These are my two all-time favorite Human Computer Interaction related quotes. The first is from Ted Nelson's chapter in the book that Brenda Laurel edited in 1990:
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On Artistry | |
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Historical accident has kept programmers in control of a field in which most of them have no aptitude: the artistic integration of the mechanisms they work with. It is nice that engineers and programmers and software executives have found a new form of creativity in which to find a sense of personal fulfillment. It is just unfortunate that they have to inflict the results on users. Learning to program has no more to do with designing interactive software than learning to touch-type has to do with writing poetry. The design of interactivity is scarcely taught in programming school. What we need in software is what people are taught in film school, at least to whatever degree it can be taught. Designing for the little screen on the desktop has the most in common with designing for the Big Screen (directing theatrical films). Interactive software needs the talents of a Disney, a Griffith, a Welles, a Hitchcock, a Capra, a Bob Abel. The integration of software cannot be achieved by committee, where everyone has to put in their own addition. It must be controlled by dictatorial artists with full say on the final cut. Theodor Holm Nelson |
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I don't agree with Nelson's comment regarding dictatorial control, nor do I think the Disney, Griffith, Welles talent level is realistic. But Ted is right on the money regarding the concept of interactivity. See some of my own comments regarding control and philosophy of design in the design brief I wrote for the March/April 2000 issue of interactions magazine.
Next up, Alan Cooper:
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Software Isn't Designed | |
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Most artifacts of the mechanical age are designed by professionals. Our cars are designed by trained, professional automobile designers, not by mechanical engineers. Our houses are designed by professionally trained and certified building designers - architects - not by structural engineers. Our toys and clothes and bookcases are designed by toy designers, clothes designers and industrial designers. The process of determining what software will do and how it will communicate with the user is closely intertwined with its construction. Most software is built like crazy Mrs. Winchester's house, who thought that she'd die if she ever stopped building. Rooms and stairs and cupboards and walls are added in manic confusion as the need and opportunity presents itself during construction. Programmers, deep in their thoughts of algorithms and coding arcana, design user interfaces the way miners design the landscape with their cavernous pits and enormous tailing piles. The software design process alternates between the accidental and the non-existent. Alan Cooper |
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What is there to say, other than I wish I could write like that.