Ben Shneiderman

A more appropriate title would perhaps be "Information Visualization Research at the HCI Laboratory, University of Maryland" since the book is a collection of previously published research papers from that institution, with a general introduction and short chapter introductions added. The collection covers some important original contributions to information visualization, such as dynamic queries and treemaps, as well as applications and developments of previously known techniques, including show more zoomable user interfaces and fisheye presentations. Most of the work reported represents a particular perspective of supporting a single user to carry out information retrieval or management tasks more efficiently. There is also a couple of taxonomic surveys, and some rather general thoughts on how information visualization can support creative work and discovery. show less

This is the book that answers the question "Why should I care about usability?" By drawing on his understanding of the interplay between culture and technology (framed by Leonardo ad Vinci's life) Shneiderman expounds on how important it is that everyone be able to use information technology, and why it is a problem that so many of us find our interactions with technology anxious and frustrating.

So far, mainstream interaction design is predominantly a visual/temporal field, even though the research labs have done interesting work in tangible user interfaces, haptics, auditory interaction and so on. Visualization of information has attracted quite a bit of interest and many ideas have been proposed. This book is the first extensive collection of articles and research reports in information visualization. More or less all important contributions from the 1980s and -90s are included show more and the result is a great source of inspiration for visualization work. show less

The author provides a human-computer interaction view on recent developments in artificial intelligence, and situates it in the history of similar debates. In a sense, it is a snapshot of a current hot topic, where the contributions for interaction designers are a broad survey of relevant examples and arguments, and a couple of provisional frameworks that may prove generative for designing with AI as a significant part of the digital materials.