There is a conceptual move in this book that I find brilliant in its simplicity: Instead of talking about the "virtual" and the "real", with all the baggage that such a dichotomy carries, Coleman simply points out that what we inhabit and practice today is the "actual", composed of media and mediations as well as atoms and physical spaces. Seems obvious in retrospect, but I haven't seen it stated as clearly and strongly anywhere else. Working from this notion of life in the actual, Coleman concentrates on analyzing communicative practices in virtual worlds and notions of identity in new media. The text is relatively short, and some of the discussion seems a little superficial, but on the whole I find a lot of personal resonance in Coleman's position. I particularly like how she addresses several of the "seminal" references in this genre in order to disagree with them or improve markedly upon their reasoning. For interaction designers involved in new media, Hello Avatar might be a quick and accessible way to get a contemporary point of view to work from.