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March 30, 2003
Interactive Design book
I looked through The Art of Interactive Design: A Euphonious and Illuminating Guide to Building Successful Software by Chris Crawford at the bookstore the other day. I don't know anything about Crawford except what's written on the jacket, but the book is an exceptionally good introductory text. The only thing it lacks is case studies, or any real-world applications of the ideas beyond short examples. Crawford comes from the game-design world--arguably the only genre of this whole computers-do-neat-stuff era that's pleased both many users and many businesses--and so offers a perspective that's closer to the "experience design" end of things.
Anyone know more about the book or Crawford's other work?
Posted by Andrew at March 30, 2003 01:15 PM
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I had read a book by Christine Solomon about MS Office development a few years ago, and one of the introductory books she recommended about computer programming was "How to Program: The Skill That Will Improve Your Thinking" by Chris Crawford. This seems to have been out of print for awhile and I have never really tried to find it. Crawford does have a website and what seems to be a version of that book is on the site. The Interaction Design book looks very interesting but I haven't seen a copy of it yet.
Here is the url for Crawford's site:
http://www.erasmatazz.com/index.html
And here is the url for the how-to-program book that is posted on his site:
http://www.erasmatazz.com/library/You_Should_Learn_to_Program/You_Should_Learn_to_Progra.html
Posted by: Jim Jones at March 31, 2003 06:03 PM
I noticed the "How to Program" book somewhere too, seems interesting. I also leared that the Interaction Design book is a reissue (or reworked edition?) of an earier book by Crawford: "Understanding Interactivity."
Hey Jim, how about using your real name around here?
Posted by: Andrew at March 31, 2003 06:19 PM
Chris has been a seminal thinker for years. Many of my ideas formed while discussing interactive storytelling with him on CompuServe back in the early 1990s.
Interactive storytelling is Chris' passion, so that's the lense through which he approaches UX.
His lated book is a revised edition of his self-published "Understanding Interactivity," which in turn summarizes his many essays at http://www.erasmatazz.com/Library.html
Even though the book summarizes the essays, if you've got time, the essays themselves are well worth taking a look at, since they often delve into greater detail on a particular topic.
Also worth checking out is his 1982 "Art of Computer Game Design" which is out of print but available online.
Posted by: George Olsen at April 1, 2003 06:02 PM