About EPSS & Technology - Opinions about Technology : editorials, comments and critiques about software design, the computer industry and the future of software design and development.
Up to December 27, 1999
Improving digital cameras may overwhelm users
Dramatically higher-resolution digital cameras are soon to come, potentially altering the digital imaging landscape but perhaps also bringing a whole new set of difficulties. (1999-12-27)New skills for a new economy
According to this InfoWorld article: "The strategic requirements of e-business may also lead to the creation of new types of jobs within the IT department, according to industry watchers. Already companies are installing strategic leaders -- usually reporting to the CIO -- who can articulate an e-business vision and serve as liaisons between IT and other departments." (1999-12-27)Why Everything is All That
According to this Feed Magazine essay the lack of feedback n the web "...boils down to a simple limitation, albeit one with profound consequences: HTML-based links are one-directional. You can point to ten other sites from your home page, but there's no way for those pages to know that you're pointing to them, short of you taking the time to fire off an email to their respective webmasters. Every page on the web contains precise information about the other addresses it points to, and yet, by definition, no page on the web knows who's pointing back." (1999-12-27)A Century of Scams
According to this Bruce Tognazzini editorial "Defective software is costing the world economy billions and billions of dollars in lost productivity. A small costs is attributable to the technician-time necessary to straighten out the problems, but the larger costs are indirect, arising from employees standing around waiting for problems to be solved and the high peer-to-peer training costs associated with people learning where and where not to step in the software minefields." (1999-12-12)The Rise of the Techno-Geezer
"Baby boomers, rejoice! Our eyesight may be getting worse, but our vision is definitely better." According to this Tom Davenport article "Demographers are certain that there just won't be enough knowledge workers available among generations X and Y to get all the work done. Boomers who keep their skills fresh will probably be able to work until they drop, banging out code or network test plans between games of shuffleboard." (1999-12-05)Rising Heat: My new thermostat was designed by brilliant morons
According to this Forbes article " In too many cases, computing power still makes ordinary tasks more complicated than they need to be—or used to be. The old thermostat had a clear knob for setting the desired temperature. It simultaneously showed you how hot the room already was and how hot you wanted it to be. It had two simple switches, one for setting heat and one for setting fan or auto. The Honeywell Deluxe Programmable Thermostat, by contrast, takes advantage of Moore’s Law. It is incredibly powerful. And it is complicated, clumsy, and rude." (1999-12-05)The Software Design Manifesto
In 1990 Mitch Kapor of Lotus wrote "We need to create a professional discipline of software design. We need our own community. Today you can't get a degree in software design, go a to a conference on the subject, or subscribe to a journal on the topic Designers need to be brought onto development teams as peers to to programmers. And the whole PC community needs to become sensitized to issues of design." (1999-11-22)When listening to customers is the wrong thing to do
According to this article based on the book The Innovator's Dilemma: When New Technologies Cause Great Firms to Fail, "There are occasions when you should NOT listen to your customers. Digital diligently let its minicomputer customers be its guide, but they were the least likely to understand where the market was going. Digital did everything its customers told it to do, technologically advancing its incredibly prosperous minicomputers. In the process, the company missed the future by not taking steps to ensure its viability in the post-minicomputer era." (1999-11-15)But The Computer Said ...
