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xxii Foreword

focus. A user-centered focus requires close work with users (not just customer-buy-
ers), from analysis through design, evaluation, and maintenance. A lack of user-
centered focus results in products and services that often do not meet the needs of
their intended users. Don Norman's design books have convinced many that these
problems are not unique to software, so this book's focus on interaction design feels
right.
To help software teams adopt a user-centered focus, I've searched for books
with end-to-end coverage from analysis, to design, to implementation (possibly of
prototypes), to evaluation (with iteration). Some books have tried to please all au-
diences and have become encyclopedias of user interface development, covering
topics worth knowing, but not in enough detail for readers to understand them.
Some books have tried to cover theory in depth and tried to appeal to developers
who have little interest in theory. Whatever the reasons for these choices, the re-
sults have been lacking. This book has chosen fewer topics and covered them in
more depth; enough depth, I think, to put the ideas into practice. I think the mater-
ial is presented in a way that is understandable by a wide audience, which is impor-
tant in order for the book to be useful to whole multidisciplinary teams.

A recommended book . . .

I've been waiting for this book for many years. I think it's been worth the wait.
As the director of the HCI Bibliography project (www.hcibib.org), a free-ac-
cess HCI portal receiving a half-million hits per year, I receive many requests for
suggestions for books, particularly from students and software development man-
agers. To answer that question, I maintain a list of recommended readings in ten
categories (with 20,000 hits per year). Until now, it's been hard to recommend just
one book from that list. I point people to some books for motivation, other books
for process, and books for specific topics (e.g., task analysis, ergonomics, usability
testing). This book fits well into half the categories in my list and makes it easier to
recommend one book to get started and to have on hand for development.
I welcome the commitment of the authors to building a website for the book.
It's a practice that has been adopted by other books in the field to offer additional
information and keep the book current. The site also presents interactive content
to aid in tasks like conducting surveys and heuristic evaluations. I look forward to
seeing the book's site present new materials, but as director of www.hcibib.org, I
hope they use links to instead of re-inventing existing resources.
Gary Perlman
Columbus
October 2001