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Designing Interactions [With CDROM]

Bill Moggridge

3.97 · Rating details · 2,433 ratings · 37 reviews

Digital technology has changed the way we interact with everything from the games we play to the tools we use at work. Designers of digital technology products no longer regard their job as designing a physical object--beautiful or utilitarian--but as designing our interactions with it. In Designing Interactions, award-winning designer Bill Moggridge introduces us to forty Digital technology has changed the way we interact with everything from the games we play to the tools we use at work. Designers of digital technology products no longer regard their job as designing a physical object--beautiful or utilitarian--but as designing our interactions with it. In Designing Interactions, award-winning designer Bill Moggridge introduces us to forty influential designers who have shaped our interaction with technology. Moggridge, designer of the first laptop computer (the GRiD Compass, 1981) and a founder of the design firm IDEO, tells us these stories from an industry insider's viewpoint, tracing the evolution of ideas from inspiration to outcome. The innovators he interviews--including Will Wright, creator of The Sims, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, the founders of Google, and Doug Engelbart, Bill Atkinson, and others involved in the invention and development of the mouse and the desktop--have been instrumental in making a difference in the design of interactions. Their stories chart the history of entrepreneurial design development for technology.Moggridge and his interviewees discuss such questions as why a personal computer has a window in a desktop, what made Palm's handheld organizers so successful, what turns a game into a hobby, why Google is the search engine of choice, and why 30 million people in Japan choose the i-mode service for their cell phones. And Moggridge tells the story of his own design process and explains the focus on people and prototypes that has been successful at IDEO--how the needs and desires of people can inspire innovative designs and how prototyping methods are evolving for the design of digital technology.Designing Interactions is illustrated with more than 700 images, with color throughout. Accompanying the book is a DVD that contains segments from all the interviews intercut with examples of the interactions under discussion.Interviews with: Bill Atkinson - Durrell Bishop - Brendan Boyle - Dennis Boyle - Paul Bradley - Duane Bray - Sergey Brin - Stu Card - Gillian Crampton Smith - Chris Downs- Tony Dunne - John Ellenby - Doug Englebart - Jane Fulton Suri - Bill Gaver - Bing Gordon - Rob Haitani - Jeff Hawkins - Matt Hunter - Hiroshi Ishii - Bert Keely - David Kelley - Rikako Kojima - Brenda Laurel - David Liddle - Lavrans L?vlie - John Maeda - Paul Mercer - Tim Mott - Joy Mountford - Takeshi Natsuno - Larry Page - Mark Podlaseck - Fiona Raby - Cordell Ratzlaff - Ben Reason - Jun Rekimoto - Steve Rogers - Fran Samalionis - Larry Tesler - Bill Verplank - Terry Winograd - Will Wright ...more

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Hardcover, 766 pages

Published October 18th 2006 by MIT Press (MA) (first published October 1st 2006)

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Apr 03, 2009 Phil rated it it was ok

Haven't read the whole thing yet, but this book needs "History of" in the title because "Designing Interactions" makes it sound like you might actually learn how to.. oh I don't know, DESIGN INTERACTIONS and not just what read about what others did in the past. So far I haven't gained much insight into how to approach problems and not be horrible at this stuff. Someone should make a book called "Poorly Designed Interactions" and explain what not to do, because all this book is telling me to do i ...more

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Sep 12, 2010 Ninakix rated it it was amazing

Shelves: books-2010, design-reads, internet-reads, favorites

This book might be colossal, but if you take the time to read it, you'll be doubly rewarded. The book is essentially a series of "case studies" on design, but what makes it truly spectacular is that they're actually an odd mix. While some chapters are more theoretical, and impart ideas about interaction design, others tell stories about how things came to be designed the way they were. Finally, others represent research and ideas that are more academic (or "cutting edge," depending on your point ...more

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Apr 20, 2010 Patricia added it

Great basics of Interaction Design with interviews with all the pioneers.

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Jan 11, 2016 May Ling rated it it was amazing

Shelves: design-innovation

Summary: Amazing book. I already started recommending it before I finished reading it. If you are trying to start somewhere on thinking about design, particularly digital design, this is a great history that will put you square into the train of thought of it all.

