
Chapter
2
Wiatls
Usability?
Back
when computer vendors first started viewing users as more
than an inconvenience, the term of choice was "user friendly"
systems.
This term is not really appropriate, however, for several
reasons.
First, it is unnecessarily anthropomorphic—users don't
need machines to be friendly to them, they just need machines that
will
not stand in their way when they try to get their work done.
And second, it implies that users' needs can be described along a
single
dimension by systems that are more or less friendly. In
reality,
different users have different needs, and a system that is
"friendly" to one may
feel
very tediou ...