The Invisible Computer by Donald Norman, MIT Press, 拢15.95, ISBN 0262140659
鈥淲HAT is wrong with our world, where horrible products don鈥檛 matter?鈥� asks
Don Norman, a well-known writer and critic of technology, ex-Apple computer guru
and now a consultant. Take, for example, the Swiss Army knife. It鈥檚 a boon to
the soldier and the mountaineer鈥攜ou can carry all the tools you can
imagine in a handy 鈥渁ll in one鈥� kit. It鈥檚 versatile, but each tool is pretty
feeble compared with a real screwdriver or a real pair of scissors. This is
Norman, a man on a mission: to challenge multipurpose, multifeature devices that
are overcomplex and difficult to use. And that applies to eveything from
screwdrivers but to computers and other gadgets.
Norman says the complex gadgets that make our lives fraught should be
re-engineered, rethought. They should be invisible 鈥渋nformation appliances鈥�,
like the computers already hidden inside our cars and washing machines.
Invisible computers are easy to use: they are embedded where they are needed.
That鈥檚 the route we ought to follow: forget calling up files and downloading
paper copies, the address book is inside the phone.
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That he has solutions, not merely complaints, makes his case very persuasive.
And his examples from Apple鈥檚 great mistake (turning down a web browser) to
Thomas Edison鈥檚 failure to sell his phonograph fill give you a fund of
anecdotes.
But do these ideas really work? I found myself disagreeing with almost every
solution Norman proposes. Forget that Swiss Army knife, take the dictionary.
Dictionaries have lots of words in them; this is what makes them useful. But a
dictionary that was not in alphabetical order would be a disaster. Aren鈥檛
today鈥檚 computers more like disordered 鈥渄ictionaries鈥�? More features just make
them harder to use. The issue is not whether PCs provide many functions, but the
sensible organisation of those functions for users.
Surely, then, Norman, having wonderfully described the disease, prescribes
the wrong cure? That he informatively and brilliantly identifies one of the
besetting problems of the modern world makes it a great book, nevertheless. You
need controversial ideas if you want to work out how to make the world a better
place.