My Notes:
THE POINT OF DESIGN
P. 32 Doug Englebert was really building the computer to augment human intellect (citation "Augmenting the Human Intellect: A conceptual framework". This was the point, though later others realized that buil ...more

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Jul 15, 2007 Marty rated it liked it

Recommends it for: information designers

Shelves: design

Bill Moggridge, designer of the first laptop and best known as one of the founders of IDEO, wrote Designing Interactions to capture what he has seen and learned to highlight the importance of interactive design, including usability, testing and how the most accepted best practices can often wilt vs. the realities of actual users. He mostly succeeds.

Designing Interactions has 10 chapters following the development of the computer and how it was affected by interactive design – and how it helped d Bill Moggridge, designer of the first laptop and best known as one of the founders of IDEO, wrote Designing Interactions to capture what he has seen and learned to highlight the importance of interactive design, including usability, testing and how the most accepted best practices can often wilt vs. the realities of actual users. He mostly succeeds.

Designing Interactions has 10 chapters following the development of the computer and how it was affected by interactive design – and how it helped develop that discipline at the same time. He covers the development of the mouse, desktop, laptop and Palm (Ch. 1-4), Technology Adoption (Ch. 5), Play, Services & the Internet (Ch. 5-7), new & future concepts (Ch. 8-9) and Prototyping (Ch. 10). He has a relaxed style of writing, his ‘professorly’ style easy to read.

Moggridge knows his stuff, having been there from nearly the beginning. Early on, he was with top designers at Xerox’s PARC, where a large number of modern computer designs were formed. So, he knows how we got where we are via interaction design. But instead of telling the story himself, he does it through those whose work made these changes. Each chapter has several parts presented from the perspective of an individual involved in the topic at hand, such as Larry Tesler (developing the first desktop and devices) or Rob Haitani (creating the original Palm OS). Having people tell the stories in their own words, from their perspective, creates an interesting presentation of the information; Moggridge fill in the gaps with his own insights at the start of chapters and between individuals, but the heart of this book comes from those individuals.

Great information included the hundreds of early iterations for creating the mouse, the creation the modern desktop interface (including how testing was important, but required them to develop a new testing process as well), and developing the familiar interaction design concepts we use today. Often, failure led to inspiration to prevent a similar problem in the future; other times, simple observation of people doing things provided the basis for standard rules. These concepts were, of course, the reason we bought this book – history is nice but we wanted something concrete to work with, and there is a lot here to learn from.

NOT ALL INTERACTION GOODNESS
I found that Designing Interactions was diluted by repetitive coverage of the same events from different points of view - too much time is spent on how the first mouse, computer, monitor and laptops were developed – over 1/3 of the book, in fact. Worse, it’s like a history lesson more than thorough explanation of interactive factors.

Other sections’ purposes left me wondering. Models (p. 363 – 372) spent lots of space on the development and history of “The Sims” and EA: good information meriting an introduction, not a long discussion. Similarly, Google’s history is interesting, but didn’t fit the scope of this book, or at least not to the length taken (12 pages). The whole Internet section could’ve been condensed in half with little impact.

It was disappointing that this book appears to be a Who’s Who of people in Moggridge’s life. Not that they weren’t worthy of discussion; to the contrary, they were often people who helped develop the discipline. But, time spent on them tended to be more biographical than relevant, focusing on how they got to where they were rather than what they DID that made them worth covering.

Overall, I felt this book failed - while there’s certainly enough good information, it was lost among the handshake biographies, repetitive content and overlong introductions to topics. A condensed version, with less interpersonal commentary and stronger focus on the Interaction Design would produce a better product.
...more

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Feb 13, 2016 Amber Case rated it it was amazing

