Path: utzoo!utgpu!watmath!clyde!att!osu-cis!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!mailrus!ames!pasteur!ucbvax!hplabs!hpda!hpcuhb!hpsmtc1!dlw
From: dlw@hpsmtc1.HP.COM (David L. Williams)
Newsgroups: comp.windows.misc
Subject: Re: Re: replacing the desktop metaphor (Why any metaphor?)
Message-ID: <13650008@hpsmtc1.HP.COM>
Date: 29 Dec 88 19:31:18 GMT
References: <850@mtfmi.att.com>
Organization: Hewlett Packard, Cupertino
Lines: 36

Barry Shein says:
>There seems to be a fascination in this field with catering to some
>mythical person with a two-digit IQ, total fear of computers, and not
>enough technical sense to operate a push-button phone.

There is no mythical person with a 2 digit IQ, but the VAST majority of 
people DO NOT USE or OWN computers. The market penetration of PCs into the
total environment is small. The mythical average guy, does NOT want to even
USE a pc let alone own one if it doesn't do anything for him. Even if it 
happens to do a specific task he doesn't want to consult "man" pages or bricks
or hire guru's to make his system do what he bought it for.

If you are interested in making computers pervasive and unobtrusive in more
peoples lives then you do want to make them EASY to USE. People DO have FEARS
of computers precisely because they are non intuitive. They can operate a 
push button phone and they wonder why computers aren't as easy to use.

Computers aren't the only thing hard for people to use, look at what a bad job
the Japanese have done with video recorders! There are more of them in 
households than computers, yet many folks can't even figure out how to use all
the features of their machines (like "programming" them!). 

Thats where those of us who work in the area of User Interface come in. We try
and often fail to design for usability and consistency. Intuitiveness gets into
the subjective area of it "feels" like I should be able to do frizzle in order
to have the program do "frazzle". If the user does this and it works then your
model/interface is successful.

In conclusion then, if you only care about hackers, engineers and computer 
scientists who are the ultimate guru power users then perhaps you don't care
about ease of use. 

-David Williams
User Interface Designer
Software Methods Lab
Hewlett Packard