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Well-argued perspectives on the future of PC design
Donald Norman offers a no-holds-barred attack on the present state of personal computer design and marketing. He also offers a solution the the problems of PC complexity: Information Appliances. While I do not neccessarily agree with all of the criticsm hurled against the PC, The Invisible Computer is so readble that I find myself open to Norman's vision of the...
Published on 1 Nov 1998
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
A verbose articulation of ideas described better by others
His basic argument in this book is that the computer industry has matured to the point where it can no longer just cater to the early-adopter technologists and must appeal to the masses to continue growth. Unfortunately, the industry doesn't know how to do this and continues to deliver technology for technology's sake, leading to fat computers and technology that...
Published on 11 Jan 1999
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
A verbose articulation of ideas described better by others, 11 Jan 1999
By A Customer
His basic argument in this book is that the computer industry has matured to the point where it can no longer just cater to the early-adopter technologists and must appeal to the masses to continue growth. Unfortunately, the industry doesn't know how to do this and continues to deliver technology for technology's sake, leading to fat computers and technology that aren't that useful or appealing to most people, and are beginning to exhaust the technologists too. He introduces some recent, but standard models of technology adoption for discussing the problems, customer-centered design in cross-disciplinary teams (marketing, engineering, and user experience) for designing products that transcend the problems (explicitly discussing Contextual Design a few times), and "information appliances," multitudes of small, task-focused technology products that will replace our big, cumbersome, general-purpose (but not great at any) PCs.Norman's forte is definitely cognitive and experimental psychology in product design, and not being a technological or product development process visionary. I found very little new or interesting content in the book, and I don't think he articulated even some of the derived ideas very well. The whole book could have been condensed into a long magazine article. His prose is wordy and redundant, and the book is regrettfully lacking in many of the detailed case studies and examples he's used in previous books to elucidate his ideas. I want the idiosyncratic and outspoken psychologist professor back, such as he was in The Design of Everyday Things, or the powerful academic argument of Things That Make Us Smart. His short stint as a VP of HPs "Information Appliances" division, and his earlier work at Apple, was not enough to give him a deep understanding or insight into the problems of the current technology-product market. He does make some good book recommendations, however, and I'll add my favorite articulation of the problem, that I think articulate the problem and potential solutions much better: C. M. Christensen, _The Innovator's Dilemma: When New Technologies Cause Great Firms to Fail_, 1997. G. A. Moore, _Crossing The Chasm: Marketingand Selling High-Tech Goods to Mainstream Customers_, 1991. T. K. Landauer, _The Trouble With Computers: Usefulness, Usability, and Productivity_, 1995.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
Read the introduction and the appendix, 16 Dec 1998
By A Customer
The book is persuasive in its central argument that today's PC is overgrown, difficult to use, and suffers from its fundamental architecture as a multipurpose device. The point is made adequately in the introduction and first chapter, however, and the rest of the meat of he book just belabors the point, often repeating the same points in the exact same words.The appendix on examples of information appliances is fun, though, as he finally gets to what he thinks will be the next generation of devices to replace the PC. Also, I sometimes found his arguments about market forces and the business model of the technology industry simplistic, even naive. I found it hard to believe at times that he worked at Apple all those years. Still, I enjoyed skimming it.
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5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
Suitfeed, 17 Feb 1999
By A Customer
Yeah, right. Edison didn't know what he was doing because he wasn't "customer centered" enough to make flat records. All he ever did in his life was invent sound recording, plus four or five other basic technologies and major pieces of several more. And he died a rich man. What a slacker. If he'd been really smart, and emulated Gould, Fisk, and Morgan, he might have been a real *success.*If you're fascinated by suitspeak and willing to embrace mediocrity and corporate B.S., then you'll get a lot out of this book. But if you've been working in the business for ten or twenty years, then Norman's blatherings are going to look like just more pin-stripe, synergy-leveraging suitfeed. And, BTW, the set-top box he touts as a good idea was a failure. Edison failed the same way with his first invention (the vote recorder), but was honest enough with himself to call a failure a failure. Norman fails to.
