tion that regularly misrepresent or intentionally deceive. To his Ergonomics and Safety of Intelligent Driver Interfaces. Y. Ian Noy, ed. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum; 1997: 432 pp. credit, there are instances where his narrative does address this issue and provides direction to an alternative. However, in the Price: $45.00. (ISBN 0-8058-1956-8.) same section, Harris suggests that understanding the construction and function of the various graphs, charts, and maps is
The current interest in intelligent information systems (ITS) enough. Simply knowing how to build a chart, diagram, or grew out of a realization that we could not continue to build table , or knowing what it is supposed to do, does not necessarily our way out of the problems caused by traffic congestion. It result in providing information to the viewer. It is experience was hoped that through the application of new technology, parwith the data and knowledge of its structure that generally result ticularly in the information and communication areas, we could in appropriate graphical displays. Recognizing that this is, after reduce congestion and increase safety through more efficient all, a reference book does provide some consolation to my use of existing transportation facilities. Deployment scenarios initial unease. Although the author claims that this volume is for this worldwide effort propose a major role for private enteraccessible to novices-and it is-I suspect he may feel the prise, with ITS America estimating a 20-year cost of $210 biltarget audience to be more experienced in developing graphical lion, $170 billion of which from private sources and $40 billion information.
from public sources. In other words, the success of ITS hinges I would be disappointed if the foregoing comments were on the creation of products and services that consumers find taken as negative criticism of Harris' work. He should not be useful and desirable. faulted for making the wide range of information graphics ac-Despite some unevenness among its 23 articles, despite the cessible to the naive user. Rather, the naive user is admonished inclusion of a number of articles that fail to provide specific, to study carefully the entries and discussions of the correlation useful results and conclusions, and despite its being somewhat graph and the use of logarithmic graphs, which are excellent.
dated even in the year of its release, Ergonomics and Safety of The same can be said about the entries related to the terms Intelligent Driver Interfaces is still an important collection. It graph and table. Discussions about the use of color and the is important because the work as a whole portrays the variety implications of certain styles of data presentation provide furand complexity of issues involved in the application of userther guidance in the construction and use of information graphcentered design to the development of ITS products and serics. Thoughtfully, the author provides a brief but valuable biblivices. It is important because the articles address the right quesography. Here, too, is a source of additional help for those tions, even if they do not always provide the answers. It is also making their initial foray into the world of information graphics.
important because the articles continually remind us that new This volume should be required reading for all who intend developments in information and communication technology do to use graphical methods to analyze and transform data into not automatically translate into usable, functional, or desirable information and to obtain meaning. As the currently loose conproducts and services. To accomplish this, there needs to be a federation of individuals engaged in promoting data visualizacentral focus on the end user throughout the design and develoption and information mapping as critical thinking and problemment process. solving skills coalesces, this volume should come to serve as
The wide range of issues covered by the 23 articles (individone of their primary references. The breadth of coverage showually referred to here by their chapter number) is one of the ing both the oldest and newest methods will keep this reference collection's greatest strengths. Articles 8, 10, 11, and 17 explore work relevant for many years to come.
issues of information design and delivery, including legibility, The author has performed an extraordinary service for all comprehension, presentation, timing, mode (e.g., audio vs. viwho seek information in the cluttered landscape of data. As he sual), and control (e.g., automatic vs. interactive); articles 5, knows, the increasing quantity of information poses difficulties 6, 14, 15, and 22 explore more safety-related issues such as for those trying to make sense of it. And as we all know, the attention and distraction; articles 1, 12, 18, and 20 explore issues manner by which we apprehend most of our information is of user preference, performance, and tolerance for error; articles visual. It should be possible, then, to determine whether or not 2, 7, and 23 focus on design tools, guidelines, and standards; there are tools or techniques that permit the consolidation of articles 4 and 16 explore users' cognitive understanding of basic these massive amounts of information by taking advantage of information elements; while articles 3, 9, 13, 19, and 21 are the inherent visual processing capabilities of the human brain. more descriptive, definitional, and exploratory of the nature, Harris' book helps us select and use those tools.
practice, and possibilities of ergonomics for in-vehicle systems.
The collection as a whole also demonstrates a range of methodological approaches, including extensive use of simulators and simulation, field trials with instrumented vehicles, laboratory studies of actual systems and prototypes, and expert analy-Robert D. Wilson sis. Unfortunately, there is no use of usability testing, an im-California State University-San Bernardino portant tool in the user-centered design of information and inter-Department of Information and Decision Sciences faces. This omission reflects a bias toward engineering at the 5500 University Parkway expense of other disciplines (e.g., technical communication,