Rating: 
Summary: Cognitive Friction and Dancing Bears
Review: Alan Cooper does a good job of explaining why we experience difficulty and frustration when we operate a computer or device with a microchip or computer program built in. He describe this problem as "cognitive friction", the resistance encountered by a human intellect when it engages with a complex system of rules that change as the problem permutes (19-20). The theme of this book is that interactive products need to be designed by interaction designers instead of by software engineers, the inmates who run the asylum (21). Cooper prefers using the term "interaction design" over the term "interface design" so that programmers and software companies take more responsibility in placing design at the forefront of the planning stages. He defines interaction design as the selection of behavior, function, and information and their presentation to users, end product design being the part he wishes to take from programmers and put into the hands of dedicated interaction designers (22). Cooper describes two types of computer users, apologists and survivors. He defines apologists as those who fight their way through program design and interaction making excuses for the programmers. These people are generally computer literate. Survivors do not think of computers as being simple to use and make up about 90% of those who use computers. Cooper proposes that companies not rush to put products on shelves, that programmers not test their own code, that corporate managers take a more active role in understanding how people will effectively use their products, to throw prototypes of existing code away and build from scratch with the end user and interface in mind, and to incorporate interaction design before programming starts. The book is an interesting behind-the-scenes look at what takes place in the software industry. For those of us, really everyone who has used a computer or electronic product, consumers who have become frustrated at "dancing bear" products and who simply wish to turn on their VCR to record the Super Bowl or use the computer to send e-mail, the book is a comforting piece of knowledge in realizing that we are not the problem.
Rating: 
Summary: How To Restore The Sanity
Review: The high-tech industry has inadvertently put programmers and engineers in charge, so their hard-to-use engineering culture dominates. In our rush to accept the many benefits of the silicon chip, we have abdicated our responsibilities. We have let the inmates run the asylum. When the inmates run the asylum, it is hard for them to see clearly the nature of the problems that bedevil them. When you look in the mirror, it is all too easy to single out your best features and overlook the warts. When the creators of the software-based products examine their handiwork, they overlook how bad it is. Instead they see its awesome power and flexibility. Programming is such a difficult and absorbing task, that it dominates all other considerations, including the concerns of the users. Programmers aren't evil. They work hard to make their software easy to use. Unfortunately, their frame of reference is themselves, so they only make it easy to use for other software engineers, not for normal human beings. Why high tech products drive us crazy and how to restore the sanity? This is what this book is about.
Because it is far cheaper for manufacturers to use computers to control the internal functioning of devices than it is to use older, mechanical methods, it is economically inevitable that computers will insinuate themselves into every product and service in our lives. This means that the behaviour of all of our products will soon be the same as most obnoxious computers, unless we try something different. The incredible power of computers means that few people can afford to ignore them. Even if you don't have a desktop computer, you probably own a VCR and an ATM card, which are software-based products. It is unrealistic to simply say you "won't use computers". They aren't just getting cheaper; they are getting ridiculously cheaper, to the point of ubiquity and disposability. Many familiar products that we imagine as mechanical (or electronic) are no longer made without computers. Cars, washing machines, televisions, vacuum cleaners, thermostats and elevators are all good examples.
This book is written with humour, liveliness, and amusement, it has a lot of funny illustrations. Yet it reveals the problems of software industry which were left attention for decades. One of the problem is "elastic user", such a user which must bend and stretch and adapt to the needs of the moment. When a company speaks about the software it develops, every party involved (management, programmers, testers, sales) include different meaning into the word "user". In "Goal-Directed design", the participants never refer to "the user". Instead, they refer to a very specific individual: "a persona". To create a product that must satisfy a broad audience of users, logic will tell you to make it as broad in its functionality as possible to accommodate the most people. Logic is wrong. You will have far greater success by designing for one single person. Imagine that you were designing an automobile to please a wide spectrum of people. You could easily identify at least three subgroups: the soccer mom, the carpenter, and the junior executive. Mom wants a safe, stable vehicle with lots of space and big doors for hauling the kids, dogs, groceries and other stuff. The carpenter wants a rugged vehicle with all-wheel drive and abundant room for ladders, lumber, bags of cement, and tools. The young executive wants a sporty car with a powerful engine, stiff suspension, convertible top and only enough room for too. If we make such a combination vehicle, what a goofy, impossible car will appear! Making three different products in software is lot easier than making them in steel, too. Another problem which the author points to is "the customer-driven death spiral", where "conceptual integrity" is the only solution.