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3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
Way too long for the central argument, 30 Mar 1999
By A Customer
Donald Norman seems to have taken up a position like that of Eric S. Raymond of Open Source, but in usability. This is a business-argument pitch for information appliances. It draws very heavily in its early chapters from the book "Inside the Tornado", I think by Moore.Inside the Tornado was a book adopted as Marketing Bible by my previous employer, an entrepreneurial venture in the digital imaging industry that may yet sink, but not because of the book. Inside the Tornado is right, but if you've absorbed it, you'll be irritated with the first half of this book.For people who read and appreciated his earlier books and are looking for interesting theoretical or experimental stuff on or near the topic of cognitive science will be disappointed. Don't buy this book for that reason.If you have only a weak grasp of information appliances, what they are, and why they're good, you will want to read this book.I wish someone else wrote this book, though.
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Great topic, weak execution, 10 Feb 1999
By A Customer
I have greatly enjoyed and valued some of the author's previous work and ordered multiple copies of "The Invisible Computer" as soon as I heard about it in order to share with my colleagues. After reading the book twice (I was certain I had missed something the first time) I was disappointed in the quality of the arguments presented and lack of substance. The basic tenet - that computer should be submerged into our environment and serve highly specialized functions - cannot be disputed. I found the discussion of substitutable and non-substitutable items interesting and the most useful portion of the text.
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Best for its explanation of infrastructure goods, 28 Jan 1999
By A Customer
The historical case studies are fascinating -- but the best chapter, in my opinion, has little to do with "information appliances" and much to do with the nature of monopoly systems.I'm educated as an economist and found Norman's descriptions of an infrastructure market (historically the 'natural' monopoly market of power and telephone companies) a compelling read -- and a must read for anyone following the DOJ-MSFT trial. While I agree with his premise that the machines need to become 'simple to use' -- I'm still having trouble seeing lots of individual "appliances." However, I think the iMac may have captured some of Norman's philosophies.
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Perhaps the weakest book by an excellent author, 2 Dec 1998
By A Customer
Much of what Norman says in "The Invisible Computer" needs to be said, and based on his earlier work, I expected it to be said clearly. Unfortunately, this book appears to be a bunch of lectures put into book form with insufficent effort spent to remove overlaps between chapters.Much of the history is fascinating, particularly the idea of "peripherals" for electric motors around 1910, and the technological/business battles about phonograph standards. Overall an interesting book, but I expected better writing from Norman.
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Valuable insights but a bit verbose, 23 Nov 1998
By A Customer
While I fully agree with the thrust of Don Norman's book and find it entertaining and easy to follow, I also think it is somewhat verbose - but perhaps I am already too familar with many of the usability arguments. There are many reiterations. At times you think, when the hell will he get to the point? On page 4 you read: "For my purposes, the story of Thomas Alva Edison is the most relevant; he played a major role in many of those early information industries.." (yes yes go ahead); a few paragraphs later you read "Edisons's story is a great place to start. In many ways, Edison invented the high-technology industry.." - this is what sends me into skimming and skipping mode. You are beginning to suspect the book hasn't quite received the final trim. Nevertheless, well worth reading.
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At last! A breath of sanity in the PC world, 3 Nov 1998
By A Customer
You know how it is; you know there's something wrong and you can articulate some of the problems but the whole thing never adds up to a really convincing proposition; you've probably missed the real conclusion? Well never fear. If you think there's something fundamentally wrong with the PC or its user interface this is the book you need to read. Don Norman has written a couple of the truly useful books on user interface design and human cognition as it applies to the field and this I would class as his masterpiece. Finally he admits that it is not just the UI that's messed up on PCs but actually that it is beyond fixing. He identifies what's wrong; why it's wrong and offers information appliances as the new way to go. Better than that he even tells you why the industry itself cannot fix the problem - it is immanent to the machine AND to the industry. With insightful examples Don Norman exposes the basic flaws of our wonderful technology based world, strips bare the economic or business model that underpins it and offers us a way forward. Read this book, get all of your friends to read this book, tell everyone you know about this book. And then see how you can ride Don's new way forward to riches and respect. I would have given this book a 5 had the editors done a better job - they still let the academic background seep through and too often allow what should be a reinforcement of a point to be no more than a repetition. Someone needs totell publishers in the IT field that small books can contain big ideas. Less words - more impact.
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Well-argued perspectives on the future of PC design, 1 Nov 1998
By A Customer
Donald Norman offers a no-holds-barred attack on the present state of personal computer design and marketing. He also offers a solution the the problems of PC complexity: Information Appliances. While I do not neccessarily agree with all of the criticsm hurled against the PC, The Invisible Computer is so readble that I find myself open to Norman's vision of the future.
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