Book: The Inmates are Running the Asylum
Author: Alan Cooper
Summary:
In the first 7 chapters Alan Cooper is trying to show that interaction design makes people frustrated, and that it needs to be changed in order to make it more "user friendly". Many users feel stupid when they can't control their computers, and the way Alan Cooper says it "programmers don't think about the user" and think that most things are user error. I wasn't really sure what to think of this book, but there were a few things that he mentioned that did make sense.
- Things you combine with a computer end up just being a computer. It doesn't necessarily make anything easier to use, and in fact it usually makes the item harder to use than it was originally intended.
- Cognitive Friction: "the resistance encountered by human intellect when it engages with a complex system of rules that change as the problem changes" (19).
- Wasting Money: money is wasted when programs have a deadline and the programmers don't have enough time to implement and add functions that are necessary for a good product. Being late with a product isn't as bad as developing something that doesn't work that well. Money is wasted this way though, and all the management wants is more features and a program that they think will sell.
- The Dancing Bear: features that seem to work well, and people are unaware that the feature could actually be much better than it is.
- Customer Disloyalty: because programs are being produced that aren't to their full potential, companies are losing clients and they aren't buying their products anymore.
Discussion:
I think Cooper is trying to show that programmers should not also be in charge of the design, and if design would go first then the programming would be better. This would save money, and produce better features that weren't just "dancing bears". I felt as though he was picking on programmers, especially in chapter 7 when he compares programmers to jocks. But that scenario can be rather true when really thought about. I believe that if the design was implemented first, then programming would be better and the programmers would actually be able to shine more by making the functions actually work. Since the world is so demanding time limits and constraints are what makes some interaction design become much more frustrating to the user than it was intended. Some things should really not be released until they are fully functional and truly "user friendly".
I think the jock analogy goes a little far, too. It's almost as if Cooper thinks that programmers in the industry are so single-minded that they cannot see anything outside of themselves and their design. But at least we don't get addicted to protein shakes and bad haircuts (ok... well some of us have bad haircuts...).
ReplyDeleteI completely agree! He was picking on us...and we work so hard at what we do. And I think the fact that he used "she" a lot is some social convention where if you don't know what gender the person may be and you're just talking generically, you're supposed to use "she". Kinda like you call a boat or airplane a "she" I guess....I don't know why he used that but he seemed pretty mad at all programmers no matter what gender!
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