Computers as Theatre

asked by benzdrives on November 28, 2006 8:29 PM

When Brenda Laurel first wrote this book in the early '80s, it may have seemed a bit far-fetched to most computer users: "What? How can my interaction with a computer have anything to do with theatre? I'm typing!" But with the emergence of WebTV, VRML, and the dawning of real online interactivity where our interface with the computer and others is not the keyboard, but instead our imagination and the suspension of disbelief it requires, Laurel's ideas are finally coming of age. Snotty digerati might sniff that this is an old book, but I would argue that it is a book that has finally come of age.

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Reviews

The idea that is perhaps most central to this book is that if you design the action involved in a user interface, the design of all other objects in the domain will follow. To support this, Laurel reconciles the seemingly disparate and relates user interface design with producing a play in theater. For example, the way she brings in the Freytag triangle works very well.

This said, I wish I wish that we would see a book from Laurel (or from one of her other usability guru companions) that treats with more recent issues-- particularly the Internet. I think she's one of the smartest people out there in the field, and I try to read what she's written, but I'm getting tired of reading about Habitat, Guides, and the Holodek on Star Trek. That's not the fault of the book, given that it came out pre-Internet hype, but it did inflect the reading experience with some weariness.

reviewed by jazzman on November 29, 2006 6:55 PM

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... because it reminds me a great deal of Bruce Lee's "Tao of Jeet Kune Do." In that book, the reader is warned in the preface to approach the book actively with pencil in hand to jot notes and draw lines between connected ideas. I have done this with Brenda's book. It will take about 6-7 reads and lots of mental connections before everything starts to gel.

It is a new "Way" of thinking, and, indeed, is so far ahead of any way we design software now that many ideas that this book suggests still need extensive research to even understand how to implement. (e.g. Freytag graphs as a way of structuring software/task flow to provide a pleasing HCI, and Brenda's Principles of Intelligent Computer Agency as a means for implementing truly AI agents with personality and emotions).

Along with the wonderful head rush of compelling new theory, she also takes the second half of the book to explain principles of software design that you can implement in your programs _now_, and also takes the time to introduce you to fascinating HCI research offshoots like Programming by Demonstration.

It is wonderful writing, and her ideas and concepts continually refresh and remind me why I am in such an exciting field.

reviewed by 78704 on November 29, 2006 7:04 PM

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add a new book!