Human-Computer Interaction
Jenny Preece, Yvonne Rogers, Helen Sharp, David Benyon, Simon Holland & Tom Carey
This is a very accessible textbook on HCI, delving as deeply into anthropology and perception as it does design and useability -- which only makes sense. In fact, during one chapter, I was surprised to see a discussion about such specific issues as which widowing control "slider" worked better and lent itself to the most intuitive use. Given the great amount of theory, this much detail was a weird snack indeed!
Speaking of snack, the book is distinctly English-flavored (excuse me -- "flavoured"), which is interesting. As a continuing example, the authors use a "Euro-Change" machine which converts among various European currencies (yes, this is a bogus concept now, but it was important at one time). Had the book been written in the US, I would have expected something that would, say, convert various phrases across regional dialects. For example, "Ayeh" translates from New England to Oregon's "Really?" Ha-ha. I kill me.
