STC Usability SIG Newsletter
Usability Interface

Meet Ben Shneiderman, Opening Session Speaker at STC Conference

Ben Shneiderman
Monday, May 10, from 8 to 9:30 a.m.

How would Leonardo da Vinci use a laptop? What kinds of applications would he design? Ben Shneiderman, who will address conference attendees during the opening session, ponders these questions and others in Leonardo's Laptop: Human Needs and the New Computing Technologies (MIT Press, 2002). Praised in a United Press International review of Leonardo's Laptop for his "insightful views and forward thinking on the subject of computers," Shneiderman urges designers of computer hardware and software to focus on human (as opposed to product) capabilities. "The new computing must be innovative," Shneiderman writes, "and it must focus on raising user satisfaction, broadening participation, and supporting meaningful accomplishment."

A professor of computer science at the University of Maryland at College Park (UM), Shneiderman is also the founding director of UMd's Human-Computer Interaction Laboratory, which conducts research on the theory and design of interactive systems. He is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM). In 2001, he received the ACM CHI (Computer-Human Interaction) Lifetime Achievement Award. He has written or edited a dozen books and published more than 200 technical papers and book chapters. His works include Designing the User Interface: Strategies for Effective Human-Computer Interaction (Addison Wesley Longman, 3rd ed., 1998).

Leonardo's Laptop has been one of the most talked-about books of the past couple of years. Take this opportunity to hear the author in person!