Ah, I have much to learn. I said, “The house was painted red.”
I should have said, “The house was painted redly.” Dar On May 11, 2014, at 1:43 PM, Richmond <richmondmathew...@gmail.com> wrote: > On 11/05/14 21:48, Alejandro Tejada wrote: >> Recent article published by Don Norman. >> http://www.jnd.org/dn.mss/error_messages_are_e.html >> >> "Error messages punish people for not behaving like machines. >> It is time we let people behave like people. When a problem >> arises, we should call it machine error, not human error: >> >> the machine was designed wrong, demanding that we conform >> to its peculiar requirements. It is time to design and build >> machines that conform to our requirements. > > Indeed: but how? > > Mind you, if Donald Norman (who has been banging on about Usability theory > and 'affordance' > for years) wants to write about machine errors, he should at least correct > his human error and > get his English grammar sorted out: > > "the machine was designed wrong" > > is a simple grammatical error any person who wants to be taken seriously, and > has any academic > pretensions, should not make. > > "the machine was designed wrongly" > > Obviously Donald Norman doesn't know that verbs are modified by adverbs, not > adjectives: > that is HUMAN ERROR. > > --------------------------------------------------------- > > "It is time to design and build machines that conform to our requirements" > > Well, oddly enough, all machines that I know of are designed by humans, and > are very rarely, > if ever, designed to annoy the people who use them, but in conformance to > their requirements. > > -------------------------------------------------------- > > Donald Norman started his career years ago by making some blindingly obvious > remarks about > door handles being put on the wrong way round, or on the wrong sides of door > . . . and he did > have a point; now he, as a "one trick pony" has extended that into areas > which do not connect > with door handles. > > ------------------------------------------------------- > > What Norman might have done is criticise GUI, and in very many cases the > criticism would be valid. > > What Norman conveniently overlooks is that millions of people use computers > with > "badly designed" interfaces, "badly designed" keyboards (he had a right royal > rant about the QWERTY > keyboard) and don't seem to feel an urge to get up from their collective > bottom and radically > redesign everything. > > The same could be said for the efforts of the late Jeff Raskin. > > -------------------------------- > > Error messages are a necessity, not because computer systems are designed > badly, but because > humans and computers are completely different things that work in completely > different ways. > > If babies had error messages parenting would be 1000 times easier. > > All an error message is is a computer's way of telling us it doesn't > understand; because a computer > is, frankly, a very stupid mathematical calculator, and we humans are not. If > a computer did not > throw up error messages we would never know when we were failing to get a > machine to do what we wanted it to do: that would make life far more > difficult than any error message. >> >> Stop confronting us: Collaborate with us." >> >> > > Computers never "confront" us; they are not capable of that. All a computer > does is tell you it does > not understand what you have told it to do. > > Accusing a computer of "confronting us" is a socking great anthropomorphism > which only serves to show that Norman has very little understanding of what a > computer is and what it can do. > > The fact is that a computer can ONLY do what we tell it to; and it ONLY > "understands" a load of electronic pulses. Clever people have made our lives > easier by designing graphical representations > of what goes on inside a computer and nicer ways of getting a computer to do > what you want it > to. Some people are not quite as clever as other people, and they have > designed less effective > ways of getting a computer to do something. > > ------------------ > > "Error messages punish people" > > "punish" ; utter rubbish. > > Error messages are more important than Norman realises. > > Before he makes any further pronouncements of this sort Donald Norman needs > to do the > following to things: > > 1. Go on holiday to a country where he doesn't speak the language and nobody > there speaks his. > > 2. Get time allotted to himself on a VAX machine (if there are any left) and > learn a spot of > Assembler language, and then try and type an e-mail message to his best > friend using only > Assembler language on the VAX. > > --------------------- > > It's amazing how purified I feel after a rant of that sort. > > But, having had to read about 3 of Norman's book and attend interminable > lectures on > Usability theory at the "University" of Abertay I feel very strongly indeed > about what he says, and > have given it some considerable thought. > > Richmond. > > _______________________________________________ > use-livecode mailing list > use-livecode@lists.runrev.com > Please visit this url to subscribe, unsubscribe and manage your subscription > preferences: > http://lists.runrev.com/mailman/listinfo/use-livecode _______________________________________________ use-livecode mailing list use-livecode@lists.runrev.com Please visit this url to subscribe, unsubscribe and manage your subscription preferences: http://lists.runrev.com/mailman/listinfo/use-livecode
