This is a book about everything. In the world of so many man-made products and artifacts, it is important to observe natural adaptations and examples of usage in order to design a device, a process, or a system that will work. This idea of observation of complex behaviors or organisms is similar to the idea of emphatic design, very popular in the 1980s and 1990s and described, for example, in the famous book by Norman [1]. Thackara’s book is deeper in that he attempts to analyze designed objects and processes as a part of the natural world rather than look for the best solution to a problem by observing the natural course of events.

The book is organized according to the functions of the modern world that are commonly recognized as important (mobility, speed, learning, and literacy), or according to the context of an event (situation and locality). In some cases, it takes a lot of thinking to understand the connection between the theme of a chapter (for example, lightness) and the situations described as examples (for example, co-housing or product-service combinations). Even if the connection remains elusive, the book will make sure that the readers analyze what they read, link it to their own experiences, and are, therefore, influenced, perhaps indirectly, by the ideas of the author. And these ideas are certain to highlight the unusual angles of everyday life, alongside other observations that are not new to the reader. For example, the chapter on speed emphasizes that we have to pay for speed of communications by building infrastructure, inflicting ecological damage, depleting natural resources, a!nd, in everyday life, by not investing enough in relationships. We read about this every day in newspapers. But then the chapter also talks about the dangers of real-time economy and communications, and discusses the value and growing popularity of various movements aimed at slowing us down—slow cities and slow food, for example. We also discover that time (that is, pace) can be and is taught as a school subject in some countries. Readers, at least those in the US, will be intrigued by this information.

One of the strengths and unusual characteristics of the book is that it contains very familiar ideas collocated with radically new concepts. As a result, there isn’t too much extraordinary information in the book to make it hard to absorb, and yet there is enough creative thinking to make the book interesting and exciting. One example of the coexistence of well-known ideas with new ones can be found in the chapter about literacy. The author reiterates that we are overloaded with information, that new information is not framed correctly within supportive contexts, and that there is too much “noise” in the information we receive, and there are too few nuggets of useful learning. Of course, you have heard and experienced all of that. You have also heard that visualization provides a good context for dealing with the abundance of heterogeneous data; it allows you to see the meaning better and faster. But you may not have thought that the visual r!epresentation is very limited; you have other sensory mechanisms that could enhance your sense-making activities. And, as you continue to think about all this, you may be able to design completely new interfaces that are supported by more than one mechanism of interaction with the outside world.

The book contains abundant examples of trends, perceptions, and events, but the main purpose of the book is to suggest ways to incorporate these trends and ideas in the design process. The design strategies that Thackara draws from the analysis of the themes in the book are perhaps its weakest part. After such excellent examples of real-life situations and their interpretations, you may be disappointed that many of the conclusions are self-evident. Design principles for learning include understanding the importance of asynchrony; making use of new learning paradigms that merge work, school, and home; and focusing on meaningful activities and the use of modern technology. The chapter on conviviality advises us to design for “our future selves” by, for instance, making sure that the needs of the rapidly aging population are considered.

But Thackara’s book was written to stimulate a designer in each of us, to elicit new ideas, not to provide easy recipes for designing certain classes of applications. Perhaps your area of work and research was not covered in the book, but you are likely to begin thinking about new issues in your field. What are the new business models that we need to foresee? What are the obvious shortcomings of the existing technologies and processes? How is my device, system, or application linked with the environments where it is used? How are these environments going to change? How can I prepare for these changes? How can I help others prepare? This is the kind of book that influences readers in a positive way.