Graphics Reference
In-Depth Information
In more recent decades, digital devices have followed a similar path starting as novelties
and evolving into basic consumer products. The first version of the modern PC arrived on
the market over thirty years ago. In the age of the mainframe, these early home computers
seemed incredibly small, but by later standards they were complicated monsters. A basic
system with hard drive, keyboard, printer and monitor took up enough space to fill half
an office, and cost a few thousand dollars. Many of them came with mini-courses on how
they worked, and tips for quick fixes to prevalent problems. Their software was exacting,
while their hardware was fragile and given to incomprehensible glitches. The machines
were good for word processing, calculating and some limited graphics, but not much else.
Writers, accountants and researchers would struggle through long sets of directions, and
lengthy periods of down time. Most potential buyers waited for something uncomplicated
with more uses.
Fifteen years later something easier happened. With it came an explosion of new func-
tions that would soon put computers in nearly every home and office. The progression was
a lot like that of radio in the 1910s and 1920s. As radio technology advanced, so did the me-
dium's popularity. In 1920, a few intrepid entrepreneurs set up real stations. They quickly
found listeners and designed programming to attract them. Radio grew up quickly. Soon
whole families wanted to listen in their living rooms. The new, family-friendly sets looked
like stylish furniture. Housed in wooden cabinets, each one had an amplifier and speaker so
everyone could hear. These ready-to-use radios arrived on the market in 1921. Three years
later commercial stations were flooding the airwaves from coast-to-coast.
In a modern parallel, the PC remained something of a novelty through the 1980s, but
the '90s brought Windows and the Internet. For tech-challenged consumers, the simplicity
of Windows made the PC accessible, while email and the explosion of Internet services
made it a necessity.
In their topic,
Handbook of Usability Testing
, Jeffrey Rubin and Dana Chisnell write:
“… what makes something usable is the absence of frustration in using it.” This is a prin-
ciple we all know instinctively. Most consumers prefer blissful ignorance when it comes to
the digital devices they use every day. Whenever users buy a product whose inner workings
mystify them, they want to be able to turn it on and have it work right away.
In today's marketplace this seems like a natural expectation. A product might have
some sections that must be fitted together, a handle that needs mounting, or a software ap-
plication from a disk or the web, but once it's unboxed or downloaded, every requirement
beyond the on/off function holds the possibility of frustration. If a designer doesn't take
this into account, he or she risks failure. Users want products to serve them. If users begin
