HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: bubba@mace.cc.purdue.edu (Gary Beason)
Newsgroups: comp.human-factors
Subject: saving files on word 5.0
Date: 2 Sep 92 17:49:38 GMT
Organization: Purdue University

I just starting using Word 5.0 for the Mac and noticed the changes in
the "save as . . ." dialog box.  One change is that they dropped the
"drive" button that you could click on to view the different drives;
they've gone to clicking on a bar.   And they've added an "open"
button.

This small change is nonetheless confusing.  As someone who is new to
usability issues, I am curious as to why MS would change the format of
such an important box.  It seems that dialog box format is something
that should remain as consistent as possible.  Were there problems
with the older format?

On the other hand, the reorganization of the main menu bar has
uncovered some buried options (such as borders).


Gary Beason
bubba@mace.cc.purdue.edu
Newsgroups: comp.human-factors
From: girling@cs.sfu.ca (Doug Girling)
Subject: Re: Two suggestions for photocopier designers
Organization: CSS, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, B.C., Canada
Date: Wed, 26 Aug 1992 00:37:45 GMT

In article <1992Aug22.003244.29197@cs.brown.edu> Allen Renear writes:
>Suggestions for photocopier designers?!			
>
>1) Mover the panel buttons away from the edge so I don't keep resetting them
>with my stomach.  (no jokes please)

This problem also applies to pregnant women and those of us who wear the
currently-popular "belly-bag" for carrying wallets etc.

I find a related problem with our current Minolta copiers which extends the
keypad as an extended lip on the front of the copier.  This lip makes the
copy platen that much farther away, esp. for preggies, belly-bags and
toolsheds -- a half hour copying leads to a very sore lower back from
reaching over the keypad.

Doug
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-- 
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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Snail-mail:			E-mail:
  School of Engineering Science	  Usenet:     girling@cs.sfu.ca
Newsgroups: comp.human-factors
From: bruber@auto-trol.com (Bruce Bergen)
Subject: Cognitive Studies Survey
Organization: Auto-trol Technology Corporation
Date: Mon, 31 Aug 1992 19:29:58 GMT


Early this year someone posted a summary of graduate programs in
cognitive studies.  I believe it was posted to the now defunct
cognitive engineering newsgroup.  If anyone has the survey, I
would appreciate a copy by email.

Thanks,

Bruce Bergen
Auto-trol Technology Corporation
12500 North Washington Street
Denver, CO  80241
phone	(303)252-2094
Xref: sparky comp.human-factors:1953 comp.windows.misc:1246 comp.windows.x:15894
From: gaijin@ale.Japan.Sun.COM (John Little - Nihon Sun Repair Depot)
Newsgroups: comp.human-factors,comp.windows.misc,comp.windows.x
Subject: Re: GUIs Considered Harmful
Date: 30 Aug 92 23:09:44 GMT
Organization: Nihon Sun Microsystems - Atsugi Technical Centre - JAPAN.
NNTP-Posting-Host: ale.japan.sun.com
Summary: "Global" User Interfaces??
Keywords: Tick, Check, X, Maru, Batsu, Baseball :-)

In article <1992Aug30.205005.24796@arbi.Informatik.Uni-Oldenburg.DE>  \
Peter.Gorny@arbi.informatik.uni-oldenburg.de (Peter Gorny) writes:
% 
% bbrown@infonode.ingr.com (Bailey Brown) writes:
% > Is it really this hard?  What if someone handed you a 
% > a paper questionaire he had just filled out using 'X's instead
% > of check marks.  Would you have trouble figuring out which
% > boxes he had selected and which ones he had not selected?
% 
% The use of checkmarks (looking like a letter "V" in italics) is 
% culturally dependant -- it is an Anglo-American speciality; but 
% -- we know what you mean! In Germany we would "X" as a checkmark.
% 

   ...and just to prove the point that GUI's are not necessarily the great
   international panacea, here in Japan the  "X" (batsu) is regarded as  a
   negative indicator (ie:- -not- selected, or incorrect), while a  circle
   (maru) is generally used to indicate selection.

