Faulkner, however, endeavours to gently introduce relevant aspects of practical and theoretical HCI.

The book requires no previous or specialist knowledge. The aim is to make HCI skills a part of the general software engineering skill-set that the technical project teams possess.

HCI can be viewed as a specialist skill, but only when it is part of the generic engineering lifecycles will it make its true impact.

With this in mind Faulkner has put together a book that can key you into cconcepts and how they are realised, in quick and simple format.

Although this is not as detailed as some other books on usability engineering, it is not written for that purpose.

It is suitable not only for computer personnel who wish to add HCI to their own projects but also for managers who need to work with usability engineers, entry-level students and possibly end-users who will be required to participate in the usability engineering cycle.


Claudia in Republic of Trinidad & Tobago   April 5, 2002
Claudia L. White (Lower Santa Cruz, Trinidad & Tobago, WI)
1 out of 2 found this review helpful

I am about to pursue a degree program and human-computer interaction is one of the areas of study.

This book has given me an excellent introduction to the subject area. It was very easy and simple reading which gave me the "ESSENCE" of the subject area. Its layout and style would also prove useful for revision just before examinations. All that would be required of me now is to acquire a book that has case studies to build upon this foundation.

I was never aware that there was such an area of study called Human-Computer Interaction. This book has really highlighted the fact that while we may know about system analysis and design we tend to forget some of the "HUMAN" aspects of the user. We design things with the attitude that "the user has to get with the times".

I would recommend this book for reading even by novices.


Turn off the tape recorder   March 24, 2002
e_e (Menlo Park, CA USA)
2 out of 3 found this review helpful

This book reads like it was simply transcribed from tape recordings of lectures. I closed my eyes and I almost felt like I was sitting in an uncomfortable chair in a lecture hall in Southpark, England. Really, very little effort was made to smooth out the prose. More importantly, the book offers little in the way of insight into HCI. Perhaps this is because this discipline doesn't really have much to offer; I'll reserve judgment on that until I find a better book.

This book starts out with a fairly interesting discussion about memory, vision, and hearing, but then makes essentially no connection between these early chapters and what follows. Except for the Earth-shaking insights that users can't remember a list of more than seven random things, and some people are color blind, etc. there isn't much actionable information that will help you design a better UI.

I suppose the chapters on user testing were somewhat helpful in understanding what HCI professionals need to do to evaluate user satisfaction, but overall the book left me still searching for a better text. At this point I'd say the best book on UI design I've seen so far is Cooper's "About Face."