5 comments about Usability: The Site Speaks for Itself.

1. The book features case studies from the designers behind six different sites who demonstrate how they created their usable sites. It accurately declares itself a guru-free zone.

   Glasshaus moves away from the traditional guru lecture of "do this, don't do that" and show-offy reading. Instead, the book offers an easy read with a friendly tone based on the designer's style. Meet the the designers of BBC News, Synfonts, eBay, Economist, evolt.org, and MetaFilter. The designers talk about their own Web site and how they worked to make the site what it is today.

   The book reinforces the basic Web design rule: "Know your audience." I can only hope that the book I write will be half as useful and applicable as this one. It wouldn't surprise me if Glasshaus becomes a familiar name in the Web design world.




2. I for one, am tired of being presented with a prescriptive list of 101 'guidelines' and being told that they will solve all my usability problems, if only I would just implement them. The authors of this book will explain why they bent the rules, and sometimes discarded them completely.

   The book consists of a pragmatic introduction "beyond the buzz: the true meaning of usability" by Molly Holzschlag followed by the six 'tales from the design face'. Each chapter starts with a slightly cheesy, yet endearing question and answer session where the author(s) are asked to comment on items ranging from their favourite pizza, to their rating on a 'geek index'. I found this one page intro helped me to view the authors as human beings, rather than as 'subjects'. At the end of each chapter the authors are given the opportunity to give photographic examples of items that they personally rate as being 'usable'..

   The sites covered range from large companies like the BBC and Economist through to community sites like Metafilter and Evolt.org. Also included are chapters on 'e-bay' with tens of millions of users, and the one man SynFonts site.

   Each of the tales are compelling and you want to keep reading to see what happens next. The authors concentrate on why they did things, rather than how they did them, so you won't be getting tips on implementing navigation schemes in PHP or ASP. But you will find out why eBay merged their design and usability groups into one, why Flash was the right solution for SynFonts and why both evolt and MetaFilter decided that un-threaded comments were the way to go.

   The publishers have put a lot of effort into every detail of this book. The layout enhances the readability of the book, and the screenshots have been carefully chosen to reinforce the text rather than act as page candy. If I had to pick one element that illustrates this attention to detail, it would be the index. Bill Johncocks has done an excellent job in producing an index that adds real value to the book. I wish more publishers would follow this example and employ professional indexers.




3. I found this to be a waste of my time and money. I had to choose a book on usability in order to make a presentation on for a usability course I am taking at Ohio University. For the course we are reading Jakob Neileon's "Designing Web Usability." This book is a good book on usability.

   I found "Usability: The Site Speaks for Itself" to be very uniteresting. The author's are constantly comparing themselves to Neilsen and tearing his books down. While I agree with the authors that there is no "one size fits all" approach to designing on the web and that different things work for different sites, Nielsen does as well. It seems to me that the authors should have worked on providing more useful content and a better layout (the book is laid out very poorly) than trying to bring Nielsen's views down.

   I highly suggest that you don't purchase this book, but if you have money to throw away, send me an email, I have some real estate in Flordia I want to sell you too.




4. Usability: The Site Speaks For Itself has been bedside reading for a couple months. This book has been a great downtime inspiration. This book, unlike the Guru usability books, teaches you how to approach Web interface design and development with the user in mind. The hard fast rules some experts espouse do not always work well with our own users. This book does a wonderful job teaching us how to think through the process. The book provides examples of six varied sites and their developer's approaches to creating usable sites for their audiences. This books is a joy to look at as well as read. There are many nuggets tucked in the pages that make it worth the price. When building Web sites it is best to remember the one constnt is it all depends and we need to know how to think through these situations.



5. I got this book unexpectedly. I wrote to Glasshaus expressing the difficulty in purchasing their titles in India and Bruce Lawson, their Brand Visionary, promptly responded with details and followed it up by sending me a complimentary copy of this book. I was quite surprised, to say the least. It will be tempting to dismiss this as a mere publicity gimmick, but Glasshaus does have a unique way of going about their publishing business. Take a look at their site. I wonder how many other big names in publishing maintain an interesting and useful blog, to mention just one.