This article relates a story about an airline employee providing flight departures times shown in a computer systems, but when pressed provided an estimate based on personal experience and knowledge that was more accurate. The author wondered " Had the airline enforced so stringent a set of rules that its employees have no discretion to use their own common sense? Or was this vignette just another example of people viewing the technology we develop as a silver bullet, relieving them of all need to interpret the data they see before them on the screen?" (1999-11-15)When help in the shop is a flop
According to this Salon Magazine article "...someone over at fashion central has since got it into their head that people want online shopping to be more like going to an actual store. Shoppers, they seem to think, miss those nosy salespeople hawking products. Say hello to the new generation of Digital Shopping Agents, appearing now at an e-commerce site near you." The article contains links to some site with these digital shopping agent. (1999-11-15)E or Be Eaten
According to Stewart Alsop, columnist and venture capitalist, "The 'E' in e-business will soon be irrelevant." He argues that "The advent of the World Wide Web provided a classic window of opportunity for new companies to challenge the existing order. Just as your company is figuring out what puts the "e" in e-business, that window is closing. Just as big companies are learning how to respond to the Yahoos, eBays, and Amazons, the game is set to change. Just as you think you have a clue, you're going to have to figure out something totally new." (1999-10-24)Making the Box Go Away
In this ABC News article Don Norman says “You don’t think about the process of how a light switch works when you turn it on. It just works. That’s what needs to happen to computers in order for people to get the most out of them.” (1999-10-24)Palm cofounder shares design philosophy
According to Jeff Hawkins, one of the designers of the PalmPilot, "One of the keys to successful product design is understanding the importance of a simple user experience. That simplicity can and should stop designers from overloading devices with too many unnecessary features" (1999-10-24)In Praise Of Plain Web Sites
According to this ClickZ article: "Here's the real truth: In the business-to-business world (which is what the Internet is now and really always will be about), nobody cares what your site looks like. If they did, do you think the great commerce sites of our times -- Cisco, Marshall, Dell, Amazon and others -- would have such plain looking sites?" (1999-10-10)Searching for Alternatives
This Newsweek article found that: "A lot of people in the Internet business really want to improve search engines [and] interfaces," says Dr. Amanda Spink, an associate professor at Penn State University. Spink, who studies how people search, says the average person rarely uses advanced tools that search engines offer. Neither do search engines make those tools particularly easy to use or learn" (1999-10-10)Don't Overlook the Simple Solutions
While this article is primarily about the use of web server technology, it contains a powerful and clearly worded message about keeping things simple and looking for solutions that don't require a lot o extra effort and expense. (1999-10-03)The New Majority
"To the New Majority -- the millions of people who will venture online in the next few years -- the computer is a necessary evil. They never wanted one in the first place. The New Majority won't know what Java, JavaScript, Flash, or RealAudio are, and they won't want to download the necessary software or upgrade their browsers to enable these languages and plug-ins to work. In fact, 41 percent of Web households will have a non-PC Web access device. So Web sites will need to start simplifying their designs." (1999-10-03)The Visible Problems of the Invisible Computer: A skeptical Look at the Information Appliance
The future is said to belong to information appliances, specialized and easy to use devices that will have the car tell the coffee pot to brew a cup of coffee just in time for our arrival home. These gadgets are supposed to eliminate the complexity and resulting frustrations of the PC. The thesis of this essay is that while information appliances will proliferate, they will not lessen the perception of an exasperating electronic environment. The interaction of the coffee pot, the car, the smart fridge, and the networked camera will create a new layer of complexity. In the rush towards the digital era, we will continue to live right on the edge of intolerable frustration. (1999-09-25)Defunct Keys and Odd Commands Still Bedevil Today's PC User
According to this New York Times article "Many designers criticize the keyboard for serving a befuddling mix of obsolete needs. Of the sprawling 101 keys on the standard keyboard, a good number are either redundant, confusing or vestigial." (1999-09-18)This Year's Skin
According to this Feed Magazine article the "... blinking LCD readout -- flashing 12:00 day after day, year after year -- has become comedic shorthand for the extent to which our desire for high-tech gadgetry has outreached our mastery of the gadgets themselves. There is some irony in the VCR clock trope reaching critical mass during the Wired Decade. By all accounts, we've spent the rest of our time effortlessly mastering Hypertext Transfer Protocols and ISDN lines -- so why is it we're brought to our knees by setting a clock?" (1999-09-05)Information Appliances and Performance Support
