This book is really Interaction Design 101. What do interaction designers do, what principles do they work on, how do they design, what tools do they use, etc. As I’ve been reading a lot of books on interaction design recently (About Face, etc) this was a bit simple, but it serves as a good overview and also goes into some “advanced topics” – interaction design of the future – that you don’t see elsewhere (unless it’s at the end of About Face 3, I haven’t got there yet).

The most inspiring bit in the book came in an interview with Marc Rettig, in which he talks about the disciplines that have inspired interaction design (p. 16):

“What I imagine we need more of: filmmaking and theater, biology, counseling and therapy (the professionals at acquiring and checking an empathic point of view), maybe anthropology. And especially linguistics – some new branch of linguistics that nobody is yet carving out: the linguistics of designed interactions.”

Hey! I’m a linguist! I’m interested in interaction design! Lemme in!