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From: brucec@tekecs.UUCP (Bruce Cohen)
Newsgroups: net.cog-eng
Subject: Re: Reply to "Are we designing for the users...?"
Message-ID: <1932@tekecs.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 25-Aug-83 21:07:31 EDT
Article-I.D.: tekecs.1932
Posted: Thu Aug 25 21:07:31 1983
Date-Received: Sat, 27-Aug-83 17:13:14 EDT
References: utcsstat.938
Lines: 20

As a comment to the statement that designing for novices is silly
because they don't stay novices, I offer the following observation:

If they can't stand the interface they are given, they may not in fact
ever become proficient with the system, even assuming they are forced
by some consideration to continue to use it.  It's really instructive
to watch some people fumbling with the automatic teller machine, week
after week.  That's fine for banking (though a damn shame for the
people who go through it), but if the equivalent situation existed
with the operation of dangerous machinery, I think we'd all have
something to fear.  Come to think of it, how many people never do
learn to drive properly, and endanger everyone on the road when they
go out?  And the economic and social pressures which make driving
essential are well known.  What happens when the same kinds of
pressures force people to use computers?

				Bruce Cohen
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