Mark's Notebook


	I never came upon any of my discoveries through the process of rational thinking. - Albert Einstein

Wanted by the Police: A Good Interface

New York Times

Thursday 11 November 2004, 2:24 pm
Keywords: Computer Topics , News Articles

By Katie Hafner

How the flawed interface design of a police dispatch system became a municipal issue in San Jose, Calif.

"Such complaints have a familiar ring. Anyone who encounters technology daily - that is to say, just about everyone - has a story of new hardware or software, at work or at home, that is poorly designed, hard to use and seemingly worse than what it was intended to replace. Yet because the safety of police officers and the public is involved, the problems in San Jose are of particular concern.

"It's a prescription for disaster to develop a big system without testing it with users before it's launched. There are always issues in the user interface that need to be smoothed over.

"Officers say they are being distracted by the tasks they are expected to perform on the new system when their full attention should be given to what is happening outside the patrol car. Sergeant DeMers said one officer recently was so distracted by what he was doing on the 12-inch touch screen that he crashed into a parked car.

"The Chicago Police Department had similar problems in 1999 when it rolled out an ambitious computer system without having tested it with on-the-beat police officers first."

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/11/technology/circuits/11cops.html?th

Mark says: Why didn't they come to me for a GUI consult?