Date: Sun, 10 Jun 2001 23:37:52 -0700 From: "Ted Mittelstaedt" <tedm@toybox.placo.com> To: "David Leimbach" <dleimbac@earthlink.net> Cc: <questions@freebsd.org> Subject: Intuitive interface - was RE: vi Message-ID: <000c01c0f241$0a458c60$1401a8c0@tedm.placo.com> In-Reply-To: <20010609142241.A424@mutt.home.net>
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>-----Original Message----- >From: David Leimbach [mailto:dleimbac@earthlink.net] >Sent: Saturday, June 09, 2001 12:23 PM >To: Ted Mittelstaedt >Cc: questions@freebsd.org >Subject: Re: vi > > >As far as human intuition and technology... its a very important and >underaddressed notion. For computers to achieve maximum utility >the interface >must be intuitive. I think PC's will never be as intuitive as say handheld >devices and things that completely abstract the "files and >folders/directories" >to the point where the user doesn't know he/she has such things to >begin with. > My problem with this is that 99% of the folks out there yapping about making computers more "intuitive" what they really want is to make the computer look more like some previous computer they already learned on. They use the phrase "intuitive interface" as a marketing term to push software interfaces that look like the same tired Windows interfaces that we have seen for the last decade or more. I put my 3 year old son in front of a PC running Windows. He happily started pushing buttons at random. I then put him in front of a Macintosh. He pushed the same buttons randomly. So much for intuition. However, when he hears a loud noise he moves away from it, not towards it. We never taught him that he's been doing it since he came out of the womb. That's real human intuition. I know that from time to time in the past some really experienced people in the industry have attempted to make computers easier to use. They have come up with a variety of interfaces, but nobody seems to have agreed on anything other than a graphical interface is easier to use. That's fine except that brand-new accounting programs and customer service call center programs and the like that are rolling off the assembly line today, whose sole purpose is to be used to bang data into a database at high speed (thus the easier they can be used means faster data input which can save thousands depending on the application) they are STILL being written as character-based forms programs. Sure they map pop up in a graphical window and have graphical characters - that is the Courier font they display in is drawn pixel-by-pixel not by popping a value into a video rom - but they are still fundamentally character-based interfaces. I guess those people never read any of the studies that Apple fabrica.. eh, I mean "comissioned", that "prove conclusively" that Graphical is superior. And, lets not forget the rapidly-increasing-in-popularity HTML webinterface forms, those aren't really graphical either. Oh, and I almost forgot my Palm Pilot - why don't the words and letters display in Cursive? They are entered in that way!! Anyway, the point is that at a young age people learn how to use different technological apparatus that's placed in front of them. Once they make this knowledge investment they don't want to relearn. This is why all Stereos, DVD players, VCR's, etc. etc. all look the same. Have you ever seen a countertop DVD player that doesen't have the tray smack dab in the middle of the unit? Is there any engineering reason to place it there? No. But, if you didn't, people would unconsciouly think "Ah, that's different, it doesen't work like the rest of them, I don't understand it, it's not "intuitive"" and they wouldn't buy it. Don't lie to yourself - human intuition doesen't have anything to do with this. All it is, is a standardized user interface. While you can definitely make a good case that a standardized user interface across all computer software programs would create maximum utility, there is still going to be that initial learning curve for the person who has never encountered the standardized user interface. Intuition isn't going to do a damn thing for them here. Think about how "intuitive" the arraingement of letters on a typewriter keyboard is - it's the God of Standardization here that is being worshipped - not an intuitive interface. Ted Mittelstaedt tedm@toybox.placo.com Author of: The FreeBSD Corporate Networker's Guide Book website: http://www.freebsd-corp-net-guide.com To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message
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