peterr@utcsrgv.UUCP (Peter Rowley) (04/09/84)
Human factors seems to be making an impression in the world at large. Some time ago, I saw an AT&T ad showing a human factors researcher going from subject to subject, seeing how they performed at a terminal. I can't remember the copy, but it stressed the importance of human engineering. Today, I saw a Burroughs ad with the same message, but in a much more comic tone. It opens with a man sitting at a terminal; he tries to get up, but his legs are fixed at a 90 degree angle to his torso-- he walks away, torso horizontal, past a woman, at a terminal, facing us. He says "Goodnight!" but she is silent, transfixed to the screen, with eyes completely crossed. Cut to a well-designed keyboard and an easy-to-read high-resolution colour screen. Voice-over: "We don't just make computers work well, we make computers that work well with people". And neither commercial used the phrase "user friendly"! p. rowley, U. Toronto