{"product_id":"transparent-designs-9781421443539","title":"Transparent Designs","description":"\u003cb\u003eBook Synopsis\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThis fascinating cultural history of the personal computer explains how user-friendly design allows tech companies to build systems that we cannot understand.   Modern personal computers are easy to use, and their welcoming, user-friendly interfaces encourage us to see them as designed for our individual benefit. Rarely, however, do these interfaces invite us to consider how our individual uses support the broader political and economic strategies of their designers.   In Transparent Designs, Michael L. Black revisits early debates from hobbyist newsletters, computing magazines, user manuals, and advertisements about how personal computers could be seen as usable and useful by the average person. Black examines how early personal computers from the Tandy TRS-80 and Commodore PET to the IBM PC and Apple Macintosh were marketed to an American public that was high on the bold promises of the computing revolution but also skeptical about their ability to participate in it. Through this car\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTable of Contents\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003eAcknowledgments\u003cbr\u003eIntroduction. The Politics of User-Friendliness\u003cbr\u003eChapter 1. On the Origins of User-Friendliness\u003cbr\u003eChapter 2: The Sources of the Personal Computer Revolution\u003cbr\u003eChapter 3: Appliance Computing: The Revolution Comes Home\u003cbr\u003eChapter 4: IBM, Apple, and a Computer Literacy Crisis\u003cbr\u003eChapter 5: The Human Factor\u003cbr\u003eCoda: Imagining an Unfriendly Future\u003cbr\u003eNotes\u003cbr\u003eIndex\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Johns Hopkins University Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":49408145555799,"sku":"9781421443539","price":37.35,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0817\/1739\/5799\/files\/9781421443539.jpg?v=1730501753","url":"https:\/\/bookcurl.com\/products\/transparent-designs-9781421443539","provider":"Book Curl","version":"1.0","type":"link"}