Summary

The world of smart shoes, appliances, and phones is already here, but the practice of user experience (UX) design for ubiquitous computing is still relatively new. Design companies like IDEO and frogdesign are regularly asked to design products that unify software interaction, device design and service design -- which are all the key components of ubiquitous computing UX -- and practicing designers need a way to tackle practical challenges of design. Theory is not enough for them -- luckily the industry is now mature enough to have tried and tested best practices and case studies from the field.

Smart Things presents a problem-solving approach to addressing designers' needs and concentrates on process, rather than technological detail, to keep from being quickly outdated. It pays close attention to the capabilities and limitations of the medium in question and discusses the tradeoffs and challenges of design in a commercial environment. Divided into two sections, frameworks and techniques, the book discusses broad design methods and case studies that reflect key aspects of these approaches. The book then presents a set of techniques highly valuable to a practicing designer. It is intentionally not a comprehensive tutorial of user-centered design'as that is covered in many other books'but it is a handful of techniques useful when designing ubiquitous computing user experiences.

In short, Smart Things gives its readers both the "why" of this kind of design and the "how," in well-defined chunks.

Choice Review

According to the author, ubiquitous computing refers to "embedding information processing and network communication into a variety of settings." Smart Things fills a void in the literature on ubiquitous computing by addressing user-centered design concerns. Planning and developing in this environment requires unique considerations, and Kuniavsky, a user experience design expert, addresses a number of these in detail. The author provides both a practical and a theoretical basis that serves as a foundation to encourage and support creative innovation. To this end, the book is divided into two main sections, "Frameworks" and "Techniques." The first gives background on ubiquitous computing and defines core issues. The second section offers a more practical coverage of design topics. Using metaphors and case studies of products on the market, Kuniavsky clearly connects the reader to the content and makes the concepts accessible and understandable. Numerous sidebars throughout the text provide additional background information. The forward-thinking author has written a book that is both readable and interesting. The title is accessible enough for undergraduates, but it offers unique insights sufficient to support graduate work. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates and above. D. D. Tritt University of South Carolina Aiken