curlandm@prism.CS.ORST.EDU (Matt Curland) (04/20/91)
Greetings! Considering the large amount of interest in interactive technologies today, I thought there would have been more literature available than what I'm finding. Well, maybe I'm looking in the wrong places. Anyway, I'm particularly interested in recent (post 1987) literature dealing with interactive (particularly videodisc) software development. Any sort of studies made that might show that certain approaches get better response from the end user of the system would be especially interesting. For example, are mouse-operated programs more easily accepted? How much control should the user have of the direction of the session? What kind of complaints are reported from users? We are producing a level III program to go with a Spanish language video series. The discs will have none of the interactivity coded onto them, it will be completely controlled by the external software, which is the Quest Authoring Language. Thanks in advance for any references you may be able to supply. (By the way, for any one that's interested, one good intro book is *Interactive Video*, by Richard Schwier, Educational Technology Publications, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, 1987) Matt Curland.. . . . . . . curlandm@prism.cs.orst.edu _____________________________________________________________________________
marti@saturn.ucsc.edu (Marti Atkinson) (04/27/91)
>Considering the large amount of interest in interactive technologies >today, I thought there would have been more literature available than >what I'm finding. Well, maybe I'm looking in the wrong places. Matt... One area that answers some of your questions and also is a different approach is in the Human Interface literature. The best place to start is Donald Norman's THE PSYCHOLOGY OF EVERYDAY THINGS, which has become a classic. Also very good and easy to read is THE ART OF HUMAN COMPUTER INTERFACE DESIGN (or similar title) edited by Brenda Laurel. Both books will lead you into a large body of literature in the area and give you some good ideas on how best to approach your projects. Best wishes! Marti Atkinson University of Calif. at Santa Cruz marti@saturn.ucsc.edu marti@uccrls.BITNET ..!ucbvax!ucscc!saturn!marti
jlong@uhunix1.uhcc.Hawaii.Edu (John Long) (05/03/91)
Check out "The Media Lab" by Stuart Brand, founder of the Whole Earth Catalog. It describes activities at the MIT Media Lab, and talks about the future of mass-communications. A must-read. Speaking of Stuart Brand, it's amazing how the Whole Earth catalog/magazine has evolved. The original was a new concept in publishing. They have really gotten into computers in a big way. Some of the most state of the art ideas in the human aspects of compuing are to be found in WE magazine. They have a very large BBS. It is amazing how the same publication can be into new-age stuff, back-to-the-land stuff, and computer applications, all blended without any dissonance. Best of all, they *assume* the reader is computer-literate, and take computers for granted. Keep up! Aloha, LongJohn