Software Usability Is All That Matters
By Mike Banks Valentine, Fri Dec 9th
GUI, or Graphic User Interface is the term tossed about bytechnology geeks to define the only thing that matters to therest of us. How we interact and deal with our software isentirely determined by programmers based upon instructions theyreceive from whomever hired them to do their jobs. Their job isto make software use easy, obvious - even invisible.
I don't want to know how computers work. Don't care in theleast! I only want them to work. I don't want to become a geekin order to visit a web site. I don't want or need instructionsfrom the geek that designed the web site about how the page wascoded or what server software they use. I don't want to knowanything about my car, my computer, my home appliances or evenmy wrist watch. I just want them to do their job withoutbreaking and without cryptic error messages meant for softwareengineers.
I have owned and happily used four or five generations of AppleMacintosh computers for precisely these reasons. Those machineshave happily answered all of my needs, and for the most part,run all the software I have bought and loaded into them withouta hiccup. If there was a goofy message on the screen telling methere was a problem, I called the support phone number on thebox or on the web site and got instructions about how to makethe message go away.
Whenever technology is new, users of that technology must becomeexperts in the inner workings of it to be users, expertise isoften required. Now that the personal computer has passed itstwentieth birthday, it's time to stop talking about users asexperts and for users to simply be users. Mac OS X is anothervery proper step in that direction.
I attended Seybold San Francisco, where I heard Steve Jobsintro- duce Mac OS X (that's Operating System Ten). I loved thatthis apparently powerful guy came on stage at a keynote addressin his faded jeans and tennis shoes. Here is a human being I canrelate to who dresses as I do even if he can easily afford tooutdress me. Here is a guy that makes computers do their job soI don't have to.
Jobs then introduced Phil Schiller, Apple's vice president ofWorldwide Product Marketing, also dressed casually, to discussall the new goodies in OS X and show off its increased speedsince the March 2001 release. System 10.1 is now so much fasterthat you don't notice the machine taking time to "think" whenyou open a program.
As it should be.
Also, as it should, the user interface offers a wonderfully easyto comprehend tool bar incorporating their powerful graphicsengine to provide on-screen imagery that, as always, makes yousmile while subtly showing you what is happening as you clickstuff. It's fast, it makes me smile and you don't have to be ageek