   Coming to the book itself. I have copies of Jakob Nielsen's books, "Home Page Usability" and "Designing Web Usability". I also have Steve Krug's "Don't make me think" among other books on usability in my personal collection. This Glasshaus title is as different as can be from all those books. For the first time, one gets to hear first person accounts of the how and why of usability decisions made on major, major web sites. I mean, when you are talking about Economist.com, BBC, eBay, evolt, MetaFilter etc, you are talking about some of the most powerful and influential web sites today. The personal narrative form of exposition is another refreshing change; you feel each author is talking directly to you and sharing his/her experiences in making the kind of usability decisions they did for their websites. Each account, when read carefully, can help a web professional connect the excellent groundwork of experts like Nielsen to the practical compulsions behind real-life usability decisions.

   Another excellent aspect of the book is the range of web sites that are represented, right from the publishing might of the Economist to the media powerhouse that is the BBC to the ecommerce success of eBay to powerful online communities such as MetaFilter and Evolt. To round all this off, there is a personal ecommerce venture (SynFonts) that is an excellent showpiece for how the Web allows one man to compete with many. In other words, a terrrific amount of thought has gone into developing this book and Glasshaus cannot be commended enough for putting together such a fine team to share its views. I felt that non-profit and church/spiritual (beliefnet would have been a great example) sites were perhaps the only major categories to have been left out. Perhaps a second edition of this book will address that lacuna.

   And, refreshingly for a book on Usability, there is almost no Nielsen-bashing in its pages, except a few words from Molly Holzschlag in the editorial, I think. But, then, Molly is always known to be a little irreverent:-)

   The only other book of this genre that I can think of is "Web Site Usability: A Designer's Guide" by Jared M. Spool's User Interface Engineering (uie.com). But, I don't have a copy so can't really comment. If you are looking for practical examples of usability decision making, this book is a great title to have. Perhaps this review will serve as quid pro quo for Glasshaus' excellent gesture in sending me a complimentary copy that has given me so much learning.

5 comments about AI for Computer Games and Animation: A Cognitive Modeling Approach.

1. This book covers the fundamentals of AI techniques used in building intelligent characters. Not a step by step cook book, but gives a solid overview of various AI methods for behavior modeling and proposes a novel and totally compelling approach (cognitive modeling) to creating a new breed of characters - characters that are able to think for themselves! Definitly a good addition to your collection!



2. The title of this book is its biggest flaw because it appears to cater to game programmers but the techniques described within it are not that useful. It appears that the book is marketed to the game programming community due to its immense size. Anybody interested it this book would be well advised to purchase the siggraph proceedings that it comes from because not only will you learn what this book is about, you will also have a large resource of other techniques that can be used for graphics and animation.

   Yes, John's technique is interesting and different ... however he does not have a gaming background, has never worked on games, and it is obvious that this book is simply an extension of a research paper. You can find better resources for both AI and game programming elsewhere.




3. Computer Generated Imagery (CGI) has transformed the art of animation. Computer-generated characters are now an everyday part of contemporary culture from advertising to video games, from movies to the Internet. Artificial intelligences gives computer-generated characters the ability to react to their environment in logical ways. In most cases, a character is programmed to present a specific set of behaviors that allow it to interact with other characters or game players. But this approach also results in severe limitations on responses to a characters world and its behavior becomes too easily predictable.

   In AI For Games And Animation: A Cognitive Modeling Approach, John Funge introduces a new approach for creating autonomous characters. Cognitive modeling provides computer-animated characters with logic, reasoning, and planning skills. Using this technique, an animator or programmer need only specify a behavior outline and, through reasoning, the character will automatically work out a detailed sequence of actions. AI For Games And Animation is an invaluable contribution to personal and professional CGI animation reference libraries.




