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THE INMATES ARE RUNNING THE ASYLUM
Alan Cooper. 1999. Indianapolis, IN: Sams Publishing. [ISBN 0-672-- 31649-8. 261 pages, including index. $25.00.]
If you had been a cave dweller and wanted to beat on something, you would have made a fist or chosen a suitable rock or stick. When given a task today, you often turn to tools that are high-tech. Quite likely, you find yourself fumbling with the invention of someone who doesn't know who you are, who may not rare anything about you, and who probably has put his or her convenience ahead of yours in designing the product. In fact, the product is apt to be the output of a culture that is significandy different from your own.
The result is a world of technology products that almost everyone loses patience with but that no one is willing to improve on. What to do about it?
On comes Alan Cooper, the raspy and iconoclastic inventor (Visual Basic), author (About face), and consultant to an impressive list of firms from Adobe to Visa. And he's got answers. The inmates...