On May 3, 2008, at 8:44 AM, Gloria Petron wrote:
Unfortunately, the logic that overly complex systems are perhaps
best kept
that way in order to promote exclusivity amongst a superintelligent
few is
small comfort to those passengers on board airplanes that have been
flown
into the sides of mountains. All the prestige of being a pilot goes
out the
window when in the end, the FAA blames human error.
Airline control panels are complex because pilots need immediate
access to every single control possible in cases of emergencies and
because it's generally easier to fly a plane when everything is at
your fingertips versus mucking with the panel to configure it while
one is flying at the same time. Further, airplanes are amazingly
complex pieces of machinery.
I have no idea where the concept that airline control panels are
complex to keep it an elitist activity came from and how that gets
meshed with the idea some things are designed to be complex to be
elitist and exclusionary, but it's just absurd. (Sorry Jared, unless
you cite people who've told you otherwise, I'm not buying it. I've
never heard anyone in the software industry ever make the claim they
makes things complicated on purpose.)
To propagate this sort of myth in a field with a bunch of designers
makes us al look bad. Please stop.
--
Andrei Herasimchuk
Principal, Involution Studios
innovating the digital world
e. [EMAIL PROTECTED]
c. +1 408 306 6422
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