Category Archives: books
Random thoughts on consciousness and physical experience, coming together
I just had one of those wonderful moments where a bunch of ideas that had been floating around in my head for a number of years came together and made sense, thanks to a section of Alva Noë’s book Out … Continue reading
MAKE: Electronics: I love this book!
Make: Electronics, Charles Platt.  © 2009 Make Books, Sebastapol, CA; 1st edition ISBN: 0596153740 Just go buy it. It’s the best introductory book I’ve read on electronics. To start with, the book is gorgeous.  Maybe you can’t judge a book by … Continue reading
Emotional Design
Emotional Design: Why We Love (Or Hate) Everyday Things Donald A. Norman. Basic books, ©2005. ISBN: 0465051367. In this book, Norman counters some of the points he makes in his first book, The Design of Everyday Things, by pointing out … Continue reading
Fashioning Technology
Fashioning Technology: a DIY Intro to Smart Crafting Syuzi Pakhchyan. Make books, ©2008. ISBN: 0596514379. This is a really great book for anyone interested in physical computing. It includes a nice introduction to basic electronics and a number of construction … Continue reading
Sketching User Experiences: Getting the Design Right and the Right Design
Sketching User Experiences: Getting the Design Right and the Right Design Bill Buxton…. Then he launches into a discussion of what a sketch of an interactive experience is, and gives a number of good examples of interactive sketches and sketching methods.
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Shaping Things
Bruce Sterling’s take on a plausible future in which everything made has a network address, and therefore a documented and documentable history. He takes this vision to its extreme, showing how it changes everything from design to manufacturing to consumption to disposal of material goods.
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Where The Action Is: Foundations of Embodied Interaction
He does a great job explaining physical interaction design, justifying it as a practice, and detailing the consequences of that practice. He also covers a lot of history of embodied interaction and ubiquitous computing and discusses some philosophical roots of his thinking, all in a very readable style. Continue reading
722 Miles: The Building of the Subways …
“722 Miles: The Building of the Subways and How They Transformed New York” (Clifton Hood) Johns Hopkins Univ Pr; ISBN: 0801852447; Reprint edition © 1995.A great read about the history of the New York City subway system. Also an excellent analysis of the political and technical difficulties of building a complex network. Continue reading
The Art of Interactive Design
“The Art of Interactive Design: A Euphonious and Illuminating Guide to Building Successful Software” (Chris Crawford) ©2002 No Starch Press; ISBN: 1886411840Written in a very casual style, this book nevertheless is an excellent and concise summary of what interaction design is, why it is important, and what problems it brings with it. Anyone seriously interested in interaction design, physical or not, should read this book. Continue reading
The Art of Electronics
The Art of ElectronicsPaul Horowitz, Winfield Hill. ©1989, Cambridge University Press, ISBN 0-521-37095-7For more advanced coverage of electronics, but still accessible to the non-engineeer, this is an invaluable reference.
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