-- 
   ------------------------------------------------------------------------
  | John Little  - gaijin@Japan.Sun.COM  - Sun Microsystems. Atsugi, Japan | 
   ------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: mike@isgtec.com (Mike Sellers)
Newsgroups: comp.human-factors
Subject: Re: GUIs Considered Harmful
Keywords: n
Date: 28 Aug 92 20:34:54 GMT
Organization: ISG Technologies Inc., Mississauga Ontario

In article <5242@krafla.rhi.hi.is> einari@rhi.hi.is (Einar Indridason) writes:
> In <id.3AOS.4A2@ferranti.com> peter@ferranti.com (peter da silva) writes:
> >Wade Schuette writes:
> >> Amen to that.  I bought my first mac in 1984, and have been extolling the
> >> virtues up till system 7.  I'm overwhelmed and lost by the new screens,
> >> color 3-D-looking icons, and other totally irrelevant clutter that 
> >> violates all the rules.
> 
> >I believe the technical term is "angry fruit salad".
> And is to be avoided at all costs.

But don't confuse poorly done UIs with the underlying technologies.
Some wonderful things can be (and are being) done with Motif/Open Look
type interfaces.

The "angry fruit salad" UI is, I think, more a product of increasing
numbers of people slapping GUIs together when they don't know what they're
doing than it is a product of the technology that makes this possible.
Making computers more usable has long been the stated goal of much of
computing; now that we're getting there, we have to be ready for some
less than shining examples of what can and will be done with the technology.

> >(then there's the question of WHY IT TAKES SO MUCH GODDAMN MEMORY... but 
> >that's apparently considered normal these days... I understand WNT will 
> >require 8 MB)
> 
> Once upon a time, there was a complete development environment with editor,
> compiler, linker and overlay manager.  It was called Turbo-Pascal version
> 3.00 from Borland for the PC machine.
> 
> It fitten on one diskette and the size of that complete development
> environment was:  40k.  Forty Kilobytes.

Ah, yes: and how many people used it, and how many people cursed it?
The days when Techno-weenies ruled the earth are gone.  Most of today's
not-too expert users demand (with their $$$) products that have more 
features and general usability than software developers could get away 
with 10 years ago.  All of which requires more memory space.

> But now when the GUIs have entered the computer world, you wont get away
> with less than (say) 20-30MB for the smallest development environment.

Surely you'd not say that the GUI is responsible for the other 19,960K of
memory required for today's development environments!?  (The most liberal
estimates I've seen are that a GUI might account for as much as 50% of
the memory required; 20-30% seems more reasonable).  

> einari@rhi.hi.is

--
              Mike Sellers      User Interface Team Leader
           mike@isgtec.com      ISG Technologies, Toronto, Canada
              "Actum ne agas" -- Do not do what has been done.
                         Furare tantum ab Optimis
From: jpt@telecaster.think.com (James P. Taylor)
Newsgroups: comp.human-factors
Subject: VDT and cataracts -- what are latest research findings?
Date: 1 Sep 92 12:04:37
Organization: Thinking Machines Corporation, Cambridge MA, USA
NNTP-Posting-Host: telecaster.think.com


Has any connection between cataracts the use of VDT's been established?

If so, can someone provide references.

jim taylor Thinking Machines Corp  Cambridge MA       jpt@think.com
From: mikelee@oregon.uoregon.edu (mike lee)
Newsgroups: comp.human-factors
Subject: Re: I can't take this anymore
Date: 3 Sep 92 00:04:35 GMT
Distribution: usa
Organization: old oregon magazine

>I second the motion.  "Re: GUIs Considered Harmful" is getting rather
>tired IMHO.

Welcome to the anti-thread.

