Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!rutgers!mit-eddie!genrad!decvax!ucbvax!ucsfcgl!cca.ucsf.edu!ccb.ucsf.edu!dick From: dick@ccb.ucsf.edu.UUCP Newsgroups: comp.cog-eng Subject: Re: Request for human interface design anecdotes Message-ID: <1057@ucsfcca.ucsf.edu> Date: Mon, 2-Nov-87 02:28:38 EST Article-I.D.: ucsfcca.1057 Posted: Mon Nov 2 02:28:38 1987 Date-Received: Tue, 3-Nov-87 04:09:55 EST References: <3389@uw-june.UUCP> Sender: root@cca.ucsf.edu Reply-To: dick@ucsfccb.UUCP (Dick Karpinski) Organization: UCSF Computer Center Lines: 77 Keywords: human factors, interfaces Summary: Point of view matters. I remember giving other database systems Easytrieve points for obscure or misguided commands in our study of 18 possibilities for enhancing researchers access to their data. The original gaffe was "flush" to save all the data on disk. It made some sense if you were the programmer, but was reverse to the user. Take a look at back issues of comp.risks for more. One I do recall was about a purported memo requiring titles of papers to put the significant words among the first five. The administrator vigorously denied the allegation. Instead, he claimed that the bibliographic search just used the first five words. To me that was much worse, not to advise folks to do something, just hide their papers if they don't. One of my favorite papers would then be found only by "On the Criteria to be". Since the entire history of computing is so short, we have barely begun to discover what the human factors are. In particular, I am bothered daily by every system I use. In CMS, in full screen mode, using XEDIT, every that I type at the end of a line takes me to the command area. Not what I meant. Paging in the editor is PF-8 but in the shell (command mode) it is PA-2. Come on guys. Continuing with CMS, each command has its own rules for magic characters in file names. Logical partitioning of files into collections requires physical partitioning into mini-disks. The continuing cry from users for a little consistency has been heard, so now every presentation claims to attend to that detail, to the exclusion of a good or usable interface. In Unix, we have other problems. You obviously know about the little matter of difference between "rm *.o" and its disastrous relative "rm * .o". I have problems with other magic characters and would prefer that the system tell me which of the characters i just typed were magic at all. My favorite complaint about C is that if you ask if a = b then it does, now. In vi, there is NO indication of what mode you just entered, you have to know. Of course, we computer weenies use editors so much that their styles become matters for religious warfare. I once had a say on what to do to improve on the UCSD editor and my first choice was to give access to the file directory information from within the editing session. It helped, some. Three years ago, a computer system was introduced to the mass market which attended to the user interface issues. The Mac was a first year success and has improved since. It clearly stands head and shoulders above the competition. Still, the complex multi-key combinations that are used to invoke seldom used functions completely violate the fine principles in evidence elsewhere. Perhaps one menu choice should reveal a whole new menu bar instead, with ALL the obscure stuff listed there. Another Mac "feature" is that when you select a file to start the application that made it, and that application can't be found by whatever search strategy the finder uses, you get a single generic error dialog box which doesn't even hint about the four character creator code or give its value. System bombs are pretty obscure too. These guys and gals did a great job in a hundred ways, and it shows up in the 10 to 1 difference in time-to-productivity and the two or three to one difference in hours used per day. But still, it'll be many years till naive users will be well served by their computers; after all, for the most part, computers are continuing to be deaf, dumb, and blind. Dick Dick Karpinski Manager of Minicomputer Services, UCSF Computer Center UUCP: ...!ucbvax!ucsfcgl!cca.ucsf!dick (415) 476-4529 (11-7) BITNET: dick@ucsfcca or dick@ucsfvm Compuserve: 70215,1277 USPS: U-76 UCSF, San Francisco, CA 94143-0704 Telemail: RKarpinski Domain: dick@cca.ucsf.edu Home (415) 658-6803 Ans 658-3797