we can't design someone's experience in its entirety."
With expert verbosity they split this into six propositions and stretch it across 10 difficult to read pages in the first chapeter and elaborate upon it in four more chapters. After reading which, I felt that as a sensitive designer (if you pardon the boast) I already knew this. It would have been bearable had the authors gone ahead then and said what one ought to do in spite of this proposition, but sadly they don't.
The three case studies towards the end of the book are perhaps the most interesting part, but there too I found myself wishing that they had toned down the commentary that got repetitive, verbose and obvious.
Don't get me wrong. If you are theoretically inclined or if you enjoy reading verbose text, go ahead and order a copy. I didn't find anything mis-represented. On the other hand if you are looking for any practical suggestions for design, skip this one.
As an interaction designer I was looking for ideas about how I could improve upon the experience of technology products. I was utterly disappointed. Not only does the book not offer any concrete suggestions on how to improve the user experience, between the lines, the book scoffs at others who try. E.g. "Our concern with... user experience in HCI is that business momentum may take a potentially rich idea and reduce it to design implications, methods, or features."
The main proposition of the book is fair enough: "We ought to think of people's experience with technology in terms of `felt life'. Users actively construct their experiences, that each person's experience is rich, sensual, unique and difficult to communicate and we can't design someone's experience in its entirety."
With expert verbosity they split this into six propositions and stretch it across 10 difficult to read pages in the first chapeter and elaborate upon it in four more chapters. After reading which, I felt that as a sensitive designer (if you pardon the boast) I already knew this. It would have been bearable had the authors gone ahead then and said what one ought to do in spite of this proposition, but sadly they don't.
The three case studies towards the end of the book are perhaps the most interesting part, but there too I found myself wishing that they had toned down the commentary that got repetitive, verbose and obvious.
Don't get me wrong. If you are theoretically inclined or if you enjoy reading verbose text, go ahead and order a copy. I didn't find anything mis-represented. On the other hand if you are looking for any practical suggestions for design, skip this one.
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