Brenda Laurel is best known for her work with Purple Moon, the pioneering game company she cofounded in the 1990s. Purple Moon's games were based on years of research Laurel completed in an effort to understand why computer games seemed to be of so little interest to girls. Using diverse archival sources such as trade journals, newspapers, and recorded interviews, alongside Laurel's completed games and own writings and an original interview with Laurel herself, this volume offers insight into both the early development of the games for girls movement of the 1990s and the lasting impact of Laurel's game design breakthroughs. In her work with Purple Moon, Laurel drew on her background in theatre as well as her expertise in human computer interaction and qualitative research. By relying on this interdisciplinary background, Laurel made significant contributions to our understanding of the design and development of games as a medium for emotional rehearsal and storytelling. Additionally, her dedication to research-informed design has had a longstanding impact as companies and designers increasingly rely on audience research and metrics to shape their practices. The newest in Bloomsbury's Influential Video Game Designers series, Carly Kocurek highlights the contributions of a designer whose work has had a profound impact on the development of both games for girls and empathy games.

While business functions such as manufacturing, operations, and marketing often utilize various software applications, they tend to operate without the ability to interact with each other and exchange data. This provides a challenge to gain an enterprise-wide view of a business and to assist real-time decision making. Service-Driven Approaches to Architecture and Enterprise Integration addresses the issues of integrating assorted software applications and systems by using a service driven approach. Supporting the dynamics of business needs, this book highlights the tools, techniques, and governance aspects of design, and implements cost-effective enterprise integration solutions. It is a valuable source of information for software architects, SOA practitioners, and software engineers as well as researchers and students in pursuit of extensible and agile software design.

"Visual Computing for Medicine, Second Edition, "offers cutting-edge visualization techniques and their applications in medical diagnosis, education, and treatment. The book includesalgorithms, applications, and ideas on achieving reliability of results and clinical evaluation of the techniques covered. Preim and Botha illustrate visualization techniques fromresearch, but also cover the information required to solve practical clinical problems. They base the book on several years of combined teaching and research experience. This new edition includes six new chapters on treatment planning, guidance and training; an updated appendix on software support for visual computing for medicine; and a new global structure that better classifies and explains the major lines of work in the field.
Complete guide to visual computing in medicine, fully revamped and updated with new developments in the fieldIllustrated in full colorIncludes a companion website offering additional content for professors, source code, algorithms, tutorials, videos, exercises, lessons, and more"

In the present digital world, the growing number of internet users has made web quality an important factor for accessing online services and increasing the customer base of an organization. The advances in information technology and the internet have opened new dimensions in many different industries. Currently, accessibility research is an active area of research. Specifically, access for everyone regardless of disability has become an essential aspect of web development. As webpages will be used by both nondisabled and disabled individuals, web pages must be designed with a technical criterion that fits universal needs. The ambition to make websites barrier-free is not limited to standards and laws but has been on the agendas of all governments and public agencies recently, and this universality of websites is a fundamental area of research. App and Website Accessibility Developments and Compliance Strategies intends to provide theoretical and practical contributions for the accessibility of websites for both disabled and nondisabled individuals. This book discusses how web quality parameters like usability and accessibility are being evaluated for their universal design and accessibility by different types of disabled individuals. The chapters cover the current methodologies for evaluation, accessible design criteria, inclusive practices in web and app development, and policies and interventions across different types of websites. This book is ideally intended for web developers, designers, software engineers, IT specialists, social organizations, governments, practitioners, researchers, academicians, and students in the usability and accessibility of websites for disabled individuals.

As part of the Pocket Primer series, this book was designed for someone like you who needs to master Access programming fundamentals without spending too much time. All you need is a short book to get you started. It will show you only the things you need to know to feel at home with VBA. What you learn in this book on Access programming will also apply to, say, Excel programming. The book is divided into nine chapters that progressively introduce you to programming Microsoft Access 2016. Features: Includes a companion disc with all of the hands-on files needed to complete the chapter projects and all the images from the text Introduces you to programming Microsoft Access 2016

Throughout the past decade, the notion of ontologies has influenced research in many application areas including databases, information retrieval, electronic commerce, natural language processing, knowledge management, enterprise systems, systems analysis and design, the Web, and more.Ontology-Based Applications for Enterprise Systems and Knowledge Management provides an opportunity for readers to clearly understand the notion of ontology engineering and the practical aspects of this approach in the domains of two interest areas: Knowledge Management Systems and Enterprise Systems. A perfect reference for researchers, scholars, postgraduate students, and practitioners, this book aims to gather the recent advances and research findings of various topics in ontology use for these application areas.

