Looking For Leonardo's Laptop
from the if-you-find-it,-send-it-here... dept
The joke used to be that technologists were more fascinated with technology that what could be done with it, that when they went to the movies, they must have spent all their time staring at the projector than the movie being played. It seems that concept has been taken and put into book form in a new book called Leonardo's Laptop: Human Needs and the New Computing Technologies. Basically, the writer's complaint is that computers provide users with too much frustration, and don't accomplish half of what they could if designers put their thoughts more towards how people actually use computers. I'm not so sure the basic premise really is true. I think plenty of computer and software makers think about how people use technology - but I still agree with the conclusion of the book. There are plenty of things that could be done to make computers and technology much more usable and user friendly these days. Hopefully, instead of just pushing for more powerful machines, people will realize that it might be time to focus on better machines.
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
