Rating: 
Summary: know your legacy to predict your future
Review: Johnson's writings strike me strongest as a detailed and creative look at our history and the implications of our technological developments.In some sense, this social-historical point of view the most important aspect for Internet users and designers alike. The World Wide Web is a phase. The desktop computer is also a phase. We will pass on from these mediums. Knowing why these limiting portals exist and it's inter-relationships with our civilization will prepare us for our future. Future, however, is where Steve Johnson fell short. He skimped through "agents" which is almost already a present. His effort of linking his view of our past to a speculative but systematic prediction of our future would have been greatly appreciated and helped non-insiders to understand the importance of his work.
Rating: 
Summary: Compelling and thought provoking
Review: One of the most thought provoking books I've ever read on the topic, Johnson offers an intriguing perspective on the state of the human-computer interface. Perhaps the most impressive aspect of this book is the way Johnson presents so many interesting ideas - each one triggering many new ideas in the reader. Although many will find Johnson's ideas debatable, it is still a compelling read due manner and intelligence in which each argument is presented. Another interesting aspect of the book is the way Johnson attempts to predict the future direction of interface design. Rather than merely extrapolating on recent trends, he looks at deep historical patterns of the social, psychological, and philosophical effect that each interface development had on us as a society and the way they shaped our culture. His arguments take us from the early work done at XEROX PARC to the web-enabled interfaces of today. In the end, Johnson makes a credible argument that is strongly rooted in the broader context of history and culture. This book has somewhat of a manifesto feel to it but at the same time, it is not dogmatic. It paints a picture of interesting possibilities for the future of interface design that aims to inspire and challenge the reader. A very compelling read.
Rating: 
Summary: Banal observations without analysis or projection.
Review: Painfully simplistic, Johnson skips much of the complexity of net behavior and evolution in favor of cute allusions and exhausting descriptions of killer apps we all live with daily. Someone forget to edit those lines that sound so cool but say nothing new. There's nothing said here that isn't said better and more interestingly by Douglas Rushkoff, or even in last year's Wired, Fast Company, New Media magazines.
Rating: 
Summary: Making Sense of Information
Review: Steven Johnson describes the recurring theme in Interface Culture like one would describe a disruptive technology, as something that is not fully realized at the time that it is brought into existence. "No significant cultural form springs into existence fully realized. There is always a gestation period, where the divisions between genres, conventions, or media types are less defined" (p 39). His point is well taken, but he does attempt to cover quite a bit of material in just 250 pages. Johnson breaks down the discussion of our interface culture into that of "Bitmapping", "The Desktop", "Windows", "Links", "Text", and "Agents". In the chapter on "Bitmapping", Johnson discusses that while users are "Bitmapping" they are given the illusion of having direct manipulation of their data. Users are also able to take the perspective that a machine, a computer, is not seen as an appendage to their bodies, but as an environment to be explored (p. 24). This illusion is created by "filters", such as "The Desktop", "Windows", "Links", "Text", and "Agents", that were developed by artists/engineers in order for the user to be able to associate with, and bring relevance to, the technology environment. These filters assist users in absorbing the mass amounts of information that is beyond any one user's ability to digest. Johnson states in the chapter on "Text" that, " I wasn't totally aware of it at the time, of course, but I can now see that what drew me into the language-space on the screen was nothing less than interface design" (p. 141). He discusses how it changed the methodology behind writing as it "eliminated the penalty that that revisions normally exacted" (p. 143). Also, the success of determining the actual author of a book, a task once thought capable only by humans due to its artistic intent, through the use of a computer was also discussed. The author makes valid points throughout the book regarding the various computer interfaces we interact with on a daily basis and their impact on the way we envision our world. Johnson, at times, makes so many points in each chapter that the reader can't help but feel bounced around a bit while attempting to digest each detail. Overall, the book was an easy read, but may have benefited from a tightening of the recurring themes, i.e., "No significant cultural form springs into existence fully realized. There is always a gestation period, where the divisions between genres, conventions, or media types are less defined", (p. 39) and the central topic, "the fusion of art and technology that we call interface design" (p. 6).
