Design Noir - Anthony Dunne and Fiona Raby
When people hear the term "interaction design", they tend to associate it with pixels and computer screens. I find this definition to be quite restrictive and prefer to think of interaction design in its broadest (and, perhaps, original) sense. Without a computer, we have daily interactions with other people and with different artifacts (both tangible and intangible). Interactions can include a heated conversation with your spouse, turning a doorknob, or noodling on a math equation. How can design influence these kinds of interactions? I find this question interesting.
Dunne and Raby work in an area known as "critical design", which uses interaction design to ask questions rather than to solve problems. Their designs provoke people to consider implications and not applications. Design Noir is a study of "the secret life of electronic objects" and how they influence the way people experience their environment. For example, how does a person's behavior change when he's made more aware of the electromagnetic waves that are penetrating his body? In addition to the authors' own prototype research projects, the book includes the works of other designers, a brief survey of the electromagnetic landscape, and the authors' preface, which sets the philosophical tone for the book.
