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Summary: "Painting the Corpse"
Review: Cooper is right on the money with many of his descriptions regarding the grafting of computers into various facets of our lives. Throughout the book he addresses the daily issues "apologists" (whether they are willing admit it or not) and "survivors" alike struggle with and put up with, such as Microsoft* software, (need I say more). The section of the book that really struck a chord, as I work with engineers to create product training, was the reference to the use of "bribery by chocolate" and how it resulted in cutting overtime of a Technical Writer by more than half. This not only showed the human side of the programmers/engineers that many of us don't get to see, but it validated my methods. Bravo!Cooper also has a clear process flow for creating successful technology-enabled products, which he compares to that of the filmmaking industry. Design first, program second, user test and bug test third, and finally tweak. In order to keep the vision and goals clear in this process Cooper creates personas to clarify and better target the product's user. When the design and programming team is able to keep this in mind with a constant visual of the pre-determined persona(s), the product plan is in control and the product will be a success.
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Summary: Rethinking Software
Review: Alan Cooper's The Inmates Are Running The Asylum is a common sense, yet insightful scrutiny of the software development process. Cooper contends that from the outset, the process is flawed. Consequently, fundamental changes must occur in order for software to be meaningful for end-users. Inmates challenges us to rethink how software is designed and built. Cooper writes, ". . . [programmers] are allowed to control the development process, often from start to finish." This may be more easily understood using his analogy of constructing a house before considering the design or usability of the features, such as where the cabinets should be placed, or which way the doors open and close, etc. Despite the frustration faced by the inhabitants, they could easily figure out how these features work. In the digital world this is not quite so. Cooper terms the frustration of using digital tools "cognitive friction". He attributes cognitive friction, in large part, to the predominant culture of software manufacturing. Cooper reveals just how much the software development process is driven by financial considerations. Furthermore, the considerations are often myopic and short-sighted: the lower in-house cost for developing product completely overshadows the higher user cost of training, ambitious and arbitrary deadlines are established to beat competitors to market, and a plethora of complicated and unnecessary features are added to the interface merely to attract customers. Cooper asserts that interaction design should precede interface construct. With ever-decreasing time windows to produce successive versions it is financially more prudent to produce a quality product rather than release successive versions that merely fix bugs in previous ones. Cooper also highlights the often overlooked cost of losing customers to competitors because a software either does not accurately meet the end-user's needs or is fraught with bugs. In not so many words, Cooper subscribes to the notion of Lave and Wenger's concept of legitimate peripheral participation or LPP. Legitimate peripheral participation holds that members within a community change locations and trajectories to produce learning. LPP was initially coined to describe apprenticeship models of learning. Nevertheless, the term is appropriate here because designers and programmers should view themselves as one set of learners within a larger community of practice. In this light, those involved in the process (especially the programmers) should strategically situate themselves to better understand the changing needs and behaviors of end-users.
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Summary: Tries to fight the insanity of bad user interface design
Review: Many of the points that Alan Cooper makes about the poor design of many of " computers " that we use every day are valid. How many times have we all stood at an ATM while two or three people or more waited behind us, tapping their feet, looking in frustration at their watchs, while we inadvertently pushed the wrong button and have to start completely over? Haven't we all passed by cubicles or offices from which frustrated and angry screams are coming because a piece of software is not " user-friendly?" In his book, Cooper gives his reasons for the failings of the software industry. Primarily he blames the software engineers. He believes that most engineers are given free rein on how software is developed and what features are added. In most software development companies, the user interface is developed after all the code for in the software itself is written. Thus, the software is written by programmers for programmers. He thinks they get away with this because we, as a society, need technology. In our personal lives we use ATMs, cars with computerized systems, computerized alarm clocks and of course our personal computers at home. At work, we may use multiple programs on multiple machines in a variety of ways. In a lot of ways, many of us really could not do without technology. We are able to deal with the poor design of software and technology because we can put ourselves into two categories that Cooper calls "apologists " and " survivors." Apologists love the technology, even with its failings. Survivors, realizing that they must use the technology, do their best to learn just as much as the need to learn. Once Cooper gets beyond his descriptions of how we struggle to use the technology, he tries to lay out a plan for a better way of designing technology. His belief is that the interaction of the software with the user is the first thing that should be considered, not the last. His concepts have merit, truly being a possibility for improvement on the process of development and on the end products. However, when reality hits, it is difficult to envision the software industry changing so radically.
