Leonardo’s Laptop
The following is what I spewed out as a review of the book. This is what I procrastinated about. I hope it reads well, because I don’t really want to edit over again. One thing missing is examples. The doc will dock me points because of that.
Ben Shneiderman in his book, Leonardo’s Laptop: Human Needs and the New Computing Technologies, develops a vision of the future for human interactions with computers that is optimistic. In it, he writes that the future of computing will be about the empowerment of the end-user. Human-computer interactions will satisfy the needs of the end-user needs rather than the developers of the computing technologies. The software developers goal is then to help the end-user to achieve a goal and establish a community. Shneiderman lays out the new methodologies to achieve this goal by constructin a new human-computer interaction paradigm revolving around the “collect, relate, create, donate” mantra. He applies this to four societal aspects that can benefit from the new paradigm: education, business, healthcare, and politics. Each of these are important to society and by focusing on user’s needs as they relate to computing in these fields, Shneiderman asks of the reader to envision this future where computers serve mankind for the better.
Reading this book, one has to take into account which prospective type of computer user one is. Either, you read it with the jaundiced eyes of a software developer who knows the limits of computer technology or with the wide-eyed, wonderment of a end-user new to the technology. From the start, Shneiderman tries to instill in both types a sense of what to do and what is expected to ensure that the future of computing remain as human as possible. He creates a paradigm around his “collect, relate, create, donate” motto. This is useful to both types of users. The developer aids the end-user by developing software to meet these four needs. Software should be written to enable the end-user to collect information, to enable the end-user to relate their ideas to others, to enable the end-user to create and innovate for personal enjoyment, and enable the end-user to donate back to community furthering society as a whole. With the “collect, relate, create, donate” examples throughout the book, Shneiderman has given the software user and software developer a sense of purpose to computing technology.
Shneiderman sets some lofty goals with his book. To make computing technology personal, he creates a foil for future users in the guise of a new Leonardo. Throughout the book, he returns to this idiom to make the reader aware of the possibilities with the use of computers. This, in my opinion is the weakest aspect of the book. While I admire Leonardo as an artist and creative thinker, I find that he is too distant of a figure to relate to. The new renaissance man is few and fare between to happen in this day and age. Computers facilitate specialization and Shneiderman’s use of a new Leonardo does not take into today’s world of niches. In the last chapter, he describes how this new Leonardo will use the computer. He is creative, he is smart, and he is innovate, but that today and in the future will be a hard talent to find.
The strongest section of the book is in Shneiderman’s descriptions of a new education and government paradigm with the aid computers. Education is the new hope and can readily fit into the “collect, relate, create, donate” cycle. As teachers integrate computing technology, the benefits will affect society. They are the front lines to enable our youngest end users to be part of the future. Teachers will, with the help of computers, collect information for their students, relate those ideas to them, create innovative techniques to challenge their students, and donate back to the community by teaching the young.
As for the new politics, computing technology will enable the citizens to participate and be an important part of it. Citizens, as well as government agencies, can collect information that betters their predicament, relate their status within a community, create innovative measures to address societal failures, and donate back by being an active participant in the government itself. It is the promise that technology holds for bringing communities together which is what Shneiderman tried to focus on, and in the new politics, is the promise fulfilled.
Unfortunately for Shneiderman, his vision of the future of new business has already come to pass. He writes about customization that is to come, but since the book was probably written in the year 2002 his advice seems dated. Perhaps reading the book at that time it would have been closer to being prescient, but now with it already here, it just seems trite.
Finally, the most inspiring chapter of the book comes at the end. In the chapter entitled “Mega-Creativity,” Shneiderman discusses the types of creativity at which computers can aid humans: evolutionary creativity. This is taking small, incremental steps of refinement to better an idea already in the creative marketplace. It is not the revolutionary creativity that comes once in a lifetime, nor is it the everyday creativity wherein the individual adds flair to a banal task. As a tool computers enable the developer to craft programs that empower the end-user’s creativity, as well as his own. Shneiderman admits that it is this aspect of the computing technology that has potential for expanding the horizons of humanity. It is in this chapter where he achieves the goal to inspire all types of computer users to pursue using computers to further expand society.
Overall, Shneiderman may have written this book as an observation about the future direction of computers and human interaction, but he has achieved a new manifesto for developers to follow to make good of the use of the computer tools. The big theme of “collect, relate, create, donate” should be followed by all users of computers, especially those that want to be leaders into the future.