4. When you are reading this book you fell like a man telling you things that you already know, nothing new. If you dont know nothing about AI maybe will help you.There is not algorithms on it, only obvious info. If you want to learn real AI buy "Artificial Inteligence" by Rich



5. The idea of creating an autonomous virtual creature with behaviors that dynamically change in response to alterations in the virtual environment is intriguing. With a set of many different creatures available, one could add as many of each type as necessary and have a game or simulation with an enormous number of possible outcomes. This idea is consistent with the object-oriented approach to programming, where complex blocks of code are called components. In the ideal scenario, to build a program from components, you would select the ones that you need and then specify how many of each type and how they are to interact.
   Funge puts forward the principles of a high-level language that can be used to abstractly define the behaviors of virtual characters. Unfortunately, he does not describe enough of the language to be completely convincing that his approach has been effectively implemented. Even insects demonstrate behavior that appears complex, and his examples are those of a Tyrannosaurus Rex trying to herd a small set of Velociraptors and a set of merpeople trying to avoid a predatory shark. Both examples include fixed obstacles and to be interesting, the creatures must exhibit behaviors that surprise human observers as well as their virtual opponents.
   The treatment of artificial intelligence (AI) is also too light to completely prepare the way for the case studies. For example, the title of chapter 6 is "Learning", where the topic is ways in which a machine (virtual creature) can learn. However, it is only fourteen pages long, which is hardly enough paper and ink to even scratch the surface of this complex topic.
   This is not to say that there is a lack of good ideas in the book, in fact there are many. My criticism is that they are not expanded out to the point where someone who reads only this book will be able to act on them. Intelligence is a complex topic, and making it artificially has proven to be very hard. Therefore, none of the ideas put forward in this book are adequately covered.

No comments about The Viking Explorers (World Explorers).

1 comments about Graphics Tablet Solutions (Solutions (Muska & Lipman)).

1. The book is well written and adequately illustrated and is a good beginner's guide to image processing as well as providing good general guidelines about the use of Photoshop, Paint Shop Pro, Power Point, Corel Draw and many other programs.
   
   The problem is that it is supposed to be about tablets (like the Wacom Intuos, etc). There is really only one chapter (Ch.2) that refers to tablets in a very general way. From there on you go (very well-done)overviews of the basic principles and tools used in image processing and manipulation. You are told, for example, about the Clone Tool. But you are not told anything specific about how using the clone tool with a tablet is different from using it w/a mouse. No tips, no settings, no illustrations, no reference to the tablet (or its pen) at all. And so it goes with every single tool and process for 11 chapters.
   
   If this was a beginner's book on image processing, I would give it 5 stars. It is interesting, well organized, well-written. But it was the only book I could find on "tablets", it even has "tablets" in the title; and I was expecting it to address the issue of "tablets" at some length. It doesn't.

1 comments about Acrobat 6 and PDF Solutions.

1. This book is a thorough presentation on the subject of portable document formats or PDFs. PDFs, independent of platform and application, are a saving grace in the growing complexity of the computer world. Taz Tally's book addresses the variables involved in optimizing PDFs, starting from the creation of the original document all the way to the end product, the PDF. The book explains how to customize each file depending on its use. The author also covers manipulations of Acrobat Distiller and the versatile application Acrobat 6.

   The book is well written and repetitive enough so if the reader missed the message on the first round, he or she will catch it again within just a few pages. The summaries, tables, and screen samples are particularly good and support the text. The author's style is as conversational as it gets within a technical book. I enjoyed his exclamations and honesty.

   I am always interested in the completeness of the index since I often have the need to solve a specific problem. The sixteen-page index held enough detail to locate a reference in the book rather than having to search from page to page. The table of contents is also complete and easy-to-use.

   This Sybex manual is an excellent resource for folks creating forms, presentations, and collaborative publications as well as learning about the more conventional conversion of digital documents to PDFs. This edition comes with a CD of material supporting the text including a demo of Sonar Bookends for automatic hyperlinking (to create a table of contents, an index, and more), FlightCheck, a prepress problem identifier, and a trial version of PitStop for visually checking and editing PDFs.

   Dr. Tally is author of Avoiding the Scanning Blues, a guide to desktop scanning, and Electronic Publishing: Avoiding the Output Blues, a book on desktop publishing and Postscript files. Tally is also known for his entertaining seminars and instructional videos on a variety of computer topics.

No comments about Image Processing for Computer Graphics.

5 comments about Developing for Microsoft Agent (Microsoft Professional Editions).

1. The book completely describes how to use Microsoft Agent from Visual Basic. I includes all commands and their usage. It is very clear and complete. You can begin using the agent the same day! You should have and possess a beginners knowledge of a 32bit version of visual basic ie vb4-32bit or vb 5.0.