The author declares that the key to solving the problems is interaction design, and exposes the Goal-Directed design method that provides manufacturers of high tech products with an insightful understanding of their users and a practical blueprint for a superior result. Alan Cooper, the author of the book, and his company, have designed a wide range of products ranging from clean, simple kiosk systems to complex scientific applications, controls for consumer-oriented computer peripherals, conceptual designs for entire product lines, eCommerce sites. The list of companies that adopted the Goal-Directed design includes many industry leaders, large and small, such as 3M, Proctor & Gamble, Dolby Labs, Fujitsu, HP, Informatica, Logitech, SAP, Charles Schwab, St. Jude Medical, and Varian. The description of Goal-Directed design in this book is very reader-friendly and is targeted to the broad audience. Alan Cooper gives the further explanation of this method in his following book "About Face 2.0", aimed mostly to the engineers. Although these two books are still not enough to deploy this method in your organisation, they show how vital this technique is for a successful product.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent insight into the minds of coders
Review: I enjoyed this book a great deal. It has a wonderful mix of humor, information and just good book structure. It is a must read for everyone that is, works with programmers, or uses the final products of programmers. Essentially, anyone who could be reading this review.
Where some UI authors drone on about why everything is bad and they're so smart but give little proof of that, Cooper makes you laugh at what is wrong and then offers multiple solutions to the problems. It's entertaining and refreshingly current without throwing out the past, bloating his ego or boring you with page after page of going-to-get-to-my-point-any-second-now writing. His insights into the various situations that plague the computer industry are quite good and his solutions are sound. It's high time companies start re-structuring, since bad program design is getting into nearly everything that is controlled with electricity.
Other good things about the book are the care at which the sections are thought out and the brevity of each section. In most chapters he knows when to shut up and get on to the next point. And the next point is most often a nice progression from the previous, and so on. The flow is very good and the points are well made.
It isn't without its troubles but when for instance he repeats himself, it isn't as bad as many authors.. It is often to recap, reference back, say just in case the reader has not read the previous telling, or for the effect of restating so obviously.
Also for me personally, it made me realize some of the things that I've done in my work are better practices than I'd thought.. and things that I've felt iffy about are confirmed bad by his experience and opinion. Altogether, helpful.
Rating: 
Summary: Do you see a light or the light?
Review: It takes a lot of nerve to be the man behind Visual Basic and still claim to know how to "fix" computer programming (what virus threat?)
Inmates is a funny book to read (as the title indicates), but it is also likely to offend a few people (as seen by the mixed reviews). It is NOT a "how to do things differently" book - but a WHY should we do things differently book. As such it is naturally biased for his point of view: computers are popping up more and more places, becoming faster and faster, yet it still takes the average person more time to do his tasks.
This book is not the only way to improve your products, Extreme Programming is another "mindset" that brings a new approach to involving users and their need in the development. It is still a useful input, if management is unable/unwilling to understand that TTT (things take time) - and should be planned accordingly.
The main take-away: have the guts to think, plan and design BEFORE someone starts building (as one quoted programmer says: Hey, you don't want to control me - you want to give me a huge and interesting challenge!!!)
Rating: 
Summary: Great fiction
Review: In one of the opening sentences, Cooper uses Albert Einstein's quote "You can't solve a problem with the same thinking that created it" as a supporting claim for why it would be desirable for the tech industry to adopt his goal-directed design method. The method relies on visualizing hypothetical, but very specific users (like Joe Black who works at McDonald, likes his coffee black, wears black underwear and cannot stand the sound of the cash register in the morning) and thinking in terms of how these "personas" would accomplish their goals with the application you are designing. Having worked in the industry for many years, I can sort of see how this method can supplement some of the more rigorous design methodologies that you'd see in companies today, but contrary to the hype, I don't think it will shift your development into high gear or make any significant impact on your production. For one, the main design problem he is solving seems to merely exists in his book (which incidentally makes the Albert Einstein quote more relevant).
Slightly exaggerated, the book almost reads like this: "There exists badly written software in the world... engineers are to blame...don't trust marketing... random fictitious thoughts ... use goal-directed design method because it will save you money..." I doubt that any competent manager would ever consider investing into a design methodology that is guaranteed to cause hostility between engineering, marketing and interaction design team.
The simple language and somewhat unique humor definitely make this book an easy read (passes the cognitive friction test -- shouldn't take you more than few hours to go through) but be cautious of the parts where Cooper attempts to make universally true points. One of the many things that threw me off was the part where he suggests that the designer should abandon his sense of logic. For example, page 68, "It is all so logical, yet it is all so wrong", Cooper tries to explain that illogical approach yields the right design in some cases. These types of statements make it somewhat hard to follow the reasoning in the book. Another worrisome thing is the number of inconsistencies throughout the book. For example, in one part he advocates the idea that humans generally don't make decisions in the same way that computers do as a way of arguing that software should respect the user's decision and therefore not prompt him with a confirmation dialog (huh?). In other part of the book, he complains about a system that didn't warn a user. Similarly, in one instance, he argues that "specificity" of personas (imaginary characters) is the active ingredient without which the value is lost. On the other hand when he talks about a case study where they had to create personas he says "Each of the four passenger personas was an archetype in its own way, representing a broad segment of users."