Augmented reality is not a technology.Augmented reality is a medium. Likewise, a book on augmented reality that only addresses the technology that is required to support the medium of augmented reality falls far short of providing the background that is needed to produce, or critically consume augmented reality applications.One "reads" a book.One "watches" a movie.One "experiences" augmented reality."Understanding Augmented Reality" addresses the elements that are required to create "compelling "augmented reality experiences. The technology that supports augmented reality will come and go, evolve and change.The underlying principles for creating exciting, useful augmented reality experiences are timeless.

Augmented reality designed from a purely technological perspective will lead to an AR experience that is novel and fun for one-time consumption-but is no more than a toy. Imagine a filmmaking book that discussed cameras and special effects software, but ignored cinematography and storytelling In order to create compelling augmented reality experiences that stand the test of time and cause the participant in the AR experience to focus on the "content" of the experience - rather than the technology - one must consider how to maximally exploit the affordances of the medium.

"Understanding Augmented Reality" addresses core conceptual issues regarding the medium of augmented reality as well as the technology required to support compelling augmented reality. By addressing AR as a medium at the conceptual level in addition to the technological level, the reader will learn to conceive of AR applications that are not limited by today s technology. At the same time, ample examples are provided that show what is possible with current technology.

Explore the different techniques, technologies and approaches used in developing AR applications. This book helps untangle the seemingly endless different approaches that are being taken in the market today.
Learn from the author's deep experience in virtual reality and augmented reality applications to succeed right off the bat, and avoid many of the traps that catch new developers and users of augmented reality experiences.
Some AR examples can be experienced from within the book using downloadable software
Associated website includes: additional cool application examples available for download, links to interesting applications, and videos that support the points being made in the book."

Modeling techniques provide ample opportunities for progress across numerous fields. When analyzing complex systems, new methods allow for a deeper understanding of system dynamics. Method of Systems Potential (MSP) Applications in Economics: Emerging Research and Opportunities is an innovative source of academic research that examines the Method of Systems Potential for complex systems analysis in economical contexts. Highlighting critical perspectives on topics such as system efficiency, adaptive algorithms, and variable parameters, this book is ideally designed for researchers, academics, graduate students, and practitioners interested in the latest uses and applications of modeling techniques.

"Managing Data in Motion" describes techniques that have been developed for significantly reducing the complexity of managing system interfaces and enabling scalable architectures. Author April Reeve brings over two decades of experience to present a vendor-neutral approach to moving data between computing environments and systems. Readers will learn the techniques, technologies, and best practices for managing the passage of data between computer systems and integrating disparate data together in an enterprise environment.

The average enterprise's computing environment is comprised of hundreds to thousands computer systems that have been built, purchased, and acquired over time. The data from these various systems needs to be integrated for reporting and analysis, shared for business transaction processing, and converted from one format to another when old systems are replaced and new systems are acquired.

The management of the "data in motion" in organizations is rapidly becoming one of the biggest concerns for business and IT management. Data warehousing and conversion, real-time data integration, and cloud and "big data" applications are just a few of the challenges facing organizations and businesses today. "Managing Data in Motion" tackles these and other topics in a style easily understood by business and IT managers as well as programmers and architects.
Presents a vendor-neutral overview of the different technologies and techniques for moving data between computer systems including the emerging solutions for unstructured as well as structured data typesExplains, in non-technical terms, the architecture and components required to perform data integration Describes how to reduce the complexity of managing system interfaces and enable a scalable data architecture that can handle the dimensions of "Big Data"

Culture is dependent upon intertextuality to fuel the consumption and production of new media. The notion of intertextuality has gone through many iterations, but what remains constant is its stalwart application to bring to light what audiences value through the marriages of disparate ideology and references. Videogames, in particular, have a longstanding tradition of weaving texts together in multimedia formats that interact directly with players. Contemporary Research on Intertextuality in Video Games brings together game scholars to analyze the impact of video games through the lenses of transmediality, intermediality, hypertextuality, architextuality, and paratextuality. Unique in its endeavor, this publication discusses the vast web of interconnected texts that feed into digital games and their players. This book is essential reading for game theorists, designers, sociologists, and researchers in the fields of communication sciences, literature, and media studies.

