Brenda Laurel

Often neglected in the various curricula of design schools, the new models of design research described in this book help designers to investigate people, form, and process in ways that can make their work more potent and more delightful. The chapter authors come from diverse institutions and enterprises, including Stanford University, MIT, Intel, Maxis, Studio Anybody, Sweden's HUMlab, and Big Blue Dot. Each has something to say about how designers make themselves better at what they do through research, and illustrates it with real world examples: case studies, anecdotes, and images. Topics of this multi-voice conversation include qualitative and quantitative methods, performance ethnography and design improvisation, trend research, cultural diversity, formal and structural research practice, tactical discussions of design research process, and case studies drawn from areas as unique as computer games, museum information systems, and movies.

Methods and Perspectives

Design Research

A lucid and provocative study of the art/craft/business of optimal interfaces ... takes a highly original look at our imperfect relationships with our machines, then points the way to improving things. Fun, and of real importance. -- William Gibson.

Computers as Theatre

S. Joy Mountford

Deals with technologise such as cyberspace, animation, multimedia, and speech recognition. Also includes the philosophical and psychological background to creating effective interfaces.

The Art of Human-computer Interface Design

Denise Gonzales Crisp

Peter Lunenfeld

A guide to doing socially positive work in the context of business.

Utopian Entrepreneur

Presents a new theory of human-computer activity. Building on Aristotle's analysis of the form and structure of drama, Laurel shows how similiar principles can help us understand what people experience when interfacing with computers.

Brenda Laurel's Computers as Theatre revolutionized the field of human-computer interaction, offering ideas that inspired generations of interface and interaction designers-and continue to inspire them. Laurel's insight was that effective interface design, like effective drama, must engage the user directly in an experience involving both thought and emotion. Her practical conclusion was that a user's enjoyment must be a paramount design consideration, and this demands a deep awareness of dramatic theory and technique, both ancient and modern. Now, two decades later, Laurel has revised and revamped her influential work, reflecting back on enormous change and personal experience and forward toward emerging technologies and ideas that will transform human-computer interaction yet again. Beginning with a clear analysis of classical drama theory, Laurel explores new territory through the lens of dramatic structure and purpose. Computers as Theatre, Second Edition, is directed to a far wider audience, is written more simply and elegantly, is packed with new examples, and is replete with exciting and important new ideas. This book Draws lessons from massively multiplayer online games and systems, social networks, and mobile devices with embedded sensors Integrates values-driven design as a key principle Integrates key ideas about virtual reality Covers new frontiers, including augmented reality, distributed and participatory sensing, interactive public installations and venues, and design for emergence Once more, Brenda Laurel will help you see the connection between humans and computers as you never have before-and help you build interfaces and interactions that are pleasurably, joyously right!

Brenda Laurel

Books

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