Speaker: Dr. Charles Kreitzberg
Meeting notes by:
Craig Cardimon
Last year, Charlie Kreitzberg spoke to the STC chapter about designing
for usability. This year he has declared war on bad design.
Now is the time to join the battle for lucid computing (a term Charlie
coined to focus attention on the problem). The goal is to make
user-centered design the standard for all development. (A briefing on
the war can be found at Dr. K's Interactive Cafe (http://www.cognetics.com/lucid).
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Dr. Charles Kreitzberg, founder of Cognetics Corporation, was the guest speaker for the STC-PMC meeting Thursday, March 20, 1997, at Williamson’s Restaurant in Horsham. He gave a presentation on the L.U.C.I.D. Computing Movement, a fledgling organization he started to focus attention on the lack of user-centered design in computing. This article is a composite of notes taken during the meeting and material (including the graphic) on the L.U.C.I.D. website at http://www.cognetics.com/lucid.
The L.U.C.I.D. Computing Movement will fight for software usability. The word "lucid" means "clear" and "easy-to-understand." The acronym stands for Logical User Centered Interactive Design. Kreitzberg says, "We want to humanize the design of software. In doing so we will save the industry billions of dollars, create new markets for computer products, and increase our national well-being." Mitch Kapor, founder of both Lotus and the Electronic Frontier Foundation, says, "The lack of usability of software and poor design of programs is the secret shame of the industry." With all the potential that computing has brought to society, using a computer is often a painful, frustrating experience, according to Kreitzberg.
Software Design in Chaos
The IRS just experienced a four billion dollar failure in their software re-engineering effort. Industry-wide, fully 30 percent of software development projects fail and are canceled, with an estimated cost of $80 billion. Another 50 percent have cost overruns averaging 189 percent of planned budget. A single cycle of usability refinement achieves a 50 percent improvement in user efficiency. Integrating user-centered design into the design process increases user efficiency by up to 700 percent. The L.U.C.I.D. Computing Movement hopes to save business money. Every $1 invested in user design returns between $2 and $100.
Paradigm Shift in the Information Industry
Changes in the industry present an opportunity for user-centered design. First, computers are becoming a mass-communications medium. Second, the ISO has issued draft standards on human-centered design. Third, the Web is actually a computer utility. Software can be accessed from a website; it no longer must be installed on an individual personal computer. The PC as we know it is dead, says Kreitzberg. And fourth, we’re using applets and componentware to solve problems by breaking them down and modularizing them.
The Design Process
Programmers look at what they think the software should do rather than at what the users want out of it. The process should be composed of two parts, the design and the build. In the design portion, we should
- receive the mandate to do something,
- consult the users,
- build the prototype, and
- evaluate the prototype by consulting the users again.
Only after completing these steps should we progress to the build stage where the product is officially produced and released.
A New Profession: Software Designer
The revamped design process should include members of a new profession: software designer. The software designer should be an individual who studies business processes, assesses user needs, applies User Centered Design technology, builds prototypes, performs the appropriate tests, and delivers the specifications to software engineers.
Conclusion
As of now, the L.U.C.I.D. Movement has no dues, no structure, and no members. It will operate as a super-SIG or Professional Interest Committee (PIC), and will work with existing associations such as the STC. Possible programs include: media relations, resource collection, education of business and software engineers, and consumer feedback channels. Be sure to check out the website mentioned at the top of this article. An expanded briefing on the war on poor design can be found at "Dr. K's War Room" (http://www.cognetics.com/cafe). You can email Dr. Kreitzberg at drK@cognetics.com.
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