2011/5/8 Björn Helgason <[email protected]>
> idiot-proof systems can only be used by idiots
>
> 2011/5/8 Joey K Tuttle <[email protected]>
>
> > Well, I don't think so - but maybe related - or perhaps inversely
> > related....
> >
> > I usually don't feel "idiot-proof" is "user friendly".
> >
> > I think google.com is user friendly, I don't feel the same about
> > yahoo.com even though (or perhaps because) it presents more
> > information.
> >
> > Friendly is helping me without the intrusion of something like the
> > paper clip guy in MS Word. You know, the one that pops up and says,
> > "It looks like you are writing a suicide note, would you like help
> > with that?"
> >
> > Maybe software can overstep some limit - e.g. when, just now, I typed
> > "google.com" into my Chrome browser it presented me my "iGoogle" page
> > - going more towards Yahoo.com, this doesn't happen in Safari or
> > Firefox, but all the browsers can sometimes be "in your face" with
> > help...
> >
> > Friendly is loading quickly and not leading me through a series of
> > steps to get to my goal.
> >
> > I think J is friendly because it doesn't require hundreds or
> > thousands of statements to do interesting things. It's small/quick
> > enough that I can use it in a dynamic environment such as CGI.
> >
> > Even a few seconds of delay time causes unfriendly feelings.
> >
> > On the other hand - a friend once said, "Computers allow men to make
> > more mistakes faster than any other invention in history, with the
> > possible exception of tequila and hand guns..."
> >
> > - joey
> >
> >
> > At 11:45 PM -0400 11/05/07, Devon McCormick wrote:
> > >Is "user-friendly" what we used to call "idiot-proof"?
> > >
> > >On Sat, May 7, 2011 at 11:21 AM, Joey K Tuttle <[email protected]> wrote:
> > >
> > >> I agree on that. The term "user friendly" is much abused and misused.
> > An
> > >> extra click (or 2 or ...), and extra seconds of response time can be
> > fatal
> > >> flaws.
> > >>
> > >> - joey iPa...
> > >>
> > >>
> > >>
> > >> On May 7, 2011, at 2:06 AM, Dejun Guo <[email protected]> wrote:
> > >>
> > >> > With cloud computing (TM hype) more popular, we have to think about
> > >> > programming efficiency both in size and speed, because it's paid by
> > IO
> > >> and
> > >> > time.
> > > > >
> > ----------------------------------------------------------------------
> > For information about J forums see http://www.jsoftware.com/forums.htm
> >
>
>
This reminds me of a piece of wisom, that I try and remember from time to
time:
"Pretty graphical interfaces are commonly called "user-friendly." But
they are not really your friends. Underlying every user-friendly
interface is a terrific human contempt.
The basic idea of a graphical interface is that it does not allow
anything alarming to happen. You can pound on the mouse button all
you want, and the system will prevent you from doing anything stupid
...
To build such a crash-proof system, the designer must be able to
imagine - and disallow - the dumbest action. He or she cannot simply
rely on the user's intelligence: who knows who will be on the other
side of the program? Besides, the user's intelligence is not ...
programmable; it cannot protect the system. No, the real task is to
forget about the intelligent person on the other side and think of
every single stupid thing anyone might possibly do.
In the designer's mind, gradually, over months and years, there is
created a vision of the user as imbecile. The imbecile vision is
mandatory. No good, crash-proof system can be built except it be
done for an idiot ...
The prettier the user interface, and the fewer odd replies the system
allows you to make, the dumber you once appeared in the mind of the
designer."
Ellen Ullman, "Out of Time: Reflections on the Programming Life,"
in Brook and Boal, _Resisting the Virtual Life_. San Francisco,
City Lights, 1995.
(http://gandt.blogs.brynmawr.edu/files/2009/03/ullman.pdf, Section VIII)
Robby
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