User-Centered Technology : A Rhetorical Theory for Computers and Other Mundane Artifacts
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Overview
User-Centered Technology presents a theoretical model for examining technology through a user perspective. Johnson begins with a historical overview of the problem of technological use from the ancient Greeks to the present day - a problem seen most clearly in historical discussions of rhetoric theory. The central portion of the book elaborates on user-centered theory by defining three focal issues of the theory: user knowledge, human-technology interaction, and technological determinism. Working from an interdisciplinary perspective, Johnson uses rhetoric theory to present a definition of user knowledge; human factors engineering to illuminate the ideological presuppositions built into technology design; and history, philosophy, and sociology to explain technological determinism, possibly the greatest impediment to user-centered technology development in modern times. The latter part of the book applies user-centered theory in two contexts: the nonacademic sphere, where the writing and design of computer user documentation is discussed, and the academic sphere, through a discussion of how user-centered concepts might drive university technical communication and composition curricula.About the Author:
Robert R. Johnson is the Chair of the Department of Humanities at Michigan Technological University.
Awarded "1998 Best Book" by the National Council of Teachers of English for Excellence in Technical and Scientific Communication.
Synopsis
User-Centered Technology presents a theoretical model for examining technology through a user perspective. Johnson begins with a historical overview of the problem of technological use from the ancient Greeks to the present day - a problem seen most clearly in historical discussions of rhetoric theory. The central portion of the book elaborates on user-centered theory by defining three focal issues of the theory: user knowledge, human-technology interaction, and technological determinism. Working from an interdisciplinary perspective, Johnson uses rhetoric theory to present a definition of user knowledge; human factors engineering to illuminate the ideological presuppositions built into technology design; and history, philosophy, and sociology to explain technological determinism, possibly the greatest impediment to user-centered technology development in modern times. The latter part of the book applies user-centered theory in two contexts: the nonacademic sphere, where the writing and design of computer user documentation is discussed, and the academic sphere, through a discussion of how user-centered concepts might drive university technical communication and composition curricula.
About the Author:
Robert R. Johnson is the Chair of the Department of Humanities at Michigan Technological University.
Stuart Selber
By offering an approach that makes situated user knowledge much more vital to designers, Johnson repositions technical communication as central to technology development and use. In an electronic age in which information design affects how people collaborate, communicate, compose, and more, what could be more important than helping to shape our computer-mediated activities in socially responsible ways? Perhaps only articulating the directions in which our field needs to head if we hope to thrive in the next century. In this most crucial of professional tasks, Johnson has succeeded extraordinarily well.
—Journal of Business and Technical Communication (Oct. 1999)
Editorials
R.L. Upchurch
The book has much to offer, yet this is not a work to be merely read; rather, it must be studied carefully. Part 2 is a definite read for the human-computer interaction community. The software engineering community should pay particular attention to the chapters related to system-centered technology and the discussion of why usability assessment is "too little, too late." The text challenges these disciplines to provide a similarly deliberative and reasoned approach to user-centered design.—Computing Reviews (December 1998)
Stuart Selber
By offering an approach that makes situated user knowledge much more vital to designers, Johnson repositions technical communication as central to technology development and use. In an electronic age in which information design affects how people collaborate, communicate, compose, and more, what could be more important than helping to shape our computer-mediated activities in socially responsible ways? Perhaps only articulating the directions in which our field needs to head if we hope to thrive in the next century. In this most crucial of professional tasks, Johnson has succeeded extraordinarily well.—Journal of Business and Technical Communication (Oct. 1999)