The Trouble With Computers News & Views Book Review

The Trouble With Computers Thomas K. Landauer by Dr. Charles Kreitzberg, President, and Whitney Quesenbery, Vice President, Cognetics Corporation (Princeton Junction, NJ) Originally published in News & Views May, 1996 issue. Copyright 1996 STC-Philadelphia Metro Chapter. For permission to reprint this article, contact the Managing Editor.

Once an arcane technology, computers have become commonplace. When the unusual becomes usual, there are bound to be consequences; and with information technology this has happened at both the individual and organizational levels. In the form of ATMs, SEGA games and now Internet appliances, computers have become consumer items. In the office, the typewriter, itself only 100 years old, nears extinction while many of its younger siblings such as the fax, the copier, perhaps even the telephone, are endangered. Yet there remains an uncomfortable concern that productivity has not risen as expected. In 1988, Harvard Professor Shoshanna Zuboff predicted major organizational shifts resulting from information technology in her book In The Age of the Smart Machine. Now, Thomas K. Landauer, formerly Director of Cognitive Science at Bellcore and currently Professor of Psychology at the University of Colorado, has looked at the barriers that information technology creates to its own detriment. Have computers paid off? In his book The Trouble with Computers, Landauer suggests that the core of the problem is that software designed to make computers work well does not translate into helping people work well. He suggests that businesses should take a long, hard look at how much time their employees are spending interfacing with their computers. If software were more intuitive and easier to use, people could spend more time doing their jobs. One of the powerful aspects of Landauer's argument is that he bolsters his concepts with numbers. He predicts that if every software program were designed for usability, overall productivity within the service sector would rise 4-9% annually. Documentation and usability Technical communicators can help, since documentation, including manuals, tutorials, online help and cue cards are all part of the human-computer interface. In addition to working to improve the usability of the documentation, technical writers can be part of a shift toward human-centered design in their companies. In urging such a movement, help your company see what's in it for them. Too much software has failed to return the investment it took to put it in place. The first chapter of The Trouble With Computers is a survey of how and why computers have failed to be the panacea to business as predicted. This is pretty depressing reading for those of us who work closely with computers and have come to love them; but if you're looking for ammunition to persuade company management, this section has just the kind of statistics and stories to help you make your case. Real-world examples The rest of the book discusses usability engineering and user-centered design. Case studies illustrate Landauer's points, keeping the lessons of the book nicely grounded in reality. Every successful case study Landauer cites is a situation where software has been carefully integrated into the work process. In an example citing the documentation design for Xerox copiers, he says, "Based on analyses [of usability studies], the flip cards are gone. Instead, a small computer-driven screen displays instructions related to the function being used: "Typical downtime for a paper jam plunged from 28 minutes to 20 seconds because customers were more willing and able to fix their own problems." Designing for usability is more than simply streamlining a program. It requires a profound understanding of the work process and the points where humans and computers intersect. ROI: Is usability worth it? There are not yet many comparative studies of the return on investment for usability engineering. Landauer has culled the literature for some of the best statistics to help support the intuitive claim that better designed software has a direct connection to the bottom line. He notes that the average user interface has some 40 flaws. Correcting the easiest 20 of these yields an average improvement in usability of 50%. The final chapter outlines his vision of a world in which computers truly assist and enable people to do more than they could do without those computers. Although it is not always an easy read, Landauer's treatment is thorough and thoughtful; this book is well worth the investment.

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Last updated: November 6, 1996 (wq)