From the start of the chapter, I was on the same page as the author. The fact he brought light to the negative connotations of the title “Human-Computer Interactions” and described it as more human-to-human communication is what initially got me hooked. Word choice is extremely important, and, the author is right, the term Human-Computer Interactions makes the data seem arbitrary and impersonal – not a positive attribute in a website. I agree that the overall concept of making design personal, like the spark of a conversation based on the excitement you get from one’s personality, should be a key factor in web design.  Furthermore, the historical aspects the author brought in to support this theory (i.e. Gutenberg’s printing press, the Volkswagen Beetle, the Get a Mac campaign), played right into my preferred type of writing. This facet of the chapter only accelerated my interest.  Therefore, when the author continued to touch on the idea that products can be “people” too, I really became engulfed in the chapter, for I had never thought of this concept before. The idea of bringing an actual persona to the product and the website as a way to make the overall idea personal to the user is brilliant, really.  It is also important to note the compare and contrast the author provided (along with the visuals, graphs, etc.) in terms of creating a successful web persona; one cannot just create blindly, one must create specifically and strategically.

Originally posted at CK1