Hasta La Ideas

In our last review of a John Kolko book, Thoughts on Interaction Design Donald Norman wrote in the comments, “OK, you convinced me. I’ve ordered the book.” We can’t be sure that our review influenced his newest book Living with Complexity, but since Norman’s work centered on frustrating objects, the extrapolation into systems was bound to happen. Kolko’s new book Exposing the Magic of Design might seem superficially similar to Norman’s to those of us in the industrial design field, but Kolko has profoundly different content.

Kolko’s book is subtitled “A Practitioner’s Guide to the Methods and Theory of Synthesis,” and this reviewer joked that it sounded like an undergraduate film or semiotics course. Kolko himself states that “the ability to ‘be playful’ is critical to achieve deep and meaningful synthesis,” but the tenor of the tome is far from the giant grin the author wears while using carrots as a “phone” on the cover of his previous work. Exposing the Magic of Design is blunt, direct, serious and self-assured. At less than 200 pages and full of diagrams, processes and methods, Kolko certainly didn’t have time for any hand-holding. In this era of easy distraction, Exposing the Magic‘s interaction design requires complete attention. Perhaps that’s the way the author meant it.

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