This article, by Gary Dickelman, appeared in the August 99 Performance Improvement special edition on EPSS. "This article not only reviews The Invisible Computer: but also shows how it explains the difficulty we have creating Performance Support Systems. Enabling task completion by properly structuring tasks, helping performers to quickly establish goals, and bringing knowledge to the performer at the time of need require the task and the goal be quite simple and the process of achieving performance to be unencumbered by technology. Don Norman shows us why the personal computer is the wrong environment to reasonably achieve these things - and what we can do about it." (1999-08-15)Simply Put, Few High-Tech Devices Are Designed for Ease of the User
According to columnist Charles Pillar "The endless tendency toward feature bloat in a period of increasingly rapid product cycles means that software and Web sites have developed a pernicious dependence on the consumer as guinea pig, on tech support as an extension of product research. Only in high tech do consumers expect most products to have problems operating reliably; almost any dreck thrown on the market survives long enough for version 3.1 to "engineer out" the most egregious stupidities" (1999-08-15)Lost in the Web
According this article on web usability "The bulk of the problem (and thus the making of a solution) can be traced to two drawbacks of navigating the Web. First, traveling the Web is a clunky, unanimated and ultimately disorienting experience, highly conducive to getting lost. Second, and more important, there is little or no opportunity on the Web to look ahead, to preview information before you commit to downloading it." (1999-08-15)Value Behind The Bluster
According to columnist Michael Hammer "Knowledge management, like many other business fads, seems to have had its 15 minutes of fame and may be already fading from the public consciousness. This is both predictable and unfortunate--predictable because of the way the subject has been positioned and presented; unfortunate because, behind all the bluster, there is real business value in this concept." (1999-08-15)The Stranglehold of the Priesthood has been Broken
This WebWord interview with Bruce Tognazzini explores his opinions about user interface design and the advantages of using Interaction Designers to design web sites, software and other products. (1999-08-07)How Programmers Stole the Web
In this article Bruce Tognazzini asserts that "Engineers in effect stole the personal computer by building cumbersome, illogical development environments that no one other than an engineer could possibly understand." (1999-08-07)Magid Meets Andy Rooney
In this Upside Today editorial, Larry Magid complains that "Too many business Web sites are strong on bells, whistles, gimmicks and graphics but weak on usability." He includes examples of both good and bad sites. (1999-08-07)The Writing on the Web
In this Webmonkey opinion Joshua Allen contents that "... writing (on the Web) should never be compromised. Text is the central way of communicating with other people on the Web, and it deserves closer attention than it's been getting." (1999-07-31)A Computer User's Manifesto
This Business Week article present's Clare-Marie Karat's 10 point User's Bill of Rights. Karat is a PhD psychologist who evaluates the way people interact with their computers and designs for IBM. (Oct-29-98)The Age of Tech Support Rage
This short article by technology columnist Mike Egan, reports that: " A new survey of network managers by Concord Communications shows that 83% of them reported abuse or violence by users because of frustration with their computers." (Mar-13-99)Capturing Innovation
This CIO magazine article reports on a study of 37 fortune 500 companies. The researchers found "most people have preconceived and mistaken ideas about how innovation occurs". The article contains some suggestion about how to nurture innovation in an organization. (Jan-15-99)Do it for Me: Building Useful Systems
This article explores the limitations of the current online help paradigm and proposes some methods for integrating online help with the software interface. (Dec-13-98)Engineers Won't Design the Next Gen Systems
This new report quotes Don Norman as saying "There's a massive change being driven by consumers, a revolt against complexity and unreliability," According to the article Norman contents that the "...markets will be driven not by technology capabilities, but by the demands of late adopters and less savvy consumers who do not care about the underlying technology and who will not tolerate equipment that is difficult to use." (May-16-99)Even if it's Your Fault, it Probably Isn't
This anonymously authored online article is about the software industries' failure to create programs and operating systems that novices can use with little or no initial training or external support. The author's strong views on this subject is illustrated by her/his statement that: "The computer industry has a stake in making you feel stupid, and it's time you got mad about it."ERP user interfaces drive workers nuts
According to this Computerworld article "It used to take workers at Hydro Agri's Canadian fertilizer stores about 20 seconds to process a farmer's order. But installing SAP R/3 last January changed things — and not for the better. The average order-processing time ballooned to 90 seconds because the workers had to navigate through six R/3 screens to enter all the required data." (Dec-05-98)ERP Platforms: As The Pendulum Swings
According to this Information Week article "Enterprise resource planning platforms--once sold on the benefits of turnkey solutions--are rapidly becoming platforms for custom development and integration". The article concludes "The most popular solutions will be those that shield business developers from the underlying complexity of systems "plumbing"--instead allowing them to focus on business logic..." (Jan-01-99)The Hidden Cost of Code Reuse
