The Design of Future Things

Commented On:
Adam Griffin
Brad Twitty
Steven Rychlik

Summary:
This book focused on more modern technology to technology not yet developed. He made points about the control we give technology and how it can backfire. He spent a lot of time talking about how much control you can give technology before people get frustrated in it not working how they want. He discusses limitations such as poor communication between machines and people. The central theme is that no time in the foreseeable future will the machine know what the person wants if the task is not mundane so be careful if you let the machine to the thinking.

Discussion:
I was not a huge fan of this book. I felt that the writer had few real points and just kept bringing them back up. He kept using the examples of the car and the house over and over. I feel as if he could have written the book in two chapters and got the same points across. I only got two real points: be careful how much control you give the machine and that machines and people do not communicate with the same language. I think his point on taking care of giving automation when people cant control it is important to remember. The trend today is to make the program do as much as possible for the user, but if we don't let the user have control there is no way to guarantee they get their results. I wish this book just has more lessons to it. If I was to make the book better or write another book it would have more substance to it.