Linked by Mystilleef on Mon 29th Sep 2003 06:30 UTC
Linux will become ubiquitous in the year 3000. Okay, that was a horrible joke. Linux is just a kernel, the engine that runs an operating system. By itself, it is essentially useless. Kernels shouldn't be discussed or noticed by normal users. And as such when providing these users with reviews, previews and "professional" opinions, computer consultants, computer reviewers and computer journalists should not spew headlines like "Linux is not ready for prime time", "Linux on the desktop by XXX", "Linux to takeover Windows", "Linux is not ready for desktop" and so on.
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I'm often hearing people saying that computers should be easy to use for someone who has never used one. The result of this is we have attempted to make analogies to the real world -- 'files', the 'desktop', et cetera.
It is my opinion that we should not force ourselves to follow real world analogies when designing computer interfaces. The fact is computers are becoming a key part to nearly everyone's life in developed countries. They are now in the same group as cars, televisions, and telephones. I would not expect someone who has never driven a car to be able to drive one on their first try.
When we make the decision to attempt to model computer user interfaces after real world analogies we are truly making a compromise. We aren't making this decision because we believe it to be the most efficient method of using a computer, or the most correct; we are making this compromise for the sake of ease of use.
In my opinion the value of this familiarity (through the 'desktop' or 'file' analogy) decreases as computer usage becomes more prevalent. Most children by the time they are 10 today know how to operate a computer better than the average 50 year old. If computers are going to become this essential to our lives perhaps we should look into designing computer interfaces with principles like efficiency in mind.
If we are going to all be using computers daily for the rest of our lives do we really need to retain these analogies to make computers usable? I really believe that (so long as it is minimal in complexity) that people would be able to learn a new interface which is designed with efficiency of use in mind. Lets not be weighed down by our desire to model interfaces after reality -- face it, a computer is nothing like a desktop or a filecabinet. It is capable of much more than we have even imagined thus far.