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Summary: The Inmates Are Running The Asylum - Alan Cooper
Review: Allan Cooper, a former "inmate" of the asylum, alias a software programmer, escaped to higher ground when he took a closer look at how humans and machines interact. As an inmate, he managed to create a schism between software programming interface code created on the "inside," and the "outside" end users' purpose and goals for using computers. Alas, the "survivors" of his interface design continued to use complicated, frustrating, difficult to navigate software simply out of fear of admitting to feeling stupid. Simultaneously, a few "apologists" were not deterred by too many functions and features of software programs, accepted "cognitive friction" as the norm, and used the inmates' software with fever. However, it is not until Cooper redefines how we "interact" with computers to consider the user first in software design that he metaphorically notices the open doors to the asylum. Cooper lights the path to involve the interactive designer early on with the user in mind, rather than designing software and adding a user interface at the end of the process, towards the ultimate goal of creating a good product that makes money and improves our life. Cooper espouses interactive software design that delivers what people really want by first defining the needs, goals, and in turn, desires, of end users. He introduces design tools including the development of "personas" to shed light on the development process and "scenarios" as a description of using a software-based product to achieve a goal. He cites a lost opportunity of not building a potential product as the most expensive business loss. Why then does it continue to be hard for software programmers to also be interactive designers? Are managers providing customer insight to programmers? What impact does this shift in focus really have on creating better, more intuitive products? With a breadth of experience and a depth of understanding, Cooper answers these questions to enlighten our sense of good interaction design that facilitates designers and users alike to achieve their goals.
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Summary: pablum for management
Review: The inmates are the programmers, who, as the author knows and says, are mostly good designers, but inasmuch as they have any input in the design process, plan for a user more logical than she (Cooper would be careful to say 'he') actually is. Enter the 'interaction designer,' to tilt the balance towards - well what: the cash customer's common sense? Cooper's firm advocates designing with personae in mind - not a bad plan - so we might ask to who is that book is addressed. Well, management. Having in this culture no especial qualifications for their job (even Cooper has them slipping out for the pizza), they cover by hiring consultants, and read books written to their level, which is to say, replete with generalities true (design should precede, and take longer than programming) and false (shipping late does not matter), and leavened with anecdote that illustrates where it purports to prove. Cooper has much good anecdote of bad design, all valid, some out of date; but his conclusions do not follow from the single case, and he wrestles idealistically and unconvincingly (once one raises one's head to observe the real world) with what determines success. This will not faze the manager, who rather than include in the design process his (yes, or her) inhouse, sadly overeducated team, will accede to these easy generalites (that programmers are nerds low on 'personal hygeine' - a stereotype repeated in this book), reassure himself this is a reputable voice (which it assuredly is), and confirm that this is what other managers are reading. But then, he'll also vote for George W Bush.
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Summary: The Software Asylum
Review: According to Alan Cooper, the toughest obstacle to overcoming difficult to use computer programs, are the programmers (the inmates) who code those programs. Unfortunately, these programmers are also given almost complete power in the software development process because of the skills they possess. The result is a situation where the inmates are allowed to run the software development 'asylum' because no one else can stop them once they've begun writing code. The end result of allowing programmers to control the process, says Cooper, has been the creation of two types of computer users: Apologists and Survivors. Apologists are those computer users who can (and do) wade their way through awful software interfaces and designs to get things done despite the environment. Apologists, because they are willing to fight their way through programs to exploit advanced features, then make excuses for bad software design because they can see all of the potential these programs offer. On the other hand, Survivors do just that, survive as best they can as they're forced to use software programs that are not intuitive, hard to navigate and overly complex for the tasks they need to perform. Survivors live in a constant state of fear. Fear of the program, fear of the computer and fear of hitting the wrong button and losing all of their hard work. Survivors do not think using computers are easy and, says Cooper, probably comprise about 90% of the computing community. Interested primarily in interactive design "...the selection of behavior, function, and information and their presentation to users (22)," Cooper makes the case for changing the role of programmers in the interface design process. The change has programmers writing interface code, not creating interface designs. An ex-inmate himself, Cooper believes that programmers can be good interactive designers and good programmers, but rarely can they excel at both on the same product. Unfortunately, however, that's exactly what Cooper sees happening most of the time in the software design process. Cooper believes that when programmers have less power in the interaction design process more intuitive programs are the result. These kinds of programs don't test users' patience and drive them crazy with unwanted (or unnecessary) functions and procedures. Cooper proposes that these kinds of friendly interfaces can (and are) quite easy to develop once the programmers are kept in check. This is an interesting and eye-opening read for anyone interested in computing, or for those frustrated with the entire computing process. A must-read for anyone who wants a fresh perspective on interface design.