...Mike Lee, Old Oregon magazine, University of Oregon
...MIKELEE@oregon.uoregon.edu
From: jimc@tau-ceti.isc-br.com (Jim Cathey)
Newsgroups: comp.human-factors
Subject: Re: Knobs are better than sliders
Date: 27 Aug 92 02:45:05 GMT
Organization: ISC - Bunker Ramo, Spokane, WA

In article <MORGAN.92Aug26110429@xerox.jts.com> morgan@xerox.jts.com (Morgan Jones ) writes:
>   Proposed: Knobs are better than sliders
>
>   Argument: Human beings have much better control of (and
>   proprioceptive memory for) wrist rotations than they do for arm
>   movements.
>
>   Evidence: human being routinely perform and remember rotary motions down to
>   a degree or so of precision *without looking at the knob*.  Corresponding
>   linear motions (on a scale of a millimeter or less) don't seem to be
>   repeatable without visual feedback.
>
>A very important consideration left out in this argument is that of
>familiarity.  From birth we deal with rotary devices: door knobs,
>water taps, and radio and television controls to name a few.  In
>contrast, most people would probably be hard pressed to come up with
>an example of a linear control.
>
>So even if linear linear controls were more natural for people to
>operate, most people would probably be better at rotary ones simply
>because they've used them so much.

I disagree!  Rotary controls are easier to do fine tweaking with
because you have a built-in and somewhat stable frame of reference --
your wrist rotation or finger twist.  With a linear control, you have
no reference frame, since arm motions are so coarse.  

On another front, just imagine trying to adjust a slider volume control
in a bumpy car.  One good jounce and you've annoyed everyone in the car. 
However, it's pretty easy to hang onto a rotary knob without twisting it
much by accident.

I think that rotary controls are popular not just because they're
easier to make well (though this is so IMHO), but because they work so
well too.  Wow, what a concept...

I don't like the current trend towards sliders and push-for-up
push-for-down buttons for car controls.  Gimme knobs... 

For something coarse (heavy) like a gear shift, a linear control really
makes a lot of sense.  You can get some muscle behind it.

Ahh, the Holy Grail of 'appropriate technology'.  (And there was much
rejoicing :-)

-- 
+----------------+
! II      CCCCCC !  Jim Cathey
! II  SSSSCC     !  ISC-Bunker Ramo
! II      CC     !  TAF-C8;  Spokane, WA  99220
! IISSSS  CC     !  UUCP: uunet!isc-br!jimc (jimc@isc-br.isc-br.com)
! II      CCCCCC !  (509) 927-5757
+----------------+
			"PC's --- the junk bonds of the computer industry"
Newsgroups: comp.human-factors
From: ematias@dgp.toronto.edu (Edgar Matias)
Subject: Re: I can't take this anymore
Organization: CSRI, University of Toronto
Date: 2 Sep 92 20:07:33 GMT


In article <1992Sep2.155522.5333@sbctri.sbc.com>
asper@sbctri.sbc.com (Alan E. Asper) writes:
>
>Instead, what I find are sweaty, arrogant computer programmers who (ooooh!)
>read the Apple styleguide and (aaaah!) are members of Don Norman's growing
>cult of personality. No data, no research, just baseless opinions and a
>conviction that "since I think it is so, and I have worked with these systems,
>it is so. And I read POET, so shut up." If I read one more misuse of the term
>"affordance", I'm going to hurl.

Newsgroups "afford" banality.  Sorry, couldn't resist...  ;-)

>So please, if you must go back and forth about your useless notions, create a
>newsgroup called comp.talk.out-of-your-ass. Otherwise, leave this newsgroup
>to those who have a genuine interest.

I second the motion.  "Re: GUIs Considered Harmful" is getting rather
tired IMHO.

Edgar

---------------------
Edgar Matias
Input Research Group
University of Toronto
---------------------
I speak for no one...

