Amazon.co.uk Review
Information appliances are the devices used to provide interaction between a consumer and a product: the layout of buttons on a remote control for a television and the instructions packaged with a board game are two typical examples. But logos, or the design on a drinking glass, are also information appliances. This book marks the start of a quest for the coming decades--to improve in every respect the flow of information through interaction with the tools that surround us, from the technology of Web site design and result displays within a computer program to the operation of a palmtop and the functionality of a mobile telephone.
Information Appliances and Beyond opens with a fascinating conversation with design expert Don Norman on the subject of "making technology invisible", and goes on to cover in considerable detail issues such as design and implementation, and a new concept-driven product development cycle for creating and evaluating practical information appliances. One of the book's strengths is the way it goes straight to the heart of the matter, and consults experts who have created renowned successes in the field of human/technological interfaces. A long chapter on the user interface design for a vehicle navigation system (with maps, traffic, weather and directory services at finger's touch) guides the reader through the rationale applied to the use of many simple screens displayed in succession.
The variety of chapter subjects and unusual mix of graphic and literary styles make this book a comprehensive and ever interesting survey of what is being accomplished--and what can be done better--in an important area. --Wilf Hey
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