Shortly after you get into the book, you realize that Cooper is simply following his own formula to sell his gumbo. He clearly identified a very specific persona as the audience (wouldn't be surprised if he called him Alan, -- oh.. but it's forbidden to use "real" people when creating personas.. see chapter 9). Using his model, all we'd need is a single imaginary person who has the need and desirability for the book. Having found this person, the viability or the product is almost given. (I can't believe the humans have been so mindless not to think of this before!)
The only way to save money from this book is by not buying it.
Rating:
Summary: Say You Want a Revolution...
Review: I found myself really getting into Cooper's book as I read it. He's an easy writer to read. He keeps things interesting with all sorts of anecdotes and experiences, and he describes them with tongue planted firmly in cheek.
That's not to say that he isn't serious about what he has to say... clearly, he is very serious. In describing the difference between a Designer and a Developer, and even in more detail when contrasting a Visual Designer and an Interaction Designer, he makes clear just how important this subject is, and how the differences he is talking about can determine the process by which a piece of software or application comes together, and the success of the final product. His obvious frustrations with the roadblocks to effective user-focused design should be understood by anyone involved in the design process.
The pinnacle of the book, for me, came in the middle. At the end of Part 3 ("Eating Soup with a Fork" -- great title), he discusses the relationship between humans and technology. He says something so simple that it should have been obvious, but it's really a fairly major shift in perception from what many people think. He talks about the assumption that technology is dehumanizing here:
"It doesn't require sophisticated tools to dehumanize your fellow humans -- a glance or a kick does it as well. It is not technology that is dehumanizing. It is the technologists, or the processes that technologists use, that create dehumanizing products."
This is important to what Cooper is trying to say in "Inmates" in so many ways. The theme of the book throughout seemed to be that interaction design is only as friendly, or as UN-friendly, as people make it. Technology only does what we tell it to, as we design and implement its specific functions.
The real revolution that this implies is the possibility that technology can be made to interact successfully with humans, and that it doesn't have to frustrate or debase the people who try to use it. In fact, as a human creation, technology is as human as we want to make it. As Cooper said in chapter 6, "For users to be happy and effective with software, it must be written in harmony with the demands of human nature."
But like anything, to make software effectively intereact with humans (i.e. more helpful, more usable, etc.) takes more work... one of the roadblocks. Cooper talks, also, about the established culture of programmers. He defines them as almost a seperate breed of humans, at least as far as their thought process and rationale... "Homo Logicus" as opposed to "Homo Sapiens." He talks about the rift that often appears between them, largely because of the cultural perception (mostly an obsolete view) that software is a solitary occupation, that programmers work in a vacuum and are the sole authors of their work.
The book makes it clear that the software design process can no longer be one which belongs to a solitary person. The creation of software works better as a collaborative effort than it does as a single-author process. Product planners, interaction designers, usability experts, testers, and yes, programmers all have their part to play, and when it comes together, it can yield great results.
Cooper's conclusion seems to be that the most fundamental changes to the software industry need to be made to the process. The people who make the software are, by and large, talented at what they do, and willing to change for the better if they can. It is when they are asked to do more than they should be that problems arise. A change to the process will ensure that better, more usable products can be made.
It seems that most of the people who do the work of making the software in question are willing to change the way they do things, but only need permission to do so. Cooper's take on it, which I agree with, is that it has become not only advisable to move on from the obsolete programming culture we have relied on in the past. If we want to make a change towards more usable products that end-users feel comfortable interacting with, then a change to the process of software creation to a more collaborative effort of interaction design and development becomes an imperative, at the very least.
Recommended to anyone involved in the software design process. Record it on tape and play it for project managers while they sleep.
Rating:
Summary: You're either part of the problem or part of the solution
Review: Cooper gets it. He understands that computers and electronics are designed by engineeers, for engineers. But what if you want to design something for the masses? Not just something they will use, but something they will enjoy? Cooper has the idea. If you want to design for "normal" people, you need to put yourself in their shoes. In this bible of high-tech product design, Cooper gives you tools that helps you design products for your target customers. This isn't just a bunch of recipes for GUIs and wizards, but a way to think about how people actually use your tools. I know Cooper's techniques work. I have adopted them across my software development team, and the difference is astounding. Bottom line: If you're involved in high-tech development, design, or marketing, you need this book.
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