Lots to Read.
There are a number of new texts coming out about Interaction Design. I don't know if they are good or bad, but there sure are a number of them!
Dan Saffer, another CMU alumni, has written a text called Designing for Interaction; this seems to provide a little about a lot, but certainly serves as a starting point for those who are new to the field. It also has a very colorful cover.
It looks like Jenny Preece is about to introduce a new version of Interaction Design, but I was disappointed by the tagline “beyond human-computer interaction” on the previous version, as the text seemed happily grounded in HCI theory. I wasn't the only one to notice this, either. Perhaps this version will delve beyond the historical safety of HCI.
Due out in a month is a title called “Analog In, Digital Out: Brendan Dawes on Interaction Design”, which looks to be an interesting take on drawing connections between diverse disciplines in the attempt to understand behavior. I don't know who Brendan Dawes is, but Amazon says he is a "legendary interactivity designer".
Gillian Crampton Smith released a pretty compelling title called “Theories and Practice in Interaction Design”, but after paying for my ISBN numbers, I can’t afford the $80 price tag.
And, in no particular order, there is also Observing Interaction: Second Edition, A Theory of Computer Semiotics, Sexual Interactions: The Social Construction of Atypical Sexual Behaviors, and The Persona Lifecycle : Keeping People in Mind Throughout Product Design (A 744 page book on how to write Personas? $60? What?)
With all of that said, there still seems to be a very large hole in the space of design theory – there are a lot of “how to” books, but not very many “why” or “should we really?” books coming out. (This may indicate that no one wants to read them; if that's the case, I guess all of my relatives are getting Interaction Design books for the holidays). Stolterman & Lowgren’s text is almost two years old, but it was really the last text that touched on some of the language-style issues I’ve written about. I hope that is the place my text will live. Maybe someone will even buy it.