Designing multimedia environments for children

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Donald A. Norman, Stephen W. Draper

This is a book about the design of computers from the user's point of view. The emphasis is on people, rather than the technology. This book is about the directions in which computers must move. This is a book of ideas, of analytical techniques described for their purpose, a book from which to derive the new questions in which design must move. The essays are pluralistic, offering a variety of perspectives, including the traditional study of human information processing structures, the subjective experience of the user and how to enhance it, and the social context of computing. The authors hope that the ideas discussed herein will lead to new kinds of interfaces--new, different, and more user friendly.

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Marie Winn

Examines the effects of television on children and on family life and suggests methods by which parents can successfully control television viewing.

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Thomas Plagemann, Vera Goebel (eds

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 5th International Workshop on Interactive Distributed Multimedia Systems and Telecommunication Services, IDMS'98, held in Oslo, Norway, in September 1998. The 23 revised full papers presented were carefully selected from a total of 68 submissions. Also included are seven position statements. The book is divided into topical sections on distributed multimedia applications; platforms for collaborative systems; MPEG; coding for WWW, wireless, and mobile environments; QoS and user aspects; flow control, congestion control, and multimedia streams; multimedia servers, documents, and authoring; and storage servers.

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Ben Shneiderman, Catherine Plaisant

In revising this popular book, Ben Shneiderman again provides a complete, current, and authoritative introduction to user-interface design. The user interface is the part of every computer system that determines how people control and operate that system. When the interface is well designed, it is comprehensible, predictable, and controllable; users feel competent, satisfied, and responsible for their actions. Shneiderman discusses the principles and practices needed to design such effective interaction. Based on 20 years experience, Shneiderman offers readers practical techniques and guidelines for interface design. He also takes great care to discuss underlying issues and to support conclusions with empirical results. Interface designers, software engineers, and product managers will find this book an invaluable resource for creating systems that facilitate rapid learning and performance, yield low error rates, and generate high user satisfaction. Coverage includes the human factors of interactive software (with a new discussion of diverse user communities), tested methods to develop and assess interfaces, interaction styles such as direct manipulation for graphical user interfaces, and design considerations such as effective messages, consistent screen design, and appropriate color.