Rating:
Summary: The Changing Face of Interface
Review: Steven Johnson has found a way to use the metaphors of the computer (desktop, windows, links, and text) to explain the impact of those metaphors on not only how we use computers in our society, but how they influence our non-technology lives as well. Throughout, Johnson makes a well crafted argument for the limitations of our current computer interfaces, or GUI's (graphical user interface), and how the initial breakthrough of using the desktop as a means for humans to interact with computers has fallen short of unleashing the potential of today's powerful computing systems. Unfortunately, cites Johnson, the advances in computer technology, user sophistication and the Internet have rendered the breakthrough of the computer desktop, and its navigational metaphor, tired and ill-equipped to handle the way in which computer users now demand that their technology work for them. In chapter four, Links, Johnson is particularly critical of the limited way in which hyperlinks are designed into our computer interfaces. He notes that the way links diffuse information, instead of converging it, has more to do with the traditional text-based, linear methodology of books than with the tool from which these links were created, the World Wide Web. Further, in an interesting discussion about non-traditional online magazines, he produces an image of circular linking within text documents on the web that stands the traditional methodologies of today's writer and webmasters on their heads. Compiled skillfully, the concluding chapter of the book brings all of Johnson's thoughts and ideas together in a very interesting look at what computing in the future may look like - if software and interface designers can break out of their traditional coding patterns and approach the computer interface from a different angle. My sense of Johnson's perspective is that irregardless of whether established programmers and companies decide to alter their vision of the user interface, these changes will come. And they will come from a new breed of designer, one who has grown up with the web, and the desktop. These designers don't require a paradigm shift in order to change the way human computer interface (HCI) appears on our monitors, they've been tinkering with the existing model, in their bedrooms (and in hacking chat rooms), for awhile.
Rating:
Summary: Theory made readable
Review: Steven Johnson makes the theory of computer interface and its impact on our culture understandable as he uses metaphor, example, and plain language to explore this complex issue. His exploration of using Graphic User Interfaces and spacial memory by the computer industry in an effort to make computer programs more usable. His exploration of this wide-ranging culture makes for interesting reading and continued thought. Johnson looks into future possibilities and explores the possibilities of storage and retreaval devices not dependent upon spacial relationships. His discussion of the use of Agents is insightful, interesting, and challenging all at once. He asks how far we are willing to let the behind-the-sceens go beyond our control. The answer is up to the reader as she grapples with the many nuances of such activity. His idea that using common placement and terms for actions across applications may be just a phase computer applications is going through provokes some complex images of future possibilities. This book provides food for thought for the novice user as well as the expert, and explores important issues along the way. He closes by proposing some sound ideas like,"The interface is a way of seeing the whole. Or, at the very least, a way of seeing its shadow, illuminated by the bright phosphor of the screen."( p. 238)
Rating:
Summary: Metaphors for Interaction
Review: Steven Johnson, in his provocative book, Interface Culture, defines interface as "software that shapes the interaction between user and computer." (p. 14) Fond of literary and artistic allusion, he suggests that interface design is the fusion of art and technology. (p.6) Johnson gives numerous examples of interface designs that have been successful due to their intuitive appeal to the end-user, e.g. desktop iconography, as well as less successful designs that have failed to inspire the end-user, e.g. Microsoft's "Bob." Interface Culture traces the evolution of interface design from the introduction of the first GUI, through the Mac desktop, Microsoft Windows, Internet linkage, semantic interface, computer agents, and on to speculation of what may come. Johnson proposes that computers think in ones and zeroes, while people think in words, concepts, sounds, and images. (p. 14) Thus, in order for an interface design to attract users, the ones and zeroes must tell a story; they must represent a virtual metaphor. (p.15) Apple's desktop iconography, although derided at introduction, translated binary syntax into concepts that the average person could understand: files, folders, trash, etc... The desktop metaphor further evolved into digital environments: town squares, shopping malls, and personal assistants, interface environments that are familiar and easily understood. (p. 18) Having established the interface-as-metaphor