Newsgroups: comp.human-factors
From: cyberoid@milton.u.washington.edu (Robert Jacobson)
Subject: Info needed for Interchi 93
Organization: WORLDESIGN, Seattle
Date: Wed, 2 Sep 1992 07:57:52 GMT


If you have an announcement or poster handy, can you please email
to me the email address for getting information on the Overviews?
It's somewhere at xerox.com

Thanks.

Bob Jacobson
Newsgroups: comp.human-factors,alt.folklore.computers
From: fjh@cs.mu.OZ.AU (Fergus Henderson)
Subject: Re: Indentation
Organization: Computer Science, University of Melbourne, Australia
Date: Thu, 27 Aug 1992 16:43:42 GMT

thinman@netcom.com (Technically Sweet) writes:

>Graphics computers have been shipping since 1976 (Apple II).
>Why are you all still programming completely in text?

We're not!
Many programs written for for operating systems like Windows, X,
or the Mac include large portions that are devoted to bitmaps,
icons, and other such things relating to the GUI interface.
These are generally not written completely in text but are
instead created with some sort of resource editor which itself will
use a graphical interface.

-- 
Fergus Henderson             fjh@munta.cs.mu.OZ.AU      
This .signature VIRUS is a self-referential statement that is true - but 
you will only be able to consistently believe it if you copy it to your own
.signature file!
-- 
Fergus Henderson             fjh@munta.cs.mu.OZ.AU      
This .signature VIRUS is a self-referential statement that is true - but 
you will only be able to consistently believe it if you copy it to your own
.signature file!
From: jcc@waikato.ac.nz
Newsgroups: comp.human-factors
Subject: Re: Intercultural differences in Human Computer Interaction
Date: 26 Aug 92 09:34:14 +1200
Organization: University of Waikato, Hamilton, New Zealand

In article <3853@sapwdf.UUCP>, neugebau@sapwdf.UUCP (Claus Neugebauer) writes:
> to get an overview over the area of intercultural differences in human computer interaction, I am interested in relevant literature concerning this topic (for 
> example: J. Nielsen, Designing User Interfaces for International Use 1990),
> studies, that have been done or even personal experiences .                   
> This request for information should not be limited to color-design or string
> length. Differences due to cultural stereotypes etc. or organizational struc-
> ture ought to be more than that.
> Thanx so far
> Claus Neugebauer
> 
> P.S: You can contact me directly via e-mail: Neugebau@sap-ag.de

Sorry to post this to the newsgroup, but I'm having troubles with
international mail. Claus, I'm really interested in this area of research.
Could you mail me a copy of your finished product? I've also read some
literature that discusses cultural differences with respect to communication
via computer eg. Asteroff, J. (1987) Paralanguage in Electronic Mail: A Case
Study, Ann Arbor, Mi.: University Microfilms Int.
hope this helps,

John Corban
jcc@waikato.ac.nz
From: bks@alfa.berkeley.edu (Bradley K. Sherman)
Newsgroups: comp.human-factors
Subject: Scrolling Across Scrolls
Date: 4 Sep 1992 04:21:24 GMT
Organization: Screwy Gui
Distribution: world
NNTP-Posting-Host: alfa.berkeley.edu



Why don't documents scroll like scrolls?

The scrolls I've seen are rolled horizontally, not vertically.
Distance through the document should be displayed by scroll-
accumulators thinning on one side and fattening on the other.
----
    --Brad Sherman
From: ray@atc.boeing.com (Ray Allis)
Newsgroups: comp.human-factors
Subject: Re: GUIs Considered Harmful (NeWS)
Keywords: NeWS
Date: 1 Sep 92 22:59:52 GMT
Reply-To: ray@atc.boeing.com
Organization: Boeing Computer Services

In article 21877@cybernet.cse.fau.edu, spc@pineal.sci.fau.edu (Sean 'Captain Napalm' Conner) writes:
>  Well, the SGI machine I'm sitting in front of used to run NeWS, and was
>one of the best looking, quick and easy to use GUI's I've ever used.  and
>the fact that it was running Postscript in the background (to manage the
>display) meant you had quite an oportunity to personalize it (assuming
>you knew Postscript 8-).
>
>  Unfortunately, SGI pretty much dropped NeWS and went to X (icky icky).
>I still miss NeWS very much 8-(
>
>  -spc (still kinda upset over the loss of NeWS)

