{"id":551,"date":"2009-06-10T00:06:07","date_gmt":"2009-06-10T07:06:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dubinko.info\/blog\/?p=551"},"modified":"2009-06-19T19:35:35","modified_gmt":"2009-06-20T02:35:35","slug":"inmates-review-and-rfe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dubinko.info\/blog\/2009\/06\/inmates-review-and-rfe\/","title":{"rendered":"The Inmates are Running the Asylum: review and RFE"},"content":{"rendered":"

The central thesis of The Inmates are Running the Asylum<\/a> by Alan Cooper is dead on: engineers get too wrapped up in their own worlds, and left entirely to their own whims can easily make a product incomprehensible to ordinary folks. For this reason alone, it’s worth reading.<\/p>\n

But I do question parts of his thesis. He (with tongue in cheek) posits the existence of another species of human, called Homo Logicus. Stepping on to an airplane, Homo Logicus turns left into the cockpit with a million buttons but ultimate control over every aspect of the plane. Regular Homo Sapiens, on the other hand, turn right and tuck themselves into a chair–no control but at least they can relax.<\/p>\n

But if there was only one “species” of Homo Logicus, members (like me) would never experience usability issues in software created by fellow Logicians. But ordinary fax machines give me fits. The touch-screen copier at work instills dread in my heart. And the software I need to use to file expense reports–written by enterprise software geeks probably very similar to me–is a usability nightmare. Words fail me in expressing my disdain for this steaming heap of fail.<\/p>\n

The book is sub-titled “Why High-Tech Products Drive Us Crazy”, but one doesn’t have to look very far to find similar usability bugs in the low-tech world. Seth Godin, for example, likes to talk<\/a> about different things in life that Just Don’t Work, along with reasons why. Some examples:<\/p>\n