Article : HCI : Easy Street by B.G.Yovovich, CIO Magazine March 1990

This article discussed about Human Computer Interaction (HCI) by many IT gurus in 1990.

"Every systems development project should have one person who

is responsible for the user interface

so that there is a center of responsibility" Ben Shneiderman

"We have to stop thinking 'systems' and start thinking 'product,'

and we have to incorporate the same kinds of ease-of-use considerations that go into the design of a General Electric refrigerator" Peter Keen

".... The interface shoudn't be an afterthought

" Stan Caplan

I like these quotes and their views. Particularly, Keen said the interface should not treat as last minute add on. From my programmer experience, it required little effort to change interface colour. In contrast, great effort is required to change interface that crossed functional coding. There is a theory explaining develop 1 function required 1 effort but program 3 functions have to spend 9 multiple times of coding 1 function. Although it said function not interface, one should bear in mind that users operate system through interface. Function, Interface and System are inseparable. There are one thing in user's eye. So, interface is the system (car) wheel from user perspective. The builder need to create easy to operate car wheel. User will not drive or want a difficult operate car. Due to this, it is essential that decide right interface design in early project stage. Otherwise, the built system has either bad interface that no one would want to use or project cannot meet its initial delivery date.

Prototype is good way to get user feedback about proposed system interface. Most of the time, first few prototype interface designs will not get approve. Don't be surprise. Eventually, it leads development team to the right design. Personally, I prefer simple function prototype than Mock up (non functional). It draw more user attention and think than mock up prototype. Still, mock up can be done before function prototype. By the way, function prototype not necessary 100% working. It can be task focused prototype to demonstrate how system interface presented in user task process.

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Bibliography

Easy Street, Page 64

CIO Magazine

Mar 1990
84 pages
Vol. 3, No. 6
ISSN 0894-9301
Published by CXO Media, Inc.