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Path: utzoo!utcsrgv!utcsstat!laura
From: laura@utcsstat.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.cog-eng
Subject: Re: Menus bad?
Message-ID: <883@utcsstat.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 16-Aug-83 11:59:47 EDT
Article-I.D.: utcsstat.883
Posted: Tue Aug 16 11:59:47 1983
Date-Received: Tue, 16-Aug-83 22:13:16 EDT
References: <1969@utcsrgv.UUCP>
Organization: U. of Toronto, Canada
Lines: 29

sorry, folks, i expressed myself badly. i did not want to attack
Human Factors Engineers as a class (though there are certain ones
whose ideas do not seem to be based on the study of the same sort
of people that I know). The problem I am seeing is with dillitant 
human factors engineers. Having learned a little about the subject,
they come down and tell me that they want software to do this, that,
and the other thing, and, by the way, it has to be a menu system.
I take the attitude that, since it is their mistake, i can always
give them what they asked for, as long as there are hooks for
changing it to what i feel is more appropriate. i have given up
arguing with them -- my success rate is too low. On the other hand,
the number of people who have wanted changes after living with their
messes for a few months is not small.

Sometimes i feel that i have shirked my responsibility to all those
users outside when I agree to produce something which uses a user-
interface i feel is inappropriate. other times i feel that i have
behaved in a morally objectionable way in trying to force my opinions
on others. 

If people did not form such hard-and-fast opinions and would be a little
more flexible, i would not have this problem. i would still have the
ever-present problem of "you may be making a big mistake here Laura",
but at least the problems could be expressed in terms of ignorance,
rather than someone's well-believed but nevertheless wrong view
of something.

Laura Creighton
utzoo!utcsstat!laura