Shelves: 10-books-for-user-experience-design

Digital technology has changed the way we interact with everything from the games we play to the tools we use at work. Designers of digital technology products no longer regard their job as designing a physical object--beautiful or utilitarian--but as designing our interactions with it. In Designing Interactions, award-winning designer Bill Moggridge introduces us to forty influential designers who have shaped our interaction with technology. Moggridge, designer of the first laptop computer (the Digital technology has changed the way we interact with everything from the games we play to the tools we use at work. Designers of digital technology products no longer regard their job as designing a physical object--beautiful or utilitarian--but as designing our interactions with it. In Designing Interactions, award-winning designer Bill Moggridge introduces us to forty influential designers who have shaped our interaction with technology. Moggridge, designer of the first laptop computer (the GRiD Compass, 1981) and a founder of the design firm IDEO, tells us these stories from an industry insider's viewpoint, tracing the evolution of ideas from inspiration to outcome. The innovators he interviews--including Will Wright, creator of The Sims, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, the founders of Google, and Doug Engelbart, Bill Atkinson, and others involved in the invention and development of the mouse and the desktop--have been instrumental in making a difference in the design of interactions. Their stories chart the history of entrepreneurial design development for technology.Moggridge and his interviewees discuss such questions as why a personal computer has a window in a desktop, what made Palm's handheld organizers so successful, what turns a game into a hobby, why Google is the search engine of choice, and why 30 million people in Japan choose the i-mode service for their cell phones. And Moggridge tells the story of his own design process and explains the focus on people and prototypes that has been successful at IDEO--how the needs and desires of people can inspire innovative designs and how prototyping methods are evolving for the design of digital technology.Designing Interactions is illustrated with more than 700 images, with color throughout. Accompanying the book is a DVD that contains segments from all the interviews intercut with examples of the interactions under discussion.Interviews with:Bill Atkinson • Durrell Bishop • Brendan Boyle • Dennis Boyle • Paul Bradley • Duane Bray • Sergey Brin • Stu Card • Gillian Crampton Smith • Chris Downs• Tony Dunne • John Ellenby • Doug Englebart • Jane Fulton Suri • Bill Gaver • Bing Gordon • Rob Haitani • Jeff Hawkins • Matt Hunter • Hiroshi Ishii • Bert Keely • David Kelley • Rikako Kojima • Brenda Laurel • David Liddle • Lavrans Løvlie • John Maeda • Paul Mercer • Tim Mott • Joy Mountford • Takeshi Natsuno • Larry Page • Mark Podlaseck • Fiona Raby • Cordell Ratzlaff • Ben Reason • Jun Rekimoto • Steve Rogers • Fran Samalionis • Larry Tesler • Bill Verplank • Terry Winograd • Will Wright ...more

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Oct 24, 2014 Iris rated it really liked it

Shelves: hci, umbc-library, design

The book is more about history and case studies rather than an instructional book as I expected.

Regardless, I found the book really interesting as it told the stories about the development of functions my generation probably takes for granted: copy and paste, the mouse, drop-down menus, etc. When it goes towards the more recent case studies, my favorite was the section about TUI, tangible user interfaces.

My biggest gripe was that it's heavily biased towards Apple. I was also peeved at Electroni ...more

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Feb 20, 2010 Faz rated it it was ok

I bought this book thinking it would give examples and insight into product and interaction designs. Instead, it is a bunch of very biased case studies. While interesting, it did not meet my expectations. The author is very Apple biased, and much of the content uses them as role models, and praises things such as the iPod, overlooking the deficiencies and predecessors. It also enforces design elements such as simplicity and eliminating the need to inclusion of more advanced operations. While thi ...more

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Jan 03, 2008 Sean Howard rated it it was amazing

Recommends it for: Anyone serious about expanding the use of design

This is a tome of a book. An unparalleled work that took Bill Moggridge many years. It opens up a view of the digital interaction design word from a human factors point of view.

For people looking for a "how to" book, this is likely not of interest.

For someone looking to gain insight into the vision, models and approach of some of the greatest designers of our era, this is a wonderful keepsake. ...more

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Jul 11, 2008 Amy rated it liked it

Shelves: design, ux-canon

This book was not what I expected. I hoped for how-to guidelines and novel interaction techniques. Instead, I got a detailed history of interaction design, mostly from the perspective of IDEO and Apple. While quite good as an historical text, Designing Interactions isn't quite what the title advertises. ...more

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Aug 31, 2008 Jaireh rated it it was amazing

Shelves: interfacedesign

A wonderful book that expanded my thinking horizons. If you are an experienced interaction designer who wants to understand the historical underpinnings of the most commonplace interaction metaphors of today, this is the book of you. A great case study too on good design covering various "interaction design" domains.... This book is just A+ ...more

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May 29, 2010 MK rated it really liked it

Shelves: lis

A beautiful book, and very interesting if you want a look at how some of our common technological tools (the computer mouse, iPod/iTunes, the desktop metaphor) came to be. As someone with practically zero design background, I really enjoyed this book as a look into the process of user-centered design in a variety of fields.