NeWS is slick, and it still lives.  It cohabits with X in the Sun
window server, xnews.  You can have X and NeWS at the same time.  The
Answerbook, which is a hypertext file including all the man pages and
most of the other useful documentation, uses NeWS.  I hear that
Framemaker desktop publishing for OpenWindows uses NeWS.  For an
interesting demo of what NeWS is good at, get the HyperLook runtime
system and SimCity from ftp.uu.net in directory vendors/dux.  HyperLook
is the modern version of HyperNeWS, which was an application builder
for Suns which looked a lot like HyperCard.  In the same directory is a
cellular automata toy called CAM, and a couple of other minor demos.
Great fun!  (Requires Openwindows V3)
Newsgroups: comp.human-factors,comp.windows.misc,comp.windows.x
From: andy@research.canon.oz.au (Andy Newman)
Subject: I18N (was Re: GUIs Considered Harmful)
Keywords: Tick, Check, X, Maru, Batsu, Baseball :-)
Organization: Canon Information Systems Research Australia
Date: Wed, 2 Sep 1992 02:10:00 GMT

gaijin@ale.Japan.Sun.COM (John Little - Nihon Sun Repair Depot) writes:
>   ...and just to prove the point that GUI's are not necessarily the great
>   international panacea, here in Japan the  "X" (batsu) is regarded as  a
>   negative indicator (ie:- -not- selected, or incorrect), while a  circle
>   (maru) is generally used to indicate selection.

How true. How true. What about colour choices? Western nations
generally use red to mean danger or stop. In other cultures it is
synonymous with good. Just goes to show that there is lot more to
internationalization that just translating the messages, getting date
format correct and using the local currency symbol.
-- 
Andy Newman (andy@research.canon.oz.au)		"int - God's own type"
From: adolce@bbn.com (Anne Dolce)
Newsgroups: comp.human-factors
Subject: Re: MS Windows GUI
Date: 4 Sep 92 17:18:38 GMT
Organization: Bolt, Beranek & Newman, Inc.
NNTP-Posting-Host: spcsun24.bbn.com

In article <OEGAARD.92Sep3105357@john.itk.unit.no>, oegaard@itk.unit.no (Ommund Oegaard) writes:
|> 
|> I am currently comparing the style guides for OSF/Motif, OPEN LOOK UI, Apple
|> Desktop and MS Windows. I have the official style guide definitions for the
|> first three, but my bookstore is unable to find such a thing for MS
|> Windows. What is the title and ISBN number for the document defining the MS
|> Windows GUI?
|> 
|> 
   I think the book you want is "The Windows Interface: An Application
   Design Guide" (Version 3.1).  I may be wrong, but I think you can
   only get this book when you order the MSW 3.1 toolkit.  The book is
   published by Microsoft. There is no ISBN number listed in the front.

   You probably need to call Microsoft to see if you can get the book
   by itself.

Anne
----
*        *                   *********************************
*        *                   *  Anne Dolce (adolce@bbn.com)  *
*        *                   *  BBN Software Products        *
******   ******   ******     *  150 Cambridge Park Dr 20/9C  *
*    *   *    *   *    *     *  Cambridge, MA  02140  USA    *
*    *   *    *   *    *     *  Phone:  617-873-2122         *
******   ******   *    *     *********************************
From: jimc@tau-ceti.isc-br.com (Jim Cathey)
Newsgroups: comp.human-factors
Subject: Re: If it doesn't look good on monochrome, something's wrong with it?
Date: 27 Aug 92 02:36:32 GMT
Organization: ISC - Bunker Ramo, Spokane, WA

In article <BtFyq1.EI9@world.std.com> dpbsmith@world.std.com (Daniel P. B. Smith) writes:
>a) the best color designs will not look as good in monochrome as the
>   the best monochrome designs.

