We're all users

As you read Cooper's Inmates are Running the Asylum, think about how you relate (or don't) to his discussion of user-centered design (or lack thereof) in high-tech products.

What kind of computer user are you? (apologist? survivor? etc.)

Are there any high-tech products that you find particularly counterintuitive? What are they, and what about them frustrates you?
Describe a high-tech product you think is particularly well-designed and why.

User-centered Design
While reading Cooper's book, I found myself alternately yelling and cheering. One minute I was supportive and agreeing with his rants, the next I was defensive and spouting off my reasons for dissension. For the most part, I completely agree with his arguments about the importance of software that is designed with interaction, usage and users in mind. Planning, analysis, design, testing and implementation cannot succeed without the involvement of users and their goals. I believe he is dead on when he points out the fallacy of not considering interaction design until the end of the product or avoiding it altogether. What burns me is the fact that he tends to generalize and make sweeping statements about all programmers and all software design shops. In an effort to "seek first to understand", it may be that Mr. Cooper was describing the world as it was when he was writing. The book is a bit dated- I mean when he was first writing there were not many folks dedicated to iteration design and usability. He is not credited with coining the term, "interaction design", but his book About Face 2.0 is listed as a reference on Wikipedia's site on interaction design (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interaction_design). So, the software world has come a long way since 1999 when he wrote the first edition. Granted he certainly may have helped the progress. I program and develop for a living and have always been a proponent of user-centered, or usage-centered design. But then, I came to the scene a bit later and I started as a user and have never lost that perspective.

Apologist or Survivor? - neither one!
Cooper's attempt to bifurcate the world of technology users is one of the areas within the book that caused me to steam. Labeling us (we're all users) as either "apologists" who are "sycophants" and "power users" that praise technology without noticing its frustrations and challenges; or as "survivors" who struggle to use software and feel denigrated and stupid in its wake was extremely annoying. Strictly using Cooper's terms I would have to consider myself an apologist. However, I do not make it a habit to make excuses for poorly designed software; nor, do I afford software products or computers the power to make me feel stupid. As I stated earlier, I am a user who happens to program- so, I try to maintain both perspectives.

Complicated Interfaces vs. Fade-away Technology


ESRI is the leading software vendor for the field of Geographic Information Systems (GIS). This company has been involved in the industry since the beginning and is known for their powerful products and huge user conferences (attendees number over 14,000). Their last two versions (8x and 9x) have included significant changes to the interface, due to an overhaul of the software's architecture. The resulting software interface has so many features that it can be overwhelming to a first time user. The software is still powerful and useful, but you almost need breadcrumbs to drop when you navigate tabs in the pursuit of an infrequent task. ESRI supports many different types of users who perform various roles from fairly simple map production, to complex linear or raster editing and processing; to the analysis of 3-D models. In my opinion, ESRI has attempted to fit all the goals of these varied users into one interaction design. The interface for ArcMap (see image above) reflects this complicated composite.


My example of a well-designed technology item would have to be the Firefox web browser. In my opinion, well designed software is so focused and intuitive that it ends up fading away allowing the user to focus on the task at hand. Firefox used tab-browsing way before IE 7 and its find functionality and ability to open links as tabs so you can continue reading the current web site keeps my focus uninterrupted.