Book Review

Leonardo's Laptop: Human Needs and the New Computing Technologies

Ben Shneiderman
MIT Press, Cambridge, Mass., 2002
ISBN 0-262-19476-7

Reviewed by Terrance Malkinson

Leonardo's Laptop is the 2003 winner of the IEEE-USA award for Distinguished Literary Contribution Furthering Public Understanding of the Profession. Author Ben Shneiderman has been working with human computer interaction and interface design for many years. He believes that computing should augment and support, rather than substitute for or duplicate human abilities. Shneiderman argues that Leonardo da Vinci could serve as a muse for new computing.

In his 67 years of life (1452-1519), da Vinci was a painter, sculptor, architect, musician, engineer, inventor and scientist; many say he possessed one of the greatest minds of all time. Shneiderman questions how Leonardo’s integrative approach, which blended science and art, might lead us to new technologies, applications and designs. How would da Vinci use a laptop, and what applications would he create? This 243-page book is a collection of thoughts on our society’s future and on how technology could be used for the good of all.

In Leonardo’s Laptop, Shneiderman shares his beliefs about the most productive approach for using computers to help people. He describes how we can achieve the goal of universal computer usability in education, business, healthcare and government. He provides realistic feasible societal and political visions for the technology use. He ends each chapter with a section called “The Skeptic’s Corner," in which he challenges readers by raising objections to the chapter’s arguments by considering the possibly damaging results of computing and challenging assumptions about trust, privacy and digital divides. Chapter notes and an extensive reference list complement the book’s body material.

Shneiderman challenges everyone to put these innovative ideas into practice. The reality is that automation will expand as technology progresses. The issue is whether users can understand and control what is happening, to ensure that technology serves their needs. Shneiderman believes strongly that computers will empower people instead of replacing them. He calls for stable, reliable, secure networks, but also hopes the new computing might empower widespread use of low-cost devices that are easy to learn, and that can perform common tasks rapidly and with few errors. Shneiderman points out that this goal can only be achieved by changing expectations and demands, not by technological breakthroughs themselves.

A key transformation is what Shneiderman calls universal usability, which will enable participation by young and old, novice and expert, able and disabled. This transformation would empower all of those seeking literacy or coping with their limitations. Everyone should be able to use computers to improve their productivity. Computers should be built and used to suit the user, not the reverse.

Leonardo’s Laptop is both political and societal; it deals with the role computers and information technology play now and will play in the future. Raising larger questions about human relationships and society, Shneiderman explores the computer's potential to support creativity, consensus-seeking and conflict resolution. He calls for a change from technology and what computer can do to a new computing that is about people and what they can do using technology. He raises computer users' expectations of what they should get from technology. New possibilities can and will emerge. Finally, he challenges developers to build products that better support human needs.

Leonardo's Laptop was published by MIT Press. In addition, MIT Press has published a course discussion guide for those using the book as a textbook.

About the Author

Ben Shneiderman is a professor in the Department of Computer Science, founding director of the Human-Computer Interaction Laboratory, and a member of the Institutes for Advanced Computer Studies and for Systems Research at the University of Maryland, College Park. He was elected as a Fellow of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) in 1997, and of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 2001. Shneiderman has published several books, has co-authored two textbooks, edited three technical books, and published more than 200 technical papers and book chapters. He has served on the editorial advisory boards of nine journals, including ACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction and ACM Interactions. He has consulted and lectured for many organizations, including Apple, AT&T, Citicorp, GE, Honeywell, IBM, Intel, the Library of Congress, Microsoft, NASA, and various university research groups.

Ben Shneiderman’s Leonardo's Laptop is a wide-ranging review of the humane and constructive uses of new technology. Although it is forward-looking, it is very solidly based in examples from currently implemented systems. This book creatively explores a topic that often often dealt with in jargon and technical terminology that is not understandable to a diverse audience. He makes his case well, with detailed examples and commentaries on the subject. Leonardo's Laptop is recommended reading for all.

 

---

Terrance Malkinson is a proposal manager/documentation specialist; an elected Senator of the University of Calgary; an elected Governor of the Engineering Management Society, international correspondent for IEEE-USA Today's Engineer; editor-in-chief of IEEE-USA News and Views, and editor of the IEEE Engineering Management Society Newsletter. The opinions expressed in this article are the author's.