Conference tackles ease-of-use issues

LOS ANGELES - For the legions of computer users who have been frustrated and confused by the array of pull-down menus, icons and unhelpful ''help'' screens that are a part of most programs, Ben Shneiderman has some advice:

''People need to complain more. It's not their fault. They need to get angry,'' said Shneiderman, a University of Maryland professor who has written extensively about the interaction between computers and people. ''Every time you get a dialogue box you can't understand, you ought to get a nickel from Microsoft.''

The need for friendlier computers and Internet sites, and how to create them, attracted experts such as Shneiderman and some 2,500 computer designers and researchers from around the world to a conference sponsored by the Association for Computing Machinery. The conference focused on making computers more accessible for users.

Researchers such as Shneiderman are beginning to get the attention of big computer and software manufacturers who recognize that ease of use is the key to selling their products to millions more customers by making the computer an everyday household appliance.

The three-day conference, which closes Thursday, also attracted 29 companies exhibiting new technologies aimed at making computers more useful, including International Business Machines, Microsoft, Nokia, Sun Microsystems and Applied Science Laboratories.''Those software engineers who shift their attention to usability engineering will have greater potential for making their companies more successful,'' said Shneiderman, who directs the Human-Computer Interaction Laboratory at the University of Maryland.

Shneiderman, a keynote speaker at the conference, said during an interview that most of the problems that make computer use difficult for many people could be solved with more thoughtful design. The goal, he said, should be a computer that people can use without having to learn too much.

''The idea is to extend human function, to augment it, to make you feel smarter. ... We really screwed up the first 100 million users. We don't want to screw up the next 100 million users,'' said Mark Lucente, a researcher with IBM who is working on interfaces that would enable humans to communicate with a computer through speech and gestures.

Lucente showed a videotaped demonstration in which objects on a large screen changed position in response to his gestures. When Lucente bent down, as one might to look under a table, the graphic rotated to allow viewers to see what was underneath.

Such a system, when combined with voice recognition software, might allow users to efficiently use computers without being tied to a keyboard or a desk. The technology for individual components of such a system, such as speech recognition, already exist. The difficult part, Lucente said, is integrating them into a single unit that consumers can afford.

''We are entering a point now where certain technologies are becoming so inexpensive we can now have variety'' in the types of interfaces connecting people with computers, he said.

The Internet also needs some rethinking to make it friendlier to users, said Jakob Nielsen, a Sun Microsystems engineer and author of several books on Web site design.

Companies that fill Web sites with impressive graphics and lots of text risk losing readers because the sites take too long to download. Results of a study presented by Nielsen at the conference suggest that readers begin to lose interest after waiting 10 seconds for a download.

The problem, he said, is many designers and their customers want to make sites visually attractive, like books or television images. Most Web users, however, are looking for quick information and the opportunity to interact.

''It's not the equivalent to a television commercial. You don't need to attract the user,'' he said in an interview.

''Having a bad user interface on your Web site is like having every person on your sales force being grumpy. You're not going to get any traffic or achievements for your brand.''

Apple Computer Inc. was a pioneer in producing user-friendly computers and has won devoted customers, many of whom believe that Macintosh machines remain superior to the market-dominating PCs using Intel Corp. chips and Microsoft Corp. software. But Apple has steadily lost business, especially after Microsoft came out with its Windows programs that duplicated many of Apple's ease-of-use features.

Last year the companies appeared to set aside their differences when Microsoft agreed to buy a $150 million stake in Apple, infusing the company with badly needed cash. Microsoft also agreed to pay Apple an undisclosed amount of cash to settle their patent-infringement dispute.

Copyright 1998 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Front page, News, Sports, Money, Life, Weather, Marketplace

©COPYRIGHT 1998 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co. Inc.