Radical Simplicity: Transforming Computers Into Me-centric Appliances

Rating:
Summary: The right approach - computers do it for me
Review: Although it may seem simple, so far computers did not actually do work for us, the did the work instead of other tools. Word ist just an electronic typewriter, but did it write the text for me? No! The next generation of computers will be different. They will actually do work for us, they will make their own decisions and execute predefined work tasks in an intelligent way. Sounds spooky? Maybe, but if you trust your secretary, you should also trust your computer. Hayes-Roth and Amor show us how this brave, new world may look like. Very interesting read, indeed!

Rating:
Summary: Great book on technology
Review: Roth and Amor provide a great book on how to simplify technology. If we do not try to simplify it, it will become unmanageable in the future. The book shows what the problems are and how to solve them. Unfortunately, production was weak and there are some figures are not very well readable. Please change this in the reprint.

Rating:
Summary: Designing a Me-Centric World is cool!
Review: This book talks about a radical change in IT. It shows how computers should be programmed. Not in a tool-centric way, but in a user-centric way, meaning that not the functionality is the main focus, but the usefulness of the system towards the user. In many cases, you can see systems that are full of features everyone and nobody needs. If these systems would only provide the functionality that I need at a given time, it would reduce the complexity of that system and would enable me to do my work faster. By connecting all sorts of devices and services, it is possible to create new me-centric service chains that can give better value to me.

The book provides a lot of good ideas how this can look like in the future, but also shows what is necessary from a development point of view to make this happen. Technical, social and business aspects are introduced and enable the solution architect for a new product/service to make it me-centric.

A must for product development!