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5th out of 30 books
—
16 voters
Designing for Interaction: Creating Innovative Applications and Devices
by
Dan Saffer
Building products and services that people interact with is the big challenge of the 21st century. Dan Saffer has done an amazing job synthesizing the chaos into an understandable, ordered reference that is a bookshelf must-have for anyone thinking of creating new designs."
-- Jared Spool, CEO of User Interface Engineering
Interaction design is all around us. If you've ever...more
-- Jared Spool, CEO of User Interface Engineering
Interaction design is all around us. If you've ever...more
Paperback, 223 pages
Published
August 1st 2009
by New Riders Publishing
(first published July 18th 2006)
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Dan Saffer's book is a thorough yet high-level look at the emerging and evolving practice of Interaction Design. Although each chapter could easily be its own book — and in most cases, such books exist — the shallow-yet-broad scope of Designing For Interaction was appealing. Each chapter is sprinkled with interesting interviews with top-notch designers and educators: Hugh Dubberly, Shelley Evenson, Larry Tesler, and more.
With that said, I have two criticisms of this book:
First, in easily 50% of...more
With that said, I have two criticisms of this book:
First, in easily 50% of...more
Dan Saffer's book is full of design laws and rules of thumb, including the disproven "magic number seven" rule for number of items on a given page that users should be allowed to choose from. This refers to a study done in the 1950s that revealed that most people can hold no more than 7 random bits of information in their head at any given time. However, more recent studies have shown that if the information bits are somehow related to each other, the human mind has a much greater capacity for r...more
I would've given it a higher rating if he hadn't pulled so liberally from the graduate curriculum of Carnegie Mellon's Master of Design program without citing his sources. A single mention of the school in the introduction, and a single mention of the architect/pioneer of the philosophy that the MDes programs espouse, is not at all adequate.
Otherwise, though, the stuff he wrote on his own is a pretty good primer of interaction and user experience design.
Otherwise, though, the stuff he wrote on his own is a pretty good primer of interaction and user experience design.
Aug 03, 2011
Deniss Rutseikov Ojastu
rated it
4 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
innovation
Although written for designers, the book provides structure for managing creativity when coming up with new services and products. Useful for people dealing with new product development and for entrepreneurs in general - as it focuses greatly on user needs and user appreciation of his/her interaction with the product/service. Nice examples and interesting peek into the future of systems around us as well as their design needs.
Many passages seemed too basic - like explaining why design for servic...more
Many passages seemed too basic - like explaining why design for servic...more
I'm not giving this book a top rating, but that's only because I used a single chapter from it in the framework of my design thesis on border security and therefore cannot speak to the book as a whole. Specifically, I read the chapter on service design, which incorporates scholarship from experience design. Saffer's frameworks are clear and easy to understand, and his commitment to the art is obvious. I recommend Saffer to anyone who wants to know what service design is and how it should work. I...more
I found this to be a very top-level overview. If it's your first book about IXD, that might be good, but if you have read many others you can probably skip it.
Oct 08, 2010
Marcia Johnston
rated it
2 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
professional-development
An okay intro to design principles. I especially liked the interviews with designers sprinkled throughout. Overall, though, not as helpful a book as it could be.
Covers a lot of essential interaction design works, computer and other real world designs. Sometimes gets a bit too simple..
to better understand what my husband does with his work days - pretty fascinating sofar
Excellent as an overview of doing design, including things that might be considered business strategy, which I like. This book avoids falling into the trap of talking about design as pretty things, and provides an overview of the different approaches to design, and has pointers to other books and resources for learning more. My only criticism is that it can't devote very many words to each topic, because it's a general overview of design rather than a thorough handbook, so you really need to loo...more
Not really that great of a design book to read. Just a listing of techniques and workflows.
I was impressed by the organization and conceptual clarity of this book. Saffer also provided multiple perspectives and indicated when a point of view was controversial. I appreciated his final chapter on ethics. I've never seen a design book that deals with the ethical responsibility of designers before.
Sep 25, 2008
Rick
rated it
3 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
Interaction Designers
Recommended to Rick by:
Amazon.com
Dan Saffer is a Senior Interaction Designer for Adaptive Path, one of the premier interaction design firms in the world. The book is an easy read and provides great insight to anyone wanting to learn more about interaction design.
For a basic overview of Interaction Design, I liked how this book was presented. It was clear and easy to read. Compared to some of the other books chosen for my course this one was usually a preferred resource for me.
Somehow Mr. Saffer managed to take what should be a fun & interesting topic to anyone who loves & lives computers and he made it dull-academic-wire-grey-academic-framed-dull.
I couldn't finish it.
I couldn't finish it.
Sep 26, 2008
Pete
rated it
3 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
someone who doesn't know anything about web/interaction design
First half was really pretty good. It gets pretty watered down after a while, explaining simple concepts that any first year designer would know.
Apr 16, 2009
Chris
rated it
4 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
product Managers, product designers, web desigers,
Good foundation for the discipline. Well written and concise. A little lofty at times.
A gentle introduction to what the heck Interaction Designers generally do.
Fall 2011 text book.
May 21, 2013
Iana
marked it as to-read
May 16, 2013
Chris
marked it as to-read
May 07, 2013
Cam
marked it as to-read
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“There's an old joke among software developers. When something works in an unexpected but strangely effective way, the developers often kid, "Oh, that's not a bug. That's a future." While this is usually a joke, designers can use the same technique of reframing the problem when tackling their own projects. In fact, there's an old joke among designers: "It's not a problem. It's an opportunity.”
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