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From: norman@cogsci.ucsd.EDU (Donald A Norman-UCSD Cog Sci Dept)
Newsgroups: comp.windows.misc,comp.sys.next,comp.sys.mac,comp.cog-eng
Subject: Re: replacing the desktop metaphor (Why any metaphor?)
Message-ID: <680@cogsci.ucsd.EDU>
Date: 5 Jan 89 16:38:50 GMT
References: <850@mtfmi.att.com> <673@cogsci.ucsd.EDU> <1489@umbc3.UMD.EDU> <22616@pbhya.PacBell.COM> <66401@ti-csl.CSNET> <4510@xenna.Encore.COM> <2554@spray.CalComp.COM>
Reply-To: norman@cogsci.UUCP (Donald A Norman-UCSD Cog Sci Dept)
Organization: UC San Diego Department of Cognitive Science
Lines: 29

This discussion started off strong but has deteriorated into
name-calling and story telling.  Not clear why anyone things there is
any single answer to the question of the appropriate interaction
technique: individual differences and individual preferences are
strong and relevant, and should always be respected.

But I have to put my 2 cents in again and ask why some of you want to
leave out half of the world's population?   Certainly you wouldn't
design computer systems only for women and leave out men, so why leave
out 2 digit IQs?

The quote I am referring to is this:
 >There seems to be a fascination in this field with catering to some
 >mythical person with a two-digit IQ ...

Half the world has 2-digit IQs. Another way of putting it is that half
of the world is below average.

The IQ tests are designed so that the mean IQ is 100.

don norman

Donald A. Norman	[ danorman@ucsd.edu   BITNET: danorman@ucsd ]
Department of Cognitive Science C-015
University of California, San Diego
La Jolla, California 92093 USA

UNIX:  {gatech,rutgers,ucbvax,uunet}!ucsd!danorman
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