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From: cosc19v2@menudo.uh.edu (cosc19v2)
Newsgroups: comp.os.386bsd.development
Subject: Users are only human.
Date: 7 Jun 1994 10:52:05 -0500
Organization: University of Houston
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.... the software designer must internalize, accept, and become expert in the
idiosyncrasies, inconsistencies, and frailties of USERS.
Users change their minds. They make mistakes. They are impatient. As a rule,
they are interested in results, not in the process.
Their preferences might not be transitive (they may prefer B to A, C to B, and
A to C). typically, they cannot articulate what they want, but can readily
select their favorite choice from a given set of options. Very often, users
just want to have fun. With all their passions and anomalies, users are
the software designer's primary domain of study.
Well-designed software must accommodate and, indeed, exploit these human
characteristics. Cooper identifies six principles or qualities that determine
how readily users will accept software :
.....
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From "The Art of Software Design", written by John Chisholm,
in Unix Review, March 1994
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No flames intended.
I thought that BSD developers are expecting too much from the users :)