Human Factor: Designing Computer Systems for People [Paperback]

Richard Rubinstein (Author), Harry Hersh (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Butterworth-Heinemann Ltd (March 16, 1984)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0932376444
• ISBN-13: 978-0932376442
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #6,593,802 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Good stuff, back in 1984, March 13, 2006

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wiredweird "wiredweird" (Earth, or somewhere nearby) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Human Factor: Designing Computer Systems for People (Paperback)

UI design has moved forward a lot since this book came out, but there's still material of value here. The suggestions about user-oriented language are still important, including the help your tech writer has to offer. Task analysis, although this predates commercial acceptance of OO, sounds a lot like the Agile world's "stories." And testing - it's just as important now as ever, especially for mission-critical interfaces, for mass-produced products where errors are costly, and for unfmailiar application areas (do you really know how a radiologist reads an Xray, for example?). Too bad most projects lack the schedule or budget for UI testing these days - but, thanks to books like this, good UI design is much more widely understood these days.

Still, after more than 20 years, so much has changed in the world that this book won't have the impact it did back in the day. Don't bother hunting this book down - but if you find it, thumb through it for its 100 or so aphoristic "guidelines." Many of them still apply, including:
- Verify that help helps. (Does the user really know what those words mean?)
- Coordinate all system responses. (Don't use a crazy quilt of mismatched terminology.)
- Avoid clutter. (Read Tufte if you don't know what this means - or even if you do.)

//wiredweird