concept in the first chapter, Johnson presents a number of interesting claims throughout Interface Culture. He asserts that the Internet is the first technology that brings people closer together rather than pushing them apart, via web communities (p. 64) This is a plausible argument, though the quality of web-based relationships is certainly open to question. There can be no question, however, that the Internet allows for communal sharing and vast dissemination of information, art, music, and any other data that can be digitized and transmitted through the world wide web. This raises a significant dilemma: how do we determine and protect intellectual property rights on the Internet? The answer is not as straightforward as it may seem. Johnson queries: "if I show you a copy of Newsweek through my personal (website), is that like selling a tape of the World Series without...consent of Major League Baseball? Or is it like inviting friends over to watch a ball game from an apartment that happens to overlook Comiskey Park?" (p. 96) Clearly there is no easy answer, as the advent of webpage frames has created a whole new interface environment that falls outside traditional property rights jurisdiction. Thus, the new Internet interface provides freedoms to the public to harvest, share, and display virtually anything that is published on the web. This transference of power will need to be negotiated between the content providers and their consumers. A different transference of power is an issue in the development of text-based semantic interfaces. Such interfaces rely on text pattern recognition software that empowers computers to organize files by meaning rather than by iconographic space. Thus, the user must relinquish his reliance on desktop metaphors, and grant the computer "control over the organization of...data." (p. 172) Relinquishing control may very well be the wave of the interface future, according to Johnson. Given the proliferation of computer agents, programs that perform tasks on the user's behalf, it may be just a matter of time before intelligent traveling agents not only report back to user with lowest airfare, desired stock prices, and movie showtimes, but actually purchases them based on user preferences. This may seem desirable, but Johnson warns of Madison Avenue's manipulation of traveling agents in order to attract them to specified sites. (p. 186) Johnson concludes Interface Culture by identifying the "blind spots" of modern interface design, while foretelling what may be its future. These blind spots include: "the tyranny of image over text, the limitation of the desktop metaphor, the potential chaos of intelligent agents," and the confinement of interface design to the "world of functionality and increased convenience." (p. 212-213) Johnson prophesizes a "profound change ( that lies) with our generic expectation about...interface itself." (p. 213) He believes that "the interface came into the world under the cloak of efficiency, and it is now emerging-chrysalis-style as a genuine art form." (p. 242) Johnson may be proven right, though it might be wishful thinking to argue that interface design will become "the art form of the next century." (p. 213) Nonetheless, Interface Culture is compelling reading that does indeed provoke the reader to elevate interface design from the ranks of generic utilitarian programming and at least to consider the discipline as a craft if not an art form. At times Johnson's frequent literary and historical allusions are inspired; at other times they seem affected. Despite this, Johnson's Weltanschauung is infectious, and leaves the reader with anticipation of what may come in the field of interface design.
Rating:
Summary: Beyond direct manipulation
Review: The author challenges us to start thinking beyond direct manipulation. The metaphor of physical location for digitally stored information likely to be surpassed as we continue our journey "from atoms to bits".
Rating: 
Summary: I judged this book by the editorial reviews
Review: The author has a great skill with the English language. His vocabulary is extensive, his skill with adjectives overwhelming. I felt like it was a Harlequin Romance version of a technical paper. He uses so many quotes and references it reminded me of a overwritten term paper. I found myself drifting in my own thoughts while waiting for the point to be made.
Rating:
Summary: Good premise, poor execution
Review: The fundamental ideas expressed in this book are important and I applaud the author for recognizing them and bringing them to our attention. I just wish he hadn't done so in such a needlessly wordy and meandering fashion. This book could easily have been limited to the length of an essay and conveyed the same ideas. My biggest gripe, however, is the painful, self-consciously hip way in which the book is written. The author seems to really want to be perceived as extremely cool, and this annoying tendency adds a lot of unnecessary fluff to the book. Word of advice - when you see something on a book jacket that reads (as this one does) "In this hip, erudite manifesto...." just put the book back on the rack, back slowly away, and get the hell out of there.
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