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Summary: Escaped Inmate Reviews the System
Review: Author Alan Cooper, "Father of Visual Basic" is- or was- an "inmate" himself. Thus he is able to provide both an insider's and an outsider's perspective on what the inmates do well and what- in order to bring some semblance of sanity back to our computerized existence- they need help with. The inmates here are software engineers- or as they often self-describe, "software designers". But that is exactly the point of this book- that software engineers, because of what they know, how they think, and who they are, are not and can not be "interaction designers". And an interaction designer is exactly what Cooper is now that he's been "sprung". Yet one of the beauties of this work is that Cooper doesn't take an inmate-bashing approach. He understands that "the creation of software is so intellectually demanding, so all-consuming, that programmers must completely immerse themselves" (16). And therein lies the dilemma- the programmer wants the construction process to be smooth and easy, and the user wants the interaction with the program to be smooth and easy. Yet, as Cooper observes, these two objectives "almost never result in the same program" (16). Cooper reveals the programmer as "caught in a conflict of interest between serving the user's needs and making their programming job easier" (81) when they indeed do try to design. Furthermore, he informs the reader that "anyone untrained in interaction design methods tends towards self-referential design" (87). Thus, if the inmates are as different from the bulk of users as Cooper implies, programmers' design attempts are not only constrained by their deep understanding of the needs of the program, but also by their own points of reference as users. The solution Cooper proposes here is of an integrated development process that involves an interaction designer from the get go, a model which is distinctly different from that of a designer adding an interface to the product once it is completed. We can illustrate this difference in home-ownership terms.Interface design- what we all are most familiar with- entails moving the furniture around to make the house more accommodating to inhabitants once the house is built and all the furniture already purchased- and it's a house that someone else designed and furniture your family and friends have given you as gifts. Interactive design, on the other hand, is the involvement of an architect and a future homeowner in the development of house plans that truly meet the homeowner's needs. It's a process where each party takes and cedes the lead as they work together to understand each others' perspectives, restrictions, needs, etc., and as a result, the finished product doesn't require add-ons or remodeling to be functional. With an exploration of "cognitive dissonance", this book speaks to an "older" generation- one (or ones) that were not born into the electronic age, but that have had to adapt into it. I can't imagine that anyone from these generations who reads The Inmates Are Running the Asylum will ever respond the same way to the frustrations they experience as they strive to function with new interactions between themselves and machines. On the other hand, I wonder whether many of the electronic age readers of this book will be able to relate to cognitive dissonance in this context.
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Summary: Inmates is a "must-read" for high-tech
Review: This book is for marketers and executives who all need to understand the value of designing products. Too many products available today are built with power-users in mind (you'll love the Palm Pilot, but first... learn a new alphabet) and gives insight into why so many products are so difficult to use. The book introduces key development points that those in charge must understand, like, "Shipping a product that works is better than just shipping a product", and "Good design creates loyalty." If you're in a high-tech business, buy "Inmates" for everyone on your executive team. It's on the Pragmatic Marketing recommended reading list.
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Summary: Bells and whistles come from marketing, not developers.
Review: "Inmates" makes some very good points. I disagree with laying the blame (or credit) for bells and whistles on developers, however. I work in a small but growing software firm, and the push to add extraneous features almost always comes from the sales and marketing folks. The developers who actually write the code would much rather keep squeezing the bugs out of features we already have, so they can point to "bulletproof" code they've written. Historically, marketing's drive for media attention and management's quest for investor dollars has overridden them, so that I have seen several poorly-thought-out features added to our products solely for the purpose of issuing a press release. We're beginning to change that now, making both our developers and our customers much happier.
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Summary: Paging Doctor Software
Review: One mouse click to order a book from Amazon, but three mouse clicks to attach a return receipt to an Outlook email! Why has coming to work and firing up the PC ended up for so many people like wearing one of those hospital gowns that refuses to close? It's nice to find a Silicon Valley insider who is willing to acknowledge that there's something gravely wrong here in the patient service department -- and provide a vision of the solution. This is a book that should be absolutely mandatory for every MIS/IT staffer who has to hold down a help desk, train a new user, design a web page, or otherwise hand out the tools to plain folks who just want to get their work done out on the shop floor (whether that floor is in a hospital, a law firm, a government office, or wherever). Those of us at the other end of the cable, meanwhile, will find it a comfort to know that we aren't witless curmudgeons of the Selectric age whose time has come and gone. Cooper has it right: if our cars worked like this, we'd all be riding bikes. The book crosses the line from general interest to inside interest somewhere beyond the halfway point, and the illustrations are discomfortingly precious, but this book gives the hapless user a vocabulary for commuting his/her frustrations, while telling the techie something about his/her client that might not have been covered in the computer science curriculum. Dozens if not hundreds of books have been written and movies made about doctors' inability to relate to their patients. This is the one the computer "doctors" should be reading before they get their licenses to practice, and the "patients" should be reading to keep their sanity. Bravo!
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