Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Posting-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site umcp-cs.UUCP
Path: utzoo!linus!decvax!harpo!seismo!rlgvax!cvl!umcp-cs!mark
From: mark@umcp-cs.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.cog-eng
Subject: Re: Reply to "Are we designing for the users...?"
Message-ID: <2097@umcp-cs.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 23-Aug-83 16:57:30 EDT
Article-I.D.: umcp-cs.2097
Posted: Tue Aug 23 16:57:30 1983
Date-Received: Thu, 25-Aug-83 22:39:09 EDT
References: <2049@utcsrgv.UUCP>
Organization: Univ. of Maryland, Computer Science Dept.
Lines: 21

I completely agree that we should not be designing for novices.
Novices are very transient.  I like the distinction between novice
and casual user.  I am not an expert car driver, but I am not 
a novice either.  Around the turn of the century a car designed
for a novice user would have been one as much like
a horse as possible.  It would not have been a very good car,
even for the sunday-only driver.

The solution to novices is education.  This does not mean that
studying them and understanding their difficulties is not very very
important.  But it is not primarily a system design question, but
a pedagogical educational question.

The expert-at-something casual-user-of-computers is the person
to design for.
-- 
spoken:	mark weiser
UUCP:	{seismo,allegra,brl-bmd}!umcp-cs!mark
CSNet:	mark@umcp-cs
ARPA:	mark.umcp-cs@UDel-Relay