The Essence of Human-Computer Interaction

Gives a useful overview in an easy to read digestible tome hence ideal if HCI is a subcomponent of a course you are taking - as it is for me. Recommended for everybody who is involved in professional software development. It's a small book and less that 200 pages at that so hardly onerous and you really ought to be familiar with this stuff.

I am about to pursue a degree program and human-computer interaction is one of the areas of study. This book has given me an excellent introduction to the subject area. It was very easy and simple reading which gave me the "ESSENCE" of the subject area. Its layout and style would also prove useful for revision just before examinations. All that would be required of me now is to acquire a book that has case studies to build upon this foundation.I was never aware that there was such an area of study called Human-Computer Interaction. This book has really highlighted the fact that while we may know about system analysis and design we tend to forget some of the "HUMAN" aspects of the user. We design things with the attitude that "the user has to get with the times".I would recommend this book for reading even by novices.

While there are lots of HCI books around, many concentrate on the theory and recent areas of academic research.Faulkner, however, endeavours to gently introduce relevant aspects of practical and theoretical HCI.The book requires no previous or specialist knowledge. The aim is to make HCI skills a part of the general software engineering skill-set that the technical project teams possess.HCI can be viewed as a specialist skill, but only when it is part of the generic engineering lifecycles will it make its true impact.With this in mind Faulkner has put together a book that can key you into cconcepts and how they are realised, in quick and simple format.Although this is not as detailed as some other books on usability engineering, it is not written for that purpose.It is suitable not only for computer personnel who wish to add HCI to their own projects but also for managers who need to work with usability engineers, entry-level students and possibly end-users who will be required to participate in the usability engineering cycle.