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" 'Computer companies should grow up and start paying attention to their customers. Customers don't want more technology: they want convenience, value, and enjoyment. Why is that so hard?' (Donald A. Norman, The Invisible Computer) Donald Norman says that if you don't understand your personal computer, it's not your fault! The author of the classic The Design of Everyday Things finds in the PC a fatal instance of bad design. Here is a fundamentally complex machine that is difficult to use, does too many different things to do any of them well, and expects users to adapt to its idiosyncrasies rather than the other way around. The Invisible Computer is must reading for anyone concerned with today's technology, but especially for managers and executives, and not just in high-technology industries. The book shows why having the best product is not necessarily the secret to success: Many factors enter into the consumer's buying preferences. In the mature phase of a technology, customers want products that are simple, convenient and easy to use. The technology should be invisible and unobtrusive. To make this happen, business must change its methods to understand the needs of their customers and to practice human-centered product development. No, focus groups won't do it. As Norman says in chapter 10, 'Want Human Centered Product Development? Reorganize your Company." Technologies have a life cycle, and companies and their products must change as they pass from youth to maturity. Alas, the computer industry thinks it is still in its rebellious teenage years, exulting in technical complexity. Norman shows why the resulting computer is so difficult to use and why this complexity is basic to its nature -- and to the business model of the industry. The only solution, he asserts, is to start over again, to develop information appliances that fit people's needs and lives. To do this, companies must change the way they develop products. They need to start with an understanding of people: user needs first, technology last -- the opposite of how things are done now. Companies need a human-centered development process, even if it means reorganizing the entire company. This book shows how. 'Today's high technology business is in a muddle. It has arrived at its current state by its heavy emphasis on technology, quite often technology for technology's sake. The modern computer is the culmination of this process, and, as I explain more fully in this book, it has led to an overly complex, fundamentally difficult machine --one that increasingly has come to dominate our lives. But the computer does not really meet our needs. It suffers from the rush, the haste, and, for that matter, the arrogance of the technology industry. This is an industry that puts the device first, the customer second. The real needs of consumers are ignored." (The Invisible Computer, page 4)'" (Verlagsinformation)
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