In information technology, the concepts of cost, time, delivery, space, quality, durability, and price have gained greater importance in solving managerial decision-making problems in supply chain models, transportation problems, and inventory control problems. Moreover, competition is becoming tougher in imprecise environments. Neutrosophic sets and logic are gaining significant attention in solving real-life problems that involve uncertainty, impreciseness, vagueness, incompleteness, inconsistency, and indeterminacy. Neutrosophic Sets in Decision Analysis and Operations Research is a critical, scholarly publication that examines various aspects of organizational research through mathematical equations and algorithms and presents neutrosophic theories and their applications in various optimization fields. Featuring a wide range of topics such as information retrieval, decision making, and matrices, this book is ideal for engineers, technicians, designers, mathematicians, practitioners of mathematics in economy and technology, scientists, academicians, professionals, managers, researchers, and students.

Being able to fit design into the Agile software development processes is an important skill in today s market. There are many ways for a UX team to succeed (and fail) at being Agile. This book provides you with the tools you need to determine what Agile UX means for you. It includes practical examples and case studies, as well as real-life factors to consider while navigating the Agile UX waters. You ll learn about what contributes to your team s success, and which factors to consider when determining the best path for getting there. After reading this book, you ll have the knowledge to improve your software and product development with Agile processes quickly and easily.

Includes hands on, real-world examples to illustrate the successes and common pitfalls of Agile UX
Introduces practical techniques that can be used on your next project
Details how to incorporate user experience design into your company's agile software/product process"

"In this day and age of 'too much information and not enough time, ' the ability to get to the bottom line quickly and in a concise method is what excels companies to the top of their industry. The techniques in this book will allow you to do things you only dreamt of." -Jerry Kohl, president of Brighton Collectibles Develop your Excel macro programming skills using VBA instantly with proven techniques Automate Reports Handle Errors Master Pivot Tables Produce Charts Build User-Defined Functions Migrate to Excel 2007 Query Web Data Build Dialog Boxes Use Data Visualizations Automate Word You are an expert in Excel, but the macro recorder doesn't work and you can't make heads or tails out of the recorded code. If this is you, buy this book. Macros that you record today might work today but not tomorrow. Recorded macros might handle a dataset with 14 records but not one with 12 or 16 records. These are all common problems with the macro recorder that unfortunately cause too many Excel gurus to turn away from writing macros. This book shows you why the macro recorder fails and the steps needed to convert recorded code into code that will work every day with every dataset. The book assumes that you know Excel well, but there is no need for prior programming experience. This book describes everything you could conceivably need to know to automate reports and design applications in Excel VBA. Whether you want to automate reports for your office or design full-blown applications for others, this book is for you.

• Learn VBA syntax as easy-to-understand English
• Automate Excel's power tools: Pivot Tables, Charts, Advanced Filters
• Save hours per week by automating redundanttasks
• Create applications built on top of Excel with custom dialog boxes
• Automatically produce hundreds of Excel reports in seconds
• Understand how changes in Excel 2007 impact your VBA macros

Introduction 1 1 Unleash the Power of Excel with VBA 7 2 This Sounds Like BASIC, So Why Doesn't It Look Familiar? 29 3 Referring to Ranges 61 4 User-Defined Functions 75 5 Looping and Flow Control 101 6 R1C1-Style Formulas 121 7 What's New in Excel 2007 and What's Changed 135 8 Create and Manipulate Names in VBA 143 9 Event Programming 155 10 UserForms--An Introduction 177 11 Creating Charts 197 12 Data Mining with Advanced Filter 249 13 Using VBA to Create Pivot Tables 281 14 Excel Power 337 15 Data Visualizations and Conditional Formatting 373 16 Reading from and Writing to the Web 393 17 XML in Excel 2007 413 18 Automating Word 421 19 Arrays 441 20 Text File Processing 449 21 Using Access as a Back End to Enhance Multi-User Access to Data 461 22 Creating Classes, Records, and Collections 477 23 Advanced UserForm Techniques 493 24 Windows Application Programming Interface (API) 517 25 Handling Errors 529 26 Customizing the Ribbon to Run Macros 543 27 Creating Add-Ins 569 Index 577