Showing posts with label information architecture. Show all posts
Showing posts with label information architecture. Show all posts

Artifice and Design: Art and Technology in Human Experience Review

Artifice and Design: Art and Technology in Human Experience
Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)
Are you looking to buy Artifice and Design: Art and Technology in Human Experience? Here is the right place to find the great deals. we can offer discounts of up to 90% on Artifice and Design: Art and Technology in Human Experience. Check out the link below:

>> Click Here to See Compare Prices and Get the Best Offers

Artifice and Design: Art and Technology in Human Experience ReviewIf you are interested in the relationship between art and technology, this book is a must read. In Allen's first book, Truth in Philosophy, he argues that truth is not fundamentally propositional, not a function of correspondence with reality. In his second book, Knowledge & Civilization, he reorients epistemology within an evolutionary and ecological framework. In this, his most recent book, he offers a fascinating analysis of the relationship between art and technology, not in opposition, but as interdependent aspects of human evolution. Highly recommended!Artifice and Design: Art and Technology in Human Experience Overview"As familiar and widely appreciated works of modern technology, bridges are a good place to study the relationship between the aesthetic and the technical. Fully engaged technical design is at once aesthetic and structural. In the best work (the best design, the most well made), the look and feel of a device (its aesthetic, perceptual interface) is as important a part of the design problem as its mechanism (the interface of parts and systems). We have no idea how to make something that is merely efficient, a rational instrument blindly indifferent to how it appears. No engineer can design such a thing and none has ever been built."--from Artifice and DesignIn an intriguing book about the aesthetics of technological objects and the relationship between technical and artistic accomplishment, Barry Allen develops the philosophical implications of a series of interrelated concepts-knowledge, artifact, design, tool, art, and technology-and uses them to explore parallel questions about artistry in technology and technics in art. This may be seen at the heart of Artifice and Design in Allen's discussion of seven bridges: he focuses at length on two New York bridges--the Hell Gate Bridge and the Bayonne Bridge--and makes use of original sources for insight into the designers' ideas about the aesthetic dimensions of their work.Allen starts from the conviction that art and technology must be treated together, as two aspects of a common, technical human nature. The topics covered in Artifice and Design are wide-ranging and interdisciplinary, drawing from evolutionary biology, cognitive psychology, and the history and anthropology of art and technology. The book concludes that it is a mistake to think of Art as something subjective, or as an arbitrary social representation, and of Technology as an instrumental form of purposive rationality. "By segregating art and technology," Allen writes, "we divide ourselves against ourselves, casting up self-made obstacles to the ingenuity of art and technology."

Want to learn more information about Artifice and Design: Art and Technology in Human Experience?

>> Click Here to See All Customer Reviews & Ratings Now
Read More...

A Pattern Approach to Interaction Design Review

A Pattern Approach to Interaction Design
Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)
Are you looking to buy A Pattern Approach to Interaction Design? Here is the right place to find the great deals. we can offer discounts of up to 90% on A Pattern Approach to Interaction Design. Check out the link below:

>> Click Here to See Compare Prices and Get the Best Offers

A Pattern Approach to Interaction Design ReviewThis is a deeply disappointing book, typical of a field in which approbation by academic peers seems to be much more important than delivering real help to those designing real user interfaces.
I had hoped for a book dominated by a collection of patterns describing how users interact with technology, particularly computers. Instead the first 3/8 of the book is given over to an almost blow by blow account of each contribution to the development of patterns, their application to IT and finally to HCI. There is actually one important message, that patterns can aid communication not only between IT professionals, but also between professionals and users, as a way of describing both the problem domain and the proposed solution. However, this was almost buried in a detailed discussion of pattern format, which is much less important.
I very nearly gave up reading at this point, which would have been a pity, since the central chapter of the book contains some interesting patterns, albeit of limited practical use. The "How to Play the Blues" pattern language is an entertaining demonstration of how to use patterns to describe a problem domain, while the patterns for interactive exhibits are a good set of HCI patterns, although focusing on the interaction of regular users with business computer software would be of more general practical use. I also really liked the pattern layout, relying on typography and styles rather than headings to standardise the structure, which definitely enhanced readability.
Unfortunately the book does not sustain the interest, and after a single chapter on patterns returns to a strange and lengthy self-review, to the extent of reprinting the review comments the author received on a draft version. This is ridiculous.
The book's malaise seems to be symptomatic of the whole discipline. The referenced web sites and books are not much better, with all but a few noble exceptions concentrating on academic discussions about patterns, rather than building a real pattern collection.
I am convinced that patterns can be really useful in the area of human-computer interaction and user interface design, just as they have been in many other areas of IT. I also think the arguments about style and format will be won by the author of the first good book that concentrates on building a comprehensive and readable set of useful real-world HCI patterns. This isn't it.A Pattern Approach to Interaction Design OverviewA much-needed guide on how to apply patterns in user interface designWhile the subject of design patterns for software development has been covered extensively, little has been written about the power of the pattern format in interface design. A Pattern Approach to Interactive Design remedies this situation, providing for the first time an introduction to the concepts and application of patterns in user interface design. The author shows interface designers how to structure and capture user interface design knowledge from their projects and learn to understand each other's design principles and solutions. Key features of this book include a comprehensive pattern language for the interface design of interactive exhibits as well as a thorough introduction to original pattern work and its application in software development. The book also offers invaluable practical guidance for interface designers, project managers, and researchers working in HCI, as well as for designers of interactive systems.

Want to learn more information about A Pattern Approach to Interaction Design?

>> Click Here to See All Customer Reviews & Ratings Now
Read More...

Mobile Computing Principles: Designing and Developing Mobile Applications with UML and XML Review

Mobile Computing Principles: Designing and Developing Mobile Applications with UML and XML
Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)
Are you looking to buy Mobile Computing Principles: Designing and Developing Mobile Applications with UML and XML? Here is the right place to find the great deals. we can offer discounts of up to 90% on Mobile Computing Principles: Designing and Developing Mobile Applications with UML and XML. Check out the link below:

>> Click Here to See Compare Prices and Get the Best Offers

Mobile Computing Principles: Designing and Developing Mobile Applications with UML and XML ReviewPlease excuse English. This is a very good book for learning mobile applications in US and Europe. Also, a lot of good new things on UML and XML. But, I would have liked to see more on the Japanese Mobile development. I think this is good as a text book in class room or reference. I would like to have more introductions to UML than 1 chapter. The UML is more advanced in this book. Also lot of good location and voice informations.Mobile Computing Principles: Designing and Developing Mobile Applications with UML and XML OverviewWritten to address the technical concerns faced by mobile developers, this book explores the differences between mobile and stationary applications and the architectural and software development concepts needed to build mobile applications. Reza B'Far guides the developer through the development process, using UML from design to implementation. He focuses on general concepts, while using platforms as examples or as possible tools. After introducing UML, XML, and the derivative tools necessary for developing mobile software applications, B'Far demonstrates how to build user interfaces for mobile applications.

Want to learn more information about Mobile Computing Principles: Designing and Developing Mobile Applications with UML and XML?

>> Click Here to See All Customer Reviews & Ratings Now
Read More...