Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, March 10, 1994 TAG: 9403090132
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Joel Achenbach
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
A: We hear so much blather about the information superhighway and the Internet and all these other great futuristic computeroid wonders of the future, but our question is, how come every time we try to write something on our home computer we get a big fat hairy "error message" saying "WORD cannot use the TOOLS-PATH specified in the WIN.INI file because it's not valid."
WHAT DOES THAT MEAN? We stare at those cryptic, pessimistic, exclusivistic two words - "not valid" - and we find ourselves screaming NO IT'S YOU THAT'S NOT VALID YOU ARROGANT OVERGROWN ADDING MACHINE.
Then the fury passes and we just feel dumb.
This ability to make the owner feel intellectually inferior is unique to the computer. You know how to use your washer and dryer, your automobile successfully transports you down the road, and although you may not be able to program your VCR you realize that this is only because it was designed by a buttonmongering ding-dong. The PC, however, is more machine than most people can handle. Even those of us who can do a few things with the computer are still flummoxed by all the things we can't do. These things have so much power locked up inside, it's like owning a nugget of plutonium: Scary.
The fact is, more than a decade after the PC was introduced, most Americans still don't own one or use one at work. Anyone who signs onto a commercial online service, like Compuserve, will quickly discover that cyberspace is dominated by men and young people. That's slowly changing, but the fact remains that the PC is not as democratic a machine as it ought to be. Anyone with an ounce of sense is repelled by these cold, inscrutable devices.
Why are computers so complicated? We talked to two leading experts in the growing field of computer-human interaction and got these answers:
First, information is invisible. The work the computer does cannot be seen. The most important parts of the gadget are microscopic. "In the old days when we had mechanical devices you could figure out what it did, because you could turn the lever and see the movement," says Don Norman, an Apple researcher and author of the book "Things That Make Us Smart."
Second, engineers are jerks. Computer engineers design machines for other computer engineers. The idea of computers being easy to use is a new one. Academic computer programmers had no interest in making computers simpler and, until the early 1980s, even IBM and other computer companies didn't think much about it.
"There still is great resistance in the academic circles as well as professional circles," says Ben Shneiderman, a computer scientist at the University of Maryland. "The technology designers and developers of computers were more focused on producing this pretty remarkable technology than they were in designing it for use by non-technical people."
This nearsightedness, or provincialism, affects even mundane, low-tech machines, notes Norman. Example: A stove with four burners arranged rectangularly on top and four knobs lined up in a row at the front. You never know which knob controls which burner!
Third - and this is our own gripe - there is no General Motors in the computer world. You want to fix your Chevy, you know to use Chevy parts. But IBM, which could have been the GM of computers, blew it by not realizing how popular the PC would be and by not taking technogeeks like Bill Gates of Microsoft seriously.
IBM focused on building boxes, and bought Intel's chips and Microsoft's operating system. But it let Intel and Microsoft sell their products to anyone else who wanted to build a box too. The result was a proliferation of cheap IBM PC clones. This is not necessarily bad, but it has resulted in a strange consumer environment, in which there are countless companies selling computers and computer software. The Why staff's computer came in the mail one day with lots of "bundled" software, meaning it was designed by lots of different companies and we had about 137 different owner's manuals, several of them in English.
Next problem: Personal computers are too powerful for most people. That one machine on your desk can do everything but filet a fish. A PC is not really a single gadget (like the washing machine) but rather a complex of gadgets (like your home). "You get one computer trying to do so many things," says Norman. That may change. Norman predicts that in 10 years people will own simple devices, like writing machines and drawing machines, that are powered by a computer stashed out of sight. "My dream of the home computer is that it's stored in the furnace room. You never even think about it. Maybe once a year someone comes in and cleans the fan filters and changes the ROM."
In any case our high-tech fantasy is owning a wrist-VCR/TV. People think you are checking the time but actually you are watching "Apocalypse Now"! (And if someone asks you what time you have you can answer, "12:00 ... 12:00 ... 12:00 ...")
- Washington Post Writers Group
by CNB