Linux Today: Linux News On Internet Time.
Search Linux Today
search.internet.com
Linux News Sections:  Blog -  Developer -  High Performance -  Infrastructure -  IT Management -  Security -  Storage -
Linux Today Navigation
LT Home
Preferences
Contribute
Link to Us
Search
Linux Jobs

Become a Marketplace Partner

internet.commerce
Be a Commerce Partner














The Linux Channel at internet.com
Linux Today
Enterprise Linux Today
Apache Today
JustLinux.com
Linux Planet
PHPBuilder
All Linux Devices
Technology Jobs

JustTechJobs.com

LinuxToday Newsletters
Subscribe News
Subscribe PR
Subscribe Security

internet.com
IT
Developer
Internet News
Small Business
Personal Technology

Search internet.com
Advertise
Corporate Info
Newsletters
Tech Jobs
E-mail Offers

 






Current Newswire:

Open Source Science: A Revolution From Within

openSUSE 11.2-- Incremental Updates, Plenty of Polish

Microsoft, other rivals slam Google Chrome OS

Intel Linux Graphics Shine With Fedora 12

Editor's Note: Do It Yourself "Cloud"

Google Chrome OS: First looks, first impressions

Kernel Log: Coming in 2.6.32 (Part 3) - Storage

TV Mythos Renewed: MythTV 0.22 with Many Improvements

Enhancing openSUSE 11.2: Adding Repositories and Packages

A Northwest Nobel option? (Linus for the Nobel Peace prize)




Sr Implementation Engineer –Networking (CO)
Next Step Systems
US-CO-Thornton

Justtechjobs.com Post A Job | Post A Resume
:osOpinion: Ease of use and "UI": A lesson in idiocy?
osOpinion: Ease of use and "UI": A lesson in idiocy?
Jul 31, 2000, 08 :26 UTC (1 Talkback[s]) (2712 reads)

(Other stories by Scott Billings)

[ Thanks to Kelly McNeill for this link. ]

"Companies in the software industry love to claim that their software is "easy to use", or "user friendly". This is to try and give a sense of security to people who may not know a lot about computers. In other words, to get the fool to part with his/her money, and spend it on some software program that they probably don't need."

"So, what does "easy to use" and "user friendly" mean exactly? That is an interesting question, since both phrases are extremely ambiguous and subjective. What I consider to be "user friendly" or "easy to use", might be horribly complex for the next person (and vise versa). However, there is something of a common law definition of what they mean. That definition is that a person should theoretically be able to sit down in front of a computer running this software, and even if never having used it before, should be able to be productive in a minimal amount of time."

"Thus, it seems that the point behind "easy to use" software is to reduce the learning curve as much as possible."

"Some people take this overboard, and state that there should be no learning curve at all. However, unless if osmosis is discovered to work on information, allowing it to seep into the human brain (of course, if that were true, it would also have to work in reverse, and might explain a lot), there will always be a learning curve. You didn't previously know how to use this program, and thus had to learn."

Complete Story

Related Stories:
XML.com: XMLTerm: A Mozilla-based Semantic User Interface(Jun 11, 2000)
Advogato: Recognition versus Recollection [User interfaces](Jun 05, 2000)
BW: Linux Gets Industry Standard Graphical User Interface(Jul 15, 1999)
Linux Power: The Future of Graphic User Interfaces(Nov 18, 1998)


Index Mode   |   Flat Mode   |   Thread Mode   |   Thread Flat  
  Talkback(s) Name  and Date
It was not a treatise of UI and beginner ...   What was that?   
Joe
Jul 31, 2000, 17:16:28
 
  Home | Search Talkbacks | Customize View    Top of Page  



Enter your comments below:

* Your Name:

* Your Email Address:

* Subject:

CC: [will also send this talkback to an E-Mail address]

* Comments:

Tags allowed:<I>,<B> and <U>. See our talkback-policy for more about talkback content.

Fields marked with * are required!






..............................




All times are recorded in UTC.
Linux is a trademark of Linus Torvalds.
Powered by Linux, Apache and PHP

internet.commediabistro.comJusttechjobs.comGraphics.com

Search:

WebMediaBrands Corporate Info

Legal Notices, Licensing, Permissions, Privacy Policy.
Advertise | Newsletters | Shopping | E-mail Offers | Freelance Jobs