The Inmates are Running the Asylum

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Notes:

Part 1
Ch. 1

computers are dumb, and they turn otherwise easy-to-use objects into dumb objects that malfunction
“it is far cheaper for manufacturers to use computers to control the internal functioning of devices than it is to use older, mechanical methods.” (7)
“computer finesses me into a misstep.” (9)
technology creates race/class barriers when it comes to employment (11)
“We are deficient in our development process, not in our development tools.” (15)
programming a good user experience is a conflict of interest between the user and the software engineer (16)
“To be a good programmer,s one must be sympathetic to the nature and needs of the computer. But the nature and needs of the computer are utterly alien from the nature and needs of the human being who will eventually use it… the very language of the two worlds are at odds with each other.” (16)
“…when you cross a computer with just about any product, the behavior of the computer dominates completely.” (16)

Ch. 2

transition from industrial age to information age, engineers have the wrong tools to contend
“cognitive friction”: “the resistance encountered by a human intellect when it engages with a complex system of rules that change as the problem permutes. Software interaction is very high in cognitive friction. Interaction with physical devices, however copmlex, tends to be low in cognitive friction because mechanical devices tends to stay in a narrow range of states comparable to their inputs.” (19-20)
re: keyboard keys on a typewriters vs. a computer: “The behavior of the machine no longer has a one-to-one correspondence to your manipulation.” (“meta-function”) (20)
Swiss army knife vs. key fob (26)
- “The wonder isn’t that the keyless entry system works well, but that the keyless entry system works at all.” (26)
“The usage of a feature is inversely proportional to the amount of interaction needed to control it” (33)

Part 2
Ch. 4

Software is forgetful; not matter hof often you use it, it forgets your habits every time you close/open it.
- “Controls and functions he uses constantly are given the same emphasis in the interface as controls that he has never used and likely never will.” (65)
Software tends to “camouflage the process–what is happening–as well as the information relevant to that process.” (66)
- no way of knowing when the system isn’t working correctly (what goes on behind the spinny wheel? what are we not seeing?)
“When a manual human process is computerized, the programmers (or analysts) study the current behavior of users performing the manual job, and they distill the tasks or functions out of it. These tasks are them programmed into the computer. Typically, all of the non-task aspects of the job are simply lost.” (67)
“Human users prefer systems that let them fudge things a little. They want to be able to bump the pinball machine just a little bit–not enough to tilt the game, but enough to have some positive influence on the outcome. This fudgability is what makes our manual systems work so much better–albeit slower–than our computerized ones.” (67)
Cooper generally dislikes that computers make people feel stupid/incompetent, and that software is kind of “impolite”
Bad software/user experience can be avoided, it’s just the result of bad programming habits

Part 3
Ch. 6

Ch. 7

Ch. 8

Programmers have their own culture; programmers are not good interaction designers

Ch. 9

The best products are born out of designing for 1 type of user (“Persona”) or configurable to address 1 set of needs rather than being a mish-mosh compromise of a little bit of everything a lot of people may want.