The Invisible Computer¶
670 words on Books
Donald Norman’s 1998 book The Invisible Computer discusses the development of technology. It stresses how the technology we get to use only depends to a small degree on what’s technically feasible and that the reality of the market may very well favour inferior products and be very conservative and fearsome when it comes to substantial change.
The book puts a big focus on ‘Information Appliances’, specific technical devices and puts them in contrast to a fully fledged computer. I agree with the basic point made: small specific devices can be better to use (but we all have seen many that miss even that opportunity!); Likewise I enjoy the general PC bashing:
What’s wrong with the PC? Everything. Start with the name. The personal computer is not personal nor is it used to do much computing. Mostly, it is used for writing, reading, an sending things to one another. Sometimes it is used for games, entertainment, or music. But most of the time it is using us. […] The personal computer isn’t very personal. It’s big and clumsy, sitting there on a desk, occupying space, requiring more and more time to maintain, requiring lots of help from one’s family, friends, and neighbors. Rather than being personal, friendly, and supportive, it is massive, impersonal, abrupt, and rude. [p. 69]
… which continues by ridiculing the concept of ‘booting’ and suggests that graphical user interfaces may be outdated - after all they were researched and invented for tasks of decades past with little in terms of progress happening since and the ‘market’ locking people into existing metaphors. (A very interesting point of which I would love to see a more detailed discussion) It then highlights that the main problem is the complexity of general purpose computers and goes on to point out that this is not an easy problem to solve, listing a few hailed and failed attempts to do so.
Mr Norman then goes on to discuss the big role infrastructure plays and how it can skew the marketplace in terms of what can be sold and what can’t. In the nicely titled chapter Being Analog
the difference between humans and machines is discussed. Rigid vs. flexible, precise vs. imprecise, and so on. This culminates in saying that a big part of the frustration in human-computer-interaction comes from forcing people to behave in a way that computers can handle directly, rather than using all the power of the machines to actually support the user.
In the final chapters the book discusses Human-Centered Development
and what kind of awareness and structures are needed in a company to make it work - rather than being crushed between engineering and marketing - as well as Disruptive Technologies
where Norman highlights how people regularly fail to see the advantages of newer technologies because of their disruptiveness. And he puts Information Appliances
as a possible next example for that.
While I can see the general point about Information Appliances and the joy of having a simple well-designed device for a single task, I am still sceptical whether Norman is right on that one. And I think the jury is still out on this. Looking at recent developments like the iPhone and its competitors suggests that some kind of middle-ground is popular right now: While the device is a fully fledged computer that can (theoretically) run arbitrary applications, the applications that do exist tend to be very simple and single minded.
Thus making the device a box containing a bunch of Information Appliances, trading the simplicity of one physical object per task for the simplicity of only having to carry a single device. Of course this ‘dumbed-down’ attitude in current applications - owing both to the disincentive to develop bigger stuff imposed by Apple and the crude finger gesture interface - finds critique as it ends up in clumsy usage scenarios (like the inconvenient switching between applications) at times. It will be interesting to see how this develops. Or what Mr Norman’s current take on the issue is.
