Designing Interactions
Reviewed by Robert Pritchett
Introduction
“In Designing Interactions, award-winning designer Bill Moggridge introduces us
to forty influential designers who have shaped our interaction with technology.
Moggridge, designer of the first laptop computer (the GRiD Compass, 1981) and a
founder of the design firm IDEO, tells us these stories from an industry
insider's viewpoint, tracing the evolution of ideas from inspiration to
outcome.”
What I Learned
Bill Moggridge has done a marvelous job gathering
information on the thought-processes behind the design of new or improved
technologies by folks who really got into the trenches and did the footwork in
“High Tech”.
I’m amazed at how many of the people he interviewed were in
one way or another associated with Apple Corporation or touched one way or
another through their interaction with IDEO –
http://www.ideo.com/, so
I see the book as a promo-piece for his company. Getting past that obvious
marketing ploy, the content is really excellent. However, I hate re-reading
stuff and I found that each section opens with a picture of the interviewee and
an executive summary (no heading) of their work – later repeated in whole
or part within the chapter.
One other thing I liked about this book is that each
interview pretty much segues into the next, so the flow follows function
nicely.
Conclusion
If you want to know who did what with whom somewhere in many
sections of the electronic age, then enjoy reading this book. I see Designing
Interactions as a book that could begin a
series on background and snapshots in time on the history of innovation and
design.
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