Code reuse is becoming the mantra of many IS shops, but according to this Information Week article "..it's becoming clear to some who work in this field that large-scale reuse of code represents a major undertaking that may not be worth the effort in every case". (Dec-05-98)HR and IT in Wedded Bliss
Tom Davenport explores the similarity and overlap between the goals of a typical IT and HR. He suggests an IT and HR marriage in which the IT half brings new tools for knowledge management and the HR half offers a "...strong orientation to improving job performance and a focus on knowledge use." The prodigy of such a marriage are electronic performance supports systems with embedded task knowledge. (May-16-99)Information Interaction Design: A Unified Field Theory of Design
In the opening paragraph of this online article, Nathan Shedroff states that "The most important skills in the next decade and beyond will be the abilities to create information and experiences for others that are valuable, compelling, and empowering. To do this, we must learn new ways of organizing and presenting data and information." (Feb-15-97)Java: a Dissenting Opinion
In this online article Dave Grudman questions the foundations of the claim that Java is the future of computing. He laments that "Java features that are old technology are called innovations; features that seem to me to be obvious problems are acclaimed, and anyone who dares to suggest that Java is not the perfect programming language is likely to be flamed." (Oct-18-98)Nation Demands Easier Instructions
Decrying needlessly confusing directions for the use and assembly of countless products, citizens across the nation are organizing advocacy groups to demand that American manufacturers simplify the instructions they place on packaging. CEI director Melanie Pruitt said Tuesday at a press conference kicking off the group's "Crusade For Clarity '99" campaign. "For too long, the people of America have stared blankly at monochromatic, densely printed lines of instructions on cans, bottles and boxes, straining to digest the elaborately worded directives. We say, 'no more.'" (1999-06-12)Thank God AOL is not Like Fortune Magazine
Stewart Aslop questions the website designs and practices of traditional media companies like Fortune Magazine and Martha Stewart Living. He calls the Martha Stweart site rude. (Nov-26-98)Out of the Box Instructional Design
According to the author, Dianne Gayeski, "Traditional step-wise, linear models for instructional design no longer fit learning and performance improvement environments. Many such models are ineffectual and can deter training professionals from having more strategic roles in their organization". (May-04-98)Papers and Essays by Jakob Nielsen
This website contains papers and articles dealing with user interface design and usability testing. (Dec-27-96)Software as Socialware
According to this CIO magazine article, by Tom Davenport "We think of software as involving logic and code and screens and so on. But if the software is to be successful, it must also include social and behavioral change. Just as there are information inputs and outputs, there are human inputs and outputs." (Jan-15-99)Taking Computer to Task
This Scientific American article explores the real cost of computerization and the reasons why they have not significantly improved productivity. My favorite quote in the article is by a Microsoft usability manger. He said: "The biggest problem we see users having is mapping their goal to the function in the program that will perform it." (Sep-01-97)The Anti-Mac Interface
This online article by Don Gentner and Jakob Nielsen explores the limitations of the current graphical user interface model as represented by the design principles for the Apple Macintosh. They suggest some new principles that could become the foundation of the next generation of computer interface. (Dec-27-96)The Joy of Text
This online article argues in favor of the use of semantic tools for organizing and locating online information. The author questions the benefits and usefulness of the spatial organization of information, such as the ubiquitous file folders metaphor for the organization and storage of computer files. (Aug-04-97)Transforming EPSS to Support Organizational Learning
This online article presents a conceptual model for using the principles of performance centered design to capture and provide access to organizational knowledge. The paper also summarizes the results of several studies that examine the factors the affect people's use and acceptance of computers. (May-25-97)The PalmPilot Creator Reflects on Good Design
This short article contains some of Jeff Hawkins' ideas about good design. (Sep-06-98)We've got to pay attention
According to this CIO magazine article, by Tom Davenport " a few observant people have begun to argue that the scarce resource—and thus the currency of the new economy—is actually attention. He also says: "We're kidding ourselves if we say we are managing information without managing attention." (Jan-15-99)WebWord Interview with Alan Cooper
An interview with Alan Cooper, author of the book About Face: The Essentials of User Interface Design . Alan's latest book, The Inmates are Running the Asylum , will be published in April 1999. (Mar-20-99)WebWord Interview with Jered Spool
An interview with Jared Spool the founding principle of User Interface Engineering, a web usability research group. Spool is a recognized expert in web usability and is often quoted in the popular press. (Apr-18-99)What is Interactive Design
In this article Craig Marion explores the meaning of interactive design and its implications for information designers. The article includes a number of links to other sites containing information about interactive design. (May-18-99)
