Rating: 
Summary: A philosophy, not a terse checklist for design
Review: I kept thinking "we think alike"; not about interaction design per se - the topic of this book - but an evangelistic passion and the desire to somehow convey the deep understanding, the gestalt, of ..... - in this case software interaction design. As a software developer I too am passionate about certain issues of software development - and I find myself often not telling my development team "do this, do that", rather trying to convey the 'why.'I think the book's title and sub-title lean more toward an eye to marketing than to describing the content, but don't let that and other reviews read here make you think the author is orating from his high horse. He is explaining his view of software development (and what to do about it) from his perspective as an interaction designer (not to be confused with an interface designer). Analogy, anticdote, and brief example work well here. Maybe because my experience causes me to agree with so much of what he says that I very much liked the book and how he said it. I came away not with the knowledge for hanging out a "Interaction Design - the doctor is in" shingle but rather a sense that this guy knows what he's talking about and his points have validity. Then I went and bought his latest, "About face" version 2.
Rating: 
Summary: Beautiful
Review: Super book. I've been involved on the business side of web, portal and content management software projects for many years; this is the best argument on the market for bringing designers in early and streamlining your approach to developing software features, understanding user requirements, and keeping the dev team and customers all on the same page. Don't build another application without it!
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Summary: The point was lost somewhere
Review: I like Alan Cooper. He is entertaining, thoughtful and has numerous amusing anecdotes and analogies. He is a "voice sounding in the wilderness" in the software community about usability. Unfortunately, I think his point is lost somewhat in the marketing message and sensationalism of this book. Who is the book written for - the software developer or the frustrated user? The first chapter sounds like a Luddite rebellion against computers. It is hard to imagine the person writing that chapter as a computer professional. Using the analogy of a secretary who doesn't know how to save files to a folder as an example of poor design is blaming the programmer for poor training. True, software is often developed by programmers who barely get real requirements, develop in a vacuum and then force feed the end result to the user. And ironically, Alan Cooper invented Visual Basic, which ushered in Rapid Application Development (RAD) programming (good!) but adds the tendency for quick prototype demos to get shipped as "Version 1.0" because the CEO or CIO says,"hey it works now" (bad!).
These shortcomings are not solved by adding a layer of another design person partially disconnected from the user, or making the screen prettier. It is by adapting the Extreme Programming/Agile programming methods of including the user in everything from design to testing, so the software reflects how the user does business.
I still liked the book, just not clear on the message.
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Summary: The Hard Truth
Review: This is a good book that i read last month. I wanted to write it but thanks that Alan did it. so i think this is a common problem felt by all usability engineers. Everything he has said is a fact. We hope that someday usability becomes a part of software process and a required department like QA, Engineering, etc. ...
Rating:
Summary: Good reminder of the tech tunnel vision we get...
Review: Alan Cooper has some great points about how difficult high-tech products can be and particularly how they don't need to be that way. As a tech head, I see myself getting caught up in the mode of cooler and more challenging. Alan made the point about programmer's being just like elite mountain climbers tackling a new mountain. They do it for the sport. It isn't about making it easier. It is about tackling a HARD problem. I've chuckled to myself at work several times when I see this happening now. Another of my favorite points he makes is about how we never give our users instant satisfaction. They have to invest a great deal into using our products. This locks out so many people and is unnecessary most of the time. Now, just as a caution, I know many folks that will be offended by Alan's tone at times. Read this for its many great points; ignore what sometimes tends towards fanaticism -- he's just passionate about his topic.
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Summary: Required Reading for Web Designers
Review: And why not? As the Web matures it's becoming clear that it's a software platform not just a "new medium." Cooper's fundamental philosophy -- Goal Oriented, Task Based, Personas, Scenarios, etc. -- is easily translated for the creation, programming and deployment of Web-based applications and Web sites; including extended Internet developments that reach far beyond the wired Web. If more Web shops had adopted Cooper's philosophy and design principles, well there'd be more Web shops. Ha!
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Summary: Great book!
Review: This book rocks! It should be read by everyone involved in the cycle of software-based products. From managers to marketing people and of course, us developers. It states clearly that a software should make user's life easier and not vice-versa. It's a must! It also says how to accomplish that, which is very important and is hard to find in other books for software design. I'm about to read the other book that was also written by Cooper 'About Face'.
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Summary: Interaction Design for Managers?
Review: This is a book about Interaction Design. I feel I need to say that right off the bat since the title, "The Inmates are Running the Asylum: Why High-Tech Products Drive Us Crazy and How to Restore the Sanity," as wordy as it is, doesn't say that. In the preface Cooper explains that the purpose of the book is to make a business case for Interaction Design. Therefore he wrote a book for managers. It's full of wacky metaphors not only in the title, but throughout the book. (Add this to the list of oddly-titled business and management book titles: Who Moved My Cheese? Crossing the Chasm, Swim With the Sharks, and so forth.) I'm not a manager, so I can't say whether this book succeeds in making a persuasive business case for Interaction Design. It was heartening to see validation for my area of expertise in black and white. This is not a book for software engineers to read, though, as Cooper seems to have a real problem with programmers. Where Don Norman blamed bad design on designers in The Psychology of Everyday Things, here Cooper places the blame for bad software products directly on programmers. An Interaction Design book written for Interaction Designers would have included more details about how to create and use Personas and Scenarios (two of Cooper's design techniques), and perhaps some advice on how to gain control and respect on interactive projects. But we don't get that. This isn't quite the book about Interaction Design that Interaction Designers need. It does introduce important ideas and techniques, and does describe, in some detail, the problem of programmer-driven products. But I didn't feel that the solutions were covered well enough.
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Summary: It's All The Programmers' Fault
Review: I am a software development professional and have recently managed a project where I used a dedicated design team to define the way the software would interact with its users. Cooper's has a valid thesis - that we need dedicated design professionals to design software that works the way it's varied users (AKA personas) need it to. Unfortunately, Cooper spends an inordinate amount of time making the point that "Software that is hard to use is all the fault of those evil programmers who have too much power that they are unwilling to give up." If you can get past the annoyance of the simplistic explanations and broad generalizations (there are many), Cooper has a number of good points:
1) That designers who specialize in software interaction design should be the people responsible for software's interaction with it users
2) You need to design for particular types of users (personas as he calls them - I've also seen the expression "role" or "user role" to describe similar concepts)
3) Time spent designing software is time well spent I would have like Cooper to reveal more about the methodology and particular deliverables that he uses when creating the design (making it easier to apply what he is advocating without hiring Cooper himself). Clearly, this book was written to increase the credibility and sales of Cooper's firm.
Rating: 
Summary: Mostly a rant
Review: From the first page this book shows itself to be the product of a lot of anger and not much thought or fact. The example of the American Airlines crash is glib and incorrect - 'pilot error' has not been given as a reason for a crash in many years. Similar problems occur thoughout the book - developers are lying when they say that something is technically difficult, using a knob rather than buttons is the answer to everything, design without regard to cost is the only way to do it. There are some ideas there but anything by Donald Norman is better. Like Clifford Stoll in "High tech Heretic" the author mistakes opinion for fact, and generalises with abandon. Yes, products are often poorly designed but all products are designed within constraints and ignoring them does not negate them.
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