Recommended Book

The Invisible Computer: Why Good Products Can Fail, the Personal Computer is So Complex, and Information Appliances Are the Solution

by Donald A. Norman, Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1999

The Invisible Computer is a follow-up to Things That Make Us Smart: Defending Human Attributes in the Age of the Machine (see Review). There was no doubt in anyone's mind, least of all Norman's, that the technological developments in the years following the 1994 publication date of his earlier book had rendered some parts obsolete.

However, the concept remains true - will technology rule us or will we control technological devices as utilitarian information appliances? Norman, an executive at Hewlett Packard at the time of publication, thinks we have things backwards today. Developers let technology for technologies' sake drive them rather than user needs and practical usage.

The author believes that every technology has a life cycle and that the personal computer has outlived its day. The PC is so fat yet it can no longer cater to the early-inventor/adopter technologists and must appeal to the masses of common people.

Customer needs are outstripping the trappings of the technological advances. Products should be driven by these needs instead of leading the customer down the proverbial garden path. Norman believes the value lies in technology that is simple in design and operation and further is a convenience and pleasure to use. In other words technological development should be human-centred not technology-centred as it has been for the past decade.

The Table of Contents speaks volumes:
 
Preface
1 Drop Everything You're Doing
2 Growing Up: Moving from Technology-Centered to Human- Centered Products
3 The Move to Information Appliances
4 What's Wrong with the PC?
5 There Is No Magical Cure
6 The Power of Infrastructure
7 Being Analog
8 Why Is Everything So Difficult to Use?
9 Human-Centered Development
10 Want Human-Centered Development? Reorganize the Company
11 Disruptive Technologies
12 A World of Information Appliances
Appendix Examples of Information Appliances
Notes
References
Index

Modern hardware and software require us to depend upon volumes of guidebooks, frequently asked questions (FAQs) and wizards. Instead we should expect something quiet and unobtrusive, in other words invisible.

Personal computers do allow flexibility and power but there are definite limitations according to Donald Norman. He states: "The personal computer is perhaps the most frustrating technology ever". Instead it should be nothing more than an information appliance, a digital tool, created to answer specific needs while allowing interconnectivity for communication between devices.

If we only could design the tool so well it becomes a part of the task, hidden in walls, car dashboards and held in the palm.

Some take his global positioning body implants and electric-power-generating plants in shoes as plain silly. However, he is letting his creative juices flow as he allows his imagination to extend to things yet unknown and undeveloped. His role is innovation rather than invention. It is to stimulate our thought rather than drive us out to create everything imaginable.

Or is he doing what he accuses the current technology designers of doing? Creating everything imaginable just to show it can be done - rather than envisioning what might actually be useful. This is causing a vast chasm separating these "aging teenagers who rule the computer companies of the world" and the more seasoned users who are demanding simplicity and reliability - tools rather than toys!

If there is any flaw in Norman's arguments, it might be that there should be a multitude of task-oriented machines rather than a general-multitasking computer. He does feel every device should be able to communicate with every other one, but is this practical?

Start with Things That Make Us Smart (see Review) and then read The Invisible Computer, which can be obtained as follows:
 
To order:
Amazon:
Barnes and Noble

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