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BOOK REVIEW Leonardo’s laptop: Human needs and the new computing technologies
Shneiderman, Ben. (2002). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Review by Laurie McBride If a genius from the Renaissance lived in our modern world, how would he use his laptop? This is the question posed by Ben Shneiderman in Leonardo’s Laptop: Human Needs and the New Computing Technologies. Leonardo da Vinci provides the muse for exploring ways to improve user interfaces with technology. If Leonardo were alive today, would he create web pages that combine architectural diagrams with his medical discoveries? Would he publish his work in e-books? Would he explore new ways to use digital technology to paint works of art? Would he use animation features to sculpt figures in digital environments? Questions like this provide the jumping-off point for investigating how technology can assist human creativity and discovery. Shneiderman brings considerable experience from the area of
human interfaces with technology to this work.
He is both a profession of computer science at the Leonardo da Vinci provides a wonderful guide for this book. Leonardo’s remarkable genius in a range of disciplines–from art and architecture to physics and medicine–points out how compartmentalized and segmented modern thinking has become. Leonardo’s Laptop includes black and white reproductions of many of his best-known masterpieces along with some of his lesser-known sketches and rough drawings from his notebook, the Codex Leicester, which provides an artistic flourish to what could be a dry discussion about technology. Shneiderman also includes a brief overview of Leonardo’s life and intellectual pursuits during the Renaissance. This historical perspective provides a fresh look at what today we call “interdisciplinary thinking.” Shneiderman’s exploration of Leonardo and his legacy raises a fascinating new way for thinking about how we interact with technology and how technology can be designed to better adapt to the way we think. As Shneiderman points out, it’s easy to talk about improving user interfaces, but hard to do. Leonardo’s Laptop is a challenge to software and hardware developers to put usability in the driver’s seat for new technological products. This book is also a call to arms for consumers everywhere. Shneiderman wants users to demand more from technology companies. He encourages anyone who has ever been frustrated by software glitches, mind-boggling error reports, or locked-up computers to report their problems to the manufacturer and demand better service. As Shneiderman points out, high-tech advocates have spoken for years about artificial intelligence (A.I.) replacing human functions everywhere from the kitchen to the operating suite. The A.I. theme has been a cornerstone of science fiction for years, but for the most part, all the talk about computers taking over the world has been just that – talk. The future, Shneiderman says, is using computers to enhance human capabilities. After all, who wants a robot to perform a complex surgery? Instead, what we want from technology is improved access to resources, information, and decision support, so that the doctor who performs your operation has the best data and diagnostic tools at her/his fingertips. For Shneiderman, the goal of technology is to augment, not replace, human thinking. In a series of chapters, Shneiderman explores how an increased focus on usability would enhance education, business, medicine, government, and creative endeavors. He begins each chapter with another look at Leonardo’s body of work, and he postulates what kind of technological solutions Leonardo would propose in each of these areas. Shneiderman then proceeds to describe ways that an increased focus on usability would enhance technological tools within each discipline. In the chapter on education, Shneiderman envisions an
enhanced online environment that would supplement the classroom. He describes an imagined tool called In the chapters of business, medicine, government, and creative endeavors, Shneiderman continues in the same direction. He points out problems faced by these areas and allows Leonardo to speak to some potential solutions. Then Shneiderman goes on to suggest user-centered technological solutions. His solutions range from handy devices he calls InfoDoors that would work like high tech Post-it notes to online town hall meetings for greater citizen participation in government. These technological fancies provide an intriguing look at what might be – if technological developers focus on the way we use technology and not the other way around. Leonardo’s Laptop gives us a glimpse at the future of technological development. This book points out that there are many ways that modern technology could be improved by focusing on user interfaces. The one thing that was missing for me was a creative exploration of the book’s moniker, Leonardo’s Laptop, and what this device would have looked like. I wanted the book to take the laptop beyond our current expectations. Just how would a laptop designed by a genius enhance interdisciplinary thinking? What kinds of software enhancements and communication tools would inspire a Leonardo of today to create works of art, redesign urban centers, and explore human physiology? While Shneiderman provided an interesting portrayal of where user-centered technology could transport us, he never quite took off on the cyber flight of fancy that I expected with Leonardo as his muse.
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