Overwhelmed By Tech
Gadgets were supposed to make life simple. But some just make people crazy
Easy is hard. Getting from here to there won't be easy, though. It takes enormous computer power and programming know-how to make something complicated look simple. Clifford Nass, a Stanford University communications professor, studies how people interact with computers. "Easy to use is hard to do," he says, describing the challenge of building simpler devices. Donna Dubinsky is the CEO of Handspring and, with Hawkins, helped make the original PalmPilot a success. At Handspring, as at Palm, Dubinsky says, consumers are videotaped and studied as they interact with prototype models. After studying the tapes, designers refine the devices accordingly. But that kind of patience is unusual, says Alan Cooper, an industry gadfly and the author of The Inmates Are Running the Asylum: Why High-Tech Products Drive Us Crazy and How to Restore the Sanity. Usability generally gets short shrift, Cooper says, because manufacturers are driven to bring more products to market faster with more features than the competition. In the typical product launch, says Cooper, a former programmer, the design role ends up being ceded to software engineers, whose thought patterns tend to be "more sympathetic to silicon than to humans."
The transition from complex to simple, if it's really going to happen, could come in a number of ways. One promising solution is the "usability labs" now the rage at some tech companies. Others look to boutique design firms to lead the way. Still others say it could be the big guys. Microsoft has been considered one of the worst offenders in "feature creep," but Chairman Bill Gates is now preaching the simplicity gospel with the fervor of a convert. Simplicity, Gates says, is crucial to Microsoft's continued growth. Microsoft now includes "usability engineers" in each group developing major products, and consumers are testing new versions in labs before they are finished and shipped. Developers and usability experts watch through a one-way mirror as consumers struggle with products. Tapes of consumers wrestling with software glitches are shown in company cafeterias to humble cocky developers. But old habits die hard. Says John Pruitt, a Microsoft usability engineer: "Everybody's fighting for their own pet feature."
Holy Grail. The Internet also is forcing simplicity on the tech world. Unlike software, Web sites are prominently reviewed for ease of use. That's because consumers have little invested in visiting a new site. If they find it hard to use, they just switch to one that offers similar information or services. The same will happen for software, which Microsoft and other companies plan to deliver over the Internet as a "service," rather than boxing disks and sending them to store shelves. That's a key component of Microsoft's .NET initiative, in which Gates has said the company will integrate all its products with the Internet. An early example is MSN Explorer, a Web program launched in October that can be updated through the Internet without the consumer even knowing. "This is the Holy Grail for us," says Hillel Cooperman, a manager of MSN Explorer's development. "You can't write a perfect piece of software and ship it--it's impossible."
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