2. This book will not teach you to use the MS Agent API. It simply documents it. Further, the entire content of this book is available on Microsoft's website(a fact which I was unaware of when purchasing the book). Even worse, the book is out of date with the advent of the newest release of the API(which has some good improvements). Worst of all, if you're a C/C++/Java developer using COM/ActiveX, this book is only marginally useful as a reference, as the majority of code is in VB format(leaving out important information like typing.....a trend I hope MS reverses). Save your money; go to the website.



3. the author of the book doesn't seem to know the agent technology at all. none of the so called examples will work. it is another pure marketing piece from microsoft to cover the fact that microsoft knows nothing about agent technology. dont waste your money.



4. While this book could be written in a more step by step approach to assist beginners in learning how to use Agent, it is one of the only books available that documents Microsoft Agent technology. Some of the information included in the book is available on the web site, however most developers will find this book useful as a reference tool.



5. This is basically a printed version of the Agent 2.0 SDK that can be accessed from Microsoft MSDN. I like the book format to read offline. Many may not find this necessary.
   
   I was able to find answers to some of my questions on objects, events, properties and methods. I am developing in JavaScript. The examples are in VBScript or VB 6. Not a difficult transition if you have some other examples to work from.
   
   More examples would have helped a lot.
   
   The CD that was enclosed had formatting errors. The Micosoft KB acknowledged this a provided a replacement procedure.
   
   Microsoft Agent is a great technology. It has been put on the back burner by Misrosoft for a variety of reasons.
   
   Since it is only supported in Internet Explorer, many developers have lost interest. Firefox users can add an "IE Tab" for IE use.
   
   Finding Technical information is an exploration process. I found that there are a couple of dozen strong sites on the web. Simple to complex. Lite use of Agent Technology to comprehensive commercial Avatar sites.
   
   A good starting point for discovering the use of Agents is [...]. They offer a scripting helper MASH that created code for web pages. They have created several VB6 products. I learned a lot to complement this publication by reading their code.
   
   Another publication with a more comprehensive treatment is needed. For now, this title fills in a lot of blanks. I would recommend it. The only copies I found were used.

No comments about Calculus Projects Using Mathematica.

No comments about Drawing With Compt Pa.

5 comments about Instant Macromedia Flash 5.

1. I really liked the information on design. As a technical person that information was worth all the money of the book. Then there is the other chapters of the book. In found it to be very constructive and usable information! Very easy to follow and a great book! I think a must buy for any Flash user, whatever level.



2. This book is for people like me that need to know exactly how things are done , step by step and line by line. There is a huge cross-section of things covered in this book, and every bit of it is described fully and presented in a way that you can put right into use.
   All flash books should be like this, it is a keeper, & a great gift for that talented web person you know who could benefit from the kick-start this book gives.



3. "Instant Macromedia Flash 5" is written for webdesigners/programmers who
   already know the basics of Flash (drawing, actionscripting...) and want
   to start over to advanced topics.
   The book is divided into several "real world" examples such as building
   an MP3 player or constructing a game in Flash so the reader can
   jump into the chapter he likes best or which fits his needs most.
   The chapters themselves are built up as step by step instructions which
   are written very clear and have screenshots where necesarry. Even if you
   cannot get your own work running during the reading and working through
   a chapter you can still have a look at the flash project files provided
   on the CD to see what you did wrong.
   Although it is possible to jump through the chapters nonlinear chapter 1,
   "Designing in Flash" should definitely be a must for all readers because
   it helps avoiding mistakes in design others already did an learned from.
   The book has a really useful index that helps you locate the information
   you need in your work.
   All in all this is a great lecture for everyone who wants to learn how
   to create advanced flash movie content and already knows the basics.
   The only thing that could be improved is the paper of the cover that tends
   to split into cardboard and coating when used in the daily work.



4. This is a nicely written book covering a variety of areas, and its really nice to see a chapter about actual graphic design in a Flash book too. Its really well-done as a step-by-step book for users who have an understanding of Flash that are wanting to jump to the next level and use Flash for more than just your basic point-and-click movie. Nice job guys!



5. Not exactly written by a savy Flash5 user.