Brenda Laurel, Interval Research Corp.

Author:Computers as Theatre

"I know I'm not stupid, so what I'd say is: 'Who designed this damn thing? What's wrong with this person? They've got a screw loose. Nobody can use this, you know, why in the world would you ask me to type things like CD\, you know, DEL *.* ? What in the world are you thinking? Who are you people?' You know, I've been angry about that for a very long time and I decided that it would be much more productive of me to really sit down and think about what the alternative might be to that kind of thinking. Okay, so we want to make these things accessible and easy to use. Where do we start? Well you have to start with the basic idea of what it is. Right? You have to start peeling all the lay- ers right back and get right down to the bottom of the problem. What is this thing? This thing is not a giant calculator; it's not a number cruncher. It is a represen- tation device."