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Feb 10, 2012 Ryan Parman rated it really liked it

This book covers interaction design very broadly, and is not specific to any particular medium. It's ~500 pages long, but there are lots of illustrations and it's more about understanding the core concepts of interaction design than it is about reading every single word in the book. ...more

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Mar 25, 2007 Eugene is currently reading it

If you want to know what I get geeked about) and the kinds of things I want to get into).

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Jan 26, 2008 Joe Wright is currently reading it

Interesting apple propaganda.

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Jul 29, 2009 K rated it it was ok

Recommends it for: Justin Wood

Recommended to K by: Objectified

Shelves: 1read_chunks_of

Pretty jargony and opaque... not what I was expecting from Moggridge's funny, human, open, and warm appearance in Objectified. Oh well, I still want to live in his house. ...more

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Nov 09, 2009 Alyssa rated it it was ok

Shelves: design

This book talks about designing interactions but only touches on the surface, no real depth to the topic of knowledge but a good starting point or overview of Interactions.

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Feb 11, 2010 Paul Romine rated it did not like it

Shelves: abandoned

Kind of boring, and not really useful to anyone looking for practical knowledge. Ok as a pure history book, I guess.

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Jul 07, 2010 Alice rated it really liked it

Shelves: usability

A very interesting history of design through the 80's/90's and into the 21st century. Well designed book, but maybe a little over-ambitious. It sort of peters out toward the end. ...more

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Mar 23, 2011 Nathan Bussiere rated it it was amazing

Shelves: web, ux

This book is awesome. Great stories, great insight, and great inspiration.

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Apr 25, 2011 Alvin rated it really liked it

Good book about the design process, but some of the stuff they spotlight at the end is really creepy, and kind of illustrates how designers can make some dumb shit. Like the poop bags for kids.

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Sep 07, 2011 Rick Thomchick rated it liked it

Shelves: slis

Did not care for hefty textbook format.

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Sep 27, 2011 Michel rated it liked it

Shelves: how-to, cultures

My new iMac doesn't even have a Cd-rom reader.
A 7-year old mostly obsolete book! Things are just too fast, "I'm too old for this shit…" ...more

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Feb 20, 2012 Reese rated it really liked it

Shelves: usability

Great look at the history of interaction design... but nothing there for the learning and application of it.

Would be a great personal library addition for design geeks though.

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Sep 13, 2012 Diego Sánchez rated it liked it

Shelves: design, innovation

A good book to understand the history of interfaces

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Mar 31, 2013 Tina rated it liked it

Shelves: design-art

this book is still a classic, but already a bit outdated.

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May 08, 2013 Chris rated it it was amazing

Shelves: hci-ux-ixd

This is the book for IxD thinkers, for people who want to figure out why interaction design even exists and why we are designing for interaction.

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Oct 27, 2013 Luke Krzysztofiak rated it it was amazing

Then new school. Now old school.

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Mar 21, 2014 Callie rated it really liked it · review of another edition

I used this as a text book for a design seminar I taught in 2007. I think it's a great book in general, but felt there were some holes: it was very Apple / Silicon Valley focused. ...more

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May 26, 2015 Patricia rated it liked it

Shelves: visual-lit

A window into design's history in emerging technologies. A good read for those who want to learn about the pioneers of new media and technology. ...more

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About Bill Moggridge

Bill Moggridge

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Bill was the director of the Smithsonian’s Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum, the only museum in the United States devoted exclusively to historic and contemporary design. He designed the first laptop computer, the Grid Compass. He describes his career as having three phases, first as a designer with projects for clients in ten countries, second as a co-founder of IDEO where he developed desig ...more