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Leonardo's Accessories for Hudl: Human Needs as well as the New Computing Technologies
Ben Shneiderman, 2002. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, [ISBN -262-19476-7, 269 pages, including
index, $24.95 USD.]
Ben Shneiderman sees Leonardo da Vinci's ubiquitous notebooks, full of sketches, hypotheses, and
inventions, as models for a new, more humane form of computing--one that is morecreative and
sociable, and universally usable. Imagining how Leonardo might build a hudl accessories computer,
Shneiderman pleads for a renaissance in the manner we build and document technology. He paints a
practical utopia.
Building on more than a quarter century ofteaching and research, and consulting on human-
computer interaction, this book rises above the information on usability research, interface
guidelines, and debates about statistical significance. Utilizing the long view, Shneiderman argues
that the old, bad computing paradigm tended to emphasize technological progress, even though
plenty of confused and frustrated users disliked the merchandise. Too often, he says, these kinds of
products had "incomprehensible terminology, poor online assistance, and nasty failures" (p. 12).
The purpose of new computing is to serve human needs, rather than to switch people with
automation or robots, Shneiderman says. So if you find an interface confusing, speak up! He urges
customers to loudly upbraid the perpetrators ofugly and unfriendly, and unusable products. But for
those who have a hand in creating a high-tech product, he urges you to get creative.
He sees creativity at the heart of the design process--and at the peak of your pyramid of human
needs. In fact, he envisions software that can "enable more people to be creative more of the time"
(p. 208). But exactly how? He sees three paths.
* One path emphasizes inspiration, the moment of "Aha! " that comes after long preparation; so
Shneiderman yearns for playful software that encourages brain-storming, free association, and
alternative perspectives.
* Another way to become creative involves problem-solving; Shneiderman argues that software can
support that process as to what-if scenarios insimulations and spreadsheets, and modeling software.
* A third approach views human context as the most crucial aspect of the creative process, so
Shneiderman likes software enabling collaboration with peers, advice from mentors, and emotional
support from friends and family. Dismissing everyday creativity (a whole new twist on the glossary
definition, say), Shneiderman hopes to see software that can bring together all 3 approaches for
which he calls evolutionary creativity--refining and applying existing paradigms or methods in new
ways.
To encourage evolutionary creativity, then, Shneiderman argues our computers should help us move
easily backwards and forwards through each of the following activities:
* Searching for information
* Visualizing to discover and understand relationships
* Talking to mentors and peers, getting ideas and support
* Thinking up new combinations of ideas through free association
* Exploring possible scenarios through what-if and simulation tools
* Composing artifacts or performances
* Replaying and reviewing sessions to reflect
* Disseminating results to win recognition and to expand the resources open to other people from
the field
With this book, Shneiderman gives us interesting ideas on techniques that computing can enable
every one of these activities. He does not provide specific guidelines, but he expands our sense of
everything we could be doing, with a breadth of vision that can only come from experience, and a
fondness for creative thinking like Leonardo's.
He stresses human needs, not technological advances. So relationships come first, and then human
activities--well More hints before instructions per second. True creativity gives people more control,
more options, more ways to reach out to others.
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To attain designs that assist people expand relationships, Shneiderman suggests that we envision
the way that our audiences move through their circles of relationship, from the interior world of the
self, outward to loved ones, then colleagues and neighbors, and finally the bigger world of fellow
citizens and consumers in a global market-place. The relationships expand in size while shrinking
inside the degree of interdependence, shared knowledge, and trust. Of course, we wrestle with the
variety of audiences we face, and we battle to define our relationship using them as writers. On the
other hand, from the old computing world, designers found relationships disturbing, and
uncomfortable:
Centering on relationships is actually a new direction for many people in the
computing field. After all, the essential notion of the individual
computer was tied to the top degree of introversion among
information-processing professionals. (p. 83)
Having postulated four circles of relationship, Shneiderman summarizes the activities that users
wish to participate in:
* Collecting information (reading documents, listening to stories, exploring libraries)
* Relating (asking questions of others, taking part in meetings, joining dialogs, developing trust)
* Creating (visualizing, brainstorming and planning exploring alternatives, simulating outcomes,
finding a design)
* Donating (disseminating what you have come up with, through reports, training, meetings and
events mentoring)
Based on this analysis, Shneiderman suggests a grid for fostering creativity through technology. The
four stages of human activity form the columns, along with the four circles of relationship form the
rows. We can uncover human needs we might not otherwise have looked at, expanding our original
concise explanation of our work and breaking out of preconceptions, by filling in the matrix for a
particular project.
To show how such a method might take us beyond mere usability, Shneiderman provides case
studies, describing how he, his students, and like-minded designers have applied some form of this
matrix to projects, making e-learning, e-commerce, e-healthcare, and e-government more
educational, responsive and interesting and democratic.
Grounded in actual design, his ideas are less visionary than those of Leonardo but more immediately
applicable on the job. Leonardo's hudl accessories, then, happens to be an inspiring metaphor to the
new computing--an image of the items we should be developing as participants in user-centered
design, and a reminder of what we ought to demand once we ourselves use technology.
JONATHAN PRICE runs The Communication Circle in Albuquerque, NM. An associate fellow of STC,
he belongs to the American Society of Journalists and Authors. They have coauthored Hot text: Web
writing that works, The best of internet shopping, Fun with digital imaging, and How to
communicate technical information.