Designing Interactive Systems

Authoritative in its coverage, this innovative book takes a top-down approach, starting with what is familiar to students and working down to theory/abstract un... » 

Authoritative in its coverage, this innovative book takes a top-down approach, starting with what is familiar to students and working down to theory/abstract underpinnings. This makes it suitable for beginners with a less technical background as well as advanced students of HCI and can be used at all stages of the curriculum for courses in this dynamic field.

The book focuses on and explores this emerging discipline by bringing together the best practice and experience from HCI and interaction design (ID). The approach takes traditional human-centred concepts from HCI, but recognizes that we have gone beyond computers and are concerned with designing engaging interactions between people and a wide range of devices, products and systems. New areas explored include information appliances, supported cooperation and ubiquitous computing and systems.

A self-contained introduction followed by a systematic discussion of the influence of human psychology on the design of interactive systems, illustrated by many real-world examples Covers hot topics such as affective computing, social navigation and computer-supported cooperative work (CSCW) Coverage of a range of current methods, including contextual design and the latest thinking in evaluation Takes a human-centred approach to web design Introduces scenario-based design Running case studies (a home information system and a VR training environment) bring to life the complex real-world nature of HCI problems and demonstrate how they can be resolved using good-practice techniques Four colour text features engaging pedagogy such as challenging questions and real-world examples to help students in their learning and understanding and encourage them to think for themselves «