Items related to The Trouble with Computers: Usefulness, Usability,...
Synopsis
Despite enormous investments in computers over the last twenty years, productivity in the very service industries at which they were aimed virtually stagnated everywhere in the world.
If computers are not making businesses, organizations, or countries more productive, then why are we spending so much time and money on them? Cutting through a raft of technical data, Thomas Landauer explains and illustrates why computers are in trouble and why massive outlays for computing since 1973 have not resulted in comparable productivity payoffs. Citing some of his own successful research programs, as well as many others, Landauer offers solutions to the problems he describes.
While acknowledging that mismanagement, organizational barriers, learning curves, and hardware and software incompatibilities can play a part in the productivity paradox, Landauer targets two aspects of computer design as the main culprits: usefulness and usability. He marshals overwhelming evidence that computers rarely improve the efficiency of the information work they are designed for because they are too hard to use and do too little that is sufficiently useful. Their many features, designed to make them more marketable, merely increase cost and complexity. Landauer proposes that emerging techniques for user-centered development can turn the situation around.
Through task analysis, iterative design, trial use, and evaluation, computer systems can be made into powerful tools for the service economy, with the same enormous impact on productivity and standard of living that were the historical results of technological advances in energy use (the steam engine, electric motors), automation in textiles and other manufacture, and in agriculture. Landauer presents solid evidence for this claim, and for a huge benefit-to-cost ratio for user-centered design activities. He describes how to accomplish these necessary things, promising applications for better computer software designs in business, and the relation of user-centered design to business process reengineering, quality, and management.
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About the Author
Thomas K. Landauer is Professor of Psychology at the University of Colorado.
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The Trouble with Computers : Usefulness, Usability, and Productivity
Seller: Better World Books, Mishawaka, IN, U.S.A.
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The Trouble with Computers : Usefulness, Usability, and Productivity
Seller: Better World Books, Mishawaka, IN, U.S.A.
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Condition: Good. Former library book; may include library markings. Used book that is in clean, average condition without any missing pages. Seller Inventory # 38880051-6
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The Trouble with Computers: Usefulness, Usability, and Productivity
Seller: ThriftBooks-Atlanta, AUSTELL, GA, U.S.A.
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Hardcover. Condition: Good. No Jacket. Pages can have notes/highlighting. Spine may show signs of wear. ~ ThriftBooks: Read More, Spend Less 0.55. Seller Inventory # G0262121867I3N00
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The Trouble With Computers: Usefulness, Usability, and Productivity
Published by
Cumberland, Rhode Island, U.S.A.: Mit Pr, 1995, 1995
ISBN 10: 0262121867
ISBN 13: 9780262121866
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First Edition. 425 pages. Text clean. Book tight. Owner name on front paste down. Condition of Book Fine. Seller Inventory # 4029
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The Trouble with Computers: Usefulness, Usability, and Productivity
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The Trouble with Computers: Usefulness, Usability, and Productivity
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hardcover. Condition: Very Good. Connecting readers with great books since 1972! Used books may not include companion materials, and may have some shelf wear or limited writing. We ship orders daily and Customer Service is our top priority! Seller Inventory # S_433347451
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The Trouble with Computers: Usefulness, Usability, and Productivity
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hardcover. Condition: Good. Dust Jacket Condition: Includes dust jacket. Dust jacket is in very good condition. Book shows common (average) signs of wear and use. Binding is still tight. Covers are intact but may be repaired. We have 75,000 books to choose from -- Ship within 24 hours -- Satisfaction Guaranteed! Seller Inventory # mon0000924424
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Landauer: The Trouble With Computers â" Usefulness, Usability, & Productivity (cloth): Usefulness, Usability and Productivity
Seller: WorldofBooks, Goring-By-Sea, WS, United Kingdom
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The Trouble with Computers
Published by
Massachussetts Institute of Technology - MIT Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA, 1995
ISBN 10: 0262121867
ISBN 13: 9780262121866
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Hardcover
First Edition
Seller: Cameron-Wolfe Booksellers, Taos, NM, U.S.A.
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Clothbound Hardcover. Condition: Fine Minus. First Edition. This book demonstrates why today's [read: ca. 1995!] computers are wrong for society, for business, and for people. (Have the problems been resolved since then?) CONTENTS: Preface; Prologue - The Trouble with Computers; The Productivity Puzzle; The Evidence; What Computers Do; The Porductivity Paradox; Solutions to the Puzzle; Excuses; Reasons; What's Wrong with Them?; Usefulness and Usability; Software Design, Development, and Deployment; Hype and Broken Promises or, Why Do We Love Them Still?; How to Fix Computers; The Track Record So Far; User-Centered Design; Here's How; User-Centered Design Methods, Development, Deployment or, What to Use Them For and How; What Then?; Fantasy Business Systems; Life, Love, and Intellect. 425 pages, illustrated. CONDITION: The book itself is bright, solid, square, and unmarked, with minimal shelf-wear (a couple light corner bumps). Its dustjacket - now in a clear mylar (removable) protective cover - is unmarked, and uncreased, with negligible shelf-wear (just miniscule crinkles at the spine ends). Seller Inventory # ROL120
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the trouble with computers
Published by
MIT Press, 1995
ISBN 10: 0262121867
ISBN 13: 9780262121866
Used
Hardcover
First Edition
Seller: Bingo Books 2, Vancouver, WA, U.S.A.
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Hardcover. Condition: Fine. Dust Jacket Condition: Fine. 1st Edition. hardback book and dust jacket in fine condition. Seller Inventory # 85233
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