IM 6022 2007 Selected Reading List
For those with a strong interest in Design-related issues
Useful Books
Bonsiepe, Gui (1999) Interface: An approach to design. Maastricht.: Jan van Eyck Akademie, The
Netherlands.
Heskett, John (2002) Toothpicks and Logos: Design in Everyday Life. Oxford: Oxford University
Press. General introduction to design process.
Buchanan, Richard & Victor Margolin (eds.) (1995) Discovering Design: Explorations in Design
Studies. Interesting collection of papers by many well-known academics and designers.
Philips Corporate Design (1996) Vision of the Future. Bussum, The Netherlands, V+K Publishing.
Mock-ups and scenarios re. future working and living…a little dated, but inspiring.
Wurman, Richard. (1997) Information Architects. New York: Graphis . Good example of information
design.
Tufte, E.R. (1997) Visual Explanations. Connecticut: Graphics Press.
Tufte, E.R. (1983) The Visual Display of Quantitative Information. Connecticut: Graphics Press.
Tufte, E.R. (1990) Envisioning Information. Connecticut: Graphics Press.
Three superbly illustrated books, self-published by Tufte on the subject of use of graphics to illustrate
arguments.
Journals (worth browsing)
Design Issues, Design Studies, CoDesign
Newsletter
Design Research News; Free newsletter oriented to people studying design-related issues. Quite
general, but also covers material of relevance for Interaction Design. “Design Research News is the
digital newsletter of the Design Research Society. It communicates news about research throughout
the world. It is mailed automatically at the beginning of each month and is free.” You may subscribe
and unsubscribe at the following site:
http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/design-research.html
Media, Culture & New Media Issues
Wardrip-Fruin, Noah & Nick Montfort ( Eds.) (2003) The New Media Reader. Cambridge, Mass: MIT
Press. ISBN0-262-23227-8 (Includes CD & has website http://www.newmediareader.com/)
Useful anthology – collects a lot of difficult to find early pieces by founders of “new media”
Bolter, J.D. & R. Grusin (1999) Remediation: Understanding New Media. Cambridge: MIT Press Chs
1-3 pp.21-84. Develops their theory of Remediation
Bolter, J.D. & D. Gromala (2005) Windows & Mirrors: Interaction Design, Digital Art, and the Myth
of Transparency. Cambriedge: MIT Press. Argues that transparency at the interface has its limits
Manovich, Lev (2001) The Language of New Media. Cambridge: MIT Press. Links new technology to
other media forms especially cinema. Check out especially What is new media (pp. 19-61), cg 2The
interface (pp.63-115)
Lunenfeld, Peter (1999) (ed.) The Digital Dialectic: new essays on new media. See especially,
Heim, Michael The Cyberspace Dialectic (pp.24-45)
Huhtamo, Erkki From Cybernation to Automation: A contribution to an archaeology of interactivity.
(pp.96- 111)
Brady, Florian The medium is the memory (pp.130-149)
Benedeti, Paul & Dhart, Nancy (eds.) (1997) On McLuhan: Forward through the rearview mirror.
Prentice-Hall. Cambridge: MIT Press. A pot-pourri of McLuhan aphorisms, excerpts, and comments by
a range of thinkers.
McLuhan, Marshall (1964). Understanding Media: The extensions of man. London: Routledge. The
classic statement of McLuhan’s position. More readable than many of his texts!
Postman, Neil (1985) Amusing ourselves to death: Public discourse in the age of show business.
London: Penguin. Influenced by McLuhan
Ong, Walter J. (1982) Orality & Literacy: The technologizing of the word. London: Routledge. Also
influenced by McLuhan
McCloud, Scott (1993) Understanding Comics: The invisible art. New York: Harper Collins.
Nunberg, G. (Ed.) (1996) The Future of the Book. Berkeley: Univ. of California.
Birkerts, S. (1999)Readings. St. Paul: Graywolf Press.
Haas, C. (1996) Writing Technology: Studies on the materiality of literacy: New Jersey: Erlbaum
Interesting Webzines to explore….
www.nettime.org
www.rhizome.org
Narrative
Murray, Janet (1997) Hamlet on the Holodeck: The future of narrative in cyberspace. MIT Press
Berger, Arthur (1997) Narratives in Popular Culture, Media, and Everyday Life. London: Sage
Publications
Interaction Design
Moggridge, Bill (Ed.)(2007) Designing Interactions. Cambridge: Mass;MIT Press 2007 (Includes
DVD and has website http://www.designinginteractions.com/)
Interesting set of interviews with many of the leading names in designing interfaces to technology over
last 25 years.
Lowgren, Jonas & Erik Stolterman (2004) Thoughtful Interaction Design: A design perspective on
information technology. Cambridge: MIT Press. Rather abstract, reflective text on design, but with
some useful reflections on the nature of design process.
Winograd, Terry (Ed.) (1996) Bringing Design to Software. Addison-Wesley. Rather light, and a little
dated now, but still some easy-to-read perspectives on the relevance of studying general design issues
in order to develop better software.
Laurel, Brenda (1993) Computers as Theatre. Reading: Addison-Wesley.
ACM Interactions magazine. Easy to read articles on interaction design projects and issues.
Bannon, L.J. and Ciolfi, L. (2005) “Interaction Design @ IDC, Limerick”, Interaction Design &
Architecture(s), Vol. 1, no. 1, October, pp. 22-29.
Barfield, Lon et al. (1994) Interaction Design at the Utrecht School of the Arts. ACM SIGCHI
Bulletin,July 1994, vol 26, no.3. pp. 49-86. Provides an interesting, very broad perspective on how to
think about interaction design.
Rokeby, D. (1998) The Construction of Experience : Interface as Content. In Clark Dodsworth, Jr.,(ed.)
"Digital Illusion: Entertaining the Future with High Technology," ACM Press/Addison-Wesley.
(Available at: http://homepage.mac.com/davidrokeby/experience.html )
General interest
Several popular books by new technology and media journalist Howard Rheingold Smart Mobs, The
Virtual Community, Virtual Reality, Tools for Thought