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Title: The Media Equation : How People Treat Computers, Television, and New Media like Real People and Places by Byron Reeves, Clifford Nass ISBN: 1-57586-053-8 Publisher: Cambridge University Press Pub. Date: 13 May, 1998 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $22.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.77 (13 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: A great interpretation of how people interact with media
Comment: The authors explain their hypothesis that people tend to treat computers, television and new media like they would human beings, and that people react to media-based presentations as if they were real-life situations -- even when people consciously realize this is not the case. It's a really interesting premise and the authors do an excellent job explaining their ideas.
The only reason I didn't give this work 5 stars is that the authors do not provide enough data on the results of their experiments. They frequently mention "significant" results, but they do not offer the results themselves for the reader to decide just how significant those results may be. This book is clearly written for a large audience, most of whom probably prefer to have the authors offer an interpretation without padding the work with lots of charts and tables. I would have liked a footnote or two with the actual experiment data, but regardless it's an excellent and intriguing read.
I would highly recommend this book to anyone interested in interface design or media studies.
Rating: 5
Summary: Solid Social Science
Comment: A previous review called this book "psuedo-scientific drivel."
In fact, this book is far from it. Well, as far from it as social science can get. In fact, is the most "scientific" of the user interface books I have read.
The main point I took away from the book is that people interact with objects, especially interactive and media devices, as if they were people. They demonstrate that when user interfaces are designed to be polite and interact in a positive social manner, the person has a much more enjoyable and profitable interaction.
Other books on the topic of user interface design are far less scientific, relying on generalizations and suppositions rather than constructing a study. Some use data from a usability evaluation, but these are often far from scientific.
The authors construct hypotheses, usually based on the results of studies of interaction between humans, and see if the results of the results hold true for human-machine interaction.
Usually, it does.
Rating: 1
Summary: nothing new
Comment: This book can be summed up in two sentences: "People instinctivly react to artificial interactions (with computers and media) the same way they react to interactions in real life. This can be used to manipulate people."
Except for the authors' pro-manipulation bias, this media=reality "equation" is nothing new - Steven Pinker talked about new media and old brains in several of his books. Ted Nelson said that users automatically interact with computers "naturally" in work he published in the 1970's. Even Arthur C. Clarke mentioned the phenomenon in "3010."
The authors have replicated and repackaged previously done research with a popular, marketing spin. In the process, they have extended the theory to ludicrous levels - as evidenced by the (non) success of Microsoft's "Bob," which the authors consulted on, and which they still seem to think is a claim to fame.
Academics working in the social or cognitive sciences will find nothing new here. Small businesspeople who don't want to hire a real psychologist for user interface consulting, or UI designers from an art background who want a psychology perspective, will find some value, but will pay a price for the authors' tunnel vision and extraordinarily self-important outlook. If you care about UI, read Ted Nelson's stuff instead. If you want more in-depth psychology (there's very little here), read Pinker.
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Title: Psychology of C.G. Jung: An Introduction With Illustrations by Jolande Jacobi, Ralph Manheim ISBN: 0300016743 Publisher: Yale Univ Pr Pub. Date: December, 1973 List Price(USD): $17.00 |
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Title: Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business by Neil Postman ISBN: 0140094385 Publisher: Viking Press Pub. Date: November, 1986 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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Title: The Tao of Physics by Fritjof Capra ISBN: 1570625190 Publisher: Shambhala Pub. Date: 04 January, 2000 List Price(USD): $15.95 |
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Title: Persuasive Technology: Using Computers to Change What We Think and Do by B. J. Fogg ISBN: 1558606432 Publisher: Morgan Kaufmann Pub. Date: December, 2002 List Price(USD): $34.95 |
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Title: HAL's Legacy: 2001's Computer as Dream and Reality by David G. Stork, Arthur C. Clarke ISBN: 0262692112 Publisher: MIT Press Pub. Date: 06 February, 1998 List Price(USD): $22.95 |
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