Probably true, but with luck the 'hit' can be reduced.

>b) the best color designs, when viewed in color, will be better and
>   more effective, than the best monochrome designs.

Agreed, but the fruit-salad lobby is very powerful, and difficult
to avoid.  I think a practical approach is to have a monochrome
bias, and look towards coloring that nicely after the fact.

>c) designing for monochrome is a very sensible adaptation to current
>   market realities, but it should be recognized as such.
>   "If it doesn't look good in monochrome, something's wrong with it"
>   is true. What's wrong with it is that you're ignoring the needs of
>   X% of your users, where X is probably around 35% now but declining.

I don't buy this.  Contrast is important in the graphics arts, and you
will often find colored areas set off by black strips, rather than just
having isolated color washes.  As a small but concrete example, to
demonstrate some of the text calls on our system I drew a large
olde-English "Cowabunga" in the middle of a window in red, and another
one in red but with a black border around it (overlaid an outline-style
monochrome image with a solid color image that had extra intercharacter
spacing).  The difference was dramatic, and what's more, on a monochrome
system (or a color one with pukey colors) it is much more readable. 

Window frames, desktops, etc should all fade into the woodwork,
perceptually speaking, because none of these items are at all important
when compared with what's _in_ the windows.  One very easy way to do
this is to do them in monochrome, which has the advantage of working
well on monochrome systems (which, barring a fundamental change in
available technology, will always be cheaper than color).  Also, the
main job of said elements is to set off important information from
other important information (another definition of "contrast"), and
(in one sense) nothing contrasts color more than no-color!

-- 
+----------------+
! II      CCCCCC !  Jim Cathey
! II  SSSSCC     !  ISC-Bunker Ramo
! II      CC     !  TAF-C8;  Spokane, WA  99220
! IISSSS  CC     !  UUCP: uunet!isc-br!jimc (jimc@isc-br.isc-br.com)
! II      CCCCCC !  (509) 927-5757
+----------------+
			"PC's --- the junk bonds of the computer industry"
Xref: sparky comp.human-factors:1938 alt.folklore.computers:13294
From: lstowell@pyrnova.mis.pyramid.com (Lon Stowell)
Newsgroups: comp.human-factors,alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: Indentation
Date: 28 Aug 92 20:19:52 GMT
Reply-To: lstowell@pyrnova.pyramid.com (Lon Stowell)
Organization: Pyramid Technology Corp., Mountain View, CA
Originator: daemon@sword.eng.pyramid.com

In article <1992Aug28.071437.1@cc.curtin.edu.au> zcookbruc@cc.curtin.edu.au writes:
>Bandwidth:	Generally takes less room to move text than
>		(gooey) pictures
>Portability:	Know of any machine incapable of displaying text ?
>Availability:	My '11 doesn't have any graphics (yet) and there
>		arn't too many languages I can use across multiple
>		machines that work graphically.
>Tradition:	When we moved from switches to text (on cards) and then
>		text on screens (Oh wonder) many of us enjoyed the
>		experiance, and have continued to do so.
>Self respect:	I wouldn't be caught dead on a MAC!
>
    OK, now lets inject a bit of market reality here...

User Training:   A GOOD gui based program is usually self-training
		 for all but the most obtuse user.

Power:           Ok, text style command lines can be better for
		 "power" users, but lets talk about how many of them
		 there REALLY are compared to the non-techie user
		 that just wants to get the job done and isn't
		 interested in showing off to all their computer
		 nerd friends.

Saleability:      Text based packages into a user base used to Suns,
		 Mac's, SGI's, etc. etc. etc.?  Rotsa Ruck.   

Obsolescence:    Dinosaurs probably thought mammals were
		 "non-traditional" too.... [but admittedly, very
		 tasty!]